Stories from the Workplace Rev. Kevin Anderson
(Sunrise, Easter Sermon)
Woke up this past Thursday Morning at the Red Rabbit Inn located in the Choctaw Nation of Mississippi. Woke up and was about to play a set of songs for our morning devotion with 17 youth and 10 adults, before setting out to another day of mission at an elderly community center as well as leading worship for the Choctaw Children during our VBS program.
While drinking a cup of coffee we received news that there entire area was a tornado watch. Looking out the windows of the hotel’s morning room,
you could see that bad weather come rolling in from all sides of the sky, the sky became dark at 7am, and as we began to play our music and read our scriptures,
the rain started to come pouring down, mixed with Hail, it came down in sheets sideways hitting the cars parked outside, as the trees were whipping through the wind. Interms of severe conditions, it seemed like the only thing we did not feel was the earth shake beneath our feet.
For the Guards at the tomb Easter Morning, their midnight to dawn work-shift was coming to a close, the one order that they were tasked with was almost completed; to stand guard at the entrance of a stone tomb, and make sure that no one came in…or…Out!!!
The tomb, they were standing watch over carved out of the rock was blocked by a massive rounded stone pressed and sealed into a groove cut along the edges of the tomb entrance, blocking out all entry or departure from this stone cold grave. They must of thought that, “There was NO WAY,…. We could fail at this job!, this order was in the bag, carried out, signed, stamped and sealed.” Maybe they could go home, take some comp-time and relax before having to clock in again and report back to the Governor. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for the world, this “thought, did not come to pass, Instead these Guard’s felt the earth shake beneath their feet, and that’s when they became witnesses to the Resurrection.
Biblical scholars tell us that these guards were enlisted from all over the Roman Empire, because of this the guards would not have come from the Jewish community but were part of the Roman military. Israel was under Roman occupation during that time, so Roman soldiers would follow the instructions of the Roman Governor of that particular province. Jerusalem fell under Pontus Pilate who was also a decorated soldier, as well as politician turned Governor.
While occupying Israel, these guards would have been familiar with some of the beliefs of the Jewish people; and with all of the events unfolding during what we now refer to as Holy Week, The guards would have heard about the trial, death and crucifixion of Christ, they might have even been part of it all,…
In Scripture the Gospel of Matthew is the only one of the four Gospel’s that hone in on the guard’s role in the Resurrection story, The Guard’s entry into the Resurrection story begins with the chief priests and elders going meeting with Governor Pilate after the Crucifixion of Christ. The chief priests’ concerns and fears around Christ and his Disciples did not end with Christ’s death on the Cross, as they explain to Pilate, “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’
What probably added to the chief priest’s and elder’s frustration was the fact that one of their own, a wealthy member of the Sanhedrin by the name of Joseph of Aramthea had become a follower of Christ, Joseph of Aramthea had already come before Pilate and requested to have the body of Christ, which Pilate granted to him. Joseph had taken Christ’s body, wrapped it in clean linens, and placed His body in Joseph’s new tomb, which he himself had carved out of the rock.
This account in addition to what Christ had foretold, made the Priests Nervous. While these priests did not believe that Christ was the Messiah, they were still worried that His disciples would steal Christ’s body in the night and claim that Jesus did in fact RISE from the Grave after three days, claiming to have fulfilled prophecy. So with these fears and concerns the Chief Priests ask for a Guard. The request which the priests and elders asked of the governor
was for Pilate to order a guard, (a group of Roman Soldiers) to watch over the tomb and make sure these things, would not come to pass. Of course we can see the great irony in this part of the story, as we know that a hundred guards or a hundred stones would not keep Christ from the Resurrection.
This brings us back to the morning the earth shook, and the stone was rolled away. If you can imagine, here we have these guards, who had been present throughout the night, nothing had happened, not one Disciple came to try and steal the body of Christ, the Guard’s were about to punch the clock, fill out a report, and go home, but as Scripture tells us, “After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
For the guard’s, this experience must have been like being hit with a head -on collision. The earth quaked, they thought their eyes were deceiving them, they could not move, what they were seeing before their eyes was a Miracle, unwrapping, unfolding before them. They went into shock.
