Jesus is buryed

mazing Burial of Jesus

(27:57–66)

And 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 over 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, which is the one 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, lest the disciples 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. (27:57–66)

One of the majestic attributes of God is His absolute sovereignty, His supreme rulership and ultimate control over all things in the universe. He has created and He sustains all things that exist, and He ordains and brings to pass all things that happen.

The chronicler wrote, “Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Thine is the dominion, O Lord, and Thou dost exalt Thyself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from Thee, and Thou dost rule over all, and in Thy hand is power and might; and it lies in Thy hand to make great, and to strengthen everyone” (1 Chron. 29:11–12). Again he declared, “O Lord, the God of our fathers, art Thou not God in the heavens? And art Thou not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Thy hand so that no one can stand against Thee” (2 Chron. 20:6).

Job said of the Lord, “He is unique and who can turn Him? And what His soul desires, that He does” (Job 23:13). The psalmist wrote, “Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases” (Ps. 115:3), and, “Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps” (Ps. 135:6). The writer of Proverbs said, “There is no wisdom and no understanding and no counsel against the Lord” (Prov. 21:30). Through Isaiah, the Lord Himself proclaimed, “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure’ ” (Isa. 46:9–10).

After a period of divinely-inflicted madness because of his arrogant pride, even the pagan Nebuchadnezzar confessed that God’s “dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. But He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What hast Thou done?’ ” (Dan. 4:34–35).

The apostle Paul summarized all those truths in the simple statement that God “works all things after the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11).

It is, of course, far beyond human ability to fathom how the infinite, eternal mind of God is able to execute the greatest as easily as the least thing He devises. In order to have even a small grasp of that great truth it is necessary to understand that God rules this world through two interrelated means: miracles and providence.

In order to accomplish His purposes, God sometimes supernaturally interrupts the natural processes that He Himself has ordained and ordered. In doing so, He overrules what we commonly call natural law, thereby accomplishing what is scientifically inexplicable. Such divine interruption is called miracle.

Creation itself was the first great interruption of the natural status quo, when in six days God created the universe from nothing, ex nihilo. The flood of Noah’s day was a worldwide, supernatural disruption of virtually every natural process. The plagues in Egypt and the death of the firstborn were a local, but no less supernatural, intervention in the course of nature, as were the parting of the Red Sea and the provision of manna in the wilderness. The Lord supernaturally caused the sun to stand still for Joshua and caused the walls of Jericho to fall without any mechanical means. He caused the ground to swallow Korah and his rebellious followers and miraculously provided Samson with extraordinary physical strength, by which, among other things, he singlehandedly killed 1,000 men (Judg. 15:15–16).

God made an ax head float, a donkey speak, a chariot of fire carry Elijah to heaven without dying, the mouths of hungry lions to be shut, and a great fish to swallow Jonah and carry him in his belly for three days without harm to the prophet.

The second supernatural way in which God executes His will is through divine providence. Like Trinity, the term providence is not found in Scripture, although the reality of it is explicit or implicit on every page. Providence refers to God’s independent superintendency of the universe through the operation of normal and natural processes and happenings. Through His sovereign providence, God is able to take the virtually infinite number of events and circumstances, as well as the innumerable personal attitudes, ambitions, and abilities that exist in the natural and demonic worlds and cause them all to work together in meticulous precision to perfectly fulfill His divine will.

Through miracle, God interrupts and overrules the operation of normal and natural processes and events, whereas through providence He takes them as they are and orchestrates them to accomplish His predetermined will. From a human perspective, therefore, providence seems even more astounding than miracle. In miracle, God “simply” replaces natural events and circumstances with those of His own special making, usually within a short period of time and often instantaneously. Providence, however, involves the infinitely more complex task of taking natural events and circumstances, as well as the limited but real freedoms of human and demonic minds and wills and, often over vast periods of time, superintending all of those elements in the flawless fulfillment of His own foreordained plans. Multiplied myriads of individual and seemingly random plans, choices, actions, and events continually work together in a divinely-synchronized strategy to perform God’s predestined plan.

Throughout Scripture, God is shown to control the thunder and the lightning, the rain and the snow, the rivers and the mountains, the heat and the cold, the animals and the birds, the cities and the nations, the newborn and the dying, the healthy and the sick, the poor and the rich, the weak and the strong, the simple and the complex, the ruler and the ruled, the human and the demonic, and the natural and the supernatural in sovereign freedom.

Joseph was one of twelve brothers born to Jacob in fulfillment of God’s covenant promise to Abraham. Because of the jealous hatred of his brothers, Joseph was sold into slavery, taken to Egypt, falsely accused of seducing his employer’s wife, thrown into prison, and divinely enabled to interpret dreams for a fellow prisoner and then for the pharaoh. Joseph was eventually elevated to rulership second only to Pharaoh himself and because of that high position was able to rescue his own family from famine and was marvelously reunited with them. Without the use of a single miracle, God sovereignly, by providence, directed every moment of Joseph’s life and the lives of those around him. Realizing that profound truth, Joseph was able to say to his repentant brothers, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive” (Gen. 50:20; cf. 45:5).

In another beautiful picture of providence, God directed the lives of the godly Naomi, her Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth, and her future son-in-law, Boaz. Through the faithful witness of Naomi, Ruth was brought to faith in the true God, and through the unselfish love of Boaz, Ruth was brought into the lineage of the Messiah, becoming the great-grandmother of David.

Although the book of Esther does not contain the name of God, it relates one of the most profound testimonies in Scripture to His power in providence. There are no miracles recorded in the book, yet God is shown to be at work in a way that goes beyond the miraculous. The Jewish exile Esther found favor with King Ahasuerus, ruler of the great Medo-Persian empire, and became his highly favored queen. When a plan by a wicked official named Haman to annihilate all the Jews in the empire became known to her and her foster-father Mordecai, Esther interceded for her people at great personal risk. Even as queen, she not only could have been put to death for coming before the king uninvited but also for revealing herself as being Jewish. But by the king’s subsequent edicts given on Esther’s behalf, the evil Haman was hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai, and the Jewish people were spared extermination.

In his divinely inspired wisdom, the ancient writer could declare, “The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” (Prov. 16:9), and, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but the counsel of the Lord, it will stand” (Prov. 19:21). Jeremiah confessed, “I know O Lord, that a man’s way is not in himself; nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps” (Jer. 10:23). Paul reminds believers that their lives are uniquely directed by their heavenly Father. “For it is God who is at work in you,” he says, “both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). Jesus declared, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working” (John 5:17). Even during the incarnation, the Father and the Son were functioning in perfect harmony to carry out Their sovereign, divine will.

Nowhere in Scripture is God’s incredible and amazing providence more evident than in Jesus’ burial. His burial is often passed over quickly in commentaries, sermons, and Bible studies as being simply a necessary event between His death and resurrection. There is a strong tendency to rush immediately from His death to His resurrection, mentioning His burial only in passing. Yet Matthew’s account of His burial conveys several astounding truths that give remarkable testimony to the superintendency of God.

Although a touching and interesting story, the burial of Jesus seems somewhat mundane and ordinary compared to His dramatic and substantive death and resurrection. Yet even His burial provides its own demonstrations of God’s sovereign control. There were no miracles in the trial of Christ, in His crucifixion, or in His burial, but the providence of God controlled every detail.

Especially in Matthew’s account, every detail of Jesus’ burial, including the scheming of His enemies, is a testimony to His Sonship, messiahship, and kingship. There is no human explanation for these events. He is again shown to be none other than the promised Son of God and the sovereign Ruler of God’s kingdom.

Joseph of Arimethea

And 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 over 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. (27:57–60)

The first focal point in Matthew’s account relates to the fulfillment of two key prophecies, one by Isaiah and the other by Jesus Himself.

Isaiah 53 is the Old Testament’s most beautiful and detailed prediction of the Messiah’s suffering and death. Included in that prediction is the statement that “His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death” (v. 9). That obscure prophecy would have been impossible to comprehend fully until the Messiah’s burial actually took place. We now understand that the Holy Spirit was revealing that, although Christ’s enemies intended to bury Him with common criminals, God’s plan was that He be buried not with the wicked but in the tomb of a wealthy man, who, by inference, was godly.

The second prophecy fulfilled in Jesus’ burial was His own declaration that “just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:40; cf. 16:21; 26:61).

