“… I shall not leave you orphans. I will come to you…” John 14:18 Resurrection Part II

More thoughts on the Resurrection of Christ.

Last week, I started a series on the Resurrection of Christ.  Then we focused on the Apostles and how they’d reacted to the event.  This week, I’d like to focus on another group that was involved, a number of members of the Sanhedrin referred to in the Bible as “the priests.”

Newspapers didn’t exist back then (they’re almost gone now!).  But if they had I can just see the headline on the front of the paper the day after Jesus’ resurrection.  It would have read something like this, “TOP GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS PAY ‘HUSH MONEY’ TO KEEP EMBARRASSING INFORMATION FROM CITIZENS OF JERUSALEM.”  Sound familiar?!?  Let’s review a little history.

The Situation in Jerusalem.

At the time of Jesus’ trial, Palestine was included in the Roman Empire and Judea, where Jerusalem was located, was governed by its Roman overseer, Pontius Pilate.  Beneath him the Jews were allowed to govern their own affairs as long as they paid their annual tribute to Rome and didn’t foment any insurrection against Roman authority.

The job of running Jewish society was generally handled by the two ‘branches’ of Jewish government:  the vassal king (Herod Antipas at the time) who seems to have handled day to day administration and the Sanhedrin.

The Sanhedrin was made up of seventy-one (71) of the most influential and respected rabbis of Jewish society.  It contained Sadducees, Pharisees and other members not necessarily affiliated with a particular sect.  The body served as the Supreme Court of Jewish society, religion and government. How members were selected is not totally clear, but they were not appointed by their Roman overlords.  The body was headed by the Chief Priest.  This appears to have been an inherited position and title, either passed to the former high priest’s eldest son, or his son-in-law in case he had no male children to inherit the title.  The High Priest at the time of Jesus’ trial was Caiaphas, the son-in-law of the former high priest, Annas.

The Guards at the Tomb.

The reason that this group of men is of interest to us in this post are the actions that some of them (the “priests”) took leading up to and immediately after the Resurrection.  After Jesus had been tried before the Sanhedrin and sent to Pilate for crucifixion some of its members became convinced that Jesus’ body should be kept under guard.  They remembered that Jesus had said that He would rise again in three days.  They were concerned that His claims might be confirmed (a worst-case scenario for them) or that some of Jesus’ followers might attempt to steal His body in the night to add credence to this claim. [See Matthew 27:62-66, 28:1-4, and 28:11-15 for details of their actions.]  So, they went to Pilate and requested that he provide an around-the-clock guard for the tomb, which he granted.

When Jesus rose from the dead and the stone that had sealed the tomb was rolled back, the guards are reported to have been paralyzed by fear (an understandable reaction).  By the time they recovered, the tomb was empty, Jesus was gone, and they knew they’d be held responsible.  Not knowing what else to do, they decided to go to the priests who had hired them and to tell them what had happened.

At this point the actions of the priests’ presage actions of some persons in positions of power and authority today.

What the Priests did.

The priests had three choices of action. (1) Do Nothing; (2) Try to control the narrative; or (3) Admit that they’d been wrong and celebrate the coming of the Messiah they’d been fervently wishing for.  Let’s look at each of these possible choices and speculate about the consequences of each.

1. Do nothing. If they’d simply accepted the fact that Jesus’ body was gone and said nothing about it, they could have claimed that they did not know what had happened to it.  Then when His public appearances started, they could have allowed His story to take its course and decide either support His narrative, or to dispute it.  They would have kept their options open and possibly kept some measure of dignity and respect of the people.  They didn’t take this course.  Their poor choice played a part in the slow decline in the Sanhedrin’s impact and authority, and the body was eventually disbanded.
2. Try to control the narrative. This is the path they took.  Apparently, they believed the guards’ story because rather than admonish them for their failure to prevent Jesus’ leaving the tomb, they decided to pretend that Jesus’ resurrection had not occurred.  They compounded their error by offering the guards a “…considerable sum of money…” to purchase their silence (sound familiar?), and by providing the guards with a false story to use if/when they were asked about what had happened.  The guards were to say that some of Jesus’ followers came while they were asleep and stole His body.  I’m not sure, but this may be one of the earliest examples of “fake news” ever recorded!
3. Admit that they were wrong. Can you imagine how different history would have been if they’d repented of their vile actions and publicly proclaimed their excitement over the fact of the resurrection? Of course, we’ll never know the answer to this question, but it is fun to speculate about (and would make a darn good plot for a movie!).  At the very least, they could have lived out their lives knowing that they had finally acted in a righteous and honorable manner, and that their very souls had been redeemed to enjoy everlasting life!

Why This Choice?

So, if the upside of choice (3) was so good, and the downside of choice (2) was so bad, why did they choose (2)?  The answer, I believe is the perversity of human nature.

