Matthew 27:62-66 meaning

There are no obvious parallel accounts for Matthew 27:62-66 in the Gospels.

In the previous verses, Matthew described Jesus’s crucifixion (Matthew 27:33-50), the supernatural events that accompanied His death (Matthew 27:51-54), and Jesus’s burial (Matthew 27:55-61).

All these things likely happened on the Day of Unleavened Bread, which, in the year Jesus was crucified, happened to be the day before the Sabbath.

Luke tells us that Jesus said to the thief who believed that he would be with Him that day in paradise. From that we can infer Jesus went to paradise when He died. After Jesus rose from the dead He told His disciples He had been given all authority (Matthew 28:18). We can infer from that and other verses that Jesus was crowned with honor and seated at the Father’s right hand after His death (Revelation 3:21).

Matthew does not describe what happened with Jesus’s body or His disciples the day after He was crucified. But Matthew does tell his readers what Jesus’s enemies did on that day:

Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate (v 62).

Matthew informs his readers that it was the day after Jesus’s crucifixion and burial with the expression: Now on the next day. He also specifies that it was the day after the preparation. The term the preparation means the day before a Sabbath. This day was the day when Jews prepared for the Sabbath, because on the Sabbath they could not do any work. So, when Matthew wrote how it was the day after the preparation, he was indicating it was now the Sabbath.

On the day after Jesus was crucified, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate.

The chief priests were Sadducees who were on the Sanhedrin Council. The Pharisees, in this context, likely meant Pharisees who were also Sanhedrin Council members. Matthew often referred to these types of Pharisees as “elders” (Matthew 16:21, 21:23, 26:3, 26:57).

The chief priests and the Pharisees of the Sanhedrin had illegally colluded to arrest and condemn Jesus the night before Passover. And they had pressured the Roman Governor, Pilate to order His crucifixion later that morning.

The reason the religious leaders conspired to murder Jesus was because they feared Him (Matthew 26:3). His teachings and kingdom principles such as those taught in His “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5-7) conflicted with their own and exposed their wicked hypocrisy (Matthew 23:1-36).

They feared that He would lead the people of Israel away from them and they would lose their influence (John 11:47-53). Their fear greatly intensified when Judas came to them the night of Passover with news that Jesus was aware of their plot when He unmasked him as His betrayer (Matthew 26:20-25, John 13:21-30).

It was Jesus’s unmasking of Judas that likely forced their hand to arrest Jesus that night and illegally condemn Him and have Pilate crucify Him before any news of their scandalous plot to murder the man many believed to be the Messiah became public.

The chief priests and Pharisees were successful in their plot to condemn Jesus and cajole Pilate into crucifying Him. But even though Jesus was now dead, they were still afraid. So, they gathered together (again) on the next day to make sure there were no loose ends to this Jesus movement.

The religious leaders returned to the Roman governor of Judea with an additional request,

They said, “Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I am to rise again.’ Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise His disciples may come and steal Him away and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first” (vv 63-64).

Essentially, they recalled what Jesus had said about rising from the grave after being dead for three days. They were worried that His disciples, who had all recently sworn that they would die for Jesus (Matthew 26:35, John 11:16), might come and steal His corpse away and claim that He actually had risen from the dead. If His disciples did this, the chief priests and Pharisees feared that their deception would give new life to the Jesus movement which they had just snuffed out (or so they believed).

Moreover, they feared that the second stage of this movement (which they referred to as the last deception) would be worse (i.e. more threatening and harder to stop) than the movement ever was when Jesus was still alive. By inference, Jesus’s teaching during His life was, according to these leaders, the first deception.

Therefore, they requested that the Roman governor give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day to prevent His disciples from stealing Jesus’s body, falsely claiming His resurrection. If Pilate ordered His grave to be made secure at least until the third day after Jesus was crucified, the chief priests and Pharisees believed they could avoid having to deal with the Jesus movement anymore.

Had Pilate not granted control of Jesus’s body to Joseph of Arimathea (Matthew 27:57-61) and had His corpse been anonymously disposed of into a mass grave, then the chief priests and Pharisees may not have needed to make such a request. But because Jesus’s body was laid in a fresh-cut tomb, they feared there was the potential for His disciples to bring about this deception.

Before moving to consider Pilate’s response, it is worth contemplating four additional aspects of the chief priests and the Pharisees’ request.

1. The chief priests and Pharisees addressed Pilate with the respectful salutation—Sir. This was ironic considering how just the day before, they had maliciously manipulated the governor into either disregarding Roman law to crucify Jesus or risking a riot (Matthew 27:24, Luke 23:22, John 19:12). Pilate caved to their framing and crucified Jesus (Luke 23:23-25). Their demeanor towards Pilate (whom they hated) depended upon whatever approach was most likely to give them what they wanted.

2. They referred to Jesus as that deceiver. Despite numerous miracles and demonstrations of His divine power, and the scriptures, the chief priests and Pharisees did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. They hardened their hearts and chose to believe that He was a malicious imposter.