When it was evening refers to the period from 3:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m., which period the Jews considered to be the end of the day and the beginning of the evening. It was “about the ninth hour,” or 3:00 p.m., that Jesus spoke His last words from the cross and “yielded up His spirit” (Matt. 27:46–50).

For two reasons it was imperative that Jesus die several hours before the end of the day. First, because the Sabbath began at six o’clock that day, He had to be taken down from the cross before then and prepared for burial in order not to profane the Sabbath. Second, as explained in detail below, He had to be buried before the end of that day, Friday, in order to be in the earth at least a part of three separate days before His resurrection, as He Himself declared He would be.

John explains that “the Jews therefore, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away” (John 19:31). The fact that it was the day before the Sabbath proves conclusively that Jesus was crucified on Friday, commonly referred to by Jews as “the day of preparation.”

Although rabbinical tradition had added many extreme and foolish restrictions to Sabbath observance, God Himself had commanded His people to “remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Ex. 20:8). Among other things, even food preparation had to be done the day before in order not to work on the Sabbath. When the Lord provided manna for the children of Israel in the wilderness, He gave a double portion on Friday in order that no collection of it would have to be made on the Sabbath.

The Mosaic law also required that the corpse of an executed criminal not be left hanging “all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance” (Deut. 21:23). If such a thing was defiling on an ordinary day of the week, it would be more defiling on the Sabbath. And, as John points out in the passage above, the particular Sabbath that was about to begin was especially holy because it was also the high day of the Passover feast. It would therefore have been extraordinarily defiling for dead bodies to be hanging on crosses just outside the north wall of Jerusalem, possibly in sight of the Temple, on such a high holy day.

Nowhere is the ungodly hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders more evident than in their insistence that Jesus’ body be taken down before the Sabbath. They had no compunction about murdering the Lord of the Sabbath, yet they were meticulous in not wanting to defile the Sabbath by having His body hanging on the cross after that day began.

Because the Romans would not permit a crucified man to be taken down before he was dead, the Jewish leaders requested of Pilate that the legs of the three men be broken to insure quick death. In such cases a large wooden mallet was used to shatter the legs of a victim, making it impossible for him to raise himself in order to breathe. Although the added pain would be excruciating, it was short-lived, because death resulted quickly from suffocation.

According to the eminent Bible scholar Alfred Edersheim, the soldiers would then administer what was called the death stroke, which consisted of jabbing a spear into the heart (The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1953], 2:612). The reason for adding the death stroke to the crushing of the legs seems to have been to remove all doubt as to death having occurred.

Because Pilate did not dare to offend the Jewish leaders any further, he gave orders for the men’s legs to be broken. After breaking the legs of the two men on either side of Jesus, however, the soldiers saw that He was already dead. Consequently, “one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water” (John 19:34). Once more Scripture was fulfilled. As John went on to explain (v. 36), the psalmist had declared of the Messiah centuries earlier that “He keeps all his bones; not one them is broken” (Ps. 34:20). The Romans would not have known of that psalm and, in any case, would not have fulfilled it purposely. They fulfilled the prediction because they were divinely directed to do so, whatever their human reasons may have been.

Again as John explains, prophecy was also fulfilled by the spear wound, because “another Scripture [Zech. 12:10] says, ‘They shall look on Him whom they pierced’ ” (John 19:37). Because the soldier already acknowledged that Jesus was dead, he had no human reason to administer the death stroke with the spear. But he unwittingly did so in fulfillment of God’s Word, and the resulting wound was so deep that Jesus could tell Thomas to place his hand into it (John 20:27). Precisely as prophesied, no bone in Jesus’ body was broken, and His side was pierced.

In what many Bible students take to be a messianic psalm, David wrote, “Reproach has broken my heart” (Ps. 69:20). Some medical experts believe that, under extreme circumstances, it is possible for the human heart literally to burst from emotional strain, causing blood to spill into the pericardium surrounding the heart and mix there with the lymphatic fluid. If that were the case with Jesus, His death fulfilled yet another prophecy.

As soon as a victim was declared dead, his body was taken down from the cross and ordinarily was thrown into a common grave for criminals, as Isaiah had prophesied the Messiah’s enemies had planned for Him (Isa. 53:9). The Romans had absolutely no respect for the corpses, which often were thrown into a grave left open to scavenger animals and birds. Sometimes the bodies were simply cast onto a burning garbage dump, such as the one that continually smoldered in the Hinnom Valley (Gehenna) just south of Jerusalem.

