Today, we're going to deal with a passage of scripture that we tend to jump over when we talk about the crucifixion and resurrection. Now, we're going to deal with the burial. We're going to talk about burial plans. The older you get, the more you start thinking about burial plans. So, I drive down the freeway, and I'm always paying attention to the Baker Funeral Home. I think, "Oh man, a casket funeral's gone up. I probably ought to lock that in before too long." But what I want us to realize today is that God had a burial plan for Jesus. The burial plan that I have in place is in a three-ring binder in my home office. The kids know where it's at, so they can follow the instructions because I don't want them playing music that I don't like at my burial. But God also has a set of instructions, and we're going to see the plan unfold today.
So, I'm going to tell you, we're going to go through a lot of scripture. If you're a note-taker, be ready to write. I got lost in my notes in the first service, so I had to go back and draw arrows and pointers so I wouldn't skip things. And then, I realized I didn't have one of my verses marked, so I had to put a sticky note in. We're going to go fast, but it's going to be very rich today, so I hope you'll be ready for that.
Just to kind of give you an idea of where we're going today, my favorite TV show is called "Cold Justice." Has anybody ever watched that one? Alright, yeah, way to go! Norma, and, okay, Terry too—we're homicide investigation junkies, right? So, the idea behind "Cold Justice" is they take cold cases, they have a prosecutor and homicide investigators go back and look at these cold cases, they look at the evidence, they interview anybody who is alive then, and they put together a case. And what's kind of cool is they end up actually prosecuting about 25-30 percent of those. So, kind of a cool show, like my favorite one they solved off of, uh, fly saliva—kind of a really weird deal. So for people like me, you can geek out on that.
But here's why I bring that up: the Gospels parallel each other. And so, if you want a complete picture of what's happening, you really want to look at each of the gospels and compare notes. What is Matthew telling you? What is Mark telling you? What is Luke telling you? What is John telling you? And that's what we're going to be doing today. We're going to be looking at parallels, and then we're going to go back into the Old Testament because the significance of the burial plan comes to life when we begin to study the Old Testament in light of these scriptures.
So, I hope that makes sense to you, and with that, let's get started. Luke chapter 23, verse 50: "There was a man named Joseph from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, a good and righteous man." So, we'll stop there. A couple of things we need to understand about Joseph because it's going to be important to the story: he is a member of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin is a tribunal of 71 individuals. They are the ones that were demanding, "Crucify him!" But what we're going to find out is they were not all supporting that decision. Joseph being one of those, but because he's a member of the Sanhedrin, he is very prominent. He is very well respected, and that's going to open some doors for him as we go through this passage.
So, understanding his position in society is important, and here's the reason that I want us to lock into this: sometimes, we don't know who God is going to use. We don't know who God has already set apart to play a specific role in what he's doing. I'm sure most of you, if you will look at your life, can see people that God has brought in for times and places that were very specific and significant to who you are today and the trajectory of your life going forward. And this is going to be kind of a similar thought that I want you to carry away here.
But of course, we need to parallel this, and so the parallel in Matthew is Matthew chapter 27, and right now, we're just going to look at verse 57. We'll be back to Matthew throughout this message, but verse 57 says this: "When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus." And so, we learn a little more about Joseph—not only is he prominent, he's extremely wealthy, and that's going to be critical. We're going to get to a verse here in a little while from the Old Testament that tells us why his financial status is critical, why his role in society is critical. But what we want to know about him right now is that he's a rich man, and we also want to know he's a disciple of Jesus.
Now here's what's interesting: he's a member of the Sanhedrin, but somewhere along the way, he had an encounter with Jesus, and he realized, "This is the Messiah." And part of the way we know that is some things that we're going to learn about him going through these passages. The second thing we want to see is that he's a good and righteous man. So, "good and righteous" is also used early on in the gospels because "good and righteous" is used to describe Zechariah and Elizabeth. It's also used to describe the prophetess Anna, who spoke over Jesus. And so, that term is reserved for people who were looking for the kingdom of God. And we'll get into what the kingdom of God looks like momentarily.
But let's continue on with our passage here, verse 51 in Luke 23: "He's a good and righteous man who had not consented to their decision and action, and he was looking for the kingdom of God." So, he's known by his character, good and righteous. He's known as a disciple of Jesus, a follower of Jesus. But the reason he's a follower of Jesus is because he was looking for the kingdom of God. Being a scholar of the Old Testament, he knew there was a promised Messiah coming—a messiah who would rule and reign forever. And if you will, there's a bit of a checklist as you come through scripture, and Joseph was smart enough to be checking off boxes as he went. And he realized, as he checked off boxes, "He's the Messiah."
