while He was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night, and though spoken to His disciples privately, had, no doubt, been widely circulated. (See Matt. xvi. 21; Mark x. 32-34.) These words may have suggested fears to their malice, at least as definitely as hopes to the faith of the disciples. 14. after three days.-The expression is identical with that below: "until the third day." The Jews reckoned any part of the day as if one day; they therefore meant that one whole day, and the slightest portions of the first and third days, might fulfil the prophecy. Hence their anxiety to have the sepulchre guarded, and made sure, during this interval. 15. His disciples.-They were in astonishing fear of these few crushed and timid followers of our Lord. It was not very likely that, after abandoning Him to His fate whilst still alive, they should now take courage at once, and fight for an idle tale. Surely, these rulers very much magnified the possible effect of such an imposture, were it concerted and promulgated, in representing its consequences as more serious than those which had resulted already from Christ's life, and teaching, and miracles. Imposture of any kind would not cohere with the past life of Christ. We cannot but see in this, their fear, another proof that they sinned against light and knowledge, sufficient to manifest to them the truth of Christ's claims; and that they had now a strong conviction that Christ might rise from the dead, and that they must prepare for such a contingency. There was evidently a general, though undefined, feeling concerning the resurrection. Even Herod thought that John was risen from the dead, when he heard of the works of Christ; and the rulers knew more about this truth than did Herod. Their plan, therefore, was such a one as might discredit Him on His reappearance, did He rise again. They were ready at once to disown Him as an impostor, put forth by the disciples, and, therefore, not the real Christ who had died. His own words were finding fulfilment: "Neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." Thus they were not worthy of seeing Christ after His resurrection; and He never publicly appeared, except to chosen witnesses, worthy of such a grace. So this plan found no execution. But we may suppose, also, that they had yet a further reason in demanding a guard than merely the watching of the sepulchre: they hoped that, did He rise, He might prove as vulnerable to the sword of the guard as to the pains of the cross; they would not neglect a strict charge to the guard to let none pass them. They did not think the fact of the resurrection from the dead a security against death again; for, whilst fully admitting the resurrection of Lazarus, they had taken counsel to put him again to death (John xi. 47; xii. 9, 10). steal Him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can. 16. by night.-Even this very night of the sabbath, quite as possibly as the following night. 17. ye have.-There was already a body of men, more or less at the disposal of the rulers, for the protection of the Temple during their festival. Pilate gives the necessary order that a guard for the sepulchre should be told off from this body; the detachment would, according to custom, be sixty strong. Though he appears to give merely verbal directions, he doubtless issued a formal order. Some have thought that he referred to the guard already detached for service as the crucifixion, which is the less likely that it had already been long on duty. Some read, "Take ye a guard," as in grant of their request. 18. as ye can.-Gk. "as ye know." There need be supposed no irony in this. Pilate desired them to take measures of security, and they well knew how best to do so; he left the precautions to be detailed by themselves. They were interested in the matter, and professed to have fears, which he was not likely himself to share. He had had certain evidence of the death of Christ, and had no idea of His coming to life again. He complied, more courteously than they deserved of him, with this request of the Jews; and, in leaving them at liberty to adopt measures which their superstitious fears dictated, he had done all that could be required of him; and he had no wish to be further troubled in this matter. We cannot but notice how God's providence overruled that these men, who took such pains to prevent the resurrection of Christ, should give their energies to furnish the most convincing proof of that resurrection. The care they took to guard the sepulchre, made it impossible that a few timid and disheartened disciples, amongst whom the women were most prominent, should steal away His body; whilst a very slight knowledge of the discipline of the Roman army, makes it as incredible that a guard should dare to sleep, as it was improbable, even to impossibility, that so large a body of soldiers should all sleep, at their post. And "there being a band of sixty soldiers placed as a watch to preserve the body from being stolen, 'tis not to be supposed that the disciples could beat this band; and so there could be no ground of suspicion that our Lord was not truly risen." (Whitby.) (See II. i. 6; ii. 3.) Thus Christ's body was committed to the devoted care of His followers; His sepulchre to the watchful observation of His enemies. Over all, God's control is manifested in the ordering of every minute circumstance; they combined to do exactly what "His hand and His counsel determined before to be done." Christ's body slept there within the tomb; but "it was impossible that He should be holden So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch. of it," because, though the spirit was dissevered from the body, that body was not, by death, severed from the Godhead into which it was taken. (See xxxi. 37.) At His will it had died the death of mortality; at His will it must revive in immortality-a spiritual body. (App. XIX.) 19. watch. The Greek here is not "setting a watch," but "with the watch;" as if they would not trust to their doing this duty alone, but going with their officers to affix their own seal also. END OF PART I. |