By the time Jesus died, even John apparently had left Golgotha and only the few faithful women remained. They were not able to care for the body by themselves, especially in the short time remaining before the end of the day, and, in any case, they had no burial place for Jesus.

But at the exact moment necessary, God moved in the heart of a godly man. Therefore, when it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. As explained above, the evening hours were from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m., at which time the next day, in this case the Sabbath, was considered to begin. Had Joseph asked for the body any earlier, Jesus would not have been dead, and had he come any later, he could not have prepared the body for burial before the Sabbath began.

Joseph not only was a rich man, fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy (Isa. 53:9), but was “a prominent member of the Council,” the Sanhedrin, and “was waiting for the kingdom of God” (Mark 15:43). Contrary to the other members, however, he was “a good and righteous man” who “had not consented to their plan and action” to condemn and execute Jesus (Luke 23:50–51).

The only thing known with certainty about Arimathea is that it was “a city of the Jews” (Luke 23:51), that is, in Judea. Although Galilee was in the heartland of ancient Israel, it had become populated with many Gentiles and often was associated with the region to the east frequently referred to as Galilee of the Gentiles (see Matt. 4:15; cf. Isa. 9:1). Judea, however, was by far the most distinctly Jewish area of Palestine and was considered the land of the Jews. Because Joseph presumably would have had his burial site close to where he lived, it is generally assumed that Arimathea was near Jerusalem. Many scholars believe Arimathea was a form of the ancient Ramah, the city a few miles north of Jerusalem from which Samuel came.

At some point during the past three years, Joseph had become a disciple of Jesus, although “a secret one, for fear of the Jews” (John 19:38). The Greek text uses the verb form of disciple and could be translated, “was discipled to (or by) Jesus.” Joseph was a follower of and learner from Jesus, suggesting that he must have heard our Lord preach and teach and that he probably witnessed many of His miracles.

Because, as already noted, he was a secret disciple, Joseph had followed and learned from Jesus at a distance. It is possible he had first heard Jesus in the company of other Sanhedrin members as they came to criticize and condemn Him and, while listening to Him preach, was convinced of Jesus’ messiahship. But to have made his allegiance to Christ public not only would have cost him his place in the Sanhedrin but would have jeopardized his economic, social, and family welfare as well.

But now Joseph “gathered up courage” (Mark 15:43) and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. We learn from Mark that “Pilate wondered if He was dead by this time, and summoning the centurion, he questioned him as to whether He was already dead. And ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph” (Mark 15:44–45).

The body of a victim normally would be given only to a family member. Often, however, even that humane consideration was not permitted, because public desecration of the body by throwing it into an open grave or onto a garbage heap was sometimes used as an additional warning about the serious consequences of opposing Rome.

But having already granted the Jewish leaders’ request to make sure the crucified men were dead and removed from their crosses before the Sabbath, and not wanting to anger those leaders any further, Pilate may have been glad to grant the body of Jesus to Joseph and have the matter ended. Because of their humiliation and intimidation of him, Pilate had no inclination to do the Sanhedrin a favor. But he could ill afford offending them again. He would not have known Joseph’s motive and perhaps assumed he was acting in behalf of his colleagues. Without asking for an explanation, Pilate immediately ordered Jesus’ body be given over to Joseph.

Joseph probably came to Pilate with little hope of receiving the body, and there are many reasons why his request might not have been granted. He certainly did not expect Jesus to rise from the dead or else he would not have given such careful attention to the body’s preparation and permanent interment. Yet his great love for Jesus led him to face the wrath of his fellow Council members and friends as well as the wrath of Pilate in order to offer this last gesture of respect to Christ.

The Lord had sovereignly caused the Jewish leaders to do their part in demanding that the bodies be taken down from the crosses before the end of the day. He had caused Pilate to grant that permission, caused Joseph’s request for the body, and caused Pilate’s permission once again. Now the Lord caused Joseph to secure, prepare, and inter Jesus’ body before Friday evening ended. None of those people realized they were fulfilling prophecy. As far as his own motives and understanding were concerned, even the godly Joseph did what he did for personal reasons. It seemed only right that this innocent Man in whom he had placed his faith have a respectable burial. There is no indication Joseph was even aware he was doing God’s will, much less fulfilling God’s Word.

