The Guard at the Tomb Matthew 27:62-66
62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63 “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 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.” 65 “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.
Boy, ironic isn't it? The Pharisees and chief priests made sure that nobody was gonna say that someone "removed Jesus' body" from the tomb. The security preparations that they were so worried about completing did nothing but reinforce the predictions that Jesus foretold! Their actions brought FAITH to others.
I found the following pretty interesting: Where was Jesus on Holy Saturday? Depends on who you ask...
Per Stephen K Ray - He was in the tomb, of course. Soldiers guarded the tomb and a seal had been placed on the stone. His dead and bloodied body lay wrapped in the shroud of burial. But in 1 Peter 3:18-19 we are told that while his body lay cold in the tomb, he was moving around preaching the Gospel! For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison.
Along the same lines, but a little more detail...
Per DR. MARK ROSS - By most estimates, the crucified body of Jesus lay in the tomb all day on Holy Saturday. However, there is another tradition hinted at in the scripture and spoken of in the Apostle’s Creed. The seventh line of the Creed speaks of Jesus suffering under Pontius Pilate. Then it reads as follows= Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead;
The creed refers to all three holy days in the above lines, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. Most of us are familiar with the ideas in the first and the last line. The middle line gives us reason to pause. What does “He descended into hell” mean? Neither scholars nor even churches all agree on the meaning. Some churches will not even repeat that part of the creed. Others assign a benign meaning to it such as “Christ went through a hellish suffering on the cross.” However, some churches tie the expression in the creed to a variety of obscure passages in both the Old and New Testaments that reflect what Christ might have been doing on Holy Saturday. Two of the most prominent passages in the list come from First Peter. The old apostle writes that Jesus “went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison…” Peter also wrote, “The gospel was proclaimed even to the dead…” Many interpret the creed and these as well as other passages in the scripture to suggest that while the body of Jesus may have been in the tomb, the essence of Jesus was not merely lying around. They believe that somehow he visited those who had died before him. That he preached to generations who had never seen his miracles nor heard his parables. Paul may have been referring to the same event when he wrote in Ephesians that Jesus “descended into the lower parts of the earth” and “led captivity captive.”
On Holy Saturday did Jesus preach to those in hell? Did he redeem the condemned? No one can say for certain. The idea rubs against most of our beliefs about heaven and hell and the distance between this world and the one that follows.
And finally...
Jesus was in Heaven. Luke 23:38-45 38 There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. 39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
No matter what you believe - the important thing is what happened on EASTER SUNDAY!
Photo - http://sntjohnny.com/front/how-many-guards-at-the-tomb-of-jesus/485.html
Photo - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jean_Jacques_Henner_-_Jesus_at_the_Tomb.jpg
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