Pilate's Fears

“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” Matthew 27:65

Those orders did not end that day. The enemies of the Lord have been working ever since to convince the world that Jesus is irrelevant. “If we can just neutralize Jesus and the whole resurrection thing,” the thinking goes, “Christianity will die of natural causes.” And they’re right. If Jesus is nothing but a sweet-talking guru, then let’s board up the churches and build casinos.

Pilate’s orders continue to echo through the centuries, taking cues from popular culture. God is Dead! shouted the headlines in the 60’s. It’s the Me Generation, we were told in the 70’s. Cultural Christianity is the New Cool, the 80’s informed us. It was Anything Goes for the 90’s, and for every generation since. Attacks against the validity of the Bible, the deity of Jesus, and the reality of God continue to escalate. When Pilate can’t deny the existence of Jesus, he repackages Him as a shy, lamb-carrying hippie who had some great ideas but is hopelessly out of touch. However, every attempt to discredit Jesus hits the same obstacle—an empty tomb. Pilate’s fear that a resurrected Christ would transform his empire was well founded; but trying to stop Jesus with a rock He Himself had created was not. So go ahead, Pilate, make that tomb as secure as you know how. It won’t matter, because the One who walked out of that tomb is still transforming your empire.

 
“You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” –C. S. Lewis 

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