Joseph did not hurry because he was afraid of violating the Sabbath. He had already defiled himself for Sabbath observance by going into the Praetorium to see Pilate and was about to defile himself further by handling the dead body of Jesus. He operated with haste because, like every other participant in this great drama, he was being moved under God’s divinely ordained and scripturally predicted power and according to His timetable.

The more God’s Word is studied honestly and objectively, the more convincingly its inerrancy is demonstrated. Over and over it proves itself accurate in every detail.

After removing it from the cross, 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. Because of his devotion to Christ and because the tomb was very near Golgotha (John 19:42), it seems probable that, although he was a wealthy man and had many servants, Joseph carried the body himself.

John reports that Nicodemus, a prominent Pharisee and almost certainly a member of the Sanhedrin (see John 3:1), joined Joseph at the tomb, “bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight.” Together, “they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews” (19:39–40). Unlike the Egyptians, the Jews did not attempt to embalm bodies but simply encased them in strongly perfumed burial cloths to help mask the stench of decay.

As pointed out in The Harmony of the Gospels (Robert L. Thomas and Stanley N. Gundry, eds. [Chicago: Moody, 1978], p. 250), “The disciples who had openly followed Jesus during His lifetime ran away at the end, but the two who had kept their faith secret while He was alive … came forward publicly to give Him an appropriate burial.”

Although the gospels mention only that Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joses were watching the burial (Matt. 27:61; Mark 15:47), it is possible that they assisted Joseph and Nicodemus. Later, they prepared their own spices and came to the tomb early Sunday morning, planning to further anoint Jesus’ body (Luke 23:56–24:1).

After the body was wrapped, Joseph rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away. Graves were commonly secured in some way, often with a large stone placed over the entrance, in order to prevent desecration of the body by animals or birds and to prevent grave robbers from stealing the valuables that were often buried with the deceased.

Two Marys

And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave. (27:61)

A second group of people at Jesus’ burial were used to give evidence of the deity of Christ in an unusual and wonderful way.

Of the “many women” who had observed the crucifixion from a distance and who had faithfully served Jesus during His Galilean ministry (vv. 55–56), only Mary Magdalene … and the other Mary, the mother of James the Less and Joseph (Mark 15:47), had followed Joseph of Arimathea to the tomb. After they perhaps helped Joseph and Nicodemus wrap Jesus’ body in the spices and after the great stone was rolled into place to secure it, the two Marys were sitting opposite the grave. Apparently the two men had left, and these women were now alone at the tomb, engulfed by deep sorrow.

The special contribution of those two women is not evident until early on Sunday morning, when they returned to the sepulcher to finish anointing Jesus’ body. At that time they became the first witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection. When they arrived, the stone had already been rolled away from the entrance by an angel, and the women entered the tomb (Mark 16:45a). While the guards stood frozen with fear (Matt. 28:4), the angel, “sitting at the right, wearing a white robe, … said to them, ‘Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples and Peter, “He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He said to you” ’ ” (Mark 16:5b–7).

God did not choose any of the disciples but rather two women to be the priority witnesses to the resurrection of Christ. Mary Magdalene not only was one of the first two persons to know of Jesus’ resurrection but was the first person to whom He appeared (John 20:11–17).

Chief Priests and Pharisees

Now on the next day, which is the one 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, lest the disciples 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. (27:62–66)

The third group God providentially directed in relation to Jesus’ burial was the chief priests and the Pharisees. Unwittingly, and certainly unintentionally, they provided still further testimony to Jesus’ deity.

As already noted, the next day after the crucifixion was the Sabbath, for which the previous day was the day of preparation. Also as noted, it was not an ordinary Sabbath but was Passover Sabbath and therefore a high holy day (see John 19:31).

