Buried, He Carried My Sins Far Away Series

II. JESUS’ BURIAL WAS PROPHESIED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

I won’t spend much time on this point, but every aspect of the death of Jesus was prophesied in the Old Testament. Isaiah predicted Jesus would pour out His life unto death and would be numbered with the transgressors. That means he would be crucified with wicked men. I’m about to show you an amazing prophecy that seems to be a contradiction. But before we read it, remember Jesus was assigned to death as a wicked criminal. Do you know what happened to the bodies of those the Romans crucified? Usually the bodies were left to hang on the crosses for many days. Then they were removed and disposed of in a common burial site for criminals. That’s what the Romans planned to do with the body of Jesus. But a rich man, Joseph, stepped in and changed the assigned burial place. Isaiah prophesied, “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:9)

That’s an amazing prophecy! So although Jesus’ body should have been in the assigned grave of the wicked, He was placed in a borrowed tomb of a rich man. It’s okay that He just borrowed it because He wouldn’t need it very long!

III. JESUS’ BURIAL SYMBOLIZED THE REMOVAL OF OUR SINS

John gives us a very important detail about the location of the tomb. “At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.” (John 19:41)

Last week I showed you a photo of a rock cliff in Jerusalem that looks like a skull. It is located within 100 feet of a 1st Century vineyard that contained a cistern capable of storing 200,000 gallons of water. And less than 100 feet from that underground cistern is a tomb that has been cut into the limestone cliff. I’ve been there many times, and I can testify that the tomb is empty. It had to be a rich man’s tomb, because it has three chambers. Many believe it is the tomb where Jesus was laid. Whether it is or not, for sure, the tomb was in a garden. So what’s the importance of that?

A. Human sin began and was buried in a garden

In the New Testament Jesus is often compared to Adam. The Bible says, “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:17) So our human story began in a garden. Adam and Eve were placed in a perfect garden to enjoy perfect fellowship with their Creator. It really was paradise in every way. But when sin broke that fellowship, the human story was renamed Paradise Lost. When Jesus entered the tomb He bore our sins in His body, when He came out of the tomb, our sins were gone forever.

The greatest allegory ever written was “Pilgrim’s Progress,” penned by Baptist preacher John Bunyan, while he was in prison in 1660. The main character is a man named Christian (no hidden meaning there). In one scene Christian is running up a hill, and he is burdened by a terrible load on his back (sin). Bunyan wrote, “He ran thus until he came to a path ascending and upon that place stood a cross and a little below it, a sepulcher (tomb). So I saw in my dream that just as Christian came up to the cross, his burdened loosed off his shoulders and fell from his back and began to tumble and so continued to do until it came to the mouth of the sepulcher where it fell in it and I saw it no more.” That’s what Jesus did with our sins. Living He loved me; Dying He saved me. Buried He carried my sins far away! But there is a second powerful symbol in His burial.