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50 Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, 51 who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. 52 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. 53 Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. 54 It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. 55 The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. 56 Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment. ~ Luke 23:50-56
The burial of Jesus Christ is the topic of today's text. For those of you who may struggle with whether there’s a divine purpose in history, whether God is sovereign over everything, whether the Scripture is true, or whether Christ is really who He claimed to be, there is enough in His burial to remove those kinds of questions.
In v.50-52 we read, "50 Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, 51 who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. 52 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body."
According to John 19:38–42, Nicodemus aided Joseph of Arimathea with the removal of the body of the Lord Jesus down from His cross. Joseph and Nicodemus were both members of the Jewish religious council and touching a dead body made them unclean and disqualified them from being on the council. This resulted in a dramatic life change in the lives of these two men.
The quick death of the Lord Jesus was a surprise to all, after all, He had only been on the cross for just six hours. The normal time for someone to die while being crucified was two to three days. There are some cases where there were those who stayed up on their cross for a couple of weeks. The two thieves crucified with the Lord Jesus were alive after He had breathed His last. According to v.54, the Jewish religious leaders demanded the removal of the bodies from their crosses before the Sabbath began at sundown on Friday.
Due to the fact that the Lord Jesus was already dead, the Roman soldiers didn't need to break the legs of the Lord Jesus. This was the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy found in Psalm 34:20. In addition, in Exodus 12:46 we read that a Passover lamb could not have a broken bone. The Passover lamb was a lamb without blemish, and without spot, and without a broken bone.
The breaking of the two thieves legs involved taking a huge iron mallet and splintering their legs in a horrible act which resulted in asphyxiation. The only way the crucified stayed alive was to push up their legs and pull up with their arms, aiding the legs pushing, to be able to catch their breath. And, once they could no longer push up with their broken legs, they would not be able to breathe any longer.
It is likely that Joseph and Nicodemus had learned from the Old Testament Scriptures how the Lord Jesus would die, so they agreed to remove His body from the cross and bury it. The new tomb was purchased by Joseph, prepared in a garden near Calvary where the Lord Jesus was crucified. No rich man would prepare his own burial place so near a place of execution and so far from his own home.
When the Lord Jesus died, Joseph immediately went to Pilate for permission to have the body, and Nicodemus stayed at Calvary to keep watch. They took the body of the Lord Jesus down from the cross and carried Him to the garden, washed His body, and wrapped Him with the spices. It was a temporary burial; they would return after the Sabbath to do the job properly.
When they laid the Lord Jesus into the new tomb, they fulfilled Isaiah 53:9, and they kept the Romans from throwing His body on the garbage dump outside the city. Condemned criminals lost the right to proper burial, but God saw to it that His Son’s body was buried with dignity.
There had to be a cross before there could be an empty tomb. The Lord Jesus died on the cross in order to be the ultimate sacrifice. He died in our place. At Christmas time, we put our gifts underneath our trees. God placed His greatest gift to mankind on a tree on a hill called the place of the skull.
