Why The Disciples Could Not Have Possibly Wanted to Steal Jesus' Body from the Tomb!!! Matthew 28:11-15

The Guards’ Report

11 While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. 12 When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, 13 telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day. 

Here we have two groups of people who stand to lose a lot if Jesus really did rise from the dead.  The guards' wanted to avoid the impresson that they had mishandled the situation.  After all, falling asleep on duty had the harshest of penalties. From the perspective of the chief priests and elders if Jesus had truly risen from the dead, everything about the chief priests and leaders would have been exposed.  They would have handed over the true Messiah of Israel to be killed by the Romans, not to mention their own guilt over the situation.  The other point worthy of noting is that now they have literal evidence of Jesus rising from the dead, proving to be the Son of God just as he had purported.  They are more interested in preserving their pride and position, so they don't even think to re-evaluate their rejection of Jesus.  

So lacking a way out of this terrible situation, they bribe the soldiers to say his disciples stole the body.  The fake story of the disciples stealing Jesus' body is irrational on several accounts including:

1. How could they have gotten by the guards who were guarding the tomb with their lives?

2. How could they have managed to roll away this huge stone without waking up the guards? 

3. Given the disciples discouragement and despair, how would stealing a dead body help their cause?  It would only further prove Jesus was not really who he said.  They knew the resurrection would either prove he was the Son of God, or he was only a man.  

It's interesting that despite how implausible this whole story is, it is still circulating among the Jews to this day.  This might be referring to the generation after these events, as Matthew wrote about 40 years after Jesus' death.  The bottom line was that this story helped people rationalize away who Jesus really was, so they would not have to come face to face with his truth claims, part of which is admitting they are a sinner and need a Savior. 

Finally, Charles Spurgeon offers these intriguing thoughts,

“I suppose, brethren, that we may have persons arise, who will doubt whether there was ever such a man as Julius Caesar, or Napoleon Bonaparte; and when they do, – when all reliable history is flung to the winds, – then, but not till then, may they begin to question whether Jesus Christ rose from the dead, for this historical fact is attested by more witnesses than almost any other fact that stands on record in history, whether sacred or profane.” 

Why do you think most people would pretend to ignore the facts about who Jesus said He was and the facts about his life, death and resurrection?  Why are people so afraid to examine whether or not Jesus is who he said he was?  How do the historical facts about Jesus give Christians a reason to believe without relying on emotion alone?