“On the next day, which followed the Day of Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate, saying, ‘Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, After three days I will rise. Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away, and say to the people He has risen from the dead. So the last deception will be worse than the first.’ Pilate said to them, ‘You have the guards; go your way, make it secure as you know how.’ So they went and secured the tomb by sealing the stone and setting the guards” (Mt. 27:62-66).

The archpriests and Pharisees rushed to secure the tomb because a certain hidden fear reigned within their hearts concerning the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; a certain internal voice set them into a panic…