Thought from today’s Bible reading from Matthew 28; Mark 16.
It is not uncommon to hear of government officials lying to cover up the truth about a particular matter. This was done by the chief priests in order to cover up the truth about Jesus’ resurrection.
“Now while they were on their way, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened. And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, and said, ‘You are to say, “His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.” And if this should come to the governor’s ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble.’ And they took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was widely spread among the Jews, and is to this day” (Matthew 28:11-15).
There are some lessons we can take from this:
- Truth is not always convenient, but it is still the truth. The chief priests did not want to believe that Jesus had been raised from the dead. If people believed the truth about His resurrection and then understood that Jesus was who He claimed to be, they would know that the chief priests were in opposition to God Himself (cf. Acts 5:38-39). This would not have been desirable for them, but it was still the truth.
- Lying has consequences. One who lies in order to deceive others or get out of trouble will often find themselves in more trouble because of the lies. The chief priests had to spend “a large sum of money” to convince the soldiers to lie for them. The soldiers faced the potential of punishment if they were found to have fallen asleep while on duty.
- People will believe lies, even when they are questionable. The story the soldiers were instructed to tell did not add up. They claimed that Jesus’ disciples stole the body while they were asleep. Yet if they were really asleep, they would not have known who stole the body (or if Jesus had risen). Unfortunately, many blindly accept whatever is told to them by those in power, never questioning the story given, despite its holes. This lie, though it could easily be picked apart, was spread among the Jews for quite some time.
We should not be surprised when lies are used to cover up the truth. But this does not change what the truth is. If we wish to be pleasing to God, we must love the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:10) and value the truth (Proverbs 23:23), no matter what the consequences.
Tomorrow’s reading: Luke 24; John 20-21
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.
