For two days (in the Roman reckoning) the eight soldiers that made up a contubernium had sat and complained, as soldiers do, at the pointlessness of their task. As Roman soldiers, however, they had not questioned for one second the strange command of their Decanus: to report with him to the Jewish chief priests and follow their orders. [1]

They despised this strange and rebellious race that had never really accepted the iron peace of Rome. And now they had been told to guard the grave of a crucified criminal. Some grave for a crook! A custom-built tomb, laboriously chiselled out of a rocky hillside in some rich man's garden, complete with a mill-stone of a cover ready in its channel to be rolled across the entrance. More fit for a king than a wretched crucified Jew!

But they were not told to query why a rich man would let his personal family vault be used to house a cursed dead man. Nor did they query the efforts of the women, who had been there at their arrival and who said they were coming back after their "Shabbat" rest day to embalm the body. In fact the soldiers had assisted the servants there to roll the stone into place and to seal it with wax. [2]

Alternately sleeping, eating, drinking cheap wine and playing the dice and board games they always carried with their supplies, the soldiers had impatiently whiled away their time, for had they not been told their detail only lasted until the third day?

And so, on their last night of duty, they prepared to return to barracks the next day and leave the body they had guarded to rot in peace - whether the women returned with their spices or not.

It was so peaceful there that even the two taking their turn on watch dozed fitfully in the quiet of that Jerusalem night, unaware of the spiritual forces concentrating around them. 

[Sudden, violent and previously unexperienced shocks can have traumatic effects on the human body. Exposed to nearby explosions, the body shakes uncontrollably, hearing is impaired by loud noise and eyes are blinded by sudden light. Thus traumatised, the victim often faints or swoons as their physical frame fails to comprehend or cope with what has happened to it.]

Just this happened to the Roman guards sometime before dawn on the third day. A shockwave of pure light and spiritual energy slammed them into trembling semi-consciousness, enabling them only dimly to see the massive grave stone break its seal and roll open along its carved channel. Only vaguely did they perceive that beings of light surrounded them and that the body they were guarding was no longer dead, but rising above them within even brighter glory, dispelling darkness and accompanied by shouts of praise and joy! One of the light-beings approached them and reached out a hand, causing the soldiers to slip fully into unconsciousness.

Coming to their senses within minutes, the soldiers ran as one back to the priests they had received orders from. Still shaking and pale-faced, they stammered out their story to men who had feared this very thing. After consultation they bribed the soldiers handsomely to say the body had been stolen, promised to ensure no punishment would ensue and dismissed them from their duty.

Footnotes :

[1] The contubernium was the smallest organized unit of soldiers in the Roman Army and was composed of eight legionaries, the equivalent of a modern squad. The men within the contubernium were known as contubernales.  Soldiers of a contubernium shared a tent, and could be rewarded or punished together as a unit.The contubernium was led by a Decanus, the equivalent of a junior non-commissioned officer. 

[2] Matthew 27:62-66 I have assumed the guard was a Roman one, following the Chief Priests' request to Pilate.

[3] Matthew 27:66