The King is buried in a borrowed tomb (Luke 23:50-56)

This study covers the events immediately after Jesus yields up his spirit on the cross. Two officials bury him before the end of the day according to the Law of Moses.

Luke 23:50-56

Jesus Buried in Joseph's Tomb

Luke 23:50-56

50 Now behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man. 51 He had not consented to their decision and deed. He was from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God. 52 This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 53 Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock, where no one had ever lain before. 54 That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near.

55 And the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid. 56 Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.

Compare Matthew 27:57-61; Mark 15:42-47; John 19:38-42

In this passage which concludes Luke 23, we read about Jesus’ burial. Luke tells us that shortly after Jesus’ death, Joseph of Arimathea approached Pontius Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Having taken the body down from the cross, Joseph wrapped it in linen and placed it in a previously unoccupied rock tomb. Having observed what Joseph had done, the women who had followed Jesus from Galilee returned to Jerusalem and prepared spices and fragrant oils with which to embalm Him. Then at sunset they rested in accordance with the Sabbath.

All four Gospel accounts confirm the role played by Joseph of Arimathea. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John add important details to the story which Luke relates. I will use all four accounts to try to construct a fuller account of who Joseph was and what occurred immediately after Jesus’ passing.

Who was Joseph of Arimathea?

According to the Gospels of Luke and Mark, Joseph was member of the council, most likely the Great Sanhedrin, which met in the Temple in Jerusalem. Mark tells us that Joseph was in fact a prominent council member and Matthew describes Joseph as a wealthy man (Matthew 27:57). The fact that Joseph was able to purchase the land and commission the construction of a rock tomb close to Jerusalem is most likely in itself evidence of his wealth.

Such wealth is consistent with what is known about the composition of the Sanhedrin. In Jesus’ day, the Sanhedrin probably consisted of two main factions, the Sadducees, made up of the chief priests and elders, whose power was based on their wealth, and the Pharisees, made up of the scribes and Pharisees, whose power was based on their knowledge of the Old Testament and the Mishnah, the oral commentaries on the Old Testament that the scribes passed from one generation to the next. For the previous two hundred years the Sadducees had been the dominant faction; but in Jesus’ day the power of the Pharisees rivaled that of the Sadducees.

All four Gospels identify Joseph with the city of Arimathea. However, we are unsure where Arimathea was, other than that it was a city of the Jews, located most likely somewhere in Judea. Based on my limited research, it appears that the city of Arimathea is not mentioned in other ancient texts outside of the Scriptures. Using linguistic evidence some scholars associate Arimathea with either Ramleh, located about 24 miles northwest of Jerusalem, or Ramathaim-Zophim, the birthplace and residence of the Old Testament prophet Samuel, the exact location of which is unfortunately also undetermined, but which was believed to be in the vicinity the city of Lydda (Lod), about 32 miles northwest of Jerusalem on the way to the seaport of Joppa.

Both John’s and Matthew’s Gospels state that Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple of Jesus, with John 19:38 adding that he was a secret disciple of Jesus, for fear of the Jews. We tend to think of the Sanhedrin as a whole as hostile towards Jesus and certainly this is consistent with Scripture. John 11:47 tells us that after the report of Jesus’ resurrection of Lazarus in Bethany reached Jerusalem, the chief priests and Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin to decide what to do about Jesus. The outcome of that meeting was decision, John 11:53 tells us, was that “from that day on, they plotted to put Him to death.” Who exactly that “they” was who plotted to put Jesus to death is not clear to us, other than it was some portion of the Sanhedrin. We do not know how many or which members of the Sanhedrin were present at this meeting nor how they voted as individuals. The Mishnah records that not all 71 members of the Sanhedrin had to be on hand to reach a decision; only a quorum of twenty-three was required.

The Gospel of John tells us that not all of the members of the Sanhedrin were opposed to Jesus. In John 12:42-43 we read that “Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” John tells us that while many of the rulers had some degree of belief in Jesus, they would not confess that He was the Christ (Messiah), lest they be put out of the synagogue (John 9:18-23) and lose the praise of men.

Joseph of Arimathea may well have been among these leaders whom John referred to, who believed in Jesus but were reticent to confess that He was Messiah. Whether he was present at the meeting recorded in John 11 we cannot say. I read Luke 23:51, which tells us that Joseph “had not consented to their [the council’s] decision and deed,” as indicating that he did not agree with the decision that the Sanhedrin had reached to put Jesus to death.

