"Attempts to Disparage the Resurrection"

"Attempts to Disparage the Resurrection"

Matthew 28:11-15: Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened.  When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, saying, Tell them, His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.  And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will appease him and make you secure.  So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.

We have in this passage the stark reality that salvation comes only through the promptings of the Holy Spirit.  No one is going to be brought kicking or screaming into the Kingdom.  On a Saturday a few weeks back I spent nearly an hour and a half witnessing to a relative of some faithful bus children.  We traveled the Romans Road, went through the various arguments for God, looked at archaeology and history and all the proofs for the resurrection, and then the response: "this is all so new to me, I have to think it over."  The next day someone who desired salvation had the basics shown for less than 10 minutes and they wanted to pray right away.  It is not us, it is not the evidence, it is always the work of God.

The guards should have repented and believed as they had been witnesses to the greatest event of world history in all time--the resurrection of Christ. I happened to be involved or present for some of the major life-changing events of the 1960's.  I know all those historic events (such as the anti-war riots at the Democratic National Convention in 1968) are not just in newsreels or books, they are in my memory and are recalled almost every week of my life. How could those guards display unbelief in the face of the  evidence that they were privileged to watch?  How could the chief priests totally disregard the greatest news of history just to keep the status quo in place? 

Truly they were the epitomy of the  "natural man" that does not recieve the things of the Spirit of God, because they must be spiritually discerned.

In verse 12, the priests and elders offer the soldiers silver (translated "money" in the NKJV), just like they gave to Judas. The soldiers had a real dilemma as the death penalty could be instituted for falling asleep on duty.  The story that Jesus had been stolen by the disciples was far-fetched anyway as the disciples had fled the scene before Jesus had even died, and then  buried in a borrowed tomb.  Also, if the guards were to say that Jesus had been stolen while they slept we have some real problems with logic and logistics.  Two problems immediately: (1) if they were asleep, then how did they know Jesus was stolen, and not risen; and (2) did they have pictures of the disciples that and in the dark absolutely identify men that they had never met as being Christ's disciples,[not to speak of the obvious fact that they were asleep at that time].