So here's the question for you, our first point we want to land on: number one, are you looking for the kingdom? And more importantly, will you even recognize it when it's in front of you? What does the kingdom of God look like?
Here's the other thing that's interesting in this whole passage: if you're a believer, a follower of Jesus, it would seem like this is the worst of times. He was just nailed to a cross, he died—this whole Christian thing is dead. I wouldn't be surprised if Joseph even thought, "Man, was I mistaken? How could this be? How could this be?"
Here's why, to me, this is such good news. Let's talk about what's been in the news over the last week: Chinese balloons, unidentified objects that we keep having to shoot down over the Great Lakes, right? Crazy chemical release in Ohio, a lot of bad news. I stopped watching the news many years ago because it was just too negative, and Facebook does a great job of filling me in. But here's the other thing that's been in the news: a group of college students had chapel this week, or nine days ago. And if you want to have some fun, go out to YouTube—the actual chapel service is on there. It is not an exciting message; like, there's nothing in there that would indicate that we should be having this ongoing thing for 10 days.
Now here's what I love: God has a plan, regardless of where your thoughts are on what's happening at Asbury. God is in the news; He will not be forgotten. His plan will go forward, even in the worst of times. There's still a plan, and God's plan is always reliable. And so, we want to lock into that. So, verse 51, he's looking for the kingdom of God. Now let's go to Mark chapter 15, and we're going to learn a little more about what's happening here.
So, Mark chapter 15, and I put on here verses 44 through 45, but let's actually back up to verse 42. "And when evening had come, since it was the day of preparation, that is the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus." And we're going to stop there for the moment because there's some important points that we need to understand, and we'll cover some passages here that will give you a better understanding of these as well.
It's the day before Passover, first point you need to understand. That's the day that all the lambs were sacrificed, slaughtered. Jesus had to die on this day. He's the sacrificial lamb. He couldn't die before, he couldn't die after, he had to die today. He's the sacrificial lamb. That's the first thing.
Second thing we need to understand is Joseph is going to go in and see Pilate. Now if you are a Jewish leader preparing for Passover and the Sabbath, the last thing you want to do is defile yourself—to enter into the home or the building of a gentile with a roof over it, you defiled yourself, you became unclean. So he is taking a risk by going to see Pilate.
The second thing that we need to understand about this risk is, we know from scripture that at about the same time, the other leaders of the Sanhedrin are before Pilate saying, "Hey, now wait a minute, he said he's going to raise from the dead. Would you post a guard at the tomb to make sure the disciples don't come and steal his body?" So, literally, if you kind of step back and envision this in your mind, they're coming out as he's going in. And I would not be surprised if their eyes met, and they're wondering, "Is Joseph coming to see Pilate?"
So, there's risk number two that he's having to take. Third one is, he's going to ask the governor of Rome for the body of a condemned criminal. Here's the way crucifixion normally ended: once you died, they left you there hanging for everyone to see, and hopefully the coyotes would get to you a little bit and the predatory birds, and they wanted to show, "This is what happens to those who rise up against Rome." And at whatever point they decided to take your body down, they were going to throw it into a mass grave with all the other criminals. So for him to come and ask for a body was in itself unique.
But there's a reason for this. Back to this day of preparation for the Passover, let's go through a few more passages so we can expound on this a little bit. John chapter 19 is our next stop, so if you'll turn with me there to John 19, and we'll be visiting John 19 a few times, so don't lose sight of it, starting at verse 31.
"Since it was the day of preparation, and so that bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away." So, we need to understand this—we talked about the crucifixion last week. In crucifixion, a person dies by asphyxiation. You suffocate to death. The only way that the crucified can breathe is to push themselves up so they can grab a breath of air, and then, of course, they come back down. So if the Romans wanted to expedite that, they would take a club made of iron, and they would shatter the legs of the condemned so you couldn't push up. That was how they sped up death.
Now we need to understand why were the Jewish leaders so adamant about this? Why was Joseph in such a hurry? Because of this, and we need to go to Deuteronomy chapter 21 to understand this better. It's part of the law, Deuteronomy chapter 21, verses 22 and 23. "And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance." So, the reason there was this sense of urgency is we don't want the crucified hanging there as we enter into the Sabbath and into the Passover Sabbath. We want him off the cross; we want all of them off the cross. So, the Jewish leaders wanted that done because they didn't want to defile their Sabbath. It's okay to put an innocent man to death, but don't leave him hanging there. And Joseph wanted to do this for the same reasons, but more importantly, it was God's plan.
Don't miss that. The sense of urgency was God's plan. Jesus died around three o'clock in the afternoon, sundown's around six—three-hour window, expedience was important, and you're going to see this in the scriptures as well.
