Jesus Body Is Laid In A Splendid Tomb; The Chief Priests And Pharisees Seal The Tomb And Put A Guard On It So As To Keep Him There; An Angel Opens The Tomb To Reveal That Jesus Has Risen (27:55-28:6).
In this subsection we have centrally a picture of the vain arrangements of men by which they hope to thwart God and prevent Jesus from rising, while on one side of this we have God's arrangement for His Son to have a splendid new tomb, and on the other God's arrangement to open that tomb so as to reveal that His Son has risen. This can be portrayed as follows:
* Jesus is laid in clean linen in the splendid new tomb of a rich man (Matthew 27:55-61).
* The Chief Priest and Pharisees seek to seal Jesus in the tomb (Matthew 27:62-66).
* The angel opens the tomb and reveals that it is empty. Jesus is risen (Matthew 28:1-6).
This will then followed by a further threesome which will complete the Gospel:
* Through the women both the angel and Jesus tell His disciples to go to Galilee (Matthew 28:7-10).
* The Chief Priests try to cover up the fact as to why the tomb which they had sealed is empty (Matthew 27:11-15).
* The disciples return to Galilee, see the risen Jesus, learn of His coronation, and receive their great commission, with the promise of His continual presence with them (Matthew 27:16-20).
Note how in both threesomes the failed activities of the Chief Priests are sandwiched within the triumphant activities of God and of the risen Lord, JesusChrist.