Daily Devotional For Thursday, March 26, 2026
Good day Southside. Today’s devotional comes from Matthew 28:8-15:
“And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to report to His disciples. (9) And behold, Jesus met them and said, ‘Rejoice!’ And they came up and took hold of His feet, and worshiped Him. (10) Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go, bring word to My brothers to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me.’ (11) Now while they were on their way, some of the men from the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened. (12) And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, (13) and said, ‘You are to say, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him while we were asleep.’ (14) And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and keep you out of trouble.’ (15) And they took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was widely spread among the Jews and is to this day” (NASB).
If you did not read yesterday’s devotional, the “they” in verse 8 refers to the women – Mary Magdalene and another Mary. They had come to the tomb to prepare the body of Jesus for burial if this had not been done by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. An angel had come down and rolled the stone away, an earthquake occurred and the whole episode caused the Roman soldiers on post at the tomb to fall into a sleep or be passed out from fear.
The women did what they were told to do and fled quickly to report this to the disciples. On their way to Jerusalem to tell the disciples, Jesus appeared to them. Seeing the resurrected Jesus created both fear and joy in them. They bowed and prostrated themselves before Jesus and while holding on to His feet, they worshipped Him. While they are enroute to the city of Jerusalem to tell the disciples, a second group, the Roman guards, are on their way to the city of Jerusalem to report what they had experienced at the tomb.
To silence these Roman guards, the Sanhedrin decided to bribe these guards with money in two ways: (1) First, to lie about what they had experienced; and (2) the Sanhedrin would protect these Roman guards from punishment for allowing the body to be missing and the Roman seal being broken. The bribe appealed to their lust for money and it appealed to their lives for survival. According to the Greek New Testament text, this was a large sum of money. What is interesting to me is the bribe they took was to give an excuse for the very reason they were assigned to the tomb to keep from happening – Jesus’ body from being stolen and the disciples claiming Jesus had been resurrected. They were assigned to keep the dead body of Jesus from being stolen and now they are bribed to say Jesus’ body had been stolen.
To fall asleep on duty was a capital offense to Rome. To keep Pilate from having these Roman guards executed for sleeping on the job and allowing the body to be stolen, the religious leaders promised these guards they would give even a larger bribe to Pilate. And what Matthew shows us here is how money was used from the beginning of Jesus’ arrest to now to buy people off. Judas betrayed Jesus for money – 30 pieces of silver. These Roman guards are being bribed with a huge payoff to lie. Pilate is being bribed with an even bigger bribe to do nothing to these guards. The bribery keeps escalating exponentially. This reminds me of the truth in 1 Timothy 6:10. The Roman guards accepted the bribe and the lie continued even in Matthew' s later years.
In Matthew 28:6 the angel invited the women to look inside the tomb to verify that Jesus’ body was not there. It was an invitation to do their own first century forensic research. If you noticed, the angel gives no attention to the Roman soldiers unconscious on the ground. The angel dealt only with the women. On Easter morning we were not given any eyewitness accounts from anyone who saw the resurrection happening. There are no reports of a glowing body, of the wrappings suddenly all by themselves being empty while still in the shape of a cocoon. No reports witnessing the stone being rolled away and Jesus walking out. The stone was not rolled away to let Jesus out, but to let the women and later the disciples in to look.
“He is risen” is just one Greek word – [ἐγείρω; egeirō]. One powerful word changed the whole world. Six times in Matthew, Jesus told His disciples that He would die and be resurrected (Matt. 12:40; Matt. 16:21; Matt. 17:9; Matt. 17:23; Matt. 20:19; and Matt. 26:32). I love how Matthew describes the women’s reaction as they fled to tell the disciples – “fear and great joy.” At least it was not “great fear and a little joy.” These first evangelists fly off and this reminds us of the truth of Romans 10:15. And before they could get to the disciples, Jesus appeared to these two women. Wow!
Don’t you think it would have made a better story if Jesus had appeared right in the middle of the Sanhedrin bribing the Roman soldiers or appeared beside Pilate on his throne saying, “I’m back. You want to try again?” But that is not Jesus, is it? He chose women, who in that day, their testimony was considered unacceptable. Matthew affirmed both the humanity and deity of Jesus through the women’s encounter of Him. They grabbed His physical feet (His humanity) and they worshipped Him (His deity). Notice here Jesus is not some ghost or spirit. They grabbed and held onto His actual feet. The resurrected Jesus had two feet, one for each woman to grab. New Testament scholars Kent Huges and Douglas S. O’Donnell write this:
“You see, Christianity is a touchy-feely religion. It’s a creed with ten toes! It’s a that which we have heard with our ears, that which, ‘we have seen with our eyes, and that which we have touched with our hands’ faith (1 John 1:1; 2 Peter 1:15). Our two highest holidays are as tangible as human skin—a baby in a manger and a man with feet” (Source: Kent Hughes & Douglas S. O’Donnell, Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and On Earth, p. 903).
Another New Testament scholar wrote these words about this passage:
“God did not “need” a fetus for the incarnation, water for his Son’s baptism, a cross for his Son’s death, or a cadaver for his Son’s bodily resurrection—God can squeeze water from a stone. But God used all these lowly realities to do the great work of world salvation” (Source: Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew: Contemporary Commentary: A Churchbook, “Matthew 13-28,” p. 788).
Reflection Assignment: How does God using the “lowly realities to do the great work of world salvation” impact your life? Since the testimony of a woman was unacceptable, why do you think a few of the disciples ran and looked into the tomb? What does the world, or our culture, or your peers, or the devil bribe you with to lie about your faith and your relationship to Jesus Christ? If you never take the bribe, what is used to tempt you and how do you refuse it?
Scripture To Meditate On: 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you except something common to mankind; and God is faithful, so He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it” (NASB).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, please protect me from the bribes of all evil to betray You. Lord, help me to remain faithful and true to You at all times. I praise You that You did not boastfully and pridefully parade Your Resurrection. You first appeared to humble women, whose voice would be ignored in that day but wasn’t. I praise You that You came out of that tomb. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly