Wouldn't Want To Be A Guard

Meanwhile, the guards had scattered, but a few of them went into the city and told the high priests everything that had happened. They called a meeting of the religious leaders and came up with a plan: They took a large sum of money and gave it to the soldiers, bribing them to say, “His disciples came in the night and stole the body while we were sleeping.” They assured them, “If the governor hears about your sleeping on duty, we will make sure you don’t get blamed.” The soldiers took the bribe and did as they were told. That story, cooked up in the Jewish High Council, is still going around.

Matthew 28:11-15

Imagine you are one of the soldiers who had been ordered to guard the tomb of Jesus. As a soldier, you have been trained to do as you are told, but in the back of your mind you are thinking this is the craziest duty ever.  And then, the tomb has Roman Seals placed on it so the stone cover cannot be moved without the seals being broken.  When everyone has gone and you are on guard duty with your buddies and night falls and the longer you're stuck on this assignment, the more tired and bored you become so you doze off.

You are awakened to find that not only has the stone been rolled away, but the tomb is empty all what you were supposed to make sure that doesn't happen. What do you do?  You have been given a simple assignment and you have failed.  You know your military career, and most likely your life, is over.  So you run to the High Priests and tell them what has happened.

When the High Priests hear what has happened, they panic and get together to create a cover story that will keep their authority in place as well as keep the guards from telling anyone what really happened.  So they know that if the governor finds out the guards were sleeping on duty, the guards will be tortured and will probably tell all they know, so they promise the guards that if they stick to the cover story that Jesus' Disciples stole the body, everyone wins....and oh, by the way, here's a HUGE bag of cash for your efforts.

Honestly, I can tell you that I would NOT want to be one of the guards.....or one of the High Priests either.