The Burial of Jesus Christ (Mark Sermon 87)

God orchestrated all the divine details of Jesus' death and burial, including the timing, the Marys, Joseph's new tomb and boldness, and the Roman guards.

- SERMON TRANSCRIPT -

Turn in your Bibles to Mark 15. We're looking at the end of the chapter of Mark 15 at the burial of Jesus and what detail could be just skipped as unimportant. The Gospel writers actually go into careful detail about one of the most comforting doctrines to me as a Christian — the doctrine of providence, how God sovereignly orchestrates the details of everyday life, even tiny details, but also massive like the rise and fall of empires. From the tiniest to the greatest, God providentially rules over the doctrine of providence. The word “providence” comes from a Latin root, which means “provideo”, “to see ahead of time.” But we know that the doctrine isn't just that God knew ahead of time what was going to happen. It's more like this, we use this language of seeing to something, see to it, somebody in authority would say to a person reporting to them. “See to it” means, "go make sure it happens.”

The doctrine of providence is that ahead of time, God sees what needs to happen and sees to it that it will happen. That's a very comforting doctrine, isn't it? We're told that it extends to tiny things like sparrows falling to the ground. A sparrow doesn't fall to the ground apart from the will of God. It extends to insignificant things like the numbers of hairs on your head, even they are all numbered. Those things pertaining directly to our persons and those things external to us, God is providentially ruling over all of those things. We're going to see that doctrine at work when it comes to the burial of Jesus Christ. How God's sovereignly orchestrated details to make certain that Jesus would be buried in exactly the way He had ordained. That He would be buried, even ordained before the foundation of the world.

God orchestrated, for example, the timing of Jesus' death, the exact timing of His death so that He would be buried and in the grave, three days and three nights. God orchestrated the quiet witnessing of the burial by some women to make absolutely certain they knew the location of the tomb. God orchestrated the courage of Joseph of Arimathea, who up to that point had been a secret follower of Jesus, but suddenly finding courage, took his life in his hands along with another secret disciple, Nicodemus. Two wealthy, influential, powerful men, who at the point when Jesus's kingdom looked finished to an unbelieving eye, when Jesus was dead, they suddenly found the courage to come out and declare themselves followers of Christ. God providentially orchestrated that.

God even orchestrated Jesus's enemies to do exactly the opposite of what they intended, not in our account, but in Matthew 27. We'll get to it later in the sermon. How God orchestrated the posting of a guard to make certain that no one came to steal the body of Jesus and then spread the lie that He had risen from the dead. The whole thing backfiring on them, giving one of the greatest evidences of the truth and the reality of the resurrection, how God orchestrated that. It says in Proverbs 19:21, "Many are the plans of a man's heart, but is the Lord's purpose that prevails."

None of these people who are involved in the burial of Jesus were exactly seeking to fulfill God's eternal plan, not the women whose hearts were filled with love and affection and loyalty to Jesus. They didn't have any desire to identify the tomb so they could testify to the resurrection. They weren't thinking that at all. They just noted where the tomb was. Joseph's heart and also that of Nicodemus filled with love and loyalty to Jesus, perhaps a little a shame at not having flown their colors before that, wanted to perhaps do something for Jesus here at the end. Not in any way I think did they believe they were setting up evidence for the resurrection. Certainly the chief priests and the Pharisees and all of Jesus' enemies were not seeking to be a strong part of God's plan for proving the resurrection of Jesus.  They thought the whole thing was a fraud and a lie. Pilate and the Romans were not seeking to make the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ any easier.

But God is the eternal God, the providential ruler of all details, and He sits on a throne far above the circle of the earth and ordains even the tiniest details according to His eternal plan. Our God is in heaven, He does whatever pleases Him. We're going to see that today when it comes to the burial of Jesus. 

"God is the eternal God, the providential ruler of all details, and He sits on a throne far above the circle of the earth and ordains even the tiniest details according to His eternal plan."

I. The Burial in Prophecy and in Proclamation of the Gospel

Let's talk about the burial and let's see it in the proclamation of the Gospel and also in prophecy. First, the burial of Jesus Christ is essential to the proclamation and the understanding of the Gospel. We don't in any way say that the burial of Jesus, what happened to His corpse after He was dead is as important as Jesus' death on the cross or His bodily resurrection from the dead. We're not making that claim. It just is important. That's all.

