Luke 23:50-56 (NIV) Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.
The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.
Not everyone in the Sanhedrin had sold out to the leaders’ agenda of hate and destruction. Joseph was a good and righteous man who followed Jesus secretly. He, together with Nicodemus (John 19:39), could not bear the thought that Jesus would be thrown into an unmarked mass grave by the Romans, the normal fate of those crucified. Joseph owned a brand-new tomb in a garden right next to where Jesus had been crucified. He had carved it out of the rock of the hillside for himself and his family, but it had not yet been used.
Tombs in those days were multiple-use structures. The body of the deceased would be laid on a raised stone slab in the center of the tomb, then the stone would be rolled in front of the opening, and the body left there for several months, possibly until the next person in the family died. At that time, family members would open the tomb and gather the bones from the slab and place them in a bone-box (ossuary) that had the person’s name engraved on it. The ossuary would be placed in a niche for perpetuity, and the slab was cleaned and made ready for whoever needed it next.
But before Joseph could bury Jesus in his tomb, he had to ask Pilate for permission to take the body. This was a very gutsy thing to do, because it would immediately identify him as someone who was sympathetic to Jesus and His cause. The penalty could range from being arrested as a co-conspirator if the governor had believed what had been told to him about Jesus, to being persecuted by the Jews, and very likely losing his seat in the Sanhedrin. But none of that mattered to Joseph. Things had gone too far, and it was high time for him to take a stand for the right.
Pilate was amazingly amenable to Joseph’s taking charge of Jesus’ body; he just had to verify that Jesus was really dead before he would release Him to his care (Mark 15:44-45). The sun was setting fast by the time Joseph and Nicodemus got Jesus’ body down from the cross and carried it to the tomb, and when the sun set, the Sabbath would begin. So, the two men had to work quickly. They had brought about 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes (John 19:39), spices that would blunt the odor of rotting flesh, and linen cloth. They quickly wrapped the body in the cloth, and packed the spices around Him. Then, just before the sun set, they rolled the heavy stone in front of the opening of the tomb, and wearily turned to go home.
The women who had accompanied Jesus to Jerusalem were troubled as they watched these proceedings. There had been no time to wash Jesus’ body, and the wrapping had been too hastily done. They carefully noted the location of the tomb, then went and prepared their own spices and perfumes. They would rest on the Sabbath in obedience to God’s law, but at sunrise on Sunday they would be back, and would redo everything properly so that Jesus could rest in peace.
Father, it is easy to forget how much these early disicples of Jesus were willing to risk for His sake. The easy thing to do would have been to lie low for a while, to keep their heads down until the emotions had abated. But their reverence for Jesus, even in death, knew no bounds. Lord, fill me with that same passion, that same devotion to Jesus and for his name, so that I am driven to glorify Him the same as they were, even if it is risky. Amen.