The Roman Guard & Pilate

 

Some of the guards went into the city and reported

to the chief priests everything that had happened.

When the chief priests had met with the elders and

devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money,

telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came

during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’

If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him

and keep you out of trouble.”

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.

Matthew 28:11-15

Money for silence.  That has to be one of the oldest political tricks in the book.  The resurrection was a disaster for the Roman guards, the religious leaders, and for Pilate himself.  On Friday, the chief priests and the Pharisees had requested that soldiers guard the tomb. Pilate had given the order to seal the tomb and post a guard (Matthew 27:62-63).

After the resurrection, some of the guard hurried into the city – not to their boss, Pilate, but to the corrupt leadership of the synagogue.  The soldiers wisely understood that the priests had just as much to lose as they did if the truth were to reach Pilate’s ears.  So a lie was concocted, money changed hands, and a false report was spread.  I doubt that Pilate believed a word of it.

But he understood the game well enough to turn a blind eye, a deaf ear and a closed mouth.