The Day in Between

“The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, ‘Sir we remember how that impostor said, while He was still alive, “After three days I will rise.” Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples go and steal Him away and tell the people, “He has risen from the dead,” and the last fraud will be worse than the first.’ Pilate said to them, ‘You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.’ So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard” (Mt 27:62-66). 

I have a fascination with the Easter Saturday. That funky day stuck in between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. The Day in Between. On Friday, Jesus is dead. On Sunday, He’s alive. On Friday, Jesus is executed. On Sunday, He’s resurrected. So what in the wide world of sports happened on Saturday? What went down on the Day in Between? Matthew pulls back the curtain for a quick glimpse of what occurred after Friday and before Sunday. The Day in Between.

The former tax collector picks up the story just after Joseph of Arimathea gets Christ’s lifeless corpse off the cross and places it in the tomb. Matt describes an awkward meeting between the chief priests of the temple, the Pharisees and Pontius Pilate. There are several things that make this confab more than a bit weird and uncomfortable. The chief priests and the Pharisees really do NOT like each other. The priests are Sadducees. They are a sect of Judaism made up of wealthy Jews who have buddied up to the Romans to gain control of the temple in Jerusalem. The Sadducees are religious liberals. Meanwhile, the Pharisees run the synagogues outside the city. They’re the religious hardliners. The Pharisees have very little use for their Roman oppressors. 

These two opposing groups have one thing in common. Their hatred for Jesus. He’s dead. And now they want to make sure He stays that way. This is like Cardinal and Cubs fans coming together. Wolfpackers and Tarheels burying the hatchet. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria. And if that’s not whacky enough, this religious odd couple finds themselves at the front door of the despised Roman governor. Here on the Sabbath of Passover, one of the most revered and holy days on the Jewish calendar, this uneasy partnership visits the Gentile Pilate in order to make sure they put an end to a movement led by a dead Rabbi/Carpenter/Messiah.

What brings them to the governor’s mansion? These Jewish leaders remember that Jesus promised, “After three days I will rise” (v63). While they certainly didn’t expect that to happen, it’s very interesting that the only people talking about Christ’s resurrection on the Day in Between were His opponents. What the chief priests and Pharisees were really worried about was grave robbing. They were freaking out at the thought of Jesus’ followers snagging His dead body out of the tomb. His disciples could keep the movement alive. They could keep causing problems. And this “last fraud would be worse than the first” (v64).

Pilate agrees to give the Jewish leadership a squad of Roman soldiers to secure the tomb. Take the troops and do whatever it takes to “make it as secure as you can” (v65). Roman soldiers performed Jesus’ execution the day before. They made sure He was dead. Now they are assigned to guard the grave and make sure He stays that way. Matt tells us that they put a wax seal on the stone that sealed the tomb. If someone moved the massive boulder to snatch the corpse, it would be obvious. And if that’s not enough, they assigned guards to keep an eye out for any nefarious activities.

There’s just one problem with the plan. It might be able to keep people from getting into the tomb but it can’t keep Christ in it. There wasn’t a plot to sneak in and steal Jesus’ cadaver. Just about every one of His once-devoted followers had beat feet and were in hiding. There was no black ops plan to invade the cemetery and nab the corpse. No, this was going to be, shall we say, an inside job. The armed guards might be able to keep people from breaking in, but there was no way they stood a chance against the risen Christ breaking out!

And you thought nothing happened on Saturday. The Day in Between.