Paul mentions it in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that He was buried and that He was raised from the dead on the third day according to the scriptures." It's listed as an important fact of the fundamentals of the Gospel. Also, theologically Paul uses Christ’s burial as a picture of our own spiritual resurrection and new life. He says in Romans 6:4, "We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life." He does the same thing in Colossians 2:12, "Having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him through your faith and the power of God who raised Him from the dead." But more important than that, the burial of Jesus, the detail of it was predicted in prophecy.

In  Isaiah 53, we've heard it many times, how Christ died. The Suffering Servant died as a substitute for our sins very, very plainly. But that's not all that Isaiah 53 says. It says in verse 9, "They made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death." The prophecy in Isaiah 53 extends to His burial, the exact circumstances of His burial, seven centuries before Jesus was born. One noun and two adjectives in this prophecy, the noun is the word “grave.” “Grave", the Hebrew word translated means a sepulcher where dead bodies are laid. A very specific topic in Isaiah 53 in which the Suffering Servant dies and is buried, since verse 9 mentions grave, the Suffering Servant died.  But then the verse gets very specific, Isaiah 53:9 with two adjectives, two descriptive words for types of people. They made a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death. Putting it together, it seems the verse indicated the Suffering Servant would die and be assigned a grave with the wicked, but that he would end up in a rich man's tomb. The burial with the wicked was undoubtedly, I think, the Roman plan. They would've liked nothing better than to use Jesus's body as a warning to anyone that would rebel against Roman power. This was their normal pattern, and so they might've exposed it to birds or animals or to defilement and then thrown it in a common grave along with anybody else.  That's what they would love to do, but it didn't go that way, because of God's providence. For Jesus to have been buried in a common grave would've removed all the physical evidence for the resurrection that Joseph's tomb afforded. 

The wealth aspects of Jesus burial are clear in the narrative as well. In our passage in Mark 15:43, it mentions that Joseph of Arimathea was a prominent member of the council. I can pretty much guarantee there were no prominent members of the Jewish ruling council that were poor men. They were all men of stature, they're all established, they were leaders, et cetera. But we don't have to wonder, because Matthew openly tells us, Matthew 27:57, "As evening approached there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph who had himself become a disciple of Jesus." There's no doubt about that, Joseph of Arimathea was wealthy.

Then you can add the testimony from John's Gospel about Nicodemus. Nicodemus in John 19:39-40, it says he was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes about 75 pounds in weight. Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it with spices and strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. Seventy-five pounds of myrrh would be worth something like a quarter of a million dollars today. This was a burial fit for a king, and so it's very clear that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were both wealthy men, and He was with the rich in His death.

So also the timing of Jesus' burial was important based on Jesus's own identification with the prophecy of Jonah, as He said numbers of times that He would be raised to life on the third day. When they came and asked Him to prove His validity by giving a sign, He said, "No sign will be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah is three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Jesus had to be in the tomb before sundown on Friday so that the three-day span by Jewish reckoning— we'll talk more about that in a few moments— would be achieved. 

The burial also is essential to the proclamation of the Gospel and the proving of the resurrection.  The physical evidence of the empty tomb was vital to the origins of Christianity. It was vital to the saving faith of the apostle John, and then the proclamation of the Gospel there on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. John's Gospel, John 20:1-9, makes the tomb the physical layout of the circumstances of the resurrection, the beginning of the proclamation, the gospel, the physical evidence of the bodily resurrection of Jesus.

"The burial also is essential to the proclamation of the Gospel and the proving of the resurrection.  The physical evidence of the empty tomb was vital to the origins of Christianity."

John 20:1-9 says, "Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter, and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, 'They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they have put Him.' So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb, both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who is behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself separate from the linen. Finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went inside. He saw and believed."

