Unguarded

Where were the guards when Jesus was raised?

Jesus met Mary Magdalene and the other Mary and said, "Greetings!" And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me." While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests everything that had happened. After the priests had assembled with the elders, they devised a plan to give a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, "You must say, `His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.' If this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story is still told among the Jews to this day. - Matthew 28:9-15

In Matthew's account of the resurrection, the two Marys come and see the tomb is empty.

When the chief priests and Pharisees went to Pilate after the crucifixion, they had him assign a guard and seal the tomb.  

But when Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to the tomb, the guard was not there.  An angel was sitting atop the stone.

So, something happened that we don't know about.

The story spread, though, that the guard or guards went to the chief priests and told them what had happened, so they must have seen it.

Yet they ran away.

If the guards were put there to keep the disciples from stealing the body, how could they let Pilate know that they let that happen?

The chief priests must have had a lot of power to be able to keep Pilate from taking it out on the guards.  That is if Pilate even cared.

This was their problem, this man they had him execute.

If anything, he would be angry with them for letting the threat of this man continue.

As it turns out, the story did survive, and so did the belief in Jesus.

Everything they did to try to cover it up failed.

There's a lesson in that somewhere.

More to come...