At the Sepulcher
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anxious that all precautions should be taken at its close. Therefore “the
chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we
remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three
days I will rise again. Command, therefore, that the sepulcher be made
sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him
away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead; so the last
error shall be worse than the first.” Pilate was as unwilling as were
the Jews that Jesus should rise with power to punish the guilt of those
who had destroyed him, and he placed a band of Roman soldiers at
the command of the priests. Said he, “Ye have a watch; go your way,
make it as sure as ye can. So they went, and made the sepulcher sure,
sealing the stone and setting a watch.”
The discipline of the Roman army was very severe. A sentinel
found sleeping at his post was punishable with death. The Jews realized
the advantage of having such a guard about the tomb of Jesus. They
placed a seal upon the stone that closed the sepulcher, that it might not
be disturbed without the fact being known, and took every precaution
against the disciples practicing any deception in regard to the body
of Jesus. But all their plans and precautions only served to make the
triumph of the resurrection more complete, and to more fully establish
its truth.
How must God and his holy angels have looked upon all those
preparations to guard the body of the world’s Redeemer! How weak
and foolish must those efforts have seemed! The words of the psalmist
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picture this scene: “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine
a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take
counsel together against the Lord, and against his Anointed, saying,
Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in
derision.” Roman guards and Roman arms were powerless to confine
the Lord of life within the narrow inclosure of the sepulcher. Christ
had declared that he had power to lay down his life and to take it up
again. The hour of his victory was near.
God had ruled the events clustering around the birth of Christ.
There was an appointed time for him to appear in the form of humanity.
A long line of inspired prophecy pointed to the coming of Christ to
our world, and minutely described the manner of his reception. Had
the Saviour appeared at an earlier period in the world’s history, the