Thursday after 2nd Last - A Devotion

Devotion for Thursday after 2nd Last 

Jeremiah 38:1-28       Matthew 27:57-66

He is dead! He was beaten, battered, bruised, and then nailed to the cross. Now He is dead! They laid Him in a new tomb. Now the chief priests have one last cruel mockery. 

62 Now on the next day, that is, the day which is after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, 63 and they said, “Sir, we remember that when that deceiver was still alive, He said, ‘After three days I am rising.’ 64 Therefore, give orders for the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise, His disciples may come and steal Him, and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.” 65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” 66 And they went and made the tomb secure with the guard, sealing the stone. 

All they need to do is keep Jesus locked up in the grave. To this day, there are many Jews who claim that the disciples did exactly as the chief priests feared - they stole his body and simply proclaimed that Jesus had risen from the dead - but He has not truly risen.

You know what? All they needed to do was produce the dead body of Jesus. Do you think that they did not try? I can only imagine the time, energy, and effort put into that search. I can imagine they also enlisted the aid of the Roman army in the area.

Guess what...No body!

But maybe I should not say any more, that would be getting ahead of the program.

Instead, consider this, the chief priests and Pharisees where afraid of the resurrection of Jesus. If He rose, it would proclaim that all His Word and deeds were true. It would proclaim that He really was the Son of God. It would proclaim that salvation is not by works, but by faith in God.

Like I said, you know the rest of the story. But they did everything humanly possible to stop it. How sad!

Instead as we anticipate the continuation of the story, today we give thanks that true God, Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried.

We raise our voices to confess that He died for us, and was buried. This He did to pay the required price for our sinfulness - as True God in Human Flesh. What great mercy!