The answer is: Set a guard to watch

Matt 27:65-66

In the Gospel of Matthew, when the religious leaders worried that Jesus would rise from the dead and become a rallying point for His followers, they took the extraordinary step of securing His tomb. They not only sealed the entrance with a large stone but also set a guard to watch over it. This ensured that no one could steal the body and claim we had risen, reflecting both their fear and disdain for Jesus' influence.

What’s interesting here is how these measures illustrate the grave threat early religious leaders felt from the burgeoning movement around Jesus. They thought that if the story of resurrection gained traction, it could undermine their authority and their own understanding of the divine. And speaking of divine irony, isn't it something that the very actions taken to prevent Jesus' followers from believing in resurrection instead laid the groundwork for the unstoppable spread of the resurrection story to come?

Furthermore, have you ever considered how similar guard duties appear elsewhere in the Bible? Think of the watchmen in Isaiah or even during Paul’s imprisonment. Just as the guards in front of Jesus' tomb thought they were protecting the status quo, there’s an echo throughout biblical history of how divine plans often unfold in ways that completely flip the expectations of those attempting to contain or suppress them. These moments when power tried to watch over righteousness only for the latter to triumph show the pragmatic limits of human effort against the divine.