From the Cross to the Grave

Our Lord has given up his spirit, as his work on the cross is finished.  A man named Joseph (of Arimathea), a member of the Sanhedrin went to Pilate and asked to care for the body of Jesus. This Joseph was important enough in the story of Jesus, that all four Gospel writers included him.  He took a big risk asking for Jesus, because he obviously 'came out' in support of Jesus by making such a request. Even the disciples, except for John, had fled the scene, concerned that their close relationships with Jesus might find them imprisoned or worse, executed. No, it was not a safe time to come out in support of Jesus--too much risk, too much unknown. So it was particularly unusual that Joseph and Nicodemus (a Pharisee and Jewish ruler), requested to take Jesus. It was also no small labor; the burial spices that Nicodemus brought are said to have weighed 95 pounds. [This was the same Nicodemus who came to Jesus at night wanting answers from Jesus, wanting to know him better--recorded in John chapter 3]

When the two men took Jesus’ battered and blood-soaked body down from the cross, they rubbed his stiff arms to remove the rigor mortis, (which had molded them in a V-shape), and then carefully washed him. Then they anointed Jesus with oil and wrapped his body in one long linen cloth. A separate napkin tied under Jesus’ chin kept his mouth from gaping after the muscles began to loosen.  Next, they wrapped his body from head to toe in long strips of linen, using spiced resin and seventy-five to one hundred pounds of heavily scented spices to offset the smell of decomposition. (This was common for the Jews.) The men worked quickly to be sure that Jesus was in the tomb by sundown as they wanted to keep the Sabbath day sacred.  They also knew the Law required the body of someone who had been executed to be buried that same day.

A massive stone was rolled in place to cover the mouth of the tomb; a cord was across it bearing the Roman seal—considerably more formidable than our yellow ‘police line-do not cross’ tape.  In addition, there was a Roman guard—not one man, but 16, four who would stand guard for the duration of their shift, with the remaining 12 sitting in a semicircle around the four.¹ There was no getting past these men—their lives depended on them following their orders exactly.

On the third day, the women returned to Jesus’ tomb to finish putting burial spices on his body, wondering as they walked how they would get the stone rolled away from the tomb … but alas, the stone had been moved, and the tomb was empty!  He whom they sought was no longer in the grave.  Where was Jesus?

In the ensuing 2,000 years there has been the ‘Swoon Theory’—Jesus had not really died, he had just passed out… ‘someone stole the body’ theory—which could only have been done by bribing the soldiers—that didn’t happen … and other preposterous notions that could not/have never been corroborated with anything verifiable.  In the end, it comes back to the fact that Jesus did what he said he was going to do.  “…Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”²

Jesus did what he said he was going to do--He willingly went to the cross and died, was placed in a secured tomb, and on the third day, he walked out of that tomb.  There has never been a more important Sunday than that one; I hope you will find a place of worship to go and celebrate our living Lord on this Easter Sunday. 

Christine 

PastorWoman.com

^{1 – Miracles, by Eric Metaxas, p. 102}

^{2 – Matthew 16.21}