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The Desire of Ages
The revenge which the priests had thought would be so sweet was
already bitterness to them. They knew that they were meeting the
severe censure of the people; they knew that the very ones whom they
had influenced against Jesus were now horrified by their own shameful
work. These priests had tried to believe Jesus a deceiver; but it was in
vain. Some of them had stood by the grave of Lazarus, and had seen
the dead brought back to life. They trembled for fear that Christ would
Himself rise from the dead, and again appear before them. They had
heard Him declare that He had power to lay down His life and to take
it again. They remembered that He had said, “Destroy this temple,
and in three days I will raise it up.”
John 2:19
. Judas had told them
the words spoken by Jesus to the disciples while on the last journey
to Jerusalem: “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man
shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they
shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to
mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him: and the third day He shall
rise again.”
Matthew 20:18, 19
. When they heard these words, they
had mocked and ridiculed. But now they remembered that Christ’s
predictions had so far been fulfilled. He had said that He would rise
again the third day, and who could say that this also would not come
to pass? They longed to shut out these thoughts, but they could not.
Like their father, the devil, they believed and trembled.
Now that the frenzy of excitement was past, the image of Christ
would intrude upon their minds. They beheld Him as He stood serene
and uncomplaining before His enemies, suffering without a murmur
their taunts and abuse. All the events of His trial and crucifixion came
back to them with an overpowering conviction that He was the Son
of God. They felt that He might at any time stand before them, the
accused to become the accuser, the condemned to condemn, the slain
to demand justice in the death of His murderers.
They could rest little upon the Sabbath. Though they would not
step over a Gentile’s threshold for fear of defilement, yet they held a
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council concerning the body of Christ. Death and the grave must hold
Him whom they had crucified. “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,