The Power of God

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.

This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him.

And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.

And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave.

Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, and said, “Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I am to rise again.’ Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise His disciples may come and steal Him away and say to people, ‘He has risen from the dead.’ And the last deception will be worse than the first.”

Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go make it as secure as you know how.”

And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone.”

Matthew 27:57-66

Even in death the words of Jesus, loomed large in the minds of his opponents. They were afraid that He spoke correctly when He said He would rise from the grave, or at the very least, His followers would steal His body and claim resurrection. Pilate set out to insure Jesus remained in the tomb by sealing and guarding His grave. For Jesus there would be no escape.

What they failed to anticipate was that the power of the resurrection was greater than any plan devised by man.

The resurrection was coming and no man could stop it because the power of God is greater than the power of man.