“He saw and believed,” and then the concession statement, “they still did not understand from scripture that Christ had to rise from the dead.” It was given to the apostles alone in all of redemptive history to see and believe, to touch and believe, to feel and to sense and believe, and then proclaim that eyewitness account for the rest of us who will not get to see and believe. But that was their role. John himself, the disciple whom Jesus loved, we know that's who it is. The physical evidence there of the empty tomb was foundational to his personal faith. Later scripture would be better, because it's timeless and the prophecies are there. So the key elements, the physical elements, the stone removed from the entrance to the tomb, the tomb empty, the Lord gone. The strips of linen in which Jesus had been wrapped lying in a certain formation, the head covering off by itself folded up. All of this physical evidence was ground for John's initial faith in the resurrection. Scripture would be the better and final ground.

Now that physical evidence was part of the proclamation of the Gospel of which the resurrection was foundational from that point forward, as it says in 1 John 1:1, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched, this we proclaim concerning the word of life." The empty tomb was essential to that. It's also essential to Peter's proclamation of the Gospel on the day of Pentecost, after the Holy Spirit had been poured out. He uses the empty tomb as proof of the resurrection and also a validation of the prophecy from Psalm 16. This is what Peter preached in Acts 2. It says, "Jesus of Nazareth was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge." I love that expression.  All of this had been worked out in detail in the mind of God before the foundation of the world.   "Now Jesus," Peter says, "was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, and you with the help of wicked men put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross. But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him." David said about him, ‘I saw the Lord always before me, because He is at my right hand I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. My body also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your holy one see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence.’" That's Psalm 16.

Then Peter preaches, "Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried and his tomb is here to this day, but he was a prophet and he knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ that He was not abandoned to the grave, nor did His body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life and we are all witnesses of the fact.” 

Do you see how central the empty tomb is in that Gospel proclamation? Implied in the proclamation is this: David's tomb is here and so is his corpse, and you can visit that tomb. Jesus's tomb is here and it is empty and you can all visit that. iIt's very strong historical evidence for the bodily resurrection.  The tomb is empty. The tomb is empty. That empty tomb is essential to the beginning of Christianity and to the foundation of our faith as the only that defeats death and gives hope in the face of the grave. The empty tomb is foundational to that.

II. The Precise Timing of the Burial 

Now let's look at the details coming from our text, Mark 15. First, let's talk about the precise timing of Jesus's burial. Look at verse 42, “It was preparation day. That is the day before the Sabbath. So as evening approached,” let's stop there.  This careful choreography concerning the timing of Jesus's death, “evening” refers to the period from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. It's the last part of the Jewish day. So evening is approaching. When Jesus spoke His last words from the cross and yielded up His spirit, Matthew 27:46-50, the text tells us it was about the ninth hour. That is about 3:00 p.m., the beginning of the phase of day known as the evening.

For three reasons it was essential that Jesus die several hours before the complete end of the day. First, the Sabbath began at 6:00 pm that day. That's when that next day, the Sabbath, started. Jesus had to be taken down from the cross, prepared for burial, and actually buried before the Sabbath came in order not to profane the Sabbath. Secondly, in order to avoid having His legs broken, which was forbidden concerning the type or prophecy of the Passover lamb, He had to die precisely when He did. I would think it was down to minutes between when He died and when they came and started shattering the leg bones. Then thirdly, in order to fulfill the prophecy, I've already mentioned concerning Jonah, three days and three nights.

Let's walk through those. First on the profaning of the Sabbath. Jewish law required that the bodies be removed and dealt with before the Sabbath began. No work could be done on the Sabbath and they didn't want the bodies there on the cross throughout the whole Sabbath. Deuteronomy 21:22-23 says, “If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because," listen to this, "anyone who has hung on a tree is under God's curse." We know from Galatians this is openly true. Jesus was made a curse for us by being hung on a tree, but the Deuteronomy commandment is you have to take him down before the sun sets so he's not there overnight. "You must not," it says, "desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance."

Therefore, the apostle John tells us in his account that the Jews went to Pilate and demanded the legs be broken to accelerate the death process [John 19:31]. It was the day of preparation and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down, so Jesus had to die before they came around with the hammer to smash His leg bones. It says in John 19:36, "These things happen so that the scripture will be fulfilled. Not one of his bones will be broken." That's stated in a Psalm, but it's specifically linked to the Passover lamb as it says in Exodus 12:46, "None of the Passover lamb's bones will be broken."

