We often tell people
at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem that the exaltation of Christ began in His
burial. He was buried with the rich at His death, because He had
done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth (Isa. 53:9).
The rich man spoken of
in Isaiah was Joseph of Arimathea, a city of the Jews (although its location is
unknown to this day). Joseph was a
disciple of Christ, although secretly for fear of the Jews (Jn. 19:38), for he
was also a respected member of the Sanhedrin, the council that had condemned
Christ (Mk. 15:43). He was a good and just man who had not consented
to the council’s decision for he was waiting
for the coming of the Kingdom of God (Lk. 23:50-51).
All the Gospels agree
that Jesus died on the Preparation Day,
the day before the Sabbath.
Traditionally that means He died on Friday before Saturday; however
being Passover time there were other Sabbath days including Passover, the first
day of the week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits. What it means is that the Jews were in a
hurry to have the three bodies off their crosses and Joseph was in a hurry to
properly bury the body of Christ. Pilate
was surprised that Jesus had died as soon as He did (Mk. 15:44) but after
confirming His death Pilate gave Joseph permission to take the body. Joseph had purchased fine linens (Mk. 15:46)
that was cut in strips to wrap around the body as was the custom (Jn.
19:40). Joseph was aided by Nicodemus
who was also a member of the council; Nicodemus bought a hundred pounds of
spices, a mix of myrrh and aloes, good for overpowering the odor from the tomb
(Jn. 19:39).
Joseph’s tomb was in a
garden near Golgotha. The garden would
have been the kind that would earn someone some money, not one of shade trees
and flowers as we might think today. We
are not told that the garden belonged to Joseph but only that he had
commissioned a tomb to be dug out of solid rock that was in this garden. The tomb was new and had never been used (Jn.
19:41).
The “Garden Tomb” in
Jerusalem fits the description of Joseph’s tomb and we have included photos to the right. The ones
who know which is the tomb are not with us.
The guards could tell us. On the
Sabbath the Jews asked Pilate to secure the tomb lest Jesus’ disciples come and
steal the body and claim it was a resurrection (Mt. 27:62-66). The women could tell us. They took seriously Jesus command to His
disciples to watch. They were at the cross until the end. They watched until the stone was rolled in
front of the tomb (Mk. 15:47). And then
they waited, resting on the Sabbath but prepared to come back on the first day
of the week to add to the spices (Lk. 23:55-56).
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