This is an excerpt from my book “40 Moments From Christ’s Final Days.” Click here to get it from Amazon using my affiliate link.
Find this moment in: Mt. 27:57-61, Mk. 15:43-47, Lk. 23:50-55, Jn. 19:41-42
In Rome, executed criminals would be discarded unless their families claimed their bodies for burial. This was problematic for the family of Jesus because any tomb the family had would have been in Nazareth, over a day away. Sabbath was coming, so they couldn’t transport Him there because lengthy travel was forbidden on the Sabbath. Jewish tradition also demanded that the dead be buried before sundown, lest the dead be dishonored.[1]
Now 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 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. (Matthew 27:57-61)
We also learn in Luke 23:50-51 that Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin, yet didn’t agree with the council’s vote because he believed Jesus was the Messiah. Being from Arimathea, we don’t know why he had a new tomb in Jerusalem. It could have been a new family crypt or a small hollow he purchased for his own needs.
So His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. (Isaiah 53:9)
To honor Jesus, this rich man placed the bloody body of his innocent Messiah in a new tomb. Although Romans killed him alongside men like Barabbas, Jesus wasn’t discarded with them. The words of Isaiah were fulfilled that day, as were so many other things the Old Testament prophets looked forward to.
Although the tomb itself wasn’t special, the one buried in it was. Knowing how much love and controversy surrounded Jesus, Matthew 27:65-66 shows that Pilate ordered a large stone rolled in front of the tomb along with a Roman guard to keep Christ’s friends and enemies out. This adds even more weight to Christ’s later resurrection when the heavy stone protecting the borrowed tomb is rolled away by an angel who strikes fear into the trained Roman soldiers. The dead man’s body was gone, not because someone walked into an unguarded tomb, but because He had risen from the dead.
Stop and think: Joseph, like everyone else, probably didn’t fully understand God’s plan of redemption. In death, it may have seemed like Jesus had failed by dying like any other man. What would someone have to believe about Jesus to still have faith in Him after all of this?
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