Hi everyone, welcome back to the logical. Bible study, thank you so much for tuning in and for your support. I want to encourage you to keep thinking about whether you might like to support the ministry and become a patron. There's a whole lot of really good additional gifts that you can get if you decide to become a patron as well. So if you Leave this ministry is doing something really good with these daily gospel exegesis episodes and you think the ministry is worth supporting
them. Please prayerfully consider becoming a patron and the link for that is in the show. Notes on today's episode we're looking at the Gospel reading for today which is from Matthew chapter 28 verses 8 to 15 filled with or and great joy. The women came quickly away from the tomb and ran to tell the disciples and they're coming to meet them with Jesus. Greetings he said and the women came up to him and falling down before him clasped his feet. Then Jesus said to them do not be afraid.
Go and tell my brothers that they must leave for Galilee. They will see me there. While they were on their way. Some of the Guard went off into the city, to tell the chief priests all that had happened. These held a meeting with the elders and after some discussion handed, a considerable sum of money to the soldiers with these instructions. This is what you must say. His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep. And should the governor come to hear of this?
We undertake to put things, right with him ourselves and to see that you do not get into trouble. The soldiers took the money and carried out their instructions and to this day, that is the story among the Jews. So, an interesting reading today, Matthew gives us some additional information that the other gospel authors don't about what took place shortly after the resurrection. So the context is the women have just gone to the tomb early on Easter Sunday, to anoint the body with spices.
And while they're there, they see an angel descend from heaven. And the angel rolls away, the stone and tells them that Jesus has risen. So that happens before our text today. So we get to verse 8. I love it. Angel has told them to go see the disciples so filled with or and great joy, the women came quickly away from the tomb and ran to tell the disciples. Now, as we've discussed before the word for all here can be translated fear.
And we know from Mark's gospel than in fact, it appears that women were too afraid initially to go to the disciples but they later changed their minds. Now, apparently, while they're on the way to see the disciples, they have an encounter with Jesus verse 9 and they're coming to meet them was Jesus. And what an amazing sight that must have been, he says to them. Greetings, that's quite a friendly greeting, because he knows how shocking it must be for them to see him like that.
So, he wants to say something, friendly, the women came up to him and falling down before him clasped his feet. And other translations. Make it clear that what's going on here is worshipped. So the women recognize that Jesus has the power of God and in fact he might be God himself and by touching him physically, they're able to confirm for themselves that it's not a ghost, it really is the Flesh and Blood Jesus and the catechism talks a bit about this
as well. Verse 10, Jesus goes on to talk about my brothers and which would suggest that Christ has forgiven his disciples and in other podcasts during the Easter season, we've talked about how Jesus might be thinking of Psalm 22. When he's discussing my brothers in reference to his disciples and he says, to the women do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers that they must leave for Galilee. They will see me there. So shortly the women do go and see the apostles and tell them
all this information. Tell them what the angel and what Jesus has told them about going to Galilee and you can read about the conversation that women have with the apostles in Luke chapter 24 verses 9 to 11 the disciples initially don't believe the women but later that day Jesus appears to them that the disciples themselves although without Thomas. And what happens from that point on is the Cycles. Wait in Jerusalem for another week and then Thomas sees Jesus.
And then after that, extra week is finished, they leave from Jerusalem and go to Galilee as per Jesus instructions. So some of that text, we've actually heard in recent days associated with Easter, but now we get to a new section of text verse 11 while they were on their way.
So this is talking about the women who are on the way to find the apostles some of the Guard. Now here we're talking about the Roman guards who had been guarding the tomb Now, it's important to emphasize for this next bit. The whole point, the whole reason the guards were there in the first place is because the Jewish leaders were worried that someone might come and steal, Jesus body. And so the solution in fact, pilot solution to that was, let's put some guards in front of the Tomb.