Two very unusual things occurred in this event. First of all, it was highly unusual for Jewish religious leaders to meet with a pagan, secular ruler on any Sabbath, and even more unusual for them to do so on a high Sabbath. More amazing still, the wording and context suggest that, contrary to their normal practice, they actually entered Pilate’s council chambers in the Praetorium. On the previous day they had been careful not to go into the Praetorium at all but rather sent Jesus inside to see Pilate. In order to speak with the leaders themselves, the governor had to come out on the porch. Perhaps because it was a high Sabbath, the priests and Pharisees thought there would be no one around to see them enter. Or they may simply have been willing to risk being seen in order to accomplish their purpose. If they so flagrantly violated Mosaic law and rabbinic tradition by falsely condemning Jesus to death, they would surely not have winced at such a relatively minor infraction as Sabbath defilement if it became necessary for their wicked purposes.

The second unusual detail was that the chief priests were largely Sadducees and therefore were strong theological opponents of the Pharisees. The gospels record only one other instance of those two groups being together (Matt. 21:45), and in both instances their only common motivation was hatred of Jesus.

Although Jesus was now dead, these men were still concerned about His continuing influence. They therefore said to Pilate, “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.” Even in His death, Christ’s enemies despised Him so vehemently that they would not utter His name, referring to Him only as that deceiver.

At some point during or just after the crucifixion, the Pharisees remembered that several years earlier, when they had demanded a sign from Jesus, He told them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign shall be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:38–40). Because Jonah came out alive after the three days and nights, the Pharisees rightly understood that Jesus was claiming He would be buried in the earth and arise alive after that same period of time.

The disciples had not taken Jesus literally then or when, on numerous other occasions, He had told them privately about His suffering, death, and resurrection (Matt. 16:21; 17:23; 20:19). The religious leaders did not believe Jesus either, but they took His prediction seriously, thinking He would try to pull off a hoax to make the people think He actually died and was resurrected. Now that He was dead, they were afraid His disciples would try to perpetrate a similar hoax.

The expression “three days and three nights” that Jesus had used in the prediction of His burial (Matt. 12:40) did not refer necessarily to three full twenty-four hour days. “A day and a night” was a Jewish colloquialism that could refer to any part of a day.

When Queen Esther instructed Mordecai to tell the Jews to fast “for three days” (Esth. 4:16), it becomes obvious that she did not have in mind three full days. It was “on the third day,” at the end of the fast, that she “put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace” to intercede for her people (5:1).

The Talmud, the major Jewish commentary on Scripture and tradition, specifies that “a day and a night makes one onah, and a part of an onah is as the whole.”

In the same way, people today speak of visiting a certain place for three days, without necessarily meaning three full twenty-hour periods. To arrive on a Monday morning, for example, and leave on the following Wednesday afternoon is generally considered a three-day visit.

That Jesus had in mind only a part of the first and third days is made clear by the numerous references to His rising on the third day (Matt. 16:21; 17:23; 20:19). It is also clear that the Jewish religious leaders themselves took Jesus to mean on the third day. Although they used the phrase after three days in giving Pilate the reason for their request, they asked Him to post a guard over the tomb until the third day, indicating that they used those two phrases synonymously.

To insist on a full three-day burial not only precludes Jesus’ rising on the third day but also requires pushing the day of crucifixion back to Wednesday, in order for Him to have been in the ground all of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. In that case, parts of five consecutive days would have been involved—from Wednesday morning, when the crucifixion would have begun, until daybreak on Sunday, which would have been some twelve hours after that day had begun at 6:00 p.m. the previous evening. But such an extended chronology cannot be squared with the gospel accounts.

The crucifixion is specifically said to have been on Friday, “the day before the Sabbath” (Mark 15:42), and the resurrection to have been sometime before dawn on Sunday, “the first day of the week” (Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1). To argue for a full three-day burial is to presume serious, and very obvious, scriptural error.

Their telling Pilate to give orders for the grave to be made secure reflects the religious leaders’ continued control over the governor because of his fear they would report him to Caesar and cause his downfall. Ironically, their fear was that the disciples might come and steal Him away and say to the people, “He has risen from the dead.” That fear was totally unfounded, because, despite Jesus’ repeated teaching about it, the disciples still did not believe that He would literally rise from the dead.

After the transfiguration, Peter, James, and John were puzzled about what Jesus had just told them about His rising from the dead (Mark 9:10). It was not that they did not understand the meaning of resurrection, because that was a commonly held doctrine among most Jews of the day. But because they could not conceive of the Messiah’s dying, they obviously could not conceive of His rising from the dead (cf. 9:32). Even when Peter and John came to Jesus’ tomb and found it empty, “as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead” (John 20:9).

