Page 128 - laten-08-06-2020

Watchmen At The Tomb

Fear and Failure

Matthew 27:65 - 66
Introduction

e cannot encounter Jesus without encountering the
Wcross. His sacrifice and love for all people have created a
platform to experience the Cross and has enabled to re-image
the identities of all people in general and believers in particular.
Thus the “mystery of the cross” is an invitation for people to
reflect and re-image the understanding of the Truth, thereby
encounter different contexts and experience various situations
will enable to come closer to the cross.

The passion narrative according Matthew has three
focal points: Christology, Ecclesiology and Moral exhortation.
Matthew’s presentation of Jesus as the Christ is evident in passion
narratives. However, this particular text in Mat 27: 65, 66 is seen
as a peculiar way of proclaiming Christ’s resurrection to the
apologetic community/ people. The apocryphal Gospel of Peter
contains a similar story. The Gospel of Peter names Petronius
as the centurion who guarded the tomb and said that the elders
and scribes also kept watch. Although less detailed, Matthew’s
account wishes to assure his readers that Jesus’ body was not
stolen since the Jews themselves set the guard for the tomb. The
later texts in Matthew 28: 11-15, too is a classical explanation of
Matthew to the readers about the bribed circulation of a false
report that the disciples stole Jesus’ body.

These two passages contrast the deceitfulness of the
Jewish leaders and the truthfulness of Jesus in predicting
his resurrection after three days. All said and done, why was
guarding the tomb highlighted? Why did they want to seal the
tomb?

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Lenten Meditations Re - Imaging People