The Lie that Proves the Resurrection

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2015 · 27 September 2015

Matthew 28:11-15, “While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. 12 And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers 13 and said, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep. 14 And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.”

Now it is obvious that this is all about a bribery and about a lie regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yes, someone did defeat death, Jesus Christ did. And yes, He made a way for you and I to defeat death as well. In fact, there is no hope of life after death, there is no hope of heaven, there is no hope of eternal blessing and joy without the resurrection of Christ. Still in spite of the fact that the resurrection is the only hope of salvation for man, the only key to eternal life, the majority of people reject it.

To reject the resurrection for whatever reason is to commit spiritual suicide. It is to damn your own soul to an eternal hell without God. And in so doing, you not only lose the future but you lose the meaning and the value of the present. For if the future has no meaning, then how can the present have any meaning? Furthermore, to deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ and therefore deny the hope of eternal life goes against the grain of the human heart.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, "God has set eternity in their heart." There is something inside man that reaches out for immortality that is not satisfied with life only on a temporal level. The religions and philosophies and personal anticipations of the human race throughout all of history reflect this desire for immortality. And only Jesus said in John 11:25-26, "I am the resurrection and the life, he that believes in Me though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever lives and believes in Me shall never die."

Through the years there have been many explanations offered to explain away the truth of the resurrection. Here are some of their theories. First of all, the "swoon theory." Here it says that Christ never really died, that the reason He got out of the grave was because He was not yet dead. Shock from the loss of blood on the cross and the wounds sent Him into a semi-coma. And when they took Him off the cross and put Him in the tomb, the aroma of the spices and the coolness of the tomb revived Him. And when He came out of the grave, the disciples assumed that He was resurrected.

History will support that the Romans knew when someone was dead. They were experts at execution. And when they came by and did not break Jesus' legs because they were convinced He was dead, they knew that. And then they rammed a spear into His side and out came the blood and the water around the heart, again indicating that He was dead.

This theory means that Jesus survived severe beating, crucifixion, the spear thrust into His side, draining blood out of His body, entombment three days with no food or water. Woke up without any medical assistance having lost most of His blood, able to moved the stone, over-powered the Roman guards and then walked seven miles to Emmaus on feet that had been pierced with nails. That is absurd.

There is a second theory, the "no-burial theory.” This says that Christ was never put in the tomb so He wasn't there on Sunday. Since He wasn't there Friday or Saturday, we don't expect Him on Sunday. The disciples thought He would be in the tomb and that is why they thought He had left the tomb. But in reality He was thrown in a pit with a lot of other criminals.

This theory doesn't work either because the testimony is all contrary to that. Furthermore, why did the Jewish leaders then seal the tomb? And why did they post a Roman guard? If the body was thrown in a pit, they could have easily disproved the resurrection by going back to that pit and bring the body and say, "Here is his body." Why not just produce the body? No, the no-burial theory doesn't work.

The third theory is the "hallucination theory." Everybody who thought they say Jesus after His dead hallucinated. They thought they saw Jesus because they wanted to see Him so badly. How could 500 people up in Galilee have the same hallucination at the same time? And since they didn't even believe or expect a resurrection, where was this strong desire that brought them to hallucinate? And where was the body?

There is also the "telepathy theory." There was no physical resurrection but God sent back mental images and put them on the minds of people so they would think He was alive. That makes God a deceiver. It says Christianity is based on deceit. It makes liars out of the Apostles. It also held a conversation with the people and even ate with them. That is absurd. If this is just telepathy, where's the body?

Then there is fifthly the "seance theory." And that is that a medium conjured upon the spirit of the dead Jesus by occult power and that in a demonic way this seance took place in which the dead Jesus made an appearance. How is it they could touch Him? How is it that they could hold on to His feet? How is it that He could eat? And where was the body? Why is the tomb empty if this is nothing more than simply the projection of a medium spirit?

There is another theory, the "mistaken identity theory." Somebody impersonated Jesus to falsify the resurrection. He must have crucified Himself to produce the scars in His hands. He must have stabbed a spear into His side to produce the scar. And how do you explain walking through walls or controlling the fish in the sea, creating a meal, appearing and vanishing at will, ascending to heaven in full view of the Apostles?

Renan, the French atheist, has tried to disprove the resurrection of Jesus Christ saying that it was based on the testimony of one eccentric delirious woman named Mary Magdalene who had seven demons and was insane. Did he forget the 500 plus other witnesses? Did he forget the ten separate appearances recorded in the gospel record of Christ after His resurrection? And where is the body? Why is the tomb empty?

There is one other theory that the Jews adopted, namely the "theft theory" that says the disciples came and stole His body. Now obviously if the body is not there, they have to explain why the body is not there. Somebody had to take it. That is the only explanation that makes sense because it explains the removal of the body. So who took it? The Jews would not take it because they wanted Jesus to stay buried. The Romans would not take it because they were not interested.

So this theory says the disciples came and stole His body. Why did Matthew bring in this ridiculous lie about the body being stolen? The answer is two-fold. Number one, to demonstrate that the apostasy of Israel was full and final. They denied the resurrection just like they denied everything else. Secondly, this testimony of the enemies of Jesus is the best testimony as to the reality of His resurrection.

