DR 17
December 17
Matthew 28:11-15. The Pharisees bribe the watch.
How short was the joy of the world! How soon it was turned into sorrow! Before his crucifixion, the Lord had said, "The world shall rejoice." And they did rejoice during the day that he lay in the grave. The words that God once addressed to Moab concerning their behavior to Israel applied to them—"Since you spoke of him, you skipped for joy." (Jer. 48:27.) But what dismay they felt when they heard that the object of their hatred was risen from the tomb! Yet they persevered in their horrible attempt to deter people from believing in him.
When they learned from the frightened soldiers the wonders that had happened at the sepulcher, they determined, if possible, to conceal these events. The chief priests took the lead in this dark transaction; they summoned the elders, and consulted with them by what means they should smother the truth. They decided on bribing the soldiers to spread an invented tale. "His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept." The father of lies never suggested a more dreadful lie than this. It is his constant employment to teach sinners to hide their sins under a covering of falsehood. There are numbers to be found in every place who are contriving day after day new ways of concealing their old sins. Their tongues have grown so familiar with lies, that they can tell them without a blush.
But unless they repent, they will feel the power of that tremendous sentence, "All liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone." All liars of every degree shall share in that condemnation. The Pharisees were deceivers of the worst kind. What would be thought of the man who should willfully deceive his neighbors concerning the place where the fire-engines were kept, though he knew the town was in flames? Through such a man a whole town might be destroyed. The Pharisees were such men. They endeavored to deceive a perishing world respecting him who was the life of that world. The resurrection proved that he was indeed the Son of God. This was the fact that his enemies labored to conceal.
They found the Roman soldiers ready to unite in their scheme. There is nothing so wicked that men have not done for the sake of money. Some will even plead as an excuse for sin, that they should lose money if they did not commit it. Have you never heard people defend their disobedience to God's laws by saying, "I could not get a living if I acted otherwise?" Have any of us ever made such miserable excuses? There is one question which we ought never to forget. It is this —"What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
These soldiers incurred great guilt when they consented to spread the falsehood the Pharisees had invented. They had felt the earthquake, they had seen the angels, yet they did not declare the glory of the Lord. But God found other messengers. Feeble, though faithful women, first proclaimed the joyful tidings. Unlearned, though inspired apostles, confirmed their word, and spread it far and wide. We have heard the glorious truth, that the Lord rose from the dead on the third day. Have we believed it? God has promised to save all those who believe it with the heart. "If you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved." (Rom. 10:9.)