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“The Lord Is Risen”
465
Caiaphas Urges Deceit
Caiaphas tried to speak. His lips moved, but they uttered no
sound. The soldiers were about to leave when Caiaphas at last found
speech. Wait, wait, he said. Tell no one the things you have seen.
“Say ye,” said the priests, “His disciples came by night, and stole
Him away while we slept.” Here the priests overreached themselves.
If they were asleep, how could they know? And if the disciples had
been proved guilty of stealing Christ’s body, would not the priests
have been first to condemn them? Or if the sentinels had slept, would
not the priests have been foremost in accusing them to Pilate?
The soldiers were horrified. Sleeping at their post was an offense
punishable with death. Should they bear false witness and place
their own lives in peril? How could they stand the trial, even for the
sake of money, if they perjured themselves?
The priests promised to secure the safety of the guard, saying
that Pilate would not desire to have such a report circulated any more
than they did. The Roman soldiers sold their integrity for money.
They came before the priests burdened with a startling message of
truth; they went out with a burden of money, and on their tongues a
lying report.
Meanwhile the report of Christ’s resurrection had been carried to
Pilate. Though he had condemned the Saviour unwillingly, he had
felt no real compunction until now. In terror he now shut himself
within his house, determined to see no one. But the priests made
their way into his presence and urged him to overlook the sentinels’
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neglect of duty. He himself privately questioned the guard. They
dared not conceal anything, and Pilate drew from them an account
of all that had taken place. He did not prosecute the matter further,
but from that time there was no peace for him.
The priests, in putting Christ to death, had made themselves
the tools of Satan. Now they were entirely in his power, entangled
in a snare from which they saw no escape but in continuing their
warfare against Christ. The only hope for them was to prove Christ
an impostor by denying that He had risen. They bribed the soldiers
and secured Pilate’s silence.
But there were witnesses whom they could not silence. Many
had heard of the soldiers’ testimony to Christ’s resurrection. And