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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.
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