And when we read further in this story, we notice that according to the facts, there came a point in time that the body of Jesus was no longer in the tomb. “Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. 3 And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus” Luke 24, verses 1 through 3.

As we read of some of the other accounts of these events, we discover that no one KNEW what had happened to the body of Jesus. John 20, and verses 1 and 2, tell us that one of His disciples, Mary Magdalene, went early to the tomb in the first day of the week, and when she found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty, she ran back to the rest of the disciples, telling them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid Him.” These disciples apparently thought that either the Roman guard or the Jews had taken the body of Jesus out of the tomb, and that they had taken it somewhere else. The disciples, then, had no idea whatsoever of the whereabouts of the body of Jesus.

Notice, too, from the Gospel account of these events that neither the Roman guards nor the Jews knew where the body was, either: “Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and showed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. 12 And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, 13 Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole Him away while we slept. 14 And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. 15 So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day” Matthew 28, verses 11 through 15.

The idea that the disciples of Christ could have stolen the body of Jesus from the tomb is completely ridiculous. In order for this to have happened, the entire group of Roman soldiers would have had to fall asleep at the same time. They would have had to remain asleep throughout the very noisy process of rolling a very large and heavy stone away from the door of the tomb, AND they would have had to remain asleep while the disciples descended into the tomb and stole away the body. Just on the surface, the very idea of this is impossible to believe.

The question, then, becomes, “What happened to the body?” If the disciples couldn’t have stolen it, who did? Was it the Jews? What possible reason would the Jews have had for doing such a thing? Their whole purpose in setting a guard over the tomb was to make sure that the body stayed where it had been placed. It was secure there! To their minds, the body of Jesus was…not…going…anywhere!

Suppose, though, that they had ordered the Roman guard to remove the body of Jesus to some other place for safe keeping. Well, the question, then, comes up, “Why didn’t they produce the body of Jesus after Pentecost?” For that matter, why didn’t they produce His body after the three days had passed? Remember, their purpose in securing the body by guard was to ensure that His disciples would not be able to claim that Jesus had risen from the dead. The surest way to do that would have been to produce the body of Jesus, thus crushing the church and Christianity before it could spread.

So, the disciples didn’t take the body, and the Jews didn’t take the body. Perhaps it was the Romans who took it. Well, the question that comes up here is, “Why?” What possible reason could the Romans have had for stealing the body of a dead Jewish criminal? One of the main interests of the Roman Empire was the discouragement of civil unrest. Many of their laws were enacted with the purpose of maintaining peace between the Empire and its subjects. That goal can be easily seen in the actions of Pilate in his condemning Jesus to death in the first place. It was his interest in avoiding civil unrest among the Jews which led him to sentence Jesus to death by crucifixion. Condemning Jesus to death was the easiest way to ensure for him [Pilate] that there would be no riots among the Jews in Jerusalem over Jesus of Nazareth.

The same thing which was true of the Jews was also for the Romans in this case. Once the faith of Christianity had begun to make itself felt in the Empire, why did not the Romans produce the body of Jesus? If they had stored it away somewhere, why did they not bring it out, proving that the faith proclaimed by His disciples was based upon a lie? The Romans could have produced the body of Jesus, saying, “See! Here is the body of Jesus! It is still dead! It did not rise from the grave. These men are lying about it!” Christianity would have died right then and there.

They did not produce the body, though, did they? Why? Because…they…did…not…have it.

If the disciples, the Jews and the Romans did not take the body of Jesus, could anyone else have taken it? Not possible, for the same reasons that the disciples could not have taken it. No one could have gotten close enough to the tomb, or taken the body, without the Roman guard having known of the attempt. When the guard reported back to the Jews, they told them of all the things that had happened at the tomb—events which are described in Matthew, chapter 28, verses 2 through 4. These are their words: “And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. 3 His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: 4 And for fear of him the keepers [the Roman guards] did shake, and became as dead men.”