11 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. 12 When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, 13 telling them, "You are to say, 'His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.' 14 If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." 15 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.
I've been in the military. I've even pulled guard duty. During my Army days in Vietnam guard duty was a common task. It was easy to fall asleep...but the penalty was severe. I recall soldiers being sent to Long Binh Jail (affectionately known as LBJ) for falling asleep. One night four of our guards actually got their throats slit.
Very serious business...so, this had to have been an awfully lot of money.
Which lets us know how far people will go in their collaboration against the claims of Jesus. This is the ugly side of humanity that cannot be ignored. It's easy for us to get caught up in this idea of benign neglect...the notion that unbelievers are quite pleasant folks who simply have never gotten around to declaring faith in Christ. "It surely doesn't make them bad people!" Which of course leads to the most common complaint against God: "How could a loving God send perfectly nice people to hell?"
You see how the devil got us to change the subject? Salvation has never been about God. It has always been about us...predicated by our own sinfulness. This exchange between the guards and the Pharisees declares the notion of innocent sinners to be a lie.
I am stepping out here and suggesting that every unbeliever has made a deal with the devil against God. They are not innocent. They are not poor unfortunates. They are sinister collaborators of the worst kind. It's what killed Christ
Think not? Look at Romans 1:18-25
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen
So where does this leave us? It leaves us with the ugly reality that our unbelieving "friends" are probably not our friends. Given the proper circumstances they are not different than the guards and Pharisees...which means we could find ourselves hanging on a cross by their hand.
A natural tendency would be to run to the sanctuary...to the safety of God's family. But we can't. You see, God loves every one of them (and of course, we were "them" at one time). He has tasked us to live among them and declare the truth of Christ...even if it kills us.
As Easter approaches, our lesson this morning firmly declares the truth. We are in a battle with Satan over the lives of every unbeliever. Calvary declares ultimate victory but the battle rages until Christ returns.
So, now, we're the guards. The difference is, we're collaborating with Christ. We are to stand against the influences of Satan that make it so hard for unbelievers to recognize the truth. It's life and death stuff. Please don't fall asleep!
Live boldly out there today...
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