The Story They Paid For

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Matthew 28:11-15 “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.”

Think

The baseball is still rolling across the Hendersons’ living room floor when the three of you huddle up in the front yard. Nobody meant for that line drive to sail over everyone’s glove and straight through their front window. But it did, and now there is a jagged hole in the glass and a dog barking somewhere inside. Somebody whispers, “Okay, we say a bird flew into it.” Somebody else says, “Or a rock kicked up from a lawn mower.” Everyone nods, but every one of you knows the problem. There is a baseball sitting on their carpet.

Every cover story has the same weakness. It doesn’t just have to sound believable. It has to explain the evidence, and the evidence is usually what gives it away.

Matthew 28 records one of the most important cover stories in history. This one wasn’t thrown together by a few kids in a front yard. It was planned by the most powerful religious leaders in Jerusalem, and it came with a large payment attached. The evidence they had to explain away was an empty tomb.

After Jesus was buried, the chief priests remembered that he had predicted he would rise on the third day, so they got soldiers from Pilate to guard the tomb and had the stone sealed. Then Sunday morning came. There was an earthquake, an angel rolled the stone away, and the guards shook with fear and froze like dead men.

Now watch what happens when the guards report “everything that had happened.” The chief priests could have gone out to the tomb to investigate. Instead, they call a meeting, come up with a plan, and pay the soldiers “a large sum of money” to say, “His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.”

That story has a hole in it you could drive a truck through. If the guards were asleep, how would they know who took the body? That is like a witness telling a judge, “I was sound asleep the whole time, but I can tell you exactly who did it.” Falling asleep on duty was also a serious offense for a soldier, which is why the priests had to promise that “we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” People reporting what really happened don’t usually need a bribe and a promise of protection.

But the biggest clue is what the cover story admits. Even the people who paid for it never claimed the body was still in the tomb. They never said, “The disciples are lying. Jesus is right where we left him.” They couldn’t. If someone tells everyone you ate the last slice of pizza, and the slice is sitting in the fridge, you don’t need a speech. You just open the fridge. All the chief priests had to do to shut the whole thing down was produce the body. They never opened the fridge. They paid for a story instead.

There is one more detail hiding in verse 11: “While the women were on their way.” The first people to find the tomb empty were women. In that culture, a woman’s word often wasn’t taken as seriously as a man’s, especially as a witness. If you were inventing a story to win people over, women are the last witnesses you would pick. Matthew includes them anyway, because that is what happened. It also tells you something about Jesus. The people the world overlooked were the first ones he trusted with the best news in history.

Matthew ends the scene by saying this stolen-body story “has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.” He was writing while that rumor was still going around, and he named it out loud. You don’t point your readers to the other side’s best explanation unless you are confident the facts are on your side.

The money changed hands, and the rumor spread for years. But no amount of money could do the one thing the chief priests actually needed. You can pay people to say almost anything. You cannot pay a tomb to fill back up.

Apply

Spot the holes – Read Matthew 27:62-28:15 in one sitting tonight. Then explain the guards’ cover story to a friend or parent this weekend and see how long it takes them to find the hole.

Pray

God, I’ll admit it’s easier to believe stories that don’t ask anything of me. Thank you that the tomb was really empty and no amount of money could change that. When people around me try to explain Jesus away, help me keep looking at the evidence instead of looking away. And thank you for choosing ordinary, overlooked people to carry your best news. In Jesus’ name. Amen.