Matthew 28

(May 3, 2015)

                There are certain elements of the scriptures that lead me to wonder where they came from.  In this chapter, my mind was struck my the description of the guards being bought off.  How could Matthew have known what happened in this meeting?  Is it dramatic license, or was that information that somehow came to him through reliable channels?  It is curious.

                The one thing that is not curious, though, is that this rumor being in existence at this time tells a great deal.  The believers, having heard this rumor, would have been strengthened only if they had seen the risen Lord in such a ways as to refute these stories.  A conspiracy to hide the truth from some would be impressive, but a conspiracy to hide the truth from all of those who saw the risen Christ (and who gave their lives in martyrdom to seal that testimony) would be impossible.

                Thus even as they spread the rumor to deny the Christ they left evidences which strengthen the testimony of him millennia later.  Such is the work of the Lord.