When the Truth is More Than Inconvenient
Matthew 28:11-15, NIV - While the women were on
their way, 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.
The guards who had been “scared
stiff” by the angel now go to report the empty tomb to the chief priests. This detail is a bit curious, for Roman
guards don’t report to chief priests. They report to Pilate, the governor. However, reporting that Jesus is no longer in
the tomb may not be something these soldiers want to report to their boss. After all their job was to make sure that
very thing did not happen. Reporting this
to Pilate might mean their jobs or worse.
But NOT reporting it is probably just as dangerous, because the governor
almost certainly is going to find out at some point. Furthermore, would the governor even believe
such an incredible story. The guards are
in a tough spot. They had been incapacitated by . . . an angel? This truth is more than inconvenient. So perhaps, they thought the chief priests
could help them out.
If that is what the soldiers
thought, then they were right. For the
chief priests, this “truth” can not be allowed to see the light of day. They
convene a meeting. Don’t miss this. The religious leaders convene a meeting to
discuss how they might cover up the resurrection of a popular religious teacher
who predicted it would happen just as it now has. This truth is more than inconvenient. It could be their undoing, which is something
else Jesus predicted. To hold on to
their power and position, the priests must stop this. They are only too willing to help out the
soldiers. So they formulate what they
know to be a big lie. Even two thousand years
ago, unscrupulous leaders knew that if you tell a big lie enough times, it
begins to throw a cloud over the truth.
This is their plan. Decades
later, Matthew, writing his account of all this, acknowledges that their plan
worked, at least partially; “this story has been widely circulated among the
Jews to this very day.”
Once again, we can gain more from
this story to the extent that we are willing to put ourselves in the place of
those who acted less than nobly in the story.
Is it possible that we, when confronted by a truth that more than just
inconvenient to us personally, might find ourselves galvanized against that
very truth? Could it be possible that a
truth is so personally threatening to our position and standing that we literally
are unable to hear it, much less embrace it?
The gospel that we have worked our way through over these past months is
such a truth, whether we realize it or not.
To embrace that Jesus really did
raise from death as He said He would means we must take seriously not just
whether His resurrection is true, but whether or not everything He ever did and
said is true. It all is a package
deal. We embrace ALL or it or none of
it. If we embrace all of it, this truth
is more than inconvenient. It could mean
that our life, as we know it, could be undone.
The gospel makes an enormous claim on those who embrace it. Yes, it is fantastic news for all of us that
are sinners. It is death defeated. It is indeed all the wonderful things that
Matthew and his fellow gospel authors say it is. However, it is not without cost to us
personally.
This truth makes a claim on our
life that might require us to spend our time in ways we would not have chosen before
we embraced it (“take up your cross”).
It will certainly make a claim on our resources (“you can not serve God
and money”). Jesus taught that embracing
this truth is literally like “losing your life to find it.” Embracing the resurrection is also embracing
loving your enemies, forgiving those who have hurt you, turning the other cheek,
and a whole lot longer list of inconvenient truths. The Truth will indeed set you free, but first,
it will rock the very foundations of your life.
The guards understood this and chose a different path. The chief priests understood better than most
and reset themselves against the truth of Jesus.
As Matthew moves to conclude his
gospel, he confronts us with the same dilemma.
There is no less at stake for us than those soldiers who were scared
stiff and those chief priests who looked at their potential undoing and said “Hell,
no!”
Question: Will we
embrace the truth of the resurrection AND all the more than inconvenient truth
that comes with it?
Prayer: Lord, forgive
us for we tend to be “pick and choose” disciples. We want salvation, but we resist that
salvation making a claim on everything we know.
We want forgiveness, but we don’t like paying it forward. We are overjoyed at blessings, but we are misers
when it comes to sharing them. We revel
in being loved by You so lavishly, but we like to forget that You love everyone
that way, even people we think you shouldn’t.
We hate it even more that you want us to love them too. Help us embrace not just the parts of the
truth that we like, but all the parts that are more than inconvenient. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Spend
time praying about how you will embrace more of God’s truth than you have up
until this point
Song: I Surrender -
Hillsong Worship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7jXASBWwwI
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