secure

A joke heard around the Pentagon goes like this:

One reason the Armed Services have trouble operating jointly is that they don't speak the same language.

For example, if you told Navy personnel to "secure a building," they would turn off the lights and lock the doors.

Army personnel would occupy the building so no one could enter.

Marines would assault the building, capture it, and defend it with suppressive fire and close combat.

The Air Force, on the other hand, would take out a three-year lease with an option to buy.

It seems to me that there was some misunderstanding regarding the "securing" of a location in Palestine in the first century as well.

"On the next day, which followed the Day of Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate, saying, 'Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, "After three days I will rise." Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away, and say to the people, "He has risen from the dead." So the last deception will be worse than the first.' Pilate said to them, 'You have a guard; go your way, make it as secure as you know how.' So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting the guard." (Matthew 27:62-66).

The Jewish and Roman leaders' idea of "securing the tomb" meant putting a big rock in front of it. Unfortunately for them (but fortunately for us), Jesus' idea was to secure the tomb's place in history by rising from the dead. Mere rocks are unable to hold back the one who created the universe! What hope is ours because of what happened that glorious morning nearly 2,000 years ago! Praise God for the resurrection of His precious Son!