Let's go back to John chapter 19, verses 32-35. "Pilate gives the orders that their legs might be broken. So, the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once, there came out blood and water."
He who saw it has borne witness. His testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth, that you may believe. Well, why was that critical? Why not go ahead and smash his legs? Well, he's already dead, but just to be sure, spear into his side, punctured the sack around his heart, blood and water comes forth. But there's more to the story because God has specific instructions for the Passover sacrifice. Let's take a look at Exodus chapter 12, verse 46.
And you'll begin to see the burial plan coming into play very quickly. Talking about the sacrifice, "It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones." In Numbers chapter 9, verse 12, this instruction gets reiterated, "They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break any of its bones." As the perfect Lamb of God, the sacrifice, no bones could be broken according to all the statute for the Passover, "They shall keep it."
Then in Psalm chapter 34, verse 20, "He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken." Remember, Joseph was looking for the kingdom of God, checking off boxes, checking off boxes. What should we be doing? Checking off boxes, checking off boxes.
A couple of points that I want you to get because they're going to set up next week. The soldier was sure he was dead, and just to be sure, he pierced his side. A Roman soldier understood death; they're pretty good at identifying a dead body. He was dead. He had to die. This will become more important next week when we talk about some of the arguments against the resurrection.
Let's go to Luke 23, verses 52 and 53. "This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone where no one had ever yet been laid." This can be important to us as well. Back to Joseph's status in society, not everybody could get an audience with Pilate. But Joseph, being a member of the Sanhedrin, was allowed that audience. Under Roman law, the Sanhedrin could decide religious matters, matters of cultural celebration, matters of religious dispute. So, he's a prominent figure within the culture. The Roman government is interested in keeping the peace, and so he was allowed access to Pilate.
When we go into John chapter 19 again, we learn a little more, verses 38 through 40. "After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body."
Then I'm going to take us back into Mark for a moment, Mark chapter 15, verse 44. "Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. Remember, crucifixion is supposed to take about three days. He's dead, how'd that happen? And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead." And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph.
Now, let's go back to our main passage, Luke 23, and I want you to consider a couple of other things that are going to happen here with Joseph, verse 53. "Then he took it down, meaning Jesus' body, and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone where no one had ever yet been laid." The Sabbath, right before the Sabbath coming into Passover, one of the easiest ways for a Jew to defile themselves was to touch anything dead. Joseph is not only going to touch the Dead, but he's going to take Jesus off of the cross. And I'm going to take you down a mental journey, and it's going to be a little disturbing, but I want us to be disturbed a little bit.
That means he's going to undo Jesus' hands from the nails. That means he's going to undo Jesus' feet from the nails. That means he's going to be wiping off the blood, the dirt, the sweat from Jesus' body. That means he's going to embrace that corpse to get it off the cross. For you to really understand what Jesus did for you, you've got to embrace the corpse. He died for you. We can't just pass from the crucifixion to the resurrection because he had to conquer death and Hell. He died for you, so that when it's our turn to die, they don't have to worry about it; it's a celebration. "I'm going to be with Jesus, who cares?"
Defiling himself publicly, here he is, a leader of the Sanhedrin, defiling himself going to see Pilate, defiling himself taking Jesus off the cross. But I love this little glimpse that we get from the other Gospels. We go to John chapter 19, verses 38 and 40. "We find he had company. After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. And so he came and took away his body. And notice who's here: Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds in weight."
So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloth with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. So, a couple of things we want to take away from this: number one, when we talk about what burial looks like, this is kind of what burial looks like. This is a depiction of the tomb that Jesus would have been put in. So it's cut out of the rock, it's got the stone that can be rolled in front to keep animals and grave robbers out, it's got a stopping stone that you can roll back if you need to enter in. When you enter in, it's a low entrance, so you have to duck to come in. And then the body is laid on one of these sides here, and it's covered in spices so you can keep up with the smell. Once the body has decayed and it's down to a skeleton, the bones are then put in one of the boxes called an ossuary. And that middle carved out area is a place to put a lamp so you can see when you're in there.
So that's kind of the depiction that's going to be important when we talk about the resurrection. When you understand how things are laid out, the story of the resurrection makes a lot more sense. But Nicodemus was there. When did we last meet Nicodemus? John chapter 3. Jesus says, "You must be born again." Nicodemus says, "How can I be born again?" And then everybody's favorite football stadium verse, verse 16. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life." We didn't know that at the time, but we know now Nicodemus made a decision in that moment or shortly thereafter. He too became a follower of Jesus.