3. The chief priests and Pharisees remembered how Jesus predicted that He would rise again and come back to life after being dead for three days.

Jesus cryptically alluded to His resurrection to the Pharisees and Sadducees (the party of the chief priests) on several occasions:

• The first time He alluded to His resurrection before the religious leaders was early in His ministry when they asked Jesus by what authority He cleansed the temple (John 2:18-21).
• The second time was when He gave the Pharisees “the sign of Jonah” (Matthew 12:38-40).
• The third time was when He gave the Pharisees and the Sadducees “the sign of Jonah” (Matthew 16:1-4).

Jesus was more explicit about His resurrection when He spoke to His twelve disciples,

“As Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and on the way He said to them, ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up.’”
(Matthew 20:17-19)

The Pharisees and Sadducees likely learned of Jesus’s prediction to rise again after three days from Jesus’s disciple, Judas, who betrayed the Messiah into their hands.

It was ironic that Jesus’s enemies were able to remember that He said, ‘After three days I am to rise again’ when His disciples seemed to forget or doubt His statements on this topic. His disciples did not act in faith. His enemies, who disbelieved Him, appear to have taken His words more seriously.

4. There is something both hypocritical and ironic in the chief priests and Pharisees’ plotting against the dead Messiah on the Sabbath.

It is hypocritical because the Pharisees were violating their own Sabbath rules which they harshly enforced upon others (Matthew 12:1-8, 12:9-14, 23:4, John 5:5-16).

It is ironic because they are still fretting, even as the Messiah both rests from His work and is in His grave on the Sabbath.

After hearing and considering the chief priests and the Pharisees’ request, Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how” (v 65).

The governor’s response was quick and decisive. He quickly granted that the chief priests and Pharisees have everything they wanted. When Pilate said: You have a guard; go make it as secure as you know how, he gave orders and empowered them to decide the best way to secure Jesus’s grave.

Pilate may have realized the potential threat which the chief priests and Pharisees had just described, or he could have been tired of hearing them whine and complain about Jesus and he simply wanted them to go away and leave him alone. Perhaps his quick decision granting their request was because of both reasons.

Matthew reports that once the chief priests and Pharisees were empowered to secure Jesus’s tomb, they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone (v 66).

They made Jesus’s grave secure in at least two ways.

The first way they secured Jesus’s grave was by taking Pilate up on his offer to place a guard over Jesus’s tomb.

For reasons that will be explained below, it seems possible, if not likely, that the soldiers posted to guard Jesus’s grave consisted of both Roman soldiers under Pilate and Jewish soldiers who reported to the chief priests. This would have been an unusual alliance and post. But both the Roman Governor and the Jewish religious leaders had strong desires for the Jesus movement to fade away. Therefore, both had a vested partnership in preventing a conspiracy or rumor of His resurrection from enflaming the people.

When Pilate said to the chief priests and the Pharisees: “You have a guard” he seems to have been referring to the Jewish temple guard. The temple guard were Jewish soldiers who guarded and protected the temple. They were under the jurisdiction of the chief priests. Therefore, the temple guard may have been what Pilate meant by the expression: You have a guard.

For their own part, the chief priests and Pharisees would likely have wanted to place guards whom they knew and trusted, soldiers who would be loyal to them and who would be faithful to report anything that might happen. This would give the priests a sense of security and the ability to control any narratives if an incident might occur.

But this guard also probably meant, or at least included, a small detachment of Roman soldiers to guard Jesus’s grave. This would mean posting elite Roman legionnaires to guard Jesus’s grave. Pilate, likewise, would have wanted to be in the know. Legionnaires were professional and battle-hardened soldiers who would be extremely difficult to overpower.

The reason the guard seems to be the odd mixture of both Jewish and Roman soldiers and not one or the other comes from what Matthew says happened after Jesus’s resurrection.

Matthew says that after the guard froze like dead men in terror of the angel who descended from heaven and rolled away the stone (Matthew 28:2-4) they ran to the chief priests (Matthew 28:11). This suggests that some of the guard may have been Jewish.

But Matthew also says that the chief priests assured the runaway guards that if word of their abandonment reached the governor’s ears that they would persuade Pilate to not harm them (Matthew 28:14). As a Roman officer, Pilate would have no jurisdiction in punishing Jewish soldiers who failed their duty. Pilate would only have jurisdiction over Roman soldiers. Therefore, the guard posted to secure Jesus’s grave likely consisted of at least some Roman troops.

It is possible that the guard assigned to secure Jesus’s grave consisted only of one group—either Roman or Jewish. If it did, it was most likely Roman because of the assurance the chief priests gave to the frightened runaway soldiers, which would have been unnecessary if they were Jewish. And if these were Roman soldiers only, they were shrewd to go to the Jewish priests, instead of their Roman superiors, who would have executed them for abandoning their post.

Therefore, it is possible, odd as it would have been, that there were both Jewish temple guards and Roman legionnaires assigned to guard Jesus’s grave.

