Matthew 28:11, commentary and pictures

While the women were hurrying from the empty tomb to tell the disciples that Jesus was risen, some of the Roman watch left the sepulchre and went into Jerusalem to the chief priests and rulers.
What they reported was all that had been done at the tomb, the great earthquake, the descent of the shining angel who rolled back the stone, the keepers falling as dead men for fear, and Jesus coming forth risen with His body gone.
Confronted face to face with that truthful testimony, the priests and elders took counsel and gave the soldiers large money and promise of protection to spread instead the false claim that His disciples stole Him while they slept.
Their denial was not from lack of evidence but a hired suppression of it, and their own conduct exposes the lie, for sleeping men could not know what happened, no soldier would confess a death-penalty neglect, and no investigation or punishment of the supposed thieves ever followed.
So the very precautions of seal, watch, and weapons meant to prevent deception made the resurrection certain and impossible to conceal, while the purchased lie became the pattern for Satan's later deceptions to obscure the miracle and turn minds from the truth.

Guards' Report At Tomb

The verse belongs to the account of the sealed tomb kept under Roman watch, and the seal, the watch, and the weapons set to prevent disturbance or deception instead made the truth of the resurrection more firmly established. The soldiers placed around the tomb to prevent His rising became evidence that He had risen, and their very number strengthened that testimony. Roman guards and weapons could not keep Christ in the grave.

While Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were hurrying from the empty tomb to tell the disciples that Jesus was risen, some of the watch left the sepulchre and went into the city. They went into Jerusalem to the chief priests and rulers and told them all the things that were done at the resurrection.

What had been done was the great earthquake and the descent of the angel of the Lord with countenance like lightning and raiment white as snow, who rolled back the stone and sat upon it. The keepers shook for fear and became as dead men. There was an appearance of glory from the tomb, with light and heavenly song, and Jesus came forth risen, and when it ceased the tomb was found empty and His body gone.

The guard saw the resurrection with their own eyes and testified to what they had seen. They rose from where they had fallen and fled into the city in great fear, staggering like drunken men and telling everyone they met plainly and positively what they had witnessed. Then going to the chief priests they related the full circumstances of the resurrection with painful utterance. They declared the crucified one to be the Son of God because they had heard the angel proclaim Him the Majesty of heaven and King of glory. Their report made the priests' faces pale as dead and left Caiaphas for a time unable to speak, until at last he commanded them to tell no one what they had seen.

Priests' Bribe And Lie

The soldiers' truthful and startling report confronted the priests and elders face to face with the truth that Jesus had risen. They assembled together and took counsel how to hide it, giving large money to say His disciples came by night and stole Him away while they slept. With the money they promised to persuade the governor and secure the soldiers if it came to his ears, and to protect them from the penalty and death that sleeping on duty carried. The testimony was thus suppressed, with truth smothered and falsehood spread in its place.

The soldiers took the money and did as they were taught, exchanging their truthful testimony for money. They repeated the false claim put into their mouths that His disciples came by night and stole Him away while they slept, and spread it widely. What they spread was a lie taught by the chief priests and elders to cover what had been done at the resurrection.

The leaders chose the lie because they feared the truth would expose them as His murderers and provoke the people. With Satan working on their minds they persisted in calling Jesus an impostor and accused His disciples of stealing His body so they could claim He had risen. They did this to escape the people's anger and to protect their own lives, securing Pilate's silence and spreading lies to disprove the resurrection.

The report also reached Pilate by messenger and filled him with terror, so that he shut himself inside his home wanting to see no one. At the priests' urging to overlook the soldiers' failure at their post and let the matter pass, he held a private interview and questioned the guards. The guards dared not conceal anything for fear of losing their lives, and he learned all the particulars from them. He was convinced he had condemned not merely an innocent man but the Son of God, yet he consented not to investigate or prosecute the matter further. From that time he had no more peace or comfort, having delivered Jesus up for worldly honor and fear of losing his authority and life, and he died in despair and anguish.

The attempt to smother the truth did not succeed, for many people heard the soldiers' testimony. Neither their testimony nor that of the people raised with Christ could be silenced. The priests lived in fear of facing Christ and of the judgment for their actions.

Certain Proof Of Resurrection

Matthew 28:11 records that some of the guard left the tomb and came into the city to tell the chief priests all that had been done, giving the Jewish leaders direct evidence of the resurrection of Christ. Their report was striking evidence, and the soldiers set around the tomb to prevent His resurrection thereby became evidence that He had risen, their number making that testimony stronger, since Roman guards and weapons could not keep Him in the grave. Their denial of the resurrection was not for lack of evidence and not because they were ignorant of the truth, but because they hired the soldiers to bear false witness and suppressed the testimony. They desired to keep the people from knowing the truth, for if the truth were known they would stand forth as murderers, showing how false teachers are afraid to trust the people with knowledge and seek to hide the facts that would show the error of their position, so that truth can be smothered and falsehood spread in its place.

