The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.” – Matthew 27:62-64

One way to tell a really morally corrupt liar is that they continue with lie after lie long after they could comfortably stop. Look at this passage.

In my life I’ve found that some people are going believe anything that a manipulative leader says, so some of those pharisees may have actually believed the idea that someone could come steal the body. But I’d bet a whole paycheck that some of those pharisees knew, so they wanted armed guards for the tomb of what they would have argued was a dead man.

They knew in their hearts they had been struggling against the Son of the God of the Universe, and they weren’t comforted by the idea that they had won. I think it terrified some of them. I think there were a few who were afraid Jesus would actually rise, and they were hoping desperately against it because then they would know without a doubt that they had defied the Holy God they claimed to serve.

We’ve all been in that situation where you did something wrong, and there’s that one thing that could happen that would expose the whole thing you did. Well, for these arrogant church leaders, that one thing was Jesus. Not only Him, but the eternal love, redemption, and protection that God wrote from the dawn of time.

Take the L, Caiaphas.

It may also have been that some of them were afraid of the idea of a risen Christ, the fulfillment to all the prophesies they had studied all their lives. Maybe it was in the way that some people say, “If I win the lottery, I wouldn’t even know what to do with the money.” What if they could have admitted they were wrong, and just lived in the beauty of seeing the prophesies fulfilled in their time?

What are you trying so hard to hide that you’re putting armed guards around it? Is it because you’re lying or is it because you’re afraid of the joy you could have if you just rolled the stone away?

He’s going to show Himself, regardless of your plans. ❤️