The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 659

Ver. 13.-The helplessness of afodish excuse. If ever there was a foolish excuse offered, this was it. 11 they were Roman soldiers who composed the watch, everybody must have known it was untrue, for sleeping on duty was punished by death,. li they were part of the temple-guard, everybody would know that they had been set up to tell this tale by the enemies of Jesus. If inquiry be made concerning the source of St. Matthew's information, it may suffice to remind that two at least of our Lord's friends, Joseph and Nicodemus, were members of the Sanhedrin, and would be fully cognizant of the Sanhedrin secrets. The invention of an excuse, and bribing men to make it, show bow bewildered the priest-party was by the facts and incidents reported. They nesver attempted to deny the facts; they invented an excuse which they knew bad no a.tom of foundation in fa.et. Those watchmen could not declare that one single disciple had been seen near the place. It is ever true that they are in grave dangei: of accusing themselves who attempt to excuse themselves. 1 Tms EXCUSE DECEIVED NOBODY. 1. It did not deceive the watchmen; they must have laughed as they looked into the anxious faces of these officials, and pocketed, their hush-money. 2. It did not deceive the priest-party. They knew perfectly well, that it was all their own invention, and never a disciple had touched the body. 3. n did not deceive Pilate, to whom the report was sure to come. He enjoyed the con- fusion of the men who had mastered him and compelled him to do a wrong. 4. H ciid not deceive the disciples. For they had absolutely silent consciences, and the idea. of stealing the body had never come to them. 5. It does not deceive us; for we can see that making such a lying excuse is just what the priest-party was capable of; bu~ stealing the body is just what the disciples were incapable of. II. Tms EXCUSE DID NOT HELP THOSE WHO HADE IT. It did not touch. the fact that. the body was gone. It did not prevent the circulation of the report that Jesus wa& risen from the dead. These men spent their money for nothing, and only made them- 11el ves laugbing-stocke. IIL THIS EXCUSE DID HELP THOSE AGAINST WHOM IT WAB MADE. It drew attention to the disciples; it set men upon inquiring what had really happened; it made th& fact of miraculous resurrection stand out all the more clearly.-R. T. Ver. IS.-Power in the risen Christ', hands. L No one of us needs proofs ofth& fact of our Lord's resurrection from the dead. Yet that resurrection remains an unsolved. mystery. No one can explain it, but we inquire concerning its significance. One point only now engages our attention. Everybody who dies lives after death .. Our dead friends are not dead. We never think of them as dead. They are dead Ill the sense of ceasing to respond to their present environment, but they are not passed out of existence. Moses and Elias passed away from mortal scenes ages before, but they spake with Jesllb in the holy mount. What is true of man is also true of the Divine Man. If never a word had been spoken about his resurrection, we should have known that Jesus lived after and beyond death. That cross could not end Jesus; it only liberated a human S!Jirit. Have we learned the lesson which our Lord almost in vain tried to teach Martha? She cried, in her blinding agony, "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." lie aDJiwered, "Thy brother shall rise again... She mis- understood his reply, and away weut her thoughts, coursing down the ages, \lntil they ea.me up against a great resurrection and judgment day. We neiid not so misunder stand our Lord. Ile did but wrap up bis meaning iu the usual figurative fashio~. What he said was this, "Lazarus lives; is living now. What you really want, 1a not requickening of life, but rest.ored relations of the living Lazarus to the body of Lazarus." ll There iB a marked dillerenct between our Lord's living after death, and every• on. u::vm.1-20,] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING 'l'O ST. MATTIIEW. 665