Matthew 27: 62 - 66 The Guards told to make the Tomb as Secure as they know how!!!

The high Priests and Pharisees worried He might rise from the dead.

Mat 27:62  Now on the morrow, which is the day after the Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees were gathered together unto Pilate,

Mat 27:63  saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said while he was yet alive, After three days I rise again.

Mat 27:64  Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest haply his disciples come and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: and the last error will be worse than the first.

Mat 27:65  Pilate said unto them, Ye have a guard: go, make it as sure as ye can.

Mat 27:66  So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, the guard being with them.

Introduction.

After Jesus Cried out “IT IS FINISHED” and He had breathed His last, our Redemption (Ransom/Rescue) was complete. Joseph, the Rich man from Arimathea had buried Jesus in his own new tomb near to Golgotha, the place of the Skull.

Did you ever see men ridiculously trying to hold God down or hold Him back. Here we have these Jewish ‘Bigwigs’ and Pilate trying their best. “Go make the tomb as sure as you know how;” was their instruction to the Guard.

Weak human efforts to stop God’s Programme will always come to nothing.

Comments

Mat 27:62  Now on the morrow, which is the day after the Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees were gathered together unto Pilate,

Notes

The Opposition Leaders, the Chief Priest and the Pharisees, were terrified that what He (Jesus) had promised would come to pass.

Now on the morrow, which is the day after the Preparation…. The very next day after Jesus had died on the cross at their insistence they were still trying to make sure that the Body of Jesus remained where it was supposed to be. In the tomb. That very next day was a special sabbath of the Passover feast. Matthew calls it the day after the preparation.  Here These religious leaders were still trying to combat the Miracle Worker and His promise to rise again.

Mat 27:63  saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said while he was yet alive, After three days I rise again.

Notes.

Sir, we remember, etc. - While these wicked men are fulfilling their own vicious counsels, they are subserving the great cause of Christianity. Every thing depended on the resurrection of Christ; if it did not appear that he rose from the dead, then the whole system was false, and no atonement was made. It was necessary therefore that the chief priests, etc., should make use of every precaution to prevent an imposture, that the resurrection of Christ might have the fullest evidence to support it. See on Mat_27:60 (note).

The word Κυριε (Lord, Master, Sir) is here very properly translated Sir, …..When a Roman is the speaker, or the person addressed, Κυριε should always be translated sir; when strangers address our Lord, the word is a title of civil respect, and should, in general, be translated in the same way. Supreme Authority.

After three days I will rise again - This they probably took from his saying, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it up. If so, they destroyed, by their own words, the false accusation they brought against him to put him to death; then they perverted the meaning, now they declare it. Thus the wise are taken in their own craftiness. Neither the devil nor his servants ever speak truth, but when they expect to accomplish some bad purpose by it.A.C.

Mat 27:64  Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest haply his disciples come and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: and the last error will be worse than the first.

Notes

Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure — by a Roman guard.

until the third day — after which, if He still lay in the grave, the imposture of His claims would be manifest to all.

and say unto the people, he is risen from the dead — Did they really fear this?

so the last error shall be worse than the first — the imposture of His pretended resurrection worse than that of His pretended Messiahship.

Mat 27:65  Pilate said unto them, Ye have a guard, (Take a Guard), : go, make it as sure as ye can.

Notes

Ye have a guard: go, make it as sure as ye can.

The Literal “Take a Guard” should mean that Pilate would give them a guard for the Sepulchre.

They were to use all possible force at their disposal to secure the site.

Mat 27:66  So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, the guard being with them.

Notes

Now the Jewish leaders would be happy everything having been done to make sure that Jesus did not escape or his disciples whisk His Body away.

So they went, and made the sepulchre sure,

sealing the stone, the guard being with them.

- Or rather, made the tomb secure by the guard, and by sealing the stone. I follow Kypke, in construing μετα της κουστωδιας, with ησφαλισαντο. The guard was to take care that the disciples should not steal him away; and the seal, which was probably the seal of the governor, was to prevent the guards from being corrupted so as to permit the theft. So everything was done which human policy and prudence could, to prevent a resurrection, which these very precautions had the most direct tendency to authenticate and establish. How wonderful are the wisdom and goodness of God! - and how true is it, that there is neither might nor counsel against him!

1. The death of Christ was ordered, so as to be witnessed by thousands; and if his resurrection take place, it must be demonstrated; and it cannot take place without being incontestable, such are the precautions used here to prevent all imposture.
2. The more the circumstances of the death of Christ are examined, the more astonishing the whole will appear. The death is uncommon - the person uncommon - and the object uncommon; and the whole is grand, majestic, and awful. Nature itself is thrown into unusual action, and by means and causes wholly supernatural. In every part, the finger of God most evidently appears.
3. How glorious does Christ appear in his death! Were it not for his thirst, his exclamation on the cross, and the piercing of his side, we should have found it difficult to believe that such a person could ever have entered the empire of death; but the divinity and the manhood equally appear, and thus the certainty of the atonement is indubitably established. A.Clark