Also, another scripture had to be set up, which John tells us about in his account concerning Jesus's piercing. What happened was a soldier came, and when he saw that Jesus was already dead, he did not break his bones, but instead took a lance and drove it up into his side, piercing his side, causing a flow of blood and water to flow out, testifying plainly, biologically that he was dead. This John links to a prophecy which is Zechariah 12:10, "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son." That's a powerful prophecy of what I believe it teaches in Romans 11, a later turning of the Jewish nation to faith in Christ as He pours out on them a spirit of grace and supplication.  The historical fact is Jesus was pierced and He was pierced specifically, John has in mind, by the lansing of His side by the Roman soldier. 

Then we have the prophecy concerning time. The prophecy of Jonah, according to Jesus, was as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a large fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. We need to understand that timing. If you're going to do like 24 hours and multiply the number of minutes, you're going to come up with the wrong answer. It wasn't three full days and three full nights, not at all, but it didn't need to be. In Jewish reckoning any part of a day or night was considered a day and a night. We're used to this, aren't we? When you pay for parking and you go one minute over. What happens when you go one minute over? You pay for the full hour.  "Well, I didn't use a full hour." It doesn't matter. Or when you rent something for three days, they don't care that it's a minute into the third day. It's a third day. So we're used to this kind of thing, et cetera. Or if you take a trip and you arrive somewhere on Monday morning and then leave on Wednesday, it was a three-day trip. We're not precise in saying you weren't there for the full three times 24, so we need to understand it that way, any part of the day or night. So you've got Friday, Saturday, Sunday, three days and three nights, that's the way the understanding is.

III. Friendly Witnesses to the Burial

Let's talk about the friendly witnesses to the burial. God's orchestrating different ones, and He's got these women and they are friendly witnesses also, Joseph and Nicodemus. Let's start with the women, the women who are witnesses. Look at verse 40 and 41,  “Some women were there watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, the younger, and Joseph of Joseph and Salome. In Galilee these women had followed Him and cared for His needs. Many other women who had come up with Him to Jerusalem were also there.”  These women deeply loved Jesus, dearly loved Him, cared for Him. They're mentioned in terms of caring for Him physically and financially in Luke 8, and Mark mentions it here as well. Also, John's Gospel adds that Jesus's mother, Mary, was there as well. It's the only Gospel that mentions her being there. We've got these two other women, they're also named Mary as well. It's kind of interesting. Mary Magdalene was there, a woman from whom seven demons had gone out, and then Mary, the mother of James the Lesser and son of Alphaeus, one of the twelve was there. Also listed was the mother of Zebedee's sons, James and John.  It is interesting that three different women named Mary are there watching Him, and it reminds me of the book of Ruth where she says, "Don't call me Naomi, which means ‘pleasant’, but call me Mara, which means ‘bitter.’” The word “Mary” is related to that Hebrew word for bitterness. All three focus on the bitterness and remember that Mary, the mother of Jesus, it was predicted when Jesus was circumcised that Simeon said, "A sword will pierce your own soul too." She's going to be in agony watching her son die. There's that bitterness and the three women have that same name. There are probably many other women there as well, not just these that are named, but it says many women were there watching from a distance. 

The great preacher, G. Campbell Morgan describes beautifully the mental state of these women with great feeling.  This is what he writes, "These women were hopeless, disappointed, bereaved, heartbroken, but the love He had created in those hearts for Himself could not be quenched even by His dying. Could not be overcome even though they were disappointed. Could not be extinguished even though the light of hope had gone out. And over the sea of their sorrow there was no sighing wind that told of the dawn." Tremendous love, loyalty, not faith in the resurrection at that point, but they were there because they loved, and they're going to play an important physical role. They're witnesses to where He was physically buried. They didn't get the spot wrong. They knew where He was buried.

