Standing Watch

         While I was in the U. S. Navy, I had many an opportunity to stand watch over something.  In boot camp, my first watch was over the clothes line which contained all of the freshly washed uniforms of the recruits of our group.  Then, I had gate watch at the Anacostia Naval Receiving Station which would be four hour shift checking people in and out of the base.  Then, there were the numerous watches at the School of Music.  There was one thing you didn't want to do and that was to curl up somewhere and take a nap.  Your body would tell you that being awake from midnight to Four in the morning was not right, but you couldn't take a nap, not even for five minutes.  It's always been that way.  Being a guard is important and always carries the rule of always being awake.  When the Jewish leaders heard what had happened they came up with an idea about how to explain the disappearance of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.    Matthew 28:13-15 says, " Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.   And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.  So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day."   
        The guards were to receive large amounts of money to confess their lack of remaining watch over the tomb.  The money would not have done them any good as the Savior had risen as He said He would and they would have lost their heads for claiming that they were sleeping while on watch.  When people come up against an issue that they can't deal with, they have to come up with some story that, even though it is absurd, they tell it anyway. Such was the case in Jerusalem on that first day of the week when the women went to the tomb to finish the preparation of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Our evidence goes on in the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians to give a list of the appearances of Christ, and the list goes far above just two or three people.  The account gives record of over 500 people in one appearing who witnessed the risen Savior.  Because of the event that took place so many years ago, Christianity still flourishes because He is alive and is soon to come again.  Everything about Christianity hangs on this one event and if the Romans or the Jews could have produced the body of Christ it would have been over and stopped, but they couldn't do it.  So, because they couldn't do it, you can rest assured in your faith that God will take care of you today and that all the rest of His promises are in effect and most of all, you have the assurance that what God said in John 3:16 is just as true today as it was in the day that Jesus said it.  Praise God today for the empty tomb.