“We Remember Him Say, “After 3 Days I Will Rise Again””

a Easter Sunday a
Matthew 27:62-66

It doesn’t matter how many times you take your car in to get an oil change, how many sets of tires you put
on it, how many minor or major repairs you pay for to keep it running. Despite all preventative measures you
might try, you can’t stop your car from aging and getting to the point when it will stop running and need to be
replaced. It doesn’t matter how much anti-aging face cream you apply to your face day in and day out, how many
plastic surgeries people might get, how many facelifts a woman may pay for. Despite all preventative measures, you
can’t stop wrinkles from appearing, hair turning gray, and the voice in your head that reminds you that with each
new day, you are getting older.
People go to great lengths to prevent things that they don’t want to happen, only to find out later that they
weren’t in control at all, and were able to prevent nothing! For some people, that drive for preventing the
unpreventable turns into an obsession. Oh, how the chief priests and Pharisees were obsessed with Jesus’ demise,
and wanted to control every aspect of the outcome to Jesus’ saga. They staged his arrest, his trial, which was a farse,
they convinced Pilate to have him crucified, and as if that were not enough to satisfy them, they wanted to make
sure that no one could ever claim that Jesus was truly the promised Messiah by taking extreme preventative measures
at his tomb. What we are overjoyed to know this Easter Sunday, though, is that no preventative measure exercised
by the Jewish officials was able to prevent this glorious end to Holy Week – that Jesus would burst forth from the
tomb and render it powerless. Today, as we conclude Holy Week with the joyous outbursts of the news of the
Resurrection, the words of the Pharisees serve not only as motivation for their resurrection prevention, but also as
magnification of Jesus’ resurrection glory. “We remember him say, “After 3 days I will rise again.” Join with me today
in praising our Savior for conquering death and the grave, for proving the preventative measures of his enemies to be
foolish, and for showing us that death will not hold the ones who have died with Christ in faith.
You’d think that the Pharisees and the chief priests would just let it go now, their hatred of Jesus. After all,
he was dead. Pilate had given in to their cries for Jesus’ crucifixion which, as Pilate himself testified, was not
warranted by a commission of a capital crime. They had watched as Jesus was mercilessly beaten and crucified, and
by the time the evening sacrifice in the temple was completed, Jesus was dead. What more could they possibly
want?
“62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63 “Sir,” they
said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give the order
for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people
that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”
Now, we’ve noted this whole Lenten season how ironic many of these statements of Christ’s enemies really
are. This one takes the cake! How ironic it is that they, the enemies of the Savior have remembered what the
disciples had long forgotten in the shock of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. It is ironic that they, the ones
who staged the trial and the condemnation of Jesus actually understood what Jesus’ claim was – that he was the
Christ of God and that he would be put to death, but that he would rise again on the third day. Certainly they
hadn’t gained this understanding from direct contact with Jesus, because we know that he only made that
knowledge explicitly available to his disciples, and even they were confused by it because it was so contrary to the
common human experience. They, the enemies got it! They got the allusion to the “sign of Jonah.” They weren’t
so dense in their knowledge of the Scriptures to think that when Jesus talked about rebuilding the temple in 3 days,
that he was talking exclusively about the physical temple at Jerusalem. They knew! They got it and in their
obsession, in their hatred of Jesus, they wanted to do everything in their power to prevent it. So...
“65 “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made
the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. “ Their obsession knew no bounds, and be sure
that they did everything humanly possible to keep Jesus’ body in that tomb. They sealed it up with a huge stone
and put guards in front of it and made sure in their minds that no disciple of Jesus could come and steal Jesus’ body
and then make a claim that he had risen from the dead. And you know what; they were successful in their
endeavor. They did ensure that the disciples did not steal the body!
Thank you, chief priests! Thank you, Pharisees! Not only have you reminded us that Jesus promised to rise
again on the third day, you served God’s great purpose, and ensured by your own blasphemous and unbelieving
actions that Jesus’ resurrection was not a fluke, that it wasn’t just the clever scheming of the disciples who were
trying to establish some cult offshoot of Judaism, and rebelling against the established religious and political norm.
You have ensured that no human being could tamper with God’s plan for Easter Sunday – thank you! Thank you
because nobody was able to tamper with the tomb, and yet here we are on Easter Sunday with Mary Magdalene, the
other Mary, Peter and John, and we see through the eyes of faith what they saw – the tomb is broken open and
empty!
How ironic that the plan to prevent Jesus’ claim of rising from the dead is the very plan, the very scheme
which magnifies our Lord’s glory in his resurrection. No matter what Jesus’ enemies tried to do, they could not
conquer Jesus. They couldn’t keep him in the tomb! They couldn’t keep him dead! They couldn’t in all their
scheming and all their delusional actions make sure that Jesus’ story ended the way that they wanted it to end. No!
They unknowingly served Jesus’ great purpose, and with the announcement of the angel at the tomb, not only were
Jesus’ enemies made to look ridiculous for all the preventative measures they had taken in vain, but his followers
were given a real reason to rejoice, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is
not here! He has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.”
So thank you chief priests! Thank you Pharisees! Your extreme and obsessive preventative measures did not
discredit Jesus, they helped to substantiate his claims as true God and his promises as Savior. Thank you! Because
you sealed the tomb so that not human being could break it open, you ensured that the divine power and majesty of
our Lord and Savior Jesus would be made known. You have ensured that he who died on the cross on that Good
Friday did not die in sin, but died for sin, for our sins and that through his death he reconciled the world to the
Father.
But what’s more, it has been shown to us how limited the power of sin and death is for all who have lived
and died with Christ. When Christ our Lord burst forth alive from the human-sealed tomb, it was much more than
an exhibition of his divine power. It was a foreshadowing of what is promised to all who believe in his death and
resurrection for eternal salvation – that when we die in faith, our bodies go to the grave, which has been sanctified
by the Sabbath rest of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our souls enter glory in heaven. But on that great and glorious
Last Day, when the trumpets sound and the Lord Jesus comes again in glory, all those who have been resting from
their earthly struggles, who in life trusted with sincere hearts in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ will rise again,
just as he did. Death will not hold us! The grave will not hold us! Try as he might, Satan cannot defeat us! We will
rise again in glory, our glorified bodies to unite with our souls to live and reign with our Lord and Savior forever in
heaven, our eternal victorious dwelling place.
In the words of 1 Corinthians 15, the great resurrection chapter: “51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not
all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will
sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the
imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the
mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 55
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the
law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 
Oh, how the words of Christ’s enemies serve us well this Easter Sunday. “We remember that he said, “After 3
days I will rise again.” Rejoice with the whole Christian Church on earth today, on this, the highest of all Christian
festivals, with all the saints and angels who worship in the presence of the Savior in his everlasting feast of victory,
for the one who was sealed in the tomb has broken it wide open. The one who invited death to come on the cross
has left death powerless by his resurrection. And now he promises you, and all who believe, that not even death will
be able to separate you from his love, that you who have been made holy by his blood, poured out for you on
Calvary, can live in his peace and die in absolute confidence, knowing that while your soul rejoices with the saints
and angels in heaven, your body will enjoy the Sabbath rest, as it awaits the great and glorious day of the Lord Jesus
Christ, when he who first broke the tomb open will burst you forth from your resting place, never to die again.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.