So that no one can steal the body. That was the whole job. That was the whole point of them being at the tomb. So they had one job you could say which was to guard the tomb and now the tomb was empty. So they failed in their job. It wasn't their fault though, of course, because it was the angel and Jesus that got out of the Tomb. So they couldn't really do anything about it. So the guards Go off into the city to tell the chief priests all that has happened.
Now, why don't the Roman guards? Go straight to their boss, which is pilot probably because pilot will kill them if he finds out that they were so incompetent that they couldn't guard the tomb. So Go to the Jewish leaders possibly for protection, but also because they want to tell the chief priest what has happened.
They know the chief priests will be interested in hearing this because this was the man they put to death just a couple of days ago and now they're going to want to know that the man's body is now missing so they don't work for the chief priests but they go to the chief priests to tell them what has happened. So the chief Priests of those who were in charge of the temple in Jerusalem, they hear what the guards, tell them and they hold
a meeting with the elders. And so the elders will be kind of the local leaders of Jerusalem. They're in charge of the political Affairs of Jerusalem. So we have the chief priests who in turn charge of the temple in Jerusalem and the Elwood is still in charge of Jerusalem politically. You could say. So these are the leaders who together control the Affairs of Jerusalem, they're in charge of the town and they make sure that everything is kept in order. So they discuss.
What are we going to do? The body is missing, what's the best solution? So what they do is they hand a considerable sum of money to the soldiers with these instructions. So the going to bribe the soul, It's basically to lie about what has happened. Most likely the sold, the soldiers, came to them and said, an angel appeared from heaven. And of course, at that point, they passed out. Now, the salt, the probably, the chief priests know that something supernatural has
happened. And it's really important to think about what's going on here. The way that they bribe, the soldiers suggests that the chief priests and the elders. They know that something Supernatural is happened. They probably know that Jesus
has risen. Risen from the dead, but they don't want to believe it anything, but that, and that's pretty consistent with the way they've behaved in the gospels up. Until now, they always find it easy to deny the Messiah. That's always a much easier solution than actually agreeing with him and opening their minds for the truth. And here, they do the same thing. So, this is the story.
They want the guards to tell anyone who asks, his disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep. Now, that's really, not a very likely story but this is what they want the guards to tell people. If you think about it, Roman guards were very well trained and they're very unlikely to fall asleep on the job. They wouldn't let that happen. So it's incredibly unlikely that the guards actually fell asleep while they're guarding the tomb.
And also think about it if the guards were asleep and then the disciples snuck in and stole the body. How could they know the body was stolen? If the guards, the guards were asleep. They don't know what happened. So there's a lot of indications, the chief priests didn't really think their story through there. Still some Scholars today that would prefer this explanation that the disciples literally did come and steal the body. Some scholars believe that's why the tomb was empty on the third
day. It's not the best explanation but of course the chief priests need an alternative story to be spread apart from the resurrection story. Anything but the resurrection and this is the best they can come up with, why are they? So insistent on it while because they don't want the Jesus movement to be revived. And their mind there was too much, too much excitement and fervor Around Jesus, and his ministry. And if people hear that, Jesus is risen from the dead.
Then there'll be another Uprising and they Have to deal with the Romans and it could get out of hand a bit, which was their initial concern and why they put Jesus to death originally anyway. So they say, let's just come up with an alternative explanation, the disciples stole the body and they then go on to tell the guards. This should the governor come to hear of this. Remember, the reason why the guards didn't go straight to pilate the governor was because they think pilot will be angry
and we'll kill them. And that probably is true based on what we know about pilot. So should the governor come to hear of this? We the chief priests undertake to put things, right with him ourselves and to see that you do not get into trouble. So the chief priests promise
that if pilot here's the story. Then the chief priests will protect the guards and protect them from being punished by Pilot. They want the soldiers to be on their side and so they're giving the soldiers, all these assurances that they will be safe, just take the money, spread the story and all will be well So verse 15, that's what they did. They take the money and they did as they were directed. Now, why didn't the Romans believed that Jesus was resurrected?
