“You idiots! I will not tolerate this kind of careless and obvious negligence!”
“Sir, please listen. I’m begging you. I can’t describe…. I don’t know how to say it.”
“Silence! You fool! Don’t you know you could be executed for allowing this?!?”
Coming up off his knees, the soldier looked his commander in the eye. He wanted to tell his commander what he wanted to hear, but his morphing heart would’t allow it.
“Sir, all I can tell you is that there was a blinding light and…”
“SHUT UP!! I don’t want to hear anymore about bright light and ghosts. How could my best soldiers allow a group of men to come up here and roll this stone away? And then you imbeciles sleep through the whole thing!! Are you so full of wine that none of you would even stir? What will I tell the Governor? ‘Oh, the men were having a party and invited His followers to join. Meanwhile, they stole the body. But everything is just fine.’ You fools! Don’t you know Pilate will have all of our heads on stake for this?!?”
“Sir, if I may….” The young soldier looked over at his partner that was now standing and boldly speaking.
“Cassius is telling the truth. Do we smell of wine and drunkenness? Do any of us? Pilate may execute me, but I know what I saw. It was pre-dawn. Just before the sun shone itself. All was quiet and then the earth trembled. Then it shook with a force I’ve never felt before. And there was a blinding light. So intense it was like lightning and blew us off our feet. It knocked me 20 paces from the tomb. Some of the men… it blew them even further away. I couldn’t breathe for a few seconds, but when air returned to my lungs, I just lay there. And…and I saw the stone being rolled away by a large figure. A man. Very bright white light. He was glowing…I could barely see through the blinding light, and he rolled the stone away like it was a tiny wagon wheel.”
“You fools expect me to believe this? Am I going to tell Pilate there were bright lights? What will I tell the chief priests? They are relentless. Their arrogance will never allow them to listen to this.”
“Sir, it doesn’t matter what you tell them.” Another soldier spoke from the back of the group.
“This happened. I, too, was blown away by what seemed like lightning. I saw it. But, Sir, that’s not all. I was lying on the ground trying to gather myself and I saw Him.”
“Saw Who? Another imaginary glowing man?”
“No, sir. It was Him. I saw the Man we hung on the cross. He walked out! It was HIM! I recognized His face and I saw the piercings in his hands. He was alive. I don’t know how, but He was ALIVE! He was there…standing at the entrance to the tomb. And then, in an instant, He was gone.”
Their commander was silent for a moment. He looked at each man – the ones assigned to guard the the tomb.
“Ahhh, mother of Zeus…it’s come to this. Some wandering self-proclaimed Rabbi has brought insanity to Rome’s finest. Even His death doesn’t stop the dreaming.”
“Sir, it’s not a dream. These last few weeks…the healings. These last few days…. Aurelius had his ear cut off by one of His followers the night of the arrest. This Man… the one we speak of… He picked the ear up and put it…. I mean…It was healed back to the side of Aurelius’s head. I saw it! We beat him without mercy and he never begged us to stop. We hung Him on the cross and He cried out for us to be forgiven. And now… I saw it with my own eyes. He was in the tomb…behind the rock…and He came out of that tomb! He is ALIVE! No one could do all this without being a god. I should say no one can do this without being THE God.”
“SILENCE!!! I’ll not listen to anymore of this! I’ll not waste another minute….”
“Sir, you can say ‘silence’ all you want but it can’t silence what I’ve seen and what my heart is telling me. I know in my heart what is true. There will be many others to know as well. I suppose these events will continue to speak to hearts and change lives forever. Even long after we are gone, these events will continue to be pondered forever. You can say silence. There will be many others to say that as well. But I can’t be. I know what happened Friday, but now…. Now this is Sunday!! He is ALIVE! I saw it! I know what I saw. He is Who He said He was! He is ALIVE!”
————
What did they see that Sunday morning?
Biblically, we’ve all heard the story, but it’s important to note that even secular historians record an empty tomb in the garden on that Sunday morning. Perhaps those Roman soldiers encountered the most incredible thievery in the history of grave robbing. Or perhaps they saw the God of the universe demonstrating His great love and redeeming fallen man from his love of the darkness.
What do you say?
Romans 5: 8
Romans 10: 9 -10
