The Guards Were Bribed To Lie

From today’s reading…

From Jerusalem 2,000 years ago to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City in 2019, which held Jeffrey Epstein at the time of his “suicide,” guards have taken bribes to lie to us, but I digress…or do I?

Two or three people can spread enough doubt and uncertainty to do real damage to big, meaningful movements because small hinges swing big doors.

Remember this when you are tempted to tell “just one, teeny, tiny, itsy, bitsy” little lie.

I’m sure the guards standing watch outside some unknown carpenter’s tomb over a Spring weekend didn’t think the location of His remains amounted to a hill of beans.

Besides, the guards were not Jewish and probably didn’t care what their elders and chief priests believed.

However, we now know that by accepting the bribe and perpetuating their lies, more than a few zealous Jews were emboldened to seek out, arrest, torture, and murder more followers of The Way. (Case in point, Saul, soon to be renamed, Paul.)

“But Wes, if the guards had told the truth, Pontius Pilate could’ve had them arrested and killed.”

I know.

They were literally caught between a rock and a hard place.

However, just eleven verses earlier, we read, “The guards were so shaken by fear of him that they were like dead men” (Matthew 28:4).

These men knew they were in the presence of the Almighty, yet they chose to save their earthly skin instead of their eternal soul, and that is no way to…

Stay the course.Keep the faith.Endure.

Now go sell something.