So Matthew then, in a most unique way, discusses this incident of the lie about the resurrection of Christ. Now it is Sunday morning, and a group of women come. There is an earthquake as they approach. When they get there, the stone is rolled away, and sitting on it is a flaming angel in white garments. Christ has been released out of the grave. He is alive. That announcement is made to the women. They check the tomb out and it is true. They leave that place and as they move along the road they are met by the risen Christ who speaks with them.

Remember what happened to the soldiers? Matthew 28:4, "When they saw the angel, for fear of him the guards did shake and became as dead men." Now these Roman guards saw the angel and it was their fear of that holy angel that caused them to faint. They experienced the earthquake. They saw the moving of the stone. And they fainted at the sight of this holy angel. So they have experienced this.

The women then have come and gone. In verse 10 Jesus said to those women, "Stop being afraid, go tell My brothers that they should go to Galilee and there they shall see Me." Verse 11, “While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place.” We don't know precisely when but it was at the time when the women were going. And it says that some of them go to make a report to the chief priests and tell them all the things that happened.

Maybe some of them were too frightened because they were afraid to let others know they had lost the body and therefore would lose their lives because Roman law said that if a soldier fails in his duty, he pays with his life. Whatever the reason, some of them felt they had to report back to the chief priests. Because Pilate had delegated them to the chief priests in Matthew 27:62.

Notice in verse 11 it says, "They told the chief priests all that had taken place.” They described the earthquake. They described the rolling of the stone. They described the arrival of a blazing angel sitting on the stone. They described the empty tomb. They described it all. They knew it was a supernatural event. And they understood that Jesus rose from the dead. And so, they told that to the Jewish leaders.

So the Jewish leaders heard about the resurrection even before the disciples heard it. But they didn't believe. They had said back in Matthew 27:42, "Let Him now come down from the cross and we will believe Him." And here is something even greater, He came out of the grave but they would not believe. They were so resistant and so blind and so locked in to their own religious belief that they would not even investigate the truth.

That news brought shock and fear. But it did not bring repentance and it did not bring faith. They were without excuse. They were informed about the resurrection and they didn't question it. All they did instantaneously was say, we cannot let this get out. We have to stop it. We are only interested in preventing people from hearing about it.

So, verse 12 says, "And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers.” This was an official meeting of the Sanhedrin, to deal with something supernatural that had happened at the grave, an earthquake, an angel, the tomb was empty and the body was gone. The disciples had not stolen it. The soldiers would have reported that.

First, in verse 12 we learn that they gave a lot of money to the soldiers. They were willing to pay any price to lie about the resurrection. They could not let the people think that Jesus had risen from the dead because the people would never follow them but only Jesus. Then secondly in verse 13, "Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.” The soldiers are told to lie about the resurrection.

So, the soldiers told lies for the sake of money. They were materialistic. They knew it was lie, but they were willing for money to say what the Jews wanted them to say. And there was a third thing and a very important one if you were a Roman soldier. Verse 14, "And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” The soldiers were afraid that if Pilate heard this message they would be court-martialed and get the death penalty.

So, the three resolutions were, bribe the soldiers, tell them to tell others that the disciples stole the body, and take care of the soldiers if they get in trouble with Pilate. The soldiers' response we find in verse 15, "So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.” Matthew is writing this about 30 years later, somewhere around 63 A.D and he is saying then that this lie is still believed among the Jews that the disciples stole the body.

One writer has said, "Not on historical faith but only on the faith of the heart rests the salvation of the world." God sets these soldiers aside and makes them preachers of an anti-gospel who don't even believe in it. And they were successful at what they did. In the year 114 to 165 a man named Justin Martyr, one of the early church fathers, writes that this lie was still among the Jews the most common opinion.

He writes, "You Jews selected men and sent them into all the world proclaiming that a certain atheistic and lawless sect has arisen from one Jesus, a Galilean deceiver whom we crucified, but His disciples stole Him by night from the tomb and deceived men by saying that He is risen from the dead and ascended into heaven." So even in the second century, this is the commonly reported view among the Jews. And the lie is still around today.

Why is it written here? Because it is convincing proof of the reality of the resurrection. It is evidence supplied not by the friends of Jesus but by His enemies. And their testimony is even more astounding because it is so unexpected. It was impossible for the Roman soldiers, to deny that Christ had by some supernatural means left the grave. They saw it themselves. The tomb was empty. The earthquake, the angel, the whole thing they witnessed.

But it is impossible to believe their explanation. First of all basically, these disciples are cowards. When the soldiers came into the garden to capture Jesus all the disciples ran away, right? So if the disciples came and stole the body, where did they get the courage to confront the Roman guard? How would these men who would not defend the living Christ would now try to steal a dead Christ? Peter denied Jesus Christ even to a little girl.

And how were they able to roll the stone away without the Romans noticing. Further, it is impossible to believe that all the Roman soldiers were asleep. They always rotated their watches and they knew the price of being killed was too high to fall asleep. The fact that they gave them money tells us clearly this is bribery. You don't bribe people to tell the truth.

But most ridiculous of all, they said that His disciples came by night and stole Him away while they slept. So while you were asleep, you saw the disciples come and steal the body, did you? You cannot have it both ways. If you were asleep, you don't know what happened. So the whole explanation is self-condemning.

The testimony of Scripture is that Jesus rose from the dead and Matthew is telling us here that we can believe the testimony of His friends or we can believe the testimony of His enemies and we are going to come up with the very same conclusion. There is no other historical event that is as truly and thoroughly examined as the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The Lord arose. And because He lives, He gives life to all who believe in Him. What about you, what do you believe? Let us bow in prayer.