These soldiers would have been motivated to keep Jesus’s body from being taken out of the tomb. They would have faced severe punishment (Matthew 28:14)—most likely death—if they failed to guard His corpse. As professional soldiers, they were prepared to guard His body to the death.

Moreover, it would have been almost impossible to keep any assault against these soldiers a secret even if someone were able to successfully overpower them and remove Jesus’s body from His grave. For instance, if His disciples somehow managed to outfight the Roman legionnaires and/or the Jewish temple guard defending His tomb, it would have caused a scene and there would have been an abundance of evidence of the violent struggle left behind to easily refute any claim that Jesus has risen from the dead.

The second way they secured Jesus’s grave was by setting a seal over the large stone which covered the entrance of His tomb. This seal would prevent the disciples or anyone else from being able to silently sneak Jesus’s corpse out of the tomb without the guard becoming aware of the attempt and putting a stop to it.

The chief priests and Pharisees made Jesus’s grave secure against an assault or an attempt to steal His body away.

But they could not secure Jesus’s grave from God Himself.

A Prophetic Allusion to Psalm 2

The religious leaders of Israel and the political leaders of Rome’s plot to eradicate every threat and shred of influence of Jesus as the Messiah appears to be a fulfillment of certain prophecies from Psalm 2.

Psalm 2 begins with a rhetorical question that highlights the folly of trying to scheme against almighty God,

“Why are the nations in an uproar
And the peoples devising a vain thing?”
(Psalm 2:1)

It continues by saying what the rulers of the earth will try to scheme against the Messiah, despite their futility:

“The kings of the earth take their stand
And the rulers take counsel together
Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,
‘Let us tear their fetters apart
And cast away their cords from us!’”
(Psalm 2:2-3)

“The kings of the earth” (Psalm 2:2) refers to the human rulers in the world. In Matthew 27:62-66, we have the Jewish rulers of Judea represented by the chief priests and the Pharisees, and we have the rulers of the Gentiles represented by the Roman governor, Pilate.

These kings of the earth (chief priests, Pharisees, and Pilate) are taking counsel together the day after they colluded to crucify Jesus for the purpose of suppressing and eliminating His (who is the LORD’s Anointed) ministry.

The expression “His Anointed” (Psalm 2:2) literally means “The LORD’s Messiah.” Jesus is the Messiah sent to Israel from the LORD.

What the kings of the earth are saying is:

“Let us tear their fetters apart
And cast away their cords from us!”
(Psalm 2:3)

They are trying to untangle themselves from the chains and cords of the LORD and His Anointed. “Their chains… and their cords” (Psalm 2:3) likely refer to God’s commandments which are to love God (Matthew 22:37-38) and to treat, serve, and forgive people the same way you would like to be treated (Matthew 27:39-40). Additionally the expression “their fetters… and their cords” which the chief priests and Pharisees are trying to “tear… and cast away” likely includes the requirement to believe and trust in the LORD’s Messiah (John 3:16-20).

In summary, they were rejecting the LORD’s righteous rule to live by faith expressed through acts of love towards other people. Instead, the chief priests and Pharisees wanted to abuse their authority and power to coerce and exploit people for their own personal gain (Matthew 20:25).

They rejected the comparatively light and life-giving cords of the Messiah (Matthew 11:28-30) for their own heavy cords of bad religion that smother and grind men down (Matthew 23:4).

After prophetically describing what the kings of the earth will foolishly scheme against (the LORD and His Anointed), Psalm 2 goes on to reveal the LORD’s response to their foolish plans.

“He who sits in the heavens laughs,
The LORD scoffs at them.”
(Psalm 2:4)

The chief priests and Pharisees’ collusion with Pilate against God and Jesus, the Messiah, is futile and self-defeating. The LORD cannot be stopped. God will soon raise Jesus from the dead. And the chief priests and Pharisees’ own attempts to suppress rumors of His resurrection will be used as greater proof that Jesus did in fact rise from the grave as He predicted.

Psalm 2 goes on to say how the LORD will establish the Messiah and honor Him with a great inheritance (Psalm 2:5-8). And that He will destroy His enemies (Psalm 2:9).

Psalm 2 ends with a warning to the kings of the earth who are foolishly scheming against the LORD and His Anointed:

“Now therefore, O kings, show discernment;
Take warning, O judges of the earth.
Worship the LORD with reverence
And rejoice with trembling.
Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way,
For His wrath may soon be kindled.
How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!”
(Psalm 2:8-10)

Psalm 2 is a prophetic warning to the chief priests, Pharisees, and to Pilate, that instead of trying to subvert and ruin Jesus, they should worship and seek His salvation.

They do not follow this warning. And within a short time, the religious leaders of Israel and Pilate come to ruin just as Psalm 2 predicted of those who scheme against the LORD and His Anointed:

• Pilate was soon recalled from his post and spent the rest of his life in political obscurity (Josephus. Antiquities of the Jews. 18.4.2).
• Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 70 A.D. This eliminated the chief priests altogether and it scattered the Pharisees. Once this happened, Israel did not exist as a nation for almost two millennia. Israel became a modern nation state in 1948 A.D.