Luke 23:50-56 - The Burial Plan

The reason that's important is culturally you are considered very dead after three days. If you'll remember when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, his sister said, "Wait, he's going to smell by now. It's day four." It was an impossibility, but that was God's plan. It was the day of preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning.

One thing we find in scripture is that the tomb that was used was close at hand. We go to John chapter 19, starting in verse 41. "Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden was a new tomb, in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish Day of preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there." There's a couple of things we want to pick up out of that.

Number one, nobody had ever been laid there. We need to go back to the triumphal entry or Palm Sunday. Nobody had ever ridden on that donkey; it was set apart. When something is developed for someone to use, it's never been used. The concept we take away from is it's being reserved for an individual. This was Joseph's tomb; it was reserved for Joseph and his family. The donkey was reserved for someone special. And that's what we need to understand with this tomb: it was reserved for the glory of God. It was reserved for Jesus Christ alone. But the experience was at hand. Joseph didn't know all this, but Joseph knew as the clock is ticking, the sun is getting ready to go down, and I have got to get him buried. "Hey, my tomb is right over here; it's close by. Let's put him in there."

How many times in your life has what seemed like a quote-unquote coincidence, a rare happening, ended up really being the providence of God moving in your life? I know in my life, many times, many steps, many relationships, many events that have happened that I couldn't have set up on my best day. And now I can look back over 53 years and go, "That was part of the plan." I could see God's hand at work all the way through. And that's what I hope you're seeing here: God's plan, his burial plan, has been operating this whole time.

It was the day of preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. Then we come down here to verses 55 and 56, Luke chapter 23. "The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments." We're going to read a couple of parallels here. Let's go to Mark—excuse me, Matthew—chapter 27, first, verse 61. "Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting opposite the tomb."

That's important for us. Let's take a look at Mark chapter 15, verse 47. "Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joseph, saw where he was laid." It's going to be really important for next week. They followed along to see where the tomb was, so they could take note of it because they were going to come back after the Sabbath and continue to prepare the body for the burial, keep up with the smell, if you will. And the reason that we want to take note of that is, next week, when we talk about the resurrection, one of the biggest arguments against the resurrection is, "Well, what if they got the wrong tomb?"