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:ina_blessed: ### Holy Week: Day 8 ### :cc_smile:

:jahy_yay: :praying: April 5, 2026: Easter :praise: :nep_yay:

Konnichiwa, Fediverse! :frieren_wave:

HALLELUJAH, CHRIST HAS RISEN AND DEATH HAS BEEN VANQUISHED. Thank You Jesus for defeating death, so that we may taste life and have it abundantly! :praying:

While this should have been the final devotional but cannot, it is still a capstone, shining a light on all the others and making them worth reading. After all, if Christ did not rise from the dead, we are men most miserable and our faith worthless. Let us talk about the guards of the tomb and their reaction to the Resurrection.

A common secular humanist trope is that disciples were somehow able and willing to overtake guards stationed around the tomb. Naturally, these fools (Ps. 14:1) do not understand the stakes of any attempt. In Matthew 27:62-68. The guards were Roman soldiers both trained for combat that Jews were not and were strictly disciplined with severe consequences for failing their duties. This is besides the Sanhedrin's own guards that they most certainly were used to watch the tomb. It would take a literal miracle to scare these soldiers and go past them to the giant stone.

And yet, you would think the guards would start worshiping Jesus because of the Resurrection. They knew it was Jesus because the angel speaking to Mary Magdalene and Mary Salome explicitly told them that he knew they were seeking "Jesus who was crucified" (Matthew 28:5). Instead, some of the guards went straight to the Sanhedrin, who bribed them to lie about the Resurrection of Christ, an absurd lie that would have made no sense if it were not for the Sanhedrin pulling heavy strings to protect the soldiers from punishment (v. 14), like the Jews are usually to do. These guards saw the Resurrection as it was taking place, but they did not believe.

Contrast this to the centurion at the cross, when Christ breathed His last and the immediate miracles like the earthquake, darkness, and resurrection of some Old Testament dead took place, the centurion believed right then and there and called Jesus the Son of God. As I mentioned in a past devotional*, this too made no sense in the historical context of the crucifixion. He had less reasons to believe Christ than the guards who witnessed the resurrection. He had much to lose believing the Son of Man hanging dead on the cross and much to gain going with the Roman and Jewish masses who mocked what they thought was a blaspheming false prophet and moving on with their lives.

What is going on? Why the stark contrast? Why do some see miracles, but not believe, while others do not see anything miraculous or spiritual, but simply accept the Gospel when heard? The answer lies in the nature of our faith. Faith itself is a miracle (John 3:5). It is a gift (Ephesians 2:8). Without the work of God in our hearts, we remain natural, dead, and desperately wicked men who cannot spiritually hear the Gospel and receive it unto salvation (See: Isaiah 6:10; John 6:65, 10:1-5; 1 Corinthians 2:14-16). Only through all three persons of the Trinity working on you can you believe in the Life, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ and be saved.

May the Lord grant you that necessary and sweet gift of true and saving faith that will let you yourself see Paradise and be raised from the dead, barring Christ coming back first before your death. May Christ posses you forever and ever. May you all have a good Easter and rest of 2026.

*https://poa.st/objects/aa1e2f92-4880-4fb5-9dd5-a6f1c73...

#SuperSnekTheology #HolyWeek

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