Day 90: He is Risen!

Based on Matthew 28: 1-6 and Mark 16: 1-6.

Tiberius let out a huge yawn as he leaned against his spear.  Not even the most athletic, strong Roman soldier in Jerusalem could defeat those endless yawned that creep up on you.  What could you expect though after staying up most of the night.  He poked Procleus with his foot, who was sleeping in front of the large stone sealing the tomb's entrance.

"Wake up!  It's your turn to take the next shift!"

The burly man growled and cocked his helmet off from his eyes.  "It's not even dawn yet, Tiberius!  You agreed we'd switch shifts at daylight!"

"But I can barely keep my eyes open, Procleus.  Come on!"

The man groaned again as he stood up.  "I don't know why we have to watch this blasted tomb anyways.  It's just a dead guy.  Who's going to want to even go there with the smell of rotting flesh, let alone have any interest in stealing a bag of bones?  No one can open the tomb anyways.  This stone was sealed in front of it at least five times."

"I know what you mean.  There's only been two people who came by in the past three days.  One of them was his mother!"

Procleus shook his head as he stood up and stretched.  "I don't understand our leaders sometimes."

"We don't have to.  Our orders are only to obey."   Tiberius laid his spear aside and nudged Procleus' arm right before he was going to sit down.  "Look."  He pointed to the horizon.  "Dawn's light.  We're trading off right after all."

Suddenly, the ground trembled right under their feet.  Stones clattered loudly against other rocks on the dirt.  The trees shook violently, and some even became uprooted.  Dirt started slipping into the tiny cracks that were forming not one foot from their feet.  Then, behind their heads, came the most terrifying cracking noise they had ever heard.

"Tiberius, look out!"  The Roman soldier shoved his comrade out of the way as the round stone cracked symmetrical up the middle and began falling to the ground.

They yelled as they ran away and tried to keep their balance.  The rock landed with a loud thud, and the earthquake stopped.  The two soldiers breathed heavily and stared dumbfounded at the tomb and broken stone.

Tiberius was the first one with enough courage to investigate.  He walked a few steps forward before he stopped again.  A light shone from inside the tomb.  Tiberius looked back at Procleus, who wore the face of terror.  Tiberius looked back at the cave.  The light was gone.  Both men stayed paused for minute, waiting for something else to happen.  When nothing came, they both cautiously approached the tomb, grabbing their weapons as quickly as possible.  Tiberius motioned that on "three," they would look inside.  Procleus nodded in agreement with the plan.  The sunlight was bright enough for them to see that all that was inside the tomb was a white burial robe. 

Both men hustled out as soon as humanly possible. 

"Did you see any body?"

"No," Procleus answered in a half-whisper.  "I didn't hear anyone come up."

"Neither did I."

Then, in the blink of an eye, an angel dressed in white stood in front of the two men.  They yelled and jumped back from sheer surprise, which turned immediately to fright when they saw the man shone brighter than any light they had ever seen.

"Jesus has risen from the dead," he smiled.  "Isn't that amazing?  Praise the Lord!"  His voice was illustrious, melodic, and authoritative, but it was just enough to push the men over.  Both fainted on the spot.  The angel chuckled and entered Jesus' tomb to sit at the edge of the coffin.  Daylight had fully broken now, and three women on donkeys could be seen riding towards the tomb.