| GUARDS |
| Although most priests were good, the Temple few bad priests were still afraid of Jesus, even after he died. Jesus had told everyone he would come back to life after three days. They wanted to stop it. So they asked Governor Pilate to send soldiers to guard the tomb and keep Jesus from escaping. Or his friends might try to take his body out and hide it, then claim he came back to life. They knew that an empty tomb would prove to the people he had come back to life. So Pilate said they could seal it as good as possible, and use their own Temple guards. The Temple guards went to the tomb and sealed the large stone in the doorway with concrete and chains so no one could break into it. Then they stayed to catch anyone who tried. Jesus was in the tomb three days and three nights. Now it was time for him to beat Satan with one last thing. Satan loves for people to die. But Satan cannot keep them there if they believe God can bring them back to life. So Jesus did just that. Satan tried to hang on to Jesus in death, but Jesus was stronger. Jesus returned to his body. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, an aftershock of the earthquake that occurred when Jesus died. A strong angel as bright as the sun suddenly appeared in the garden, broke loose the concrete and chains around the big stone over the tomb doorway, then threw it aside. The guards saw it all and were so terrified they could not move. How do you fight an angel? Then Jesus walked out of his tomb alive again. About the same time, Mary Magdalene showed up. She saw the angel and the angel talked to her. The guards warned her, "Run for your life!" but Mary stayed. The guards did run. When they got back to Jerusalem, they went immediately to the Temple to report in. They told the Temple leaders what happened. The bad Temple leaders told the guards to lie and say they saw some people come steal Jesus' body. But how could they have? It was sealed with concrete and chains. Some people believed the lie, but a lot of other people didn't. A lot of people became happy. "He did it!" they told each other. "Jesus came back to life!" Do you believe Jesus came back to life and defeated Satan's death for you and me? By believing Jesus and doing the types of things he did during his life, you too can come back to life to live forever. |