The Miracle of the Burial of Jesus
We know that at Easter lots of miracles take place. But did
you know that the burial of Jesus was a wonderful miracle? Normally, victims of
crucifixion were not buried. So how did Jesus escape the normal disposal of a crucified
body? The scripture tells how God did it. “Now when evening had come, the Jews asked
Pilate that their legs should be broken, and that they might be taken away.
They did not want the bodies to remain on the cross on the Sabbath. It was
Preparation Day, which was a high Sabbath. There came a rich man named Joseph.
He was from Arimathea, a city of the Jews. He was a prominent council member
and had not consented to their decision and deed. He was a good and just man.
Joseph had been waiting for the kingdom of God and became a disciple of Jesus.
He was a disciple in secret, for fear of the Jews. Joseph took courage and went
to Pilate and asked that he might take away the body of Jesus. Pilate marveled
that He was already dead. He summoned a centurion and asked him if Jesus had
been dead for some time. When Pilate found out from the centurion that Jesus
was dead, he granted the body to be given to Joseph. Joseph took the body of
Jesus down. Nicodemus also came bringing about a hundred pounds of myrrh and
aloes. Then they took the body of Jesus, bound it in strips of linen with the
spices as the custom of the Jews is to bury. The body of Jesus was laid in a
new tomb that Joseph had hewn out of the rock where no one had ever lain. So
there they laid Jesus. They rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb
and departed.
Now there are a few things going here, that were different from
normal crucifixions.
First, the Jews asked Pilate to break the legs of the three men
on the crosses so they would not be able to hold themselves up and they would
suffocate to death.
Now, we may be under the assumption that once a person was dead
on the cross, that the family would take the body and bury it. But that’s not what normally happened. The
Romans often broke the prisoner's legs to hasten death and usually would not
allow burial.
Usually the body was left to rot on the cross and this was done
as a deterrent to those who entered the city, or many
bodies would be tossed into an area, like a landfill, outside of the city.
So why was it important to them that Jesus and the two robbers’
bodies be removed before this particular Sabbath?
That wasn’t God’s
plan. Jesus himself had said He would be buried and rise on the third day. Under
these circumstances, it would take a miracle for Jesus to be buried, much less
to rise from the grave.
The miracle of God
came through a man named Joseph. The Bible says that Joseph was a rich man from
a Jewish city called Arimathea. He was a member of the Sanhedrin Council which
had orchestrated the capture and crucifixion of Jesus. But Joseph didn’t agree
with their plan because he was a disciple of Jesus.
The Bible says Joseph
was a good and just man. After Jesus was crucified, he knew that his body would
not be given to the family for burial.
Since Joseph was on
the Sanhedrin Council, he was able to meet with Pilate. Based on that verification, Pilate gave
Joseph permission to take the body. The Bible tells us that it was Joseph who took the body down
from the cross. After they carefully removed the body of Jesus from the cross, they
tenderly moved Him to a new tomb that belonged to Joseph. They prepared His
body for burial in the manner of the Jews. They wrapped him in linen cloth and spices. Finally, they placed his body in the tomb and
rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb
It took a miracle for the for the body of Jesus to be
buried but God is a God of Miracle.
If you think that was a great miracle, just
wait until Sunday!
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