Reflective Bible Study

As we come almost to the very end of Matthew’s gospel, we come to the climax of the gospel story. All four gospel writers focus in on it, and all the gospel writers share unique details about it. Matthew’s gospel is no exception. Since Matthew tells us about the guards who were posted by the tomb, Matthew includes what happens with them.

Let’s read Matthew’s gospel and discover what he tells us about the morning Jesus was resurrected. Our passage is found in Matthew, chapter 28, and we will read it from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 1, Matthew tells us:

¹ The day after the Sabbath day was the first day of the week. At dawn on the first day, Mary Magdalene and another woman named Mary went to look at the tomb.

² At that time there was a strong earthquake. An angel of the Lord came down from heaven, went to the tomb, and rolled the stone away from the entrance. Then he sat on the stone. ³ He was shining as bright as lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. ⁴ The soldiers guarding the tomb shook with fear because of the angel, and they became like dead men.

⁵ The angel said to the women, “Don’t be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus, who has been crucified. ⁶ He is not here. He has risen from the dead as he said he would. Come and see the place where his body was. ⁷ And go quickly and tell his followers, ‘Jesus has risen from the dead. He is going into Galilee ahead of you, and you will see him there.’” Then the angel said, “Now I have told you.”

⁸ The women left the tomb quickly. They were afraid, but they were also very happy. They ran to tell Jesus’ followers what had happened. ⁹ Suddenly, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings.” The women came up to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Go and tell my followers to go on to Galilee, and they will see me there.”

¹¹ While the women went to tell Jesus’ followers, some of the soldiers who had been guarding the tomb went into the city to tell the leading priests everything that had happened. ¹² Then the priests met with the elders and made a plan. They paid the soldiers a large amount of money ¹³ and said to them, “Tell the people that Jesus’ followers came during the night and stole the body while you were asleep. ¹⁴ If the governor hears about this, we will satisfy him and save you from trouble.” ¹⁵ So the soldiers kept the money and did as they were told. And that story is still spread among the people even today.

In this event, lots of things are happening, and it is a very chaotic morning. However, one thing that is interesting in my mind when I read this is how Matthew would have known so much about what happened with the soldiers, with the religious leaders, and with what was said behind closed doors. As we have looked at in the past few episodes, Matthew is well aware of how Judas Iscariot plotted against Jesus and the conversations he had with the priests, and Matthew is also well aware of how the priests respond and try to stop and then silence the resurrection.

It is interesting that Matthew has all these details to share while the other gospel writers either didn’t know or chose to exclude these details from their records of Jesus.

In my mind, since Matthew had come from a background of tax collecting, which was a profession that needed Roman soldier protection, I think that Matthew had friends who were soldiers. While I don’t know if Matthew was personally friends with any of the guards who watched the tomb, it wouldn’t surprise me if Matthew’s guard friends had direct connection to the guards involved. I suspect that Matthew may have gotten some of the back-story that is included in his gospel through a network of friends from his tax collector days. If it isn’t for this, I suspect that Matthew probably knew how to interact with soldiers and he may have known how to get information. It is also possible that some of the soldiers present decided to come clean and become followers of Jesus after this event.

However, what is even more amazing in my mind than Matthew’s connections or how these events were discovered and shared is how Matthew describes the soldiers responding to one angel. Matthew describes the soldiers shaking in fear and becoming like dead men.

In my mind, I’ve always pictured the tomb being guarded by maybe a half-dozen soldiers, but knowing the religious leaders concern, and remembering what we talked about in the last episode about Pilate telling the religious leaders to make the tomb as secure as they know how, I suspect there were many more soldiers present. I wouldn’t be surprised if that Saturday night, the temple in Jerusalem was barely guarded, while Jesus’ tomb had dozens, maybe even a hundred or more soldiers, guarding it.

These soldiers would have slept in shifts, and there wouldn’t have been a single moment in time when all the soldiers would have been asleep. If this happened, the soldiers would likely have been killed or at least severely punished by the governor or their superiors.

Also, I find it interesting that nowhere do we read about any disciple of Jesus going near the tomb. Perhaps, the disciples knew it was clearly guarded and they didn’t want to be killed next. The only records of disciples going to the tomb happen after hearing the report of the women.

It is also interesting that the women come to the tomb, and they are not worried about guards present. It is possible that the women didn’t know that guards had been posted to guard the tomb.

