When the Truth is too Inconvenient

April 23, 2017             2^nd Sunday of Easter                Matthew 28:11-15

We consider ourselves to be logical people.  Show me proof and I’ll believe it.  Can’t show me proof?  Then expect me to remain a skeptic.

Or are we really as logical as we think?

Why then are there braille instructions on drive-up ATMs?

Why do drug stores make sick people walk to the back to pick up prescriptions while health people can buy cigarettes at the front counter?

Why do people order a double cheeseburger, large fries, and then a Diet Coke?

Why do people fill their garages with worthless junk while their cars worth thousands of dollars sit outside?

This has improved somewhat, but still, hot dogs come in packages of ten while buns come in packages of eight.

Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavoring buy dish soap contains real lemon juice?

And why oh why do jars of peanut butter have the label, “Warning, contains peanuts”?

Here’s the truth.  We’re emotional creatures.  We like to think that we like proof, but we don’t really accept proof when the truth is too inconvenient for us.

I think our gospel writer Matthew is playing on this human tendency when he writes about what the guards at Jesus’ tomb do after the resurrection.  First of all there’s the bizarre task of guarding someone’s tomb.  This is not an honor guard like The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  From their perspective this is the tomb of an itinerant preacher whose followers all fled at his arrest.  I wonder what the guards talked about the whole time?

Whatever the case, we first met these guards on Good Friday when the chief priests and the Pharisees ask Pilate to have the tomb guarded.  Why guard the tomb?  They said to Pilate, “Sir, we remember what the imposter said while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will raise again.’  Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception would be worse than the first.”

Yep, there’s going to be deception going on, but it won’t be from Jesus’ followers.  As I just said, they all fled!

We meet these guards again at the resurrection.  You’ll remember if you were here last week that these big bruisers are so scared they act like dead men when the angel descends and rolls back the stone.  Meanwhile, the two women visiting the tomb are indeed afraid, but not to excess. 

But now the guards really are in trouble.  In those days if you were a prison guard and the prisoners escaped they didn’t exactly put you on paid leave while there was an investigation as to what happened.  If the prisoners escaped the guards were killed.  It tended to reduce corruption in the prison system!  So what is going to happen to guards guarding a dead guy who escaped from his tomb?!?

They go to the chief priests and tell what happened.  And let’s notice more parallels between these guards and the women.  The words Matthew uses are exact.  The women go and tell the disciples.  The guards go and tell the chief priests.  They are telling the same story – an angel, a stone rolled back, and a tomb sealed tight that is empty.  One group, the disciples, will respond positively.  One group, the chief priests, will respond the opposite to the same set of facts.

You’ll remember that the chief priests were worried about a deception by the disciples but who is doing the deceiving now?  In verse 12 we read that they devised a plan to give a large sum of money to the soldiers and tell them to perpetuate the lie: “His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.”  And if it comes to Pilate’s ears the chief priests will provide a cover up.

Notice a parallel with Judas too.  How much do they offer Judas to sell out Jesus?  30 pieces of silver.  A few weeks ago we calculated that silver was worth $256.65.  How much do they offer the guards?  We aren’t told.  It’s just, “A large sum of money.”  Also, on Maundy Thursday we read that Judas repented and went back to the chief priests trying to return the money.  He says, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”  But they said, “What is that to us?  See to it yourself.”

Did they really care about Judas at all; Judas who is a fellow Jew and countrymen?  How about the foreign Roman soldiers who do not respect the Jewish faith or sovereignty?  They basically say, ‘Don’t worry.  We’ll cover for you.’

Don’t judge these religious leaders too harshly.  I don’t know if Matthew wants us to be offended by them, to roll our eyes at them, or to laugh at them.  The truth is they’re a lot like us.

We don’t like the truth when it upends our lives.  No amount of proof will change our minds if it is too inconvenient.  I’m not talking about nebulous things like climate change or potential dangers from immigrants.  I’m talking about real solid impact our lives directly things.

I remember a speaker at a seminar talking about this.  He said in crowds of senior citizens he sometimes asks everyone who’s had bypass surgery to raise their hand.  Then he asks how many of them changed their eating habits after the surgery.  Almost no hands go up.  One time he said I guy even held up a doughnut when he raised his hand!

My doctor says it is so discouraging that he wants to try to make people well, but what they really want is a prescription to fix their problems.  He says what people really want is for him to is to medicate against their lifestyle choices.

Families can be incredibly blind to the truth.  You may see it in your own extended family.  One person can never be right or good or successful no matter how much he or she accomplishes.  Yet another family member can do no wrong no matter what.

            A few years ago I did some hospital visits for a colleague.  The father had run a stop sign and caused a serious accident.  The mother was seriously injured, and while she would survive, she would never fully recover.  Yet the father blamed the driver who hit him.  The mother blamed the driver who hit them.  And the children blamed the other driver.  And all the other family members blamed the other driver.  Dad could do no wrong, despite whatever the evidence was.  That’s just the way some families work.

            Proof does not carry the day when the truth it points too is too inconvenient.

            We find this in the religious leaders.  No amount of proof would convince them that Jesus was resurrected.  They would go to great lengths to deceive and cover up.

            We do well to remember this in our own lives as Christians.  We are commissioned to spread the gospel throughout the world.  We’ll read that next Sunday.  But proof won’t convince anyone.  You can’t force someone to believe, not really.  Just like you can’t really force someone to change their mind.  You can’t legislate morality.  You can’t make a person have a loving heart.  Even the religious experts of Jesus’ day point blank refused to see what God was doing.

            And so, live the gospel.  Believe the good news of God’s love.  Spread it.  Share it.  Rejoice in it.  But know that it is not within your power to make someone else a Christian.  That is God’s work.  We do well to remember that God works in God’s own ways.  May we truly rejoice that it has been God’s work to bring his goodness to us.