Luke describes Joseph as “a good and just man, …who himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God.” These are intended as words of praise and are not spoken of many individuals in the New Testament. As I was preparing this study, it struck me as interesting how that Jesus’ life was bounded on both sides by good and just people who were waiting for the coming Messiah. When the baby Jesus was just a few weeks old, Mary and Joseph took Him to the Temple to present Him to the Lord and sacrifice a pair of turtledoves or pigeons. This was because, according to Mosaic Law (Exodus 13:1-2), as the firstborn male child, Jesus was holy to the Lord and had to be redeemed by sacrifice. Luke 2:25-32 tells us what happened next:

25 And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. 27 So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, 28 he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said:

29 "Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace,
According to Your word;
30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation
31 Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples,
32 A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles,
And the glory of Your people Israel."

 

Simeon, like Joseph of Arimathea, “was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel,” another name for Messiah, as his prayer of blessing to God makes clear. Luke goes on to narrate that at that same hour Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, a prophetess who had served for decades at the Temple by fastings and prayers also appeared and “gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.” I believe that like Joseph of Arimathea, both Simeon and Anna recognized Jesus as the Messiah for whom they had been waiting.

In John’s Gospel Joseph is accompanied by Nicodemus, who assists in preparing Jesus’ body for burial.

John 19:39-42

39 And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. 40 Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. 41 Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. 42 So there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews' Preparation Day, for the tomb was nearby.

John records that Nicodemus had brought with him one hundred Roman pounds (or about 75 US pounds) of myrrh and aloes, both of which were used in the embalming of the dead for burial. Myrrh was also used an ingredient in perfume, as a fumigator, and as a medicine. Myrrh was one of the ingredients in the holy oil that the Lord told Moses to make for anointing the tabernacle and its utensils. Myrrh was also one of the gifts that the three wise men brought to the infant Jesus. As an aside, the word “aloes” probably refers here to powdered aloe wood, rather than to the juice of the aloe vera succulent. In the time of Herodotus, the Greek historian, powdered aloe wood was quite valuable and was in fact worth its weight in gold. Although John does not say so, it is likely that Nicodemus also was a man of means like Joseph.

Nicodemus is another individual who recognized that Jesus was someone used by God. Perhaps Nicodemus also believed Jesus was the Christ; however, Scripture is silent on that point. We first meet Nicodemus in John 3:1, where he is described as “a man of the Pharisees” and “a ruler of the Jews,” suggesting he was most likely also a member of the Sanhedrim. Nicodemus comes at night to speak with Jesus, who tells him about the need of being born again of the Spirit in order to see the kingdom of God. 

Luke tells us that Joseph went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. Mark’s Gospel at this point contains an interesting comment. We read in the NKJV version of Mark 15:43 that Joseph of Arimathea “took courage” before he approached Pilate to ask for Jesus’ body (Mark 15:42-44).  Other translations, such as the KJV and the NIV, read that he went boldly before Pilate and requested the body of Jesus. And the Amplified Bible says that Joseph, “daring the consequences, took courage and ventured to go to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.” Comments such as this can tempt us to question or speculate about the thoughts and intents of Joseph’s heart at this point.

Scripture makes it clear that Joseph went boldly before Pilate; however we are never told either what caused him to be bold or why he needed to be bold. Scripture is silent on these points. We might wonder whether Joseph was bold because he had been stirred up by the Spirit to make a public profession of his belief in Jesus and claim the body of Jesus regardless of any consequences his action might have for him. Or, conversely, whether Joseph was bold because, with Jesus dead, he no longer believed that Jesus had been the Messiah. Or did Joseph need to be bold because he feared Pilate? Or was courage needed because he knew that by handling a corpse, he was making himself ceremonially impure before a holy day?

And then there is the comment, recorded in both Luke 23:51 and Mark 15:43, that Joseph was waiting for the kingdom of God, in other words for the Messiah. Here again we could speculate whether this comment implies that Joseph had been and was still waiting for Messiah, because he no longer believed Jesus was the Christ. The tense of the Greek verb fully supports such a reading. Or does this comment imply that Joseph had ceased to wait because he understood that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah? Here too the grammar supports this reading….

And finally, it is tempting to ask what if anything is the significance of the preparations of Jesus body that Joseph and Nicodemus made. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Joseph wraps Jesus’ body in a linen cloth and laid it in a tomb which had been cut out of the rock. As we have already noted, John’s Gospel adds more information to this account. Joseph and Nicodemus together wrap Jesus’ body with linen strips and spices, and then place Him in Joseph’s tomb, which was close to Calvary, the site of Jesus’ crucifixion. Should we view Joseph’s and Nicodemus’ preparations of Jesus’ body in John 19:40 as a lack of belief?

Indeed, had not Jesus told His disciples on several occasions, and as recently as a few days before (Matthew 16:21, 17:23, 20:19; Mark 8:31, 9:31, 10:34; and Luke 9:22, 18:31-33.), that He would be put to death but then raised on the third day? For example, in Matthew 16:21 we read, “From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.”

