Matthew 27:57-58

As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him.

From Background Notes [BN] for April 11th & 12th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Evident in Matthew’s gospel is that the readers could say with confidence that they knew where the body of Jesus was placed: in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.

This was important for the later critics who claimed that the body of Jesus had somehow been misplaced and that is why his disciples claimed that he had risen from the dead. But Matthew offers a second possible reason to Jesus’ critics namely that the disciples of Jesus might in fact have stolen his body and claimed that he had risen from the dead. And yet that possibility is removed, for Matthew gives record of Pilate’s authorization that the body of Jesus should in fact be sealed within, and to this end a Roman guard placed. This decision was made because of pressure from the Jewish leadership fearing a further deception, as they refer to Jesus at the end of Matthew as “the deceiver” and they anticipated that the followers of Jesus would imitate their master in deceiving others about the resurrection, when in fact they had stolen the body.  [BN,3]

Join us this week in Study, Worship, Praise and Celebration at Chicago First Church of the Nazarene:

* Saturday 6:00pm
* Sunday 8:30am, 10am (FX) and 11:15am