Well, a couple of reasons, apparently, they had passed out when they saw the angel and so they probably didn't know the fullness of what happened in the empty tomb and also they're not Jewish. They don't believe in God's, they don't really have a framework of understanding what's happened on that day, so they also are willing to go along with this story. They take the money and save the
disciples stole the body. And then Matthew adds this interesting comment at the end here, And to this day, that is the story among the Jews. So, apparently, this theory that the disciples stole Jesus body was the main narrative, which was adopted amongst the Jews often. We might sort of, wonder if Jesus rose from the dead. Why didn't everyone hear about it? Why didn't everyone in Jerusalem? Come to believe in him straight away. And here, Matthew actually gives us the answer.
It's the very quickly, the chief priest came up with an alternative explanation and that spread really quickly. And in the end most of Jerusalem believed the Explanation, which was that the disciples stole the body? Now notice it's really interesting to notice what this tells us the empty tomb was a fact that everyone believed, no one disputed that the tomb was empty and it's important to emphasize this because again sometimes today Scholars will
say the tomb wasn't empty. Well according to all the documents we have everyone at the time Christian or not believe that Jesus tomb was empty on the third day, it was just a question. Stern of why Jesus tomb was empty and there was different explanations about it. Either you were a Christian and you believe Jesus is resurrected, that was one group of people and the rest of the Jews agree that the tomb was empty, but that they believe the
disciples had stolen the body. So that was the situation in the years. After Jesus death, when Matthew says to this day, he's probably writing around a.d. 55. So, 25 years on from the resurrection still most Jews. Leave the what happened on that day? Was the disciples stole the body.
What is Matthew include this information about the guards and the alternative theory of stealing the body but the other gospel authors don't Probably because he's writing to Jewish readers and so many of his readers would have heard this theory that his body was stolen. That's what most Jews believed about, what happened on Easter morning. So, Matthew is writing to counter this and to tell them what's the origin of this theory. That the disciples stole the body.
He wants them to know the truth about what happened. But he also to do that, he has to tell them where this Fall Story came from. So that's what's really exciting about exegesis is when we think about Out the author in the audience we can reasonably work out why some things got included and other things didn't. So an interesting kind of subplots that we get to hear today. From Matthew's gospel about what the Romans and the Jewish leaders did about the, the empty tomb.
So let's move on to the catechism passages. Where does this get reference in the catechism? So firstly in paragraph 6 41, which is in in fact, all of our paragraphs today are from around paragraph 640, which is a discussion of the Resurrection. Paragraph 6, 41 says Mary Magdalene and the holy women who came to finish anointing. The body of Jesus, which had been buried in haste because the Sabbath began on the evening of Good Friday, were the first to
encounter the Risen one. Thus the women were the first messengers of Christ's Resurrection for the apostles themselves. So remember the start of our passage today, the women were tasked with giving a message to the apostles. So they were like Apostles to the apostles. Paragraph 645, we have a discussion about the fact that Jesus was Flesh and Blood, it says by means of touch and the sharing of a meal. The Risen Jesus establishes, direct contact with his
disciples. He invites them in this way to recognize that he is not a ghost and above all to verify that the Risen body in which he appears to them, is the same body that have been tortured and crucified for it, still Bears the traces of his passion. And that paragraph goes on to talk about how he does have new abilities in his body after his Resurrected. And then in paragraph 6 40 it says, why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen the first element.
We encounter in the framework of the Easter events is the empty tomb in itself. It is not a direct proof of Resurrection, the absence of Christ's body from the tomb could be explained. Otherwise, nonetheless, the empty tomb wasn't a still, an essential sign for all its Discovery by the disciples was the first step towards recognizing I seen the very fact of the Resurrection, So that line there in paragraph 640 about this other explanations
for the resurrection. Of course, one of those is that the disciples stole the body. And so, the catechism references here, Matthew chapter 28 that we heard today. So that's the end of today's podcast. Thank you again for listening. Please share this around. Subscribe on YouTube. Leave a rating on iTunes. I'd really appreciate it. And please tune in again tomorrow.