Conspicuously absent, of course, are the male apostles of Jesus. They're not there, except John is there briefly and then takes Mary, Jesus' mother, home. We've also got the wealthy men, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. It is amazing how God worked on Joseph's heart and also Nicodemus’ heart at this particular moment. Up to this moment, like Nicodemus, Joseph had been afraid to fly his colors as a disciple of Jesus. John 19:38, “Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders.” He had a faithless fear, he was afraid of losing his place and his position and his reputation. He did not want to fly his colors.  He had not given consent to the death. If they had followed procedure, the usual procedure in the Jewish Council, each member of the council would've had to voice a vote for death, but instead there was like a mob assent to His death and everybody said He's worthy of death. Joseph certainly was quiet at that moment, was able to fly below the radar screen, but he had not agreed with what they had done. Isn't it amazing the timing of Joseph's courage? How in the world can we explain this at the human level? He was too afraid to declare himself a follower of Jesus when He was alive, and it seemed very much like we're heading toward a mighty messianic kingdom. He wasn't quite ready to join with that. But now that Jesus is dead, and everybody believes that whole thing's over, that's when he suddenly gets courageous and goes and boldly asks Pilate for the body. The only explanation I can come up with is that the spirit of God came upon him in order to fulfill this prophecy.

It says in the John 19:38 verse that Joseph had been discipled by Jesus. It was a verbal form. They had had, it seems, numbers of conversations. Jesus was working on Joseph and getting him ready among other things to play this role. Then he goes, it says in Mark 15:43, to Pilate, “Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the council who is himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly or took courage and went to Pilate to ask for Jesus' body.” Joseph is in a tremendous hurry, actually whether he knows it or not, he's got to move. There can't be a long negotiation here. He's got to get the body, he's got to get it prepared, get it buried, get the stone move there in a very short amount of time. He counts the cost, he flies his flag, he goes there and makes this bold demand of Pilate and amazingly Pilate granted the request.

Look at Mark 15:44-45, “Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead, summoning the centurion, the very one by the way who had said, ‘Truly this man was the son of God,’ summoning that one. He asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph.

Pilate's surprise underscores the cruelty of crucifixion. It was expected to go on for a day probably, hours and hours. It was not supposed to be this short amount of time. It was an incredibly cruel way to die. It is also surprising that Pilate gave Joseph Jesus' body. Like I said, the Romans would've loved to expose the body or do what they wanted as a warning to rebels who think they can set up a Jewish kingdom against the Caesar, something like that. It would be well-imagined that the body would be disfigured or defiled and then thrown in a common grave. That would've been a reasonable Roman plan. But why did he give it to Joseph?

You think about when Abraham sent his servant to go get a wife for Isaac. At one point Isaac puts him under oath to bring a woman back. The servant says to Abraham, "What if the woman's not willing to go with me?" And Abraham says, "God will give you grace, but if she doesn't want to go, then you're free from this oath." Imagine in the Triune Council, what if Pilate doesn't give up the body? But he will give up the body. How do you know he'll give up the body? Proverbs 21:1, "The King's heart is like a water course in the hands of the Lord. He directs it whatever way he places." The whole thing hangs on God's sovereignty over Pontius Pilate's mind and heart. Also at the human level, Joseph was a member of the council and he probably thought at this point he's doing a favor to the Jews.

IV. The Physical Aspects of the Burial

Look at the physical aspects of the burial, verse 46, “So Joseph brought or bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.” He's wrapping Jesus in this linen cloth. We've got this mixture of myrrh and aloes that we already talked about in John's Gospel, about 75 pounds weight. Myrrh is a costly aromatic resin cut from a small bushy tree grown in the Arabian Peninsula. It was collected and stored for about three months and then it was hardened to fragrant globules. They were sticky and they would hold the strips of linen together in a shape. That's the first direct miracle tied to the resurrection. 

Jesus moves up out of those linens, leaving them in that shape.  This is what's mentioned in John 20. John saw the strips of linen, the Greek is “kami,” set there, so it implies there was a shape. With the stickiness and all that, it would take a miracle to get a body up without them being completely disheveled. There's no way a grave robber could have done it or any human. But Jesus passes up through the linen and then through the walls of the tomb to get out. There it is. 

It's fascinating, the myrrh appears three times in Jesus's life, once at His birth and twice at His death. At His birth we know it was one of the gifts offered by the Magi. It was a very costly aromatic gift, but then it was mixed with wine as a sedative but He refused to drink it, and now it's part of His burial. Also, aloes are an aromatic spice.  The purpose of these aromatic ingredients was to cover the stench of corruption, the stench of decay. Remember with Martha and Lazarus, “by now there's going to be a bad odor, because he's been there for four days.” They're expecting a bad odor. However, we know very well that that's not going to happen. God would providentially protect the corpse of Jesus from any decay as it says in Psalm 16:10, "You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your holy one see decay." This is how they prepared the body like a king, 75 pounds, a quarter of a million dollars worth prepared, and He was with a rich man in His death. 

