Charles Spurgeon Commentary Matthew 27:65-66

"Pilate said unto them, Ye have a guard: go, make it [as] sure as ye can. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, the guard being with them." — Matthew 27:65-66 (ASV)

The chief priests and Pharisees wanted Pilate to make the tomb secure, but he left them to secure it. There seems to have been a grim sort of irony about the governor’s reply, “Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can.” Whether he meant it as a taunt or as a command to secure the tomb, they became unconscious witnesses that Christ’s resurrection was a supernatural act. The tomb in the rock could not be entered except by rolling away the stone, and they guarded that by sealing the stone, and setting a watch.

According to the absurd teaching of the Rabbis, rubbing heads of grain was a kind of threshing, and therefore was unlawful on the Sabbath. Yet here were these men doing what, by similar reasoning, might be called furnace and foundry work, and calling out a guard of Roman legionaries to assist them in breaking the Sabbath. Unintentionally, they did honor to the sleeping King when they obtained the representatives of the Roman emperor to watch His resting-place until the third morning, when He came forth Victor over sin and death and the grave. Thus once more was the wrath of man made to praise the King of glory, and the remainder of that wrath was restrained.

The chief priests and Pharisees wanted Pilate to make the sepulcher secure, but he left them to secure it. There seems to have been a grim sort of irony about the governor's reply, "You have a watch; go your way, make it as sure as you can." Whether he meant it as a taunt, or as a command to secure the sepulcher, they became unconsciously witnesses that Christ's resurrection was a supernatural act. The tomb in the rock could not be entered except by rolling away the stone, and they guarded that by sealing the stone, and setting a watch.

According to the absurd teaching of the Rabbis, rubbing ears of corn was a kind of threshing, and, therefore, was unlawful on the Sabbath; yet here were these men doing what, by similar reasoning, might be called furnace and foundry work, and calling out a guard of Roman legionaries to assist them in breaking the Sabbath. Unintentionally, they did honour to the sleeping King when they obtained the representatives of the Roman emperor to watch his resting-place till the third morning, when he came forth Victor over sin, and death, and the grave. Thus once more was the wrath of man made to praise the King of glory, and the remainder of that wrath was restrained.