Why did Jesus’ Tomb Need Guards?

I’ve been on a writing break this week because I turned in my twentieth full-length novel about Mary Magdalene. When I finish a book, I honestly don’t want to think about writing or editing another word. So I clean. So far, I’ve cleaned out five closets and begun to straighten my office, which to be honest, is/was a disaster.

I’m watching it snow outside my picture window, a little surprised that Kody isn’t chasing the snowflakes, but they’re coming fast. He likes to jump at them when they seem like a possibility he might catch one. I hate to tell him that there is a window blocking his ability.

Of course, a window isn’t nearly as daunting as a huge stone blocking a cave. Windows can break. Giant rocks cut into a trough to hold them in place…not so much.

As I wrote Mary’s story, my favorite part came when Jesus rose again. Imagining how she felt was a challenge, but when He died, I could relate to her loss. Even more so, I shared her confusion when His body was missing and later her joy when she realized He’d kept His word and risen from the dead.

But one of the things she wondered as she went to that garden tomb was how on earth she would get that stone out of the way so she could anoint Jesus’ body again.

I won’t go into all of the details of the timing of Mary’s multiple visits to the tomb, but it occurred to me…could she have seen the guards passed out in fright when the stone first rolled away? The Bible doesn’t tell us, but I can imagine her coming upon the guards either lying in the dirt or running away from the tomb. It could have happened.

But whether it did or not, today another thought occurred to me. Besides the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which has a volunteer military guard over it, have you ever known of a tomb that needed to be guarded for fear that the occupant would come out?

To be fair, the Pharisees who wanted the guards, used the excuse that the disciples might come and steal the body to fulfill Jesus’ own words that He would rise from the dead. But there is a fallacy in that thinking.

First, when they went to the governor Pilate to ask that he seal the tomb, that meant the tomb would have had a seal, probably made of moldable clay, imprinted with a Roman imperial seal and attached with a rope. Breaking the seal would have carried with it the wrath of the Empire. The disciples, who were feared of doing just that, ran away from the cross and hid, too afraid to be seen. Which one of them would have had such courage? They didn’t even have the courage to ask for Jesus’ body to bury Him.

Of course, to break the seal, they would have had to get past the guards. Guards the Pharisees added out of fear of a motley group of fearful men, especially now that their Messiah was dead. What were the Pharisees really afraid of?

I mean, unless they thought that just maybe Jesus could do what He said He would do, rise from the dead, there would have been no need for guards or a seal.

But Jesus had proven His power over death multiple times. He’d raised the widow’s son in Nain. He’d raised the synagogue ruler’s young daughter. And right before His own death, He’d raised Lazarus, who had been in the tomb (the others had not) for four days. Four days is pretty dead. No getting around that one. And with that miracle, Jesus became an even greater threat to the Jewish leaders. They didn’t want His popularity to cause them to lose their influence and power over the people. And by all accounts, it looked like He might do just that.

That’s the simple reason for why they plotted to kill Him. But the one thing about evil and sin is that we can’t control everything. We lie about something and the lie grows, and we lose track of the details, right? Even David found out the hard way that one sin led to another, and eventually he could no longer cover it up. Be sure, be absolutely certain, your sins will find you out.

And after Jesus died, the Pharisees suddenly realized what Jesus had said. Considering the violence that came with His death–the earthquake, the blocking of the sun, the ripped curtain in the temple–they had to wonder why. Even with their hardened hearts, Jesus’ words came to mind and suddenly they were afraid.

So they put guards to watch a dead man’s tomb. Sounds ridiculous when you think about it. As if anything could keep God out or in. It reminds me of the Eastern Gate in Jerusalem that was blocked years ago and a cemetery put in front of it to keep the Jewish Messiah from walking through those gates, as they thought He said He would. If you know the real Jesus, the Creator God, the Almighty in a personal way, you know how ridiculous that act is too. As if anyone or anything could stop God? Really?

But they guarded the tomb and they’ve blocked that gate anyway. The guards found out they couldn’t keep Jesus in that tomb. One day, we’ll see we can’t keep Him out of that gate if He wants to enter it. We sorely underestimate His power if we think we can stand against Him and win.

satan thought he could. He couldn’t. He lost big time, and he’s going to lose again one day. But until then, he’s still trying to set up guards to block Jesus from coming or going in our lives. The enemy doesn’t want people to trust in Him. So he lies to us and helps us to build walls around our hearts so the truth can’t come in. Jesus is the truth.

I hope we aren’t like the Pharisees who feared something they couldn’t control and when they found out they couldn’t control it, they lied about the whole thing. Let us instead stop putting guards around our hearts, lest we find out we’re guarding something dead inside, unwilling to let the truth shine in.

Like Mary, let’s go to that garden tomb and meet the real Jesus, fully alive, and believe. He said He’d rise again and He did. He said He’d come again and He will. Where will you be when He does?

~Selah