The resurrection is the event on which salvation depends, and God made it certain and impossible to conceal. Besides the guard, the priests and rulers knew for certain that Jesus the Prince of life whom they had slain was risen from the dead, for they already had authentic reports from people who had seen and spoken with those raised at His resurrection and heard their testimony that He had risen. Those dead persons raised with Him had been seen and heard testifying to many in the city, and the resurrection was also attested by Jesus' appearances to His disciples and to more than five hundred people. To meet this accumulating evidence the priests and elders manufactured and diligently circulated the false report put into the soldiers' mouths that the disciples robbed the sepulcher and stole the body while the guards slept.

Their own conduct exposes that stolen-body story as false. Sleeping soldiers could not know how the tomb became empty, and one awake sentinel would have wakened the rest. No soldier would proclaim sleeping on duty when it carried the death penalty with no hope of pardon, and the threat of death made it unlikely they would confess to it. If the priests had believed their own story and had found the guards asleep, they would have demanded investigation and the full penalty on unfaithful soldiers, and they would have called the disciples to account with unrelenting punishment. Their failure to investigate or punish the guards or to punish the disciples proves the disciples innocent and establishes the truth of the resurrection of Jesus as the divine Son of God, the Prince of life, a falsehood that thinking people not blinded by bigotry could detect.

The guards' account included the angel's arrival, the stone being rolled away, the appearance of glory from the tomb, and the tomb found empty, and their testimony confirmed that Jesus had risen from the dead. The priests and rulers recognized that evidence as fulfillment of a large part of the prophecy concerning the Messiah.

Pattern For Later Deception

Some of the Roman watch left the tomb and went into the city to tell the chief priests all that had been done, and the priests and elders put a false explanation into their mouths to be spread in place of what they had witnessed. That invented report made the resurrection appear not miraculous, denying the miracle of Jesus rising from the dead. The guards' truthful report thus became the basis for a lie intended to discredit and disprove the resurrection.

This suppression stands as the model for how Satan works by deception to obscure the miraculous resurrection and to turn people away from the Bible toward lying wonders. As the leaders then bribed the soldiers to say the disciples stole the body while they slept, so later false claims diminish the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus and turn attention from Him to deceptive spiritual manifestations. The same pattern reappears in spiritualist denials of the miraculous events of His life and in departure from the faith to seducing spirits, against which the distinct history of the meeting Christ appointed with His disciples in Galilee after His resurrection and just before His ascension calls for sincere belief in Christ's unseen personality seen by the eye of faith and for Christian experience through the promised ministration of the Holy Spirit and Christ's abiding presence.

The account illustrates how truth can be smothered and falsehood spread in its place, for the leaders had direct and striking evidence yet hired false witness to keep the people from knowing it. False teachers are afraid to trust the people with knowledge and seek to hide the facts that would show the error of their position, fearing to stand exposed as murderers if the truth were known. The fabricated claim that the disciples stole the body was circulated widely and was accepted by those who wanted the lie to be true, even while news of the resurrection spread and Pilate himself was convinced by the testimony that he had condemned not merely an innocent man but the Son of God. Yet thinking people who were not blinded by bigotry could detect its falsehood.

Faith And Sacrificial Life

While the women were hurrying to tell the disciples, some of the watch left the sepulchre and went into the city and told the chief priests all that had been done at the resurrection, which the priests and elders then covered by bribing the soldiers to say the disciples stole the body while they slept. With the rest of the chapter this belongs to the distinct history of the meeting Christ appointed with His disciples in Galilee after His resurrection and just before His ascension. It calls for sincere belief in Christ's unseen personality, seen by the eye of faith. It calls for the Christian experience to be gained from the promised ministration of the Holy Spirit and Christ's abiding presence, leaving no excuse for departing from the faith to seducing spirits.

This stands in the brighter chapter following the suffering of Christ and shows the infinite sacrifice the Lord of glory made to open a way whereby sinners might be saved. Faithful study of the gospels including this account blesses the soul by showing that no one suffers more than Christ suffered or pays a higher price for faith than Christ paid for salvation. That salvation means a life that measures with the life of God. It requires willingness to make special sacrifices to save souls that are ready to perish in order to be counted worthy to enter into the city of God.