And you might say, "Well, how come you didn't do anything when the rest of the crowd was putting Jesus to death?" Wasn't God's plan. And let me point out something: who's not present taking Jesus off the cross? Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew—nowhere to be seen. But two men who would appear on the outside to be the opposition are now defiling themselves in front of everyone because they've met the Savior, and it's worth it.
Coming back into Luke chapter 23, verse 54, "It was the day of preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning." The day of preparation is the day when all the sacrifices are made, and by law, any dead body that had been crucified, executed, had to be buried. The clock is ticking. There's an urgency, a small roughly three-hour window that all these things need to take place in. If Jesus is buried later than that, he's not the Messiah. If the day changes, he's not the Messiah. And he's got to be in the tomb for three days. And so one of you smart people out there ought to be thinking, "Well, gosh, Friday to Sunday isn't three days." Not the way we keep time. But if Jesus is in the tomb before sundown on Friday, that's day one. He's in the tomb on Saturday, that's day two. If he's in the tomb any part of Sunday, that's day three. He rises again the morning of the third day.
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?"
Well, scripture already addresses that. They watched where he was buried, and it's corroborated throughout the Gospels. Why is this all so important? Well, let's go to Isaiah chapter 53, and there's an important verse in this passage dealing with the suffering servant, this discussion of the coming Messiah, verse 9. "And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth."
That was always the plan. That was always the plan. Joseph, you're my guy. Somewhere along the way, Joseph was probably drinking his morning coffee, talking with his wife, saying, "You know, we're getting older. We probably ought to put our funeral plans in place, so if the kids know what to do with us." "Yeah, let's get that done." They didn't know they were going to be a part of this. That was God's plan.
Question is, what is God wanting to do with you? You have no clue how big of God's plan that is. Things that you think are just normal, every day, run-of-the-mill, "You know, I just feel like I ought to do this," for some reason, that reason has divine purposes behind it.
And then, of course, we read that the women rested on the Sabbath day according to the Commandment. Well, which commandment is that? That's one we should all know from The Ten Commandments, Exodus chapter 20, verse 10. "The seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it, you shall not do any work, you or your son, or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates."
They were keeping the Sabbath. That was the Commandment. Isn't that interesting? God put the Sabbath in the middle of this story. Why? Because that was the plan. Jesus had to die; he had to go to the grave; he had to stay there, so that his resurrection couldn't be argued. God's plan is amazing. I hope you don't miss that.
Here's where I want to close, though, and I alluded to this before: you don't see the disciples in this story. Not the ones we would think of. You see the faithful remnant. When you study scripture throughout its entirety, you see the importance of the remnant. God uses the remnant over and over again to bring about his purposes in mankind. Joseph and Nicodemus were the remnant, hidden in the shadows, but now it was time. "You men have to step out and be seen so that my plan can go forward."
And so, that's the question for you: is it time for you to step out and be seen? It's time to come out of the shadows and risk everything. I'm willing to be seen. This morning, we had two baptisms in our first service—two young men taking a stand, being seen. "I'm going to follow Jesus all the days of my life."
But to take a stand for Jesus brings risk. You might not get to be a part of the Sanhedrin anymore. There might be people who don't want to hang out with you anymore. There might be people who make fun of you, make fun of your God. But are you ready to stand in the light and be seen? Are you ready to get dirty for Jesus?
This morning, if you're here and you've never asked Jesus to be your savior, I want to just give you that opportunity today. He died for you. And this is the middle point of the story. You're going to learn next week that he didn't just die for you; he lives for you. But he took your place. And maybe it's time for you to make the decision that Joseph and Nicodemus did, become his disciple. "I'm going to follow you. I don't even know exactly what that all means, but I'm going to follow you."
And if that's you today, then today's the day. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for dying for me. Thank you for going to the cross for me. I want to follow you. Be the Lord of my life.
And if you've been his follower for a long time, here's the question for you: are you playing small? Are you hiding in the shadows? Is now the time you need to step forward and, just like Joseph, work up the courage to take that bold step?
But here's the good news: you don't have to manufacture the courage because here's the other thing we see in Scripture. Peter denied Christ and ran. Get a few weeks down the road, he's the boldest preacher to walk the face of the Earth. But it took a fresh impartation of God's spirit to get him there. And maybe that's what you need—you need boldness. "I don't care what anybody thinks. I'm going to stand for Jesus Christ because he laid down his life for me."
But some of us, we play small. We don't talk about it. "Oh, I'm going to let my life be my witness." Really? Well, somebody has to see your life first. Are we willing to get bold and take a stand? See, the sad part is we shouldn't marvel at the revival on a college campus. If more of us would step up and say, "God, here I am, use me," we'd have to bar the doors of every place. So that's my challenge for you today.
