SINFUL HUSH MONEY

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened.

When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole Him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.”

So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

Matthew 28:11-15

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

It was the Sabbath after Jesus was crucified. Any faithful, God-focused Jew would have been home refraining from labor, obedient to the commands of their Heavenly Father. But as we see throughout the Gospel accounts of the life of Jesus, the Jewish religious authorities of the time believed they had the privilege to do whatever they wanted to do, whenever they wanted to do it, even if it meant willfully sinning in plain sight of the God they claimed to be so devoted to.

And so on the Sabbath, we find the Jewish religious leaders going to Pontius Pilate and asking for a guard to place at Jesus’ tomb. They knew He had claimed that He would rise from the grave on the third day and, not believing what Jesus said, the Jewish religious authorities suspected that Jesus’ disciples would come and remove His body, and then claim He had been resurrected from the dead. The scriptures tell us that Pilate relented and a guard was placed at the tomb to keep an eye on things.

And then the third day came and things happened just as Jesus said they would. For as the women got to the tomb, Matthew’s gospel tells us a great earthquake struck as an angel descended from the heavens and rolled the stone was away before telling the women that Jesus was not there because He had risen. Matthew further tells that the guards at the tomb were so frightened that they shook and were frozen in fear like dead men. The angel dispatched the women to tell the Eleven and the guards went to report everything they had witnessed to the chief priests.

As the guards told the chief priests about what had occurred, I wish I could have been there to see the expression on their collective faces because everything they had tried to prevent from happening was all for not. Jesus had risen from the dead and this was news they could ill advise to get out beyond what the women knew. After all, in Jewish society the testimony of women was not believed to be credible. The chief priests weren’t worried about the women because they could easily be discredited.

The guards on the other hand were a different story.

They would easily go around and tell others about what they had seen and heard, and since they were not only eyewitnesses but men, people would have a tendency to believe them. And so we see the chief priests getting together with the elders to scheme and come up with an exit strategy from the problem they faced.

What was the solution?

Well, it amounted to nothing short of biblical hush money as they “gave the soldiers a large sum of money” before demanding they change their story, essentially giving them a license to lie.

Did I mention the Jewish religious leaders weren’t exactly the pious, God-centered men they wanted everyone to believe that they were?

And so the high priests told the guards that they were to tell everyone that Jesus’ disciples had come and taken Jesus’ body under the cloak of the dark night and while the guards had been sleeping. And since sleeping while on guard was a military crime worthy of great punishment, the chief priests tried to put the guards at ease letting them know that there would be top cover if anyone decided to bring punishment to them for dereliction of duty. If it happened, the Jewish religious leaders would go to Pilate and vouch for the guards in order to keep them from getting in trouble.

And that was that. We read where the soldiers took the money and kept largely silent regarding what had happened. When they did have to talk about their experience, they simply used the lines given to them by the Jewish religious leaders and this story took root, widely circulated among the Jews to the very day Matthew finished his writing.

Jesus had risen in victory over death and the grave, and this left the Jewish religious authorities as losers, more so than they were before. This is where sinful scheming will lead anyone who adopts it as a behavior. For the Lord will never honor dishonesty and deceitfulness, and no amount of hush money can keep the real truth from being disclosed if He decides it should be revealed.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com