But whether the chief priests and Pharisees knew of that disbelief or not, they assumed the disciples would make the claim in Jesus’ behalf in order to perpetuate His memory and perhaps keep some of His following for themselves.

If such a thing were to happen, they assured Pilate, the last deception will be worse than the first. The implication was that Jesus’ claim to kingship would then be verified in the eyes of the gullible people and, though dead, He would become an even worse threat to Rome than before. They were saying, in effect, “If the multitudes hailed Him as their Messiah and King on His entry into Jerusalem a few days ago, think how much more they will acclaim Him as their King if they are led to believe He has conquered death and risen from the dead. Even though the idea is preposterous, if they really believe He is alive, they will also believe Rome has no power over Him and that He is invincible. Then you will really have an uprising on your hands.”

Wanting to take no risks, either of offending the Jewish leaders or of facing another insurrection, Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” No doubt pleased with themselves for once again making the powerful Roman governor bow to their demands, they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone. The seal was probably furnished by Pilate and gave warning that the tomb was under Roman protection.

The purpose of the Jewish leaders and of Pilate was to prevent a hoax. But the Lord’s purpose was to take even their unbelieving antagonism and use it to prove the reality of Christ’s resurrection and deity. Even Jesus’ enemies helped assure that, in order for His resurrection to be genuine, He would have to be supernaturally raised. Despite their later efforts to spread the rumor that the disciples did indeed steal Jesus’ body (Matt. 28:11–14), they knew that they themselves had made that impossible.

Those remarkable truths about the burial of our Lord should deepen every Christian’s appreciation of Paul’s declaration that “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). When we cannot see why we are going through trouble and conflicts, we need to hold on to the certainty that God’s sovereign, providential power enlists every circumstance and happening in the universe for His glory and for our good.

Note this one tender incident in connection with the death of Jesus. Several women were faithful and stayed at the cross. They were loyal when the apostles had fled.

Near the hill, which we designate as Gordon’s Calvary, is a tomb which is pointed out as the tomb in which Jesus was buried. It is called the Garden Tomb. We have no way of knowing if this was the tomb of Jesus; frankly, I have my doubts. There are many sepulchres in that area, and it could have been any one of them. I feel sure that His tomb is in that area, and the Garden Tomb is as good a choice as any of them. But to determine the exact location of Golgotha and of the tomb and to make them sacred shrines is not Christ’s intention. I saw a woman go into the tomb and on hands and knees kiss the floor where the bodies were placed! That has no value. What our Lord wants us to do is to believe the gospel—that He died for our sins, was buried, and rose again—and to take that good news to the whole world.¹

Were it not for the intervention of Jospeh of Arimathea and Nicodemus (John 19:38), the body of Jesus might not have had a decent burial. Joseph and Nicodemus had come to believe in Jesus, even though they had not openly testified of their faith. God kept them hidden, as it were, that they might care for the body of Jesus. Since Joseph was a rich man, and he prepared the new tomb, he helped in the fulfillment of prophecy, Isaiah 53:9—“He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death” (niv).

It is not likely that Joseph prepared that tomb for himself. He was a wealthy man and certainly would not want to be buried so near a place of execution. He prepared that tomb for Jesus, and he selected a site near Golgotha so that he and Nicodemus could bury Christ’s body quickly. Joseph and Nicodemus could very well have been in the garden waiting for Jesus to die. When they took Him from the cross, they defiled themselves and were not able to eat the Passover. But, what difference did it make? They had found the Lamb of God!

In contrast to the loving care given by Jesus’ friends, notice the plottings and maneuvering of the Jewish leaders. The disciples had forgotten that Jesus promised to rise from the dead on the third day, but His enemies remembered. Pilate permitted the leaders to set a guard at the tomb. This guard put an official Roman seal on the stone. All of this was of God, for now it was impossible for anyone—friend or foe—to steal the body. Without realizing it, the Jewish leaders and the Roman government joined forces to help prove the resurrection of Jesus Christ.²

1 McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Gospels (Matthew 14-28) (electronic ed., Vol. 35, p. 192). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

2 Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 104). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.