Intrigue
“The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. ‘Sir,’ they said,’ we remember that while he was still alive that deciever said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.’ (Matthew 27:62-64)
It’s not surprising that the religious leaders are feeling suspicious. They have been conspiring among themselves for so long that intrigue has become the norm for them. Thus, the Pharisees misread the situation, convinced that the disciples are plotting their downfall just as enthusiastically as they have plotted Jesus’s.
In reality, Jesus’s disciples are reeling from the events of the past 24 hours. There are all but drowning in fear and grief. These men have spent the last three years of their lives in intimate, family-like relationship with Jesus. Now, He is dead, and in the most horrific manner imaginable. Betrayed by one of them. Deserted by all of the rest. And then handed over to be tortured and killed by the Romans.
Jesus—who spoke openly, never saying anything in secret (John 18:20)—became a victim of intrigue and deception. And then, unexpectedly, turns even this evil for good.