First, they’d allowed their positions of power and prestige to become more important to them than anything else.  Their actions show the lengths some persons ‘in power’ will go to preserve that power.  The priests perceived Jesus’ popularity as a threat to their own power/control over the populace and they would not allow anyone to threaten that control.  Their lust for power had superseded any innate goodness they may have had.  Power (even under the Roman rulers) had become an Idol of worship for them.  And, they were willing to sacrifice an innocent man to preserve that god.  The weren’t the first group to take this road.  Nor would they be the last.  Leaders today make similar choices every day, and the consequences will be just as dire for them as they were for the priests who tried to cover up the Resurrection.

Second, they allowed their pride to rule them.  They simply couldn’t conceive of letting people believe that they could be wrong.  I believe that pride is one of the Universal Sins.  A Universal Sin is one that everyone is almost certain to commit sometime in their life.    They are easy to fall into and are so pervasive among all peoples that we usually don’t recognize them when we have committed them.  The priests couldn’t stand the thought of being diminished in the sight of the populace because of their actions.  Their egos wouldn’t allow it.

This is a very human reaction.  Most of us feel that we are somehow lessened when we come to the realization that we’ve messed things up.  We don’t want anyone to know!  We want the outcome to be somehow different than it is.  We don’t want it known that we were the reason for the embarrassing action.  And most of us will go to no small lengths to keep others from knowing about our failure.  Our pride begins to dictate our actions.

And, I believe that at least some of them were motivated by Shame.  The priests knew that they’d had an innocent man executed whose only real crime was to become too popular with the people.  I’m convinced that at least a few of them were ashamed of the way they acted, and of the way they’d allowed themselves to be carried along by the crowd.

Again, their reaction was a very human one.  When we’re ashamed, we don’t want our embarrassment to become known.  We would rather live an entire life in shame than have the source of that shame exposed to the world.  Haven’t we all done something that was “so bad” that we’ve never disclosed it to anyone, even those closest to us?  I know I have.  Being ashamed was not something that died with the priests who condemned Jesus to death.  It’s still very much with us today.

Finally, they forgot the old saw, “The Truth Will Out.”  I’m not sure exactly why, but this really is true.  The Truth will NOT stay hidden forever.  Sometimes it comes out quickly after the situation or action that we’re trying to cover up.  Sometimes, it doesn’t come out for years, not occurring until all the people involved have passed away.  But it DOES come out.

Can you imagine that all the guards kept quiet?  Sure, they’d been paid.  But, as we see in certain situations today, some secrets are just “too big” to be kept quiet.  I mean, here they were standing or sitting around watching the tomb and the huge stone covering the entrance starts to roll back, an Angel of the Lord appears, and then Jesus walks out!!  I don’t know about you, but for me that wouldn’t be a secret I could keep for very long.  I’m pretty comfortable in the belief that at some point, at least one of them talked.

All for Nothing.

In the end, all the priests’ machinations proved to be for naught.  Jesus DID rise.  He appeared to dozens if not hundreds of people after His resurrection and removed all doubt that He was back.  (And then there were those guards!)  The Apostles began to preach again and were even more powerful than ever!  Within a few years Christian congregations had sprung up from India to Rome.  The Word was too important, too genuine, and too powerful to be stopped.

All their pitiful actions did was to undermine their own positions, lead them into disgrace, and ultimately spell the doom of the organization they’d tried to protect.  The body known as the Sanhedrin declined over subsequent years and was finally disbanded in 425 AD.  A sad end to what had started as a wonderful idea.

With the perspective of History, we are able to view the priests’ actions with some degree of dispassion.  Honestly, I feel a little sad for them.  They allowed their personal pride, prejudices and refusal to question their orthodoxy to blind them to the most important event and greatest opportunity for humankind since the Creation.  They had the opportunity to become much more than just mere men.  They could have soared with the angles.  And, they blew it.  Sad.

What We Can Learn.

What can we learn from these pitiable men?  I hope that we can learn to listen more carefully to God and to His encouragements.  I pray that we can recognize their failures in ourselves and thereby become better able to see and seize the opportunities for service and obedience that God presents to us each and every day.  And, I hope and pray that we will not become so fossilized in our own theology and orthodoxy that we miss His attempts to use us to better the world and bring others to Him.

I pray that we can continue to grow as Christians, in our relationship with Him and with one another.  And that decades or centuries after we’re gone future generations will not look on us with the same disdain and pity that we have for those poor, blind priests.  I hope that we do better.

God’s Blessings on You All.

Richard

October 5, 2018

P.S.  As always remember that these are my own ideas and assumptions.  You are encouraged to use this material to think about your own interpretation and conclusions.  Also, if you enjoyed this post, please remember to “Like” and “Share” it via your preferred social media program.

RC