Still,…being in a state of shock did not prevent the guards
from seeing and hearing the rest of these events unfold. They see two women come to the tomb, a younger woman, Mary Magdalene and older woman, Mary the mother of Jesus. These devoted women, came to the tomb, to mourn and to grieve, and to Anoint Christ’s body yet instead they are confronted by a miracle.
The guard’s see this Angel sitting on the rock, which the Angel moved, like it was nothing, away from the entrance to the tomb, and the guards hear the angel telling the women,
“Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.
Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” Now while the Gaurds were still at the tomb, the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
As the women go off to tell the Good News to the Disciples
that their beloved Messiah has Risen, Scripture tell us that SOME of the guard that was present at the tomb, went into the city and reported to the chief priests to give their account of the story, “ their report about What had happened on the job”, **the interesting thing to note here is why these guard’s
went to the priests and not Pilate, their Governor first….
The Guards were not employed by the Sanhedrin, mostly they thought little of them, as the occupiers, they could call out any one of the Jewish people anytime they wanted to, just as a show of their power and authority. A good example of this, is how they pulled Simon of Cyrene out of the crowd to help carry the cross for Jesus towards Calvary. So WHY would the Guard’s report back to THEM?
…I think the Answer is that this was the last report that they would want to present him with. They did not want to fill this one out. If you think about it, they failed at the ONE task that they were given! The body is gone; epic failure!! You can imagine what it must have been like to have to file a report like that. This sort of thing does not happen on the job everyday! I mean we all have had some interesting stories from the workplace, but to witness these events; to witness the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, fulfilling all prophecy, conquering sin and death and giving us assurance of our own Resurrection with Christ, living life eternally with him,…well that was a whole different ballgame. Honestly I don’t think there is a single event in History besides the Birth of Christ that I would want to witness more, BUT for these Roman Guards, this spelled TROUBLE.
When SOME of the guards report back to the priests, we can imagine that the priests would not be exactly happy with this news. After hearing these accounts from the guard the priests come together with all of the elders to figure out their next course of action, to STOP the word of Jesus’ Resurrection spreading to the people. So the priests and elders decided to PAY the guards money to change their story. They were GOOD at paying people off, they had already done it with Judas and that seemed to work out fine, so they would pay these guard’s to give a different account of what they had “witnessed”. This NEW version of events, would be simple, “while the guards were sleeping, in the middle of the night, the Disciples of Christ came and stole the body from the Tomb.
They would let the story of what they feared would happen, the very reason why they went to Pilate in the first place be what really happened, (more irony) This New story still did not make the guards look any better, they would not be portrayed as the heroes in this story but rather as complete failures.
these “night guards” had to say they fell asleep on the job. Probably not exactly the story they would want to share, I mean it looks pretty bad when the Governor gives you the simple task of making sure no one goes in or out of a sealed tomb, your only job, as the “watchmen” and you fall asleep. It would be safe to assume that they would NOT remain night watchmen very much longer! which makes one conclude that the amount of their settlement with the Chief Priests and elders was fairly substantial!
In the aftermath, you have to wonder what happened to
those guards on duty that night and early morning, what happened to those that came before the Priests and those that ran away. These guard’s truly were some of the few people that witnessed the first Easter Sunday. They were there when Jesus rose up from the Grave. Besides Mary and Jesus’ mother, none of the disciples were present, but these guards were, these guards who had heard about, watched or maybe had even participated at some capacity in the arrest, trial and death of our Savoir. These guards had front row seats to the Resurrection. So did the settlement pay off in the end?? or did some of the guard’s present end up becoming followers of Christ that Easter Sunday so long ago? The very fact that this account exists gives us the hope that these Guards were affected by this miracle – that the pay off did not keep them quiet from sharing this ultimate story from the workplace…… May we too feel the power of this miracle this Easter and everyday, may we experience the awe of the earth shaking, the empty tomb, and may we share the good news that “Christ has Risen, He has Risen indeed, Amen.
