That evening a
rich disciple named Joseph from the town of Arimathea went and asked for Jesus
body. Pilate gave orders for it to be given to Joseph, who took the body and
wrapped it in clean linen cloth. Then Joseph put the body in his own tomb that
had been cut in to solid rock and never been in used. He rolled a big stone against
the entrance to the tomband went away. All this time Mary Magdalene and the
other mary were sitting across from the tomb.
On the next day,
which was a sabbath, the chief priest
and the pharisees went together to Pilate. They said, “sir we remember what
that liar said while he was still alive. He claimed that in 3 days He would
come back from death. So please order the tomb to be carefully guarded for 3
days. If you don’t, his disciples may come and steal his body. They will tell
the people that He is been raised to life, and thislast lie will be worse than
the first one.”
Pilate said to
them, “all right, take some of your soldiers and guard the tomb as well as you
know how.” So they sealed it tight and placed soldiers there to guard it.
The sabbath was
over, and it was almost daybreak on. Sunday when Mary Magdalene and the other
Mary went to see the tomb. Suddenly a strong earthquake struck and the Lord’s
angel came down from heaven. He rolled away the stone and sat on it. The angel
looked as bright as lightning and His clothes were white as snow. The guards
shook from fear and fell down, as though they were dead. The angel said to the
women, “don’t be affraid ! I know you are looking for Jesus, who was nailed to
a cross, He is not here ! God has raised Him to life, just as Jesus said, He
would, come see the place where his body was lying, now hurry ! tell his
disciples that He has been raised to life and is on his way to Galilee,
go there and you will see Him, that is what I came to tell you.”
While the women were on their way, some soldiers who had been guarding
the tomb went into the city. They told
the chief priest everything that had happened. So the chief priest met with the
leaders and decided to bribe the soldiers with a lot of money. They said to the
soldiers, “tell everyone that Jesus disciples came during the night and stole
his body while you were a sleep, if the governor hears about this, we will talk
to him, you won’t have anything to worry about.” The soldiers took the money
and did what they were told, the jewish people still tell each other this
story.