However, the most interesting thing in this entire event in my mind is that the religious leaders’ fear of Jesus’ resurrection prompts them to place eyewitnesses at the tomb, and the only way that this story can stay quiet is for them to bribe the soldiers to tell a lie rather than the truth. The religious leaders cannot defend against a clearly empty tomb, so they default to what is likely the least believable story. The soldiers all fell asleep, and they slept through a seal being broken, a stone being rolled away, and a bunch of amateurs stealing a body that was weighed down with probably over 50 pounds of spices. There would then be the challenge of still hiding Jesus’ body after the fact, and then covering up this story in favor of a resurrection story which is almost as unbelievable.

Why should we believe the resurrection happened and not the soldiers’ story?

In my mind, here’s why: In all of Jesus’ ministry in the gospels, did Jesus ever tell a lie or describe something that didn’t happen the way He said it would? If we cannot find a lie Jesus spoke outside of the statements that are in question about His predicting His death, burial, and resurrection, then these predictions are more believable. If Jesus ever told a lie on any other occasion, then His prediction about His resurrection becomes suspect. However, the only lies Jesus is accused of sharing are lies that the religious leaders try to use to discredit Jesus, and these lies almost made the trial against Jesus fall apart.

Without another lie from Jesus to use as an example, what initially seems impossible, specifically that Jesus accurately predicted His own death, burial, and resurrection, actually becomes more believable than soldiers risking their lives and reputations by sleeping and letting a bunch of amateurs take the thing they were put in charge of protecting.

It is amazing to think that in both the soldiers lie and in the truth of the resurrection, no-one contested the clearly visible fact that Sunday morning, the tomb was empty. In this entire event, the one thing that is not debated is the empty tomb. While nothing could have stopped the resurrection from happening, there were much more believable lies that could have been spread, and better explanations for the tomb being empty.

However, the big truth for us to remember is that following Jesus crucifixion just days before, on that Sunday morning, Jesus’ tomb was empty. Jesus returned to life just like He said He would, and His resurrection is a promise, a gift, and a sign that all of God’s people will be resurrected when Jesus returns to take His people home.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and place your hope, faith, trust, and belief in Jesus. Understand and believe that Jesus rose from the dead just like He predicted He would, and that His resurrection foreshadows our resurrection when He returns.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and strengthen your personal relationship with Jesus. Don’t let anyone trick you out of believing in the greatest promise and greatest truth of the gospel message!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or simply leave where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Following Jesus’ death, the gospel of John records the reappearance of a secret disciple, and the introduction of a new secret disciple. These two wealthy men have exactly what is needed for this weekend. While it might not seem like it on the surface, these two men actually save the Easter story because they give everyone involved, including the remaining disciples, the women who followed Jesus, the religious leaders, and even the Roman soldiers exactly what they need for the following 48 hours.

While it is unlikely that Joseph of Arimathea believed his gift would only be temporarily needed, that is what ultimately happened.

Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 19, and we will be reading it from the Contemporary English Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 38, John tells us that:

³⁸ Joseph from Arimathea was one of Jesus’ disciples. He had kept it secret though, because he was afraid of the Jewish leaders. But now he asked Pilate to let him have Jesus’ body. Pilate gave him permission, and Joseph took it down from the cross.

³⁹ Nicodemus also came with about seventy-five pounds of spices made from myrrh and aloes. This was the same Nicodemus who had visited Jesus one night. ⁴⁰ The two men wrapped the body in a linen cloth, together with the spices, which was how the Jewish people buried their dead. ⁴¹ In the place where Jesus had been nailed to a cross, there was a garden with a tomb that had never been used. ⁴² The tomb was nearby, and since it was the time to prepare for the Sabbath, they were in a hurry to put Jesus’ body there.

From our passage, we discover a number of details that are worth paying attention to. In culture, there is a rumor that Jesus didn’t actually die on the cross. Regardless of all the reasons that say He did, such as from blood loss, suffocation, and a spear through His heart, not to mention the fact that trained executioners were in charge of the whole scene, our passage describes even more reasons to believe Jesus had died, and our passage gives us reasons to thank these two men.

When we look at what happened normally following the death of a crucified person, the body would typically be thrown in a large grave, or it would be tossed in the trash heap to be burned. Unless someone stepped in wanting the body, what happened to the body would quickly become untraceable. By stepping up and asking for Jesus’ body, Joseph of Arimathea gave everyone involved a location to pay attention to.

If Jesus’ corpse was thrown into a large hole with many dead bodies, no one could verify whether He had returned to life or not. The rumors would be harder to verify, or validate. Everyone from the disciples and the women to the religious leaders and even the soldiers needed a place to watch and a location to pay attention to, and Joseph from Arimathea stepped up with the perfect gift at the perfect time.

