November 23, 2014
Matthew 27:57-61
We have all attended a burial service where someone we love
was put into the ground, but none of us have ever attended one where the
information about the burial was foretold 100 years before. The prophet Isaiah gives this account of
Jesus’ burial in Isaiah 53:9, “And
they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although
he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his
mouth.”
There
would have been no burial if Pilate had held to Roman rule, for the bodies of crucified
victims were normally allowed to rot on the cross. But God had already told Isaiah about the
rich man whose grave Jesus would use, so God put into Pilate’s heart a respect
for Jewish principles and allowed the dead to be buried.
Matthew
tells us about a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple
of Jesus and how he went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Mark, in his gospel, gives more information
on Joseph, this is his account: “And
when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day
before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who
was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to
Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.” (Mark
15:42-43) As you look at the gospel, the
apostle John sheds light on an accomplice of Joseph; his name was Nicodemus who
had come to Jesus by night. John reports
that Nicodemus came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds
in weight. So they took the body of
Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as was the burial custom of
the Jews.
Jan
and I were blessed to visit what is believed by many as the site were Jesus was
buried, and we are here to report it was empty. This site closely conforms to the details of
John’s gospel. The following is John’s
report: “Now
in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new
tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of
Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.” (John 19:41-42)
We
need to go back to Matthew’s account, but first more information on Joseph, Dr.
Luke tells us; “He
was a member of the council, “a good and righteous man, who had not consented to their
decision and action; and he was looking for the kingdom of God.” (Luke
23:50b-51) Back to Matthew 27:59-61, “And Joseph took
the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new
tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance
of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there,
sitting opposite the tomb.”
If
after reading this you are foolish enough to believe in luck, in change, then
please go back an ask the Spirit of God to open your eyes to see that what God
has ordained is not luck or unplanned.
Long before the Messiah came to earth, God had already been to the front
and the end of what we time critters call time.
His plan from the beginning was a cross, the Christ, a tomb, and the
resurrection of His Son, His only Son.
I’ve often found comfort in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares
the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a
hope.”
From
the Back Porch,
Bob
Rice
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