THE LAST WEEK OF JESUS' PUBLIC MINISTRY AND HIS CRUCIFIXION

The Women Report to the Disciples, The Soldiers Report to the Jewish Leaders

-Mark 16:10-11; Luke 24:9-11; John 20:18; Matthew 28:11-15

-When Mary Magdalene had arrived at the tomb and first noticed that the stone had been removed,

 there was no mention of the soldiers.  She didn’t inquire of anybody at the site.  Instead, she ran to

 get Peter and John.  So, it seems that the soldiers left the tomb immediately upon regaining their

 consciousness prior to the arrival of the women.  Perhaps they inspected the tomb and found it to

 be empty.  Therefore, without a body to guard any longer, they departed.

-So, while the events involving Mary Magdalene, the other women, Peter and John transpired

  at the tomb, the soldiers were on their way back into the city where some would report what

  they had seen to the Jewish leaders.

-Meanwhile, the women had departed to report the good news of the Lord’s resurrection to the

 disciples. 

-It is difficult to determine the exact chronology during this time.  John reports that Mary went to the

 disciples and told them “…that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken” (John 20:18) to her. 

 With John’s focus on Mary Magdalene, he does not refer to the other women.  Luke, however,

 does list some of the women’s names in Luke 24:10 with Mary being listed first.  Based upon this,

 McGarvey and Pendleton opine:  “It is likely that Mary brought the first word” (pg 745).  They go

 on to explain that the appearance of Jesus to the other women (who had left first from the tomb)

 could have delayed them long enough to allow Mary the privilege of being the first to announce the

 good news to the disciples.  Or, as some others have suggested, perhaps Mary rejoined the other

 women who had been delayed and together they arrived at the location of the disciples with the

 good news.  Maybe Mary had not rejoined the other women and the news was delivered separately.

            -We are just not given those details.  However, these faithful women delivered the good news to

             the disciples. 

            -“And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not” (Luke 24:11).  How

             disappointing it must have been to have their announcement of the resurrection of Jesus

             rejected! 

                  -“That the disciples disbelieved the message…reveals how completely they had given away to

                   despair; and notwithstanding the fact that Jesus had foretold his resurrection, they did not expect

                   it” (Dorris, pg 385).

-Meanwhile, some of the soldiers were reporting to the Jewish leaders who, upon hearing their report,

 summoned either a partial or full assembly of the Sanhedrin.  “To these hardened hearts belief and

 investigation were alike out of the question” (Farrar, pg  421).  So, to combat the situation they

 decided to bribe the soldiers into supporting a lie. 

-Notice, the bribe consisted of a “large sum of money” (Matt. 28:12, NASB).  This was probably

 necessary to convince the soldiers to go along with their deceitful plan.  For the soldiers, this

 was a dangerous proposition for “[i]t was a capital offense for a Roman solder to sleep while on

 guard..” (McGarvey/Pendleton, pg 747).  Yet, this is exactly what the Jewish leaders persuaded

 the soldiers to say.  They were to tell the people that, while they slept outside the tomb, the

 disciples came and stole the body of Jesus. 

-The Jewish leaders also assured these soldiers that, if the false report made its way to Pilate,

 they would intervene on behalf of the soldiers and keep them out of trouble.

                        -“Their lie is doubly apparent upon its face.  1. It would have been practically impossible for men to

                         have rifled such a tomb without waking a guard set to protect it.  2. It is absolutely impossible for

                         men to have known what had occurred while they were sleeping” (ibid).  Yet, it was this lie that was