Would Joseph and Nicodemus have embalmed Jesus’ body as they did if they believed in their hearts that He was going to rise on the third day? Had not Jesus recently raised His friend Lazarus of Bethany from the dead after three days? And hadn’t Jesus had been able to bring Lazarus back uncorrupted by death, since Scripture makes no reference to Lazarus stinking after he was resurrected? So what need would there be for spices and aloes to preserve Jesus’ body and mask the odor of His decay? Or should Joseph’s and Nicodemus’ preparations something different, a willing and expensive sacrifice to a worthy Messiah? Or were they perhaps simply evidence of their distress at seeing the one in whom they had hoped now dead and about to be buried? 

In the end, I personally believe that all these speculations, while interesting, are ultimately only that. I believe that the Holy Spirit can, and sometimes does, reveal spiritual truths to us as we speculate in this way. As we read, meditate on, and study Scripture, it is important to remember that God’s Word itself warns us not to add to, subtract from (Deuteronomy 4:1-3), or go beyond (1 Corinthians 4:6-7) what the word of God says. I believe that especially when we go beyond what is written in Scripture, we run the risk of leaning on our own understanding and on our common sense, rather than on what the Holy Spirit is revealing, and becoming “puffed up,” or prideful, in the process. It is too easy to say, “Look what the Lord has revealed to me.” Instead let us learn to look at what the Word of God says and be content with that. Deuteronomy 29:29 teaches us that "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

I believe that God would have us be content with what He has given us in His word. There is already far more than we can grasp in the written word of God that we have received. Furthermore, I find that for me it becomes easier to have contentment with what is written when I recall that the things of God can only be known through the Holy Spirit. In the Book of Job, Zophar, one of Job’s friends, whose understanding of the Lord was certainly flawed, offered these words of true wisdom to his friend:

Job 11:7-9

7 "Can you search out the deep things of God?
Can you find out the limits of the Almighty?
8 They are higher than heaven — what can you do?
Deeper than Sheol — what can you know?
9 Their measure is longer than the earth
And broader than the sea.

We cannot hope to completely understand God’s word or His ways – they are too lofty for us. And it is only through the agency of the Spirit of God that we can begin to know Him at all. In 1 Corinthians 2:9-16, Paul tells the church at Corinth how it is the spiritual things are discerned:

9 But as it is written:

"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him."

10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

13 These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For "who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

Without the mind of Christ, without the Spirit of God, the things of God cannot be received as anything but foolishness. There is an important truth here for our passage tonight. I believe that for exactly this reason the spiritual significance of the crucifixion of Jesus and the promise of His resurrection was not understood by the many of those who saw the events with their own eyes, heard Jesus speak with their own ears, and knew the Old Testament writings about the Messiah. They did not comprehend because they were spiritually blind.

We see examples of spiritual blindness in the events leading up to and immediately after Jesus’ crucifixion, even among Jesus’ disciples. For example, in Luke 18:31-34, as Jesus and His disciples prepare to set out on their journey to Jerusalem, we read:

31 Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished.  32 For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon.  33 They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again."

34 But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken.

At this point Jesus’ disciples had walked with Him for three years, had seen Him do miracles, even raise the dead, and had seen that what He prophesied came to pass. They heard His words prophesying His capture, abuse, death and resurrection - but His words were not understood.

We must not think that it was because of their ignorance of the Scriptures that the disciples failed to grasp the spiritual meaning of what He was telling them. Even the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees, men who spent their lives reading and studying the Old Testament, were just as blinded to what Jesus was saying. In Matthew 27:62-66, we read that the day after Jesus had been buried, the chief priests and Pharisees remembered Jesus’ promise that He would rise again on the third day and approached Pontius Pilate for his help in making the tomb secure.

62 On the next day, which followed the Day of Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate, 63 saying, "Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise.'  64 Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away, and say to the people, 'He has risen from the dead.' So the last deception will be worse than the first."

65 Pilate said to them, "You have a guard; go your way, make it as secure as you know how." 66 So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting the guard.

We have seen how some of the chief priests and Pharisees viewed Jesus as a blasphemer who deserved death because He had claimed to the Christ and the Son of God. Not surprisingly they could not they see the spiritual significance of the things that Jesus said to them about His resurrection. Because they viewed Jesus as a blasphemer, the chief priests and Pharisees never considered that Jesus would actually rise from the grave after three days; instead interpreted His statements as meaning that Jesus’ disciples were planning to steal His body to make it appear as if He had risen.