Then He was laid in a new tomb. Matthew 27:60 tells us the tomb was Joseph’s own new tomb that he had carved out of the rock. Only a wealthy man would be able to do this kind of thing.  It had never been used, it was like a small cave. I'm guessing, though the scripture doesn't say, it was never used again either. It's a very significant tomb that Joseph had prepared. Then we got a large stone rolled in front of the entrance of the tomb. It was a boulder probably shaped in the shape of a disk, like a big coin or something like that. It was propped up and then rolled down into a trough where it would settle and be there and no one person or even a couple people could move it. It would take a massive effort to get it up out of there. This was to prevent grave robbers from coming or wild animals from attacking the body. 

The women are there again as witnesses, verse 47, "Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joseph, saw where he was laid.”  Again, this is vital, because it shows multiple people knew exactly where Jesus was buried. Just like we talked about a case of mistaken identity, you could have a case of a mistaken location. They went to the wrong place. No, no, no, it's not possible. There were multiple witnesses to where the tomb was. The women would come on the first day of the week with additional spices to finish the burial of the corpse. Again, great love, not faith at that point. We'll talk about that in due time.

V. Unfriendly Witnesses to the Burial

Let's talk about the unfriendly witnesses to the burial. Mark doesn't record this, but turn to Matthew 27:62-66, and I just want to note this, because I think it's so remarkable. In Matthew 27:62, it says, "The next day, the one after preparation day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate." These two groups, the chief priests and the Pharisees were relentless in their efforts to try to destroy Jesus and His movement. It's amazing they got together, because the chief priests were almost always Sadducees, and the Sadducees and Pharisees hated each other and never got together on anything except this one thing, hating and opposing Jesus. So they're coming together. It's amazing. It's also amazing, because on that day, it was a high holy day. It was a special or a sacred Passover.

The Greek words used for this meeting indicate they actually went into Pilate's council chambers in the praetorium, which they would not do during Jesus' trial, because they didn't want to be defiled. But they have got to have this meeting with Pilate, so they're willing to defile themselves. If they're willing to kill the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus, they're willing to break some Sabbath rules too. As you can see, their conscience and their ethics are disgusting and perverse. Look what they say to Pilate, verse 63, 64 in Matthew 27, “‘Sir,' they said, ‘we remember that while he was still alive, that deceiver said, “After three days I'll rise again.” So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.’"

Isn't it remarkable that all of Jesus's followers, men and women alike, seem to forget that Jesus had predicted that He would rise on the third day, but His enemies didn't? I find that remarkable. And even if some of Jesus's disciples remembered, I don't think they believed it. They weren't acting like they believed in a resurrection on the third day, as we'll see in Mark 16. Note that the priest and the Pharisees called Jesus, "that deceiver." They have total disdain for Jesus, which is amazing, because He's the only truly perfectly honest man that ever lived. They're the deceivers, and yet that's what they call Jesus, “that deceiver.” What is the threat they perceive? That Jesus's disciples will come and steal the body and then proclaim the resurrection from the dead, which makes no sense at all, because what reward would they get for such proclamation? Death.  It's one thing to die for a lie, but it's another thing to die for something you know is a lie. Who's going to do that? But they thought that it was a threat, so they make the request of Pilate, "Give us some guards and let us post those guards. Or if you would appoint a guard, post a guard until the third day. And why if the disciples do come and steal the body, the last deception claiming that He had risen from the dead will be worse than the first deception claiming that He's the Messiah." 

