The Gospel of Matthew relates to us the scene depicted in today’s stark, desolate scene painted by Tissot, namely the guards dispatched by Pilate at the request of the religious leaders to seal and keep watch over the tomb of Jesus (cf. Mt 27:62-66). The sealed tomb of Christ seems to tell us that His story has reached a point of no return. It is definitively ended and closed. There is nothing left to say, for Death has had the last word.
Scattered in front of the tomb are its guardians. None of them faces us. Each group of guards crystallizes for us the attitude that they (and we) may have before the grave of Jesus. Some are already fast asleep, wrapped up in the cold comforts of this world. Some hang their heads in languor and world weariness, for participating in sin never delivers on its promises. Some converse with one another, searching vainly for meaning. Some rest in front of or on top of Jesus’ tomb, for even in death, He is inescapable. They are at the tomb of Jesus, yet unlike Mary Magdalene or Peter and John, for them it is a place of emptiness rather than communion. Their physical proximity contrasts deeply with their spiritual distance. We may call to mind the words of T.S. Eliot: We had the experience but missed the meaning (Four Quartets)…