In John 12:37-41 the Holy Spirit reveals that the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees in fact could not believe in Jesus, because they had been blinded to the truth by God, just as God had blinded many of the Children of Israel in the days of the Prophet Isaiah:

John 12:37-41

37 But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, 38 that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke:

"Lord, who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?"

39 Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again:

40 "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts,
Lest they should see with their eyes,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them."

41 These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him.

I suspect that Joseph and Nicodemus, the disciples and the women who had followed Jesus from Galilee, like the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees, were unable to understand what they had heard Jesus say about rising again on the third day after His death. Without the Holy Spirit, how could they? Even though Joseph, possibly Nicodemus, the disciples and the women had believed Jesus was the Messiah, He was dead and buried. Yes, He had raised others from the dead; but now He was dead Himself. Who but the Lord Himself could now raise Jesus from the grave now? And why would the Lord raise Him now? If God had not wanted Jesus to be dead, why had He permitted Him to die in the first place?

I suspect those who believe that Jesus was Messiah had little or no understanding of how Jesus was indeed the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, as John the Baptist had correctly proclaimed. I suspect that the Jews of Jesus’ day would have seen Passover predominantly as a reminder for what the Lord had done for them in bringing them out of captivity in Egypt. I suspect that they would not have said that it was the Passover lamb who took away their sins, but rather the animals mentioned in Leviticus 16: the bull, the ram, and the two goats.

But for the Jews who left Israel with Moses, I suspect that Passover may have been more meaningful than that. The angel of death was about to pour God’s wrath upon Egypt. The firstborn male children and animals were going to be killed that very night. It was not because they were God’s chosen people that the angel of death passed over their homes. It was not because they were children of Abraham that their firstborn were spared. It was only the blood of their Passover lambs, sprinkled upon their doorposts and lintels, which kept the angel of death from their household. Israel was not being judged for their sins at this point, but they were being saved by their faith. I find in the Passover lamb a similar picture I see in Yom Kippur, in the Day of Atonement. In both cases, it is only the blood of an animal without flaw or spot which can atone for our sins and keep us from death. For me, both the Passover lamb and the animals sacrificed on Yom Kippur, are Old Testament types of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.   

 

Shortly after Jesus had passed, Joseph and Nicodemus went to Pontius Pilate to ask for His body. There was some urgency to their request: all four Gospels tell us that it was the day of Preparation before the Sabbath. I believe that in these passages Sabbath does not refer to Saturday, which was the regular Sabbath. Sabbath is also used to refer to any holy festival day where work is prohibited, such as Passover. The Gospel of John refers to that Sabbath as a “high day,” or in other words an especially solemn or sacred festival: “31 Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should 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.”( John 19:31). Because the following day was Passover, it was important that the bodies would not remain on the cross.

It was the Roman practice that the bodies of those who had been crucified would to be left on the cross until they rotted, or were eaten by the birds, as a grisly reminder to the living what happened to those who broke the laws of Rome.  However, because of Deuteronomy 21:22-23, which reads:

22 "If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.

the Romans made an exception for the Jews and usually permitted them to take down the bodies of their countrymen who had been crucified the same day that the died. The practice of breaking the legs of those who had been crucified made it much harder to breath and hastened their death. John records that the legs of the two thieves were broken. But when the Roman soldiers went to break Jesus legs, they found that He had already expired. To make absolutely certain that He was dead, one soldier pierced His side with a lance, to see if He reacted in any way to the pain. Mark’s Gospel tells us that when Joseph asked Pilate for Jesus’ body, Pilate was surprised that He had died so soon, and summoned a centurion to verify that Jesus was in fact dead before he gave permission to claim the body.

By preparing Jesus’ body for immediate burial, both Joseph and Nicodemus were keeping the Law of Moses. At the same time, because of their handling of a dead body, Joseph and Nicodemus would have become ceremonially unclean and would not have been allowed to offer a Passover sacrifice for their household. The Law of Moses is clear about this prohibition (Numbers 9:6-13), although apparently this had been relaxed to the point where those who were ceremonially unclean were allowed to partake of the Passover meal with their households. And if they desired, Joseph and Nicodemus would be allowed to sacrifice their Passover lambs on the fourteenth day of the following month. 

We can see, I believe, in the actions of Joseph and Nicodemus an interesting template for our own walk with God. Joseph and Nicodemus believe that Jesus is the Messiah. They have read the Law and the Prophets and listened to Jesus’ teaching and now they respond to the best of their understanding. They cannot understand what God is doing but they are faithful to do what they have been told to do. And in so doing, just like their father Abraham, they demonstrate their faith.

This is how each of us is called to live out our lives as believers. Whatever the Lord has revealed to us, that is what we need to live. We will rarely understand what the Lord is doing but that should not stop us from being faithful.