The Tomb - Matt 27:57-64; Mark 15:43-46; Luke 23:50-56; John 19:31-41

Just like when the chief priests lied about Jesus and sought to murder him but refused to enter the Roman Hall of Judgment because they would become unclean, they are now concerned that his body would be on the cross during the Passover. Apparently there was a rule “that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for the Sabbath day was an high day.)” If they were going to murder someone, then it had to be done on any other day besides the Sabbath. It is this type of blatant hypocrisy that is so easy to identify in others but harder to see in ourselves and it’s not just because it’s dealing with the crucifixion of Christ, but even in our own everyday lives. We teach our kids to be honest, but then lie about the age of our children to get a cheaper movie ticket, or we teach chastity but then read a racy romance novel, stuff like that.

Because the chief priests didn’t want people to be executed on the Sabbath, they asked Pilate “that their legs might be broken.” Just going back again to the point of craziness, if you have a human being nailed to a big stick and they are taking too long to die, what would the next logical response be? I can think of a few, but probably I would go with something like “stab them in the neck so that they bleed out within a matter of seconds,” or “strangle them” or something like that. Not in a thousand years would I ever have looked at a person being crucifed and thought, “wow this is taking too long, how should I expidite the death process? Oh, I should probably bludgeon them in the legs so that they can’t hold themselves up anymore and then they will suffocate faster.” Like, what? What kind of logic is that? “How can I make this person’s situation even worse?” I really think that at that point, the guy has suffered enough, just give him a quick death.
Pilate laments and tells the Roman guards to break the legs of the crucified so that they can be dead and hauled away by sundown. Let’s remember that it was about 3pm when Jesus died and sunset was in just a couple of hours and the requirement was not only death, but also disposal of the bodies. The guards “brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him, But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.” The IM cites two prophecies that were fulfilled with this event, “first, not one of Jesus’ bones was broken. Soldiers sometimes broke the log bones of crucifixion victims to hasten death, but they did not do this with Jesus. Without realizing it, they fulfilled an important part of the symbolism of Passover, for the Lord had instructed that the Passover lamb- which symbolized the Savior- was not to have any broken bones.”
I think it’s important to mention here that Jesus is the Messiah and therefore he fulfilled prophecies, whereas some might mistake his fulfillment of prophecy to indicate that he was the Messiah, if that makes sense. Trusting in him as our Savior isn’t based on a certain number of prophecies that he’s fulfilled or because he fulfilled more than anyone else. The prophecies were given so that we could recognize him when the came, not so that he could recognize himself. As for the second prophecy fulfilled, the IM continues, “Second, Jesus Chris’s side was pierced with a spear. This fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah: ‘They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”
Now that they realized that Jesus was already dead, “there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.” Surely the chief priests didn’t want Jesus’ body laying around, so it had to go somewhere, but Jesus was not a man of wealth, and no one had made arrangements to care for his body. The IM comments, “Joseph of Arimathea was a wealthy member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish governing council. He was a disciple of Jesus Christ, ‘but secretly for fear of the Jews.’ After the Crucifixion, Joseph put his position at risk as he ‘went in boldly unto Pilate’ and obtained permission to bury the Savior’s body prior to the Sabbath.”
As I think about the exchange between Joseph and Pilate, I would imagine that Pilate was pretty irritated with the chief priests at this point. They force him into executing an innocent man but basically threatening to riot if not given what they want, they nag him about the sign put on the cross, then they ask for the murder to be sped up because they don’t want their religious holiday to be spoiled by dead bodies. Surely Pilate saw the hypocrisy here and might have even been expecting them to come ask for Jesus’ body to be dismembered or something that would have caused more work and headache for him. So when Joseph shows up, maybe someone who Pilate would have expected as a member of the Sanhedrin, he was probably eager to be done with this Jesus business. But it could also have been a precarious situation if Joseph had just gone and commandeered Jesus’ body without Pilate’s permission.
Pilate granted Joseph’s request and Joseph takes Jesus’ body and puts it in his own family’s tomb, wrapping Jesus’ body just like he would for his own brother. And “there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.” Nicodemus and Joseph might have been feeling guilty for their lackluster discipleship while Jesus was alive, and possibly didn’t understand the eternal nature of his death. They might have felt that they had not demonstrated proper respect while Jesus was alive and thought that their chance had passed. It also might be that they loved and respected Jesus so much that they wanted to show their affection by using the resources they had to care for him after his death. But one hundred pounds of salve is a lot.
That Jesus was buried in Joseph’s tomb and the IM says, “Together, Joseph and Nicodemus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy that the Savior would be ‘with the rich in his death.’ The amount of myrrh and aloes purchased by Nicodemus was similar to that used in royal burials, indicating that the Savior’s followers acknowledged His status as a king.” And thus, even after being murdered like a criminal, Jesus was laid to rest like a king.
But honestly, the chief priests just can’t leave this guy alone, and I’m sure that Pilate is exhausted with them. On “the next day, that followed the day of preparation” which I’m assuming means the Sabbath, or maybe even that same day but after dark because that’s when the new day would have been considered to have started, they go to Pilate again and say, “Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulcher be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first.”
This is honestly a good catch by the chief priests because they aren’t saying, “he will be resurrected and we have to stop it,” but they are saying, “his followers will steal his body and say that he’s resurrected.” But I think it’s cute that they think a rock and a couple of guards will stop the resurrection of the Son of God. Pilate grants them their request answering, “Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can.” He doesn’t want anymore of this drama, and surely a missing body will cause just that. The chief priests go “and made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.” I think this means that Roman soldiers where the ones guarding the tomb, but it isn’t very specific so it might have just been the chief priests’ guards keeping watch, and it makes a difference as to what happens to them later on.