Not only does Joseph bring the perfect gift, Nicodemus also brings the perfect gift: seventy-five pounds of spices. The two men take Jesus and wrap him up in cloth with these spices, and lay His body in the tomb. The spices were intended to mask the odor of a body decomposing. While some people believe Jesus was simply unconscious during this time, He likely would have suffocated from lack of oxygen if He had been alive. With seventy-five pounds of spices wrapped tightly against your body, with no air hole, not only would the spices on top of you make it difficult for you to inhale, and on the off chance that you could inhale, it would be inhaling spices not air.

Since the passage says these men were in a hurry because the Sabbath was near, would it be possible for them to make a mistake? Sure, but any mistake they might have made would likely make it more difficult for Jesus rather than easier for Him.

Every detail in the death of Jesus points to those present believing Jesus was actually dead, and treating Jesus’ body as not returning to life. From the crucifixion performed by trained executioners, to the hasty but effective preparation of Jesus’ body, and even to the rumor that gets spread following Jesus’ resurrection that the disciples simply stole the body, no one at the time expected Jesus to return to life.

We can thank Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus for their gifts which were exactly what was needed to solidify a fully dead Jesus. Jesus was actually dead, and as we will look at in the next episode, Jesus returns very much back to life.

Also, when we look at the details of how this passage ends, we discover a fascinating detail many people don’t notice on the surface. The last verse we read, which was verse 42, tells us that “The tomb was nearby, and since it was the time to prepare for the Sabbath, they were in a hurry to put Jesus’ body there.”

On the surface, nothing seems abnormal in this verse, but when we look a little closer, we discover something amazing: Following Jesus completing the work of redemption, He rests on the Sabbath. This echoes what we read about following the creation of the world in Genesis when God rests after completing the work of creation.

While some people might see this as being two bookends on Sabbath observance, in my own mind and my own study, this event speaks more strongly towards Jesus validating the Sabbath during the break in His life. If Jesus’ death marked the end of the commandments, then there would be no reason for Him to rest over the Sabbath. Because Jesus rested in peace on the Sabbath, we discover an amazing validation and parallel to God resting following creation.

The Sabbath is first given as a special gift in a perfect world, and we can see Sabbath being present in a perfectly recreated world as Isaiah describes at the close of his book. Because Sabbath is present in both perfect creations, resting on the Sabbath is not connected to sin or our salvation out of sin, but it is foundationally connected with God’s creation honoring God. If God’s perfect creation honors Him in the perfect first world and in the perfect recreated world, God’s people should be honoring Him on the Sabbath in the fallen world as well. The Sabbath was given as a specific day, and Jesus validated the Sabbath day by marking it with rest following His successful completion of the work of salvation.

While this idea is not popular today, the seventh-day Sabbath is an amazing theme that runs through the entire Bible, and this day doesn’t become less significant as history speeds towards its end, it actually becomes more significant.

While I rarely do this, if you haven’t studied the Sabbath out for yourself and you want to read everything the Bible has to say on this topic, the “Day of Rest” study available on ReflectiveBibleStudy.com is for you. This study package might be too comprehensive, because not only do I bring together all the places the Bible teaches us about the Sabbath, I also bring together every reference to the seventh-day that is included in the Bible as well. When this study moves into the New Testament, we look at every occurrence of not only the Sabbath, but also the first day of the week, and we let the Bible define for us what the Lord’s Day represents. While other study tools might be faster, none are more comprehensive, and none will give you all the amazing insights that you will learn from working through the Reflective Bible Study Day of Rest study using the Reflective Bible Study framework.

I developed this study package to personally study the Sabbath and the seventh-day out for myself, and I included it on ReflectiveBibleStudy.com because I want it to help others like it has helped me.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

Be sure to seek God first in your life and live your life in a way that brings God honor. If you haven’t studied the Sabbath topic from the Bible, consider this a challenge to do so. While you will be blessed if you use ReflectiveBibleStudy.com, plenty of other studies out there cover this topic well. Just be sure to choose a study that doesn’t pick and choose verses to focus in on. If you want the most balanced approach, find two studies, one that supports the Sabbath and one that rejects it, and study both. This will give you a better idea of both sides of this important issue and then you can decide for yourself with the Holy Spirit’s leading.

As always, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself in order to grow personally close to God. While other people can give you ideas to think about, always filter what you hear and read through the pages of God’s Word.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or fall away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!