So Pilate makes a statement verse 65, "Take a guard, go make the tomb as secure as you know how." Some people think he's saying, "Look, you guys already have a guard. You don't need that from me." But I don't think that's the sense. I think he actually delegates or dispatches some Roman soldiers to go and guard the tomb. The reason I think this is in Matthew 28, when the resurrection does happen, the guards are very afraid of what Pilates going to say or do to them, and I think that's mostly because they're Roman soldiers. I do think it's amazing they're trying to stop the resurrection and listen, no power on heaven or earth or under the earth is going to stop that resurrection. So what ends up happening to those guards, they end up unwitting witnesses to the resurrection. We'll talk about that in due time. But all of this had been orchestrated by the providential plan of God.

VI.The Seal: A Symbol of the Limits of Human Power

Let's talk about one final detail, which I noted a number of years ago and I want to share with you. It has to do with the seal. They went and set the guard and they put a seal on the stone. So what does the seal represent? The seal represents Roman authority. It represents the Roman government. Someone comes and breaks that seal, Roman authority will come down on them. “You break that seal, we'll break you”. No one is allowed to move this stone. By the way, did the angel from heaven worry about the seal? Apparently not. We'll, again, get to all that.

But they put this seal. Why is it interesting?  Because there are two types or two patterns of prophecy in the Bible concerning Jesus. There's verbally predictive prophecy and there's typically predictive prophecy. The types or things acted out that give us little details that connect with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and I find that in Daniel 6, you remember the story about Daniel and how Darius the Mede was maneuvered by some unscrupulous enemies of Daniel to make a law that nobody could pray to any God except to him for 30 days.  Daniel, they knew, his enemies knew, that Daniel would break that. He gets caught praying to the true God and they end up throwing him in the lion's den. It turns out that as they put him in the lion's den, they put a stone over the den and they put a seal on that stone,  so that I find fascinating. That is the seal of the Persian government, that if you break that seal, that the Persian government will consider you guilty. I find that seal beautiful, because when the time came, the order was given by Darius, the seal was broken, this stone moved and Daniel comes up out of that cave effectively as a picture of the resurrection.

VII. Lessons

What lessons can we take from this? All of this providential orchestrated truth focuses on the central truth, and that is that Jesus Christ is the son of God.  He died on the cross for our sins. He rose from the dead on the third day. This whole salvation plan had been worked out in the mind of God before the foundation of the world down to details, written in prophecy so that we could know the truth of it. Therefore, for you, make certain you believe that you've repented and trusted in that. There's no point in learning all these interesting facts and then dying and going to hell. Focus on the Gospel and realize all of this was done to save souls, to save sinners like you and me. This is not just some hastily thrown together salvation plan, but this was ordained before the foundation of the world for the salvation of sinners like you and me.

"This is not just some hastily thrown together salvation plan, but this was ordained before the foundation of the world for the salvation of sinners like you and me."

Secondly, if you're already a believer in Christ, stand in awe at the doctrine of providence, the meticulous preparations that God went through at something so comparatively minor as the actual burial of Jesus. But in God's way of thinking, there are no minor things. Every little thing matters, and that same providence is overruling your life as well. Jesus spoke to you as a disciple saying, "A sparrow doesn't fall to the ground apart from the will of God." Things outside of you, even tiny, seemingly insignificant things, God's orchestrating that. Even the very hairs of your own head are numbered. So things pertaining directly to you, God's sovereignly watching over them. So be at peace. Do not be anxious about anything in your life, but realize providence is ruling over everything.

 Also look at the courage that suddenly came on Joseph of Arimathea. We are left with the work to do when Jesus ascended to heaven. He wants us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation, to make disciples of all nations. And again and again, we bump into our own fear.  Again and again we bump into our own weakness. We're too afraid of what it'll do in that relationship or to our job or to our situation with our roommate or neighbors or our unsaved relative, and we become afraid. Isn't it beautiful how the sovereign power of God can come on a coward like Nicodemus and a coward like Joseph of Arimathea, and at the key moment move them out to bold action for the sake of the kingdom? It says in Acts 1:8, "You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." 

Close with me in prayer.  Father, we thank you for the things that we've learned today. We thank you for the details connected with the burial of Jesus. We thank you for how you providentially ruled over all of those things. You saw to it that they happened in a certain way and we praise you for that. Lord, as we stand in awe of the details, stand in awe of the truth. Help us to realize all of this is for the salvation of sinners and for us to be able to do the work you've ordained for us to do, to take this gospel to people who have as yet not believed and been saved. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.