40 Days of Prayer: Day 40

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away. And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave. Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, and said, “Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I am to rise again.’ Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise His disciples may come and steal Him away and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone. Matthew 27:57-66

Dear God,

I thank You that not even the Pharisees could thwart Your plan. They were determined to make little of Jesus and His prophecy, and they did everything in their power to secure the grave where Joseph had laid Him. Lord, today I lift up people in our day who our like the Pharisees - people who don't believe that Jesus REALLY died or that His death and resurrection mean anything to them. The Pharisees believed Jesus to be a deceiver, and yet I know, Lord, that it was only because they were deceived that they would think this. Lord, open the eyes of those who need to see you, who need to see Jesus this weekend. Open their hearts, Lord, and show them what Jesus did on their behalf, and make clear their need for You.

In Your Name,
Amen