How can Jesus possibly win after His body has been buried?

“Buried”

(Matthew 27:57-66, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, November 30, 2008)

Matthew 27:57-66 ⁵⁷ When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. ⁵⁸ He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. ⁵⁹ And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud ⁶⁰ and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. ⁶¹ Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb. ⁶² Next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate ⁶³ and said, "Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, 'After three days I will rise.' ⁶⁴ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, 'He has risen from the dead,' and the last fraud will be worse than the first." ⁶⁵ Pilate said to them, "You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can." ⁶⁶ So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.

Introduction – The body of Christ

The Lord has given us each a very wonderful gift in His provision of a body for us. Knowing that He has a plan for us that includes resurrection bodies helps us to recognize the importance even of the mortal bodies that we have now. These mortal bodies are not perfect, but they have this: They can be temples of the Holy Spirit. From the bodies of Adam and Eve, to the sound of the final resurrection trumpet, our God’s plans for us involve physical life.

We use the words “the body of Christ” to refer to three things: The Lord’s Supper, the church, and the physical body of Jesus. When God sent His Son to save us, He gave Him a true body and a real soul. Jesus of Nazareth, though conceived by the Holy Spirit, had an actual body from the beginning. He grew in the womb of His mother Mary just as any child would. He had to learn how to use His body. His obedience to the Law of God was not just a spiritual thing. It never could be. Out of the purity of a perfectly holy soul, He lived out the way of goodness through the use of His mind, His words, and His body. This was necessary in order for Him to fulfill His great mission.

The body of Jesus (57-58)

Toward the conclusion of His earthly ministry something horrible began to happen. His body began to be very seriously damaged. This started in the Garden of Gethsemane, where the severe strain of what was before Him caused His capillary vessels to dilate and burst, mixing sweat and blood. Then after His arrest, Jesus was very badly beaten. Isaiah apparently prophesies about our Lord’s appearance saying that He was “marred beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.” The New Testament tells us that He was not only beaten with a rod, and punched, but that He was also scourged, a brutal form of punishment that could cause very serious injury. Then He faced the external and internal trauma associated with a death on a cross, until finally He gave up His Spirit. His body, the body of the Christ, the body of Jesus of Nazareth, our Savior, died.

The death of the cross is inescapably brutal, with the goal of public exposure in order to show the greatest disrespect. Though our Lord faced the hatred of many enemies, there were some who wanted to treat His body in a different way. They wanted to show appropriate honor to Him, even though He was dead. It is right to care for our bodies while they are alive, and to continue to care for them even after they are dead. It is a way of saying that we believe that God still has a good plan for these bodies, and that we want to show our love for a person by treating them kindly even after they cannot feel anything anymore. For this reason Joseph of Arimathea, a rich disciple of Jesus, went to Pilate that evening and asked for the body of Jesus, and Pilate did not refuse his request.

A burial (59-61)

It was part of Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the body of Jesus that He would be buried in a rich man’s tomb. Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the ruling council who, Luke tells us, did not consent to the actions of the council in condemning Jesus. He also says that this Joseph was looking for the kingdom of God. This kingdom, which Christ preached, though having its beginning in the events of His own death and resurrection, is ultimately a kingdom of resurrected beings. Today that is expressed in the spiritual life granted to us through faith in Christ, and through our life of obedience and service to Him. When we die, we know the kingdom of God from a different vantage point. We see it from the place of the residence of the Lord and His angels together with all those who have gone to be with Him. Our mortal bodies rest in the grave, but we are given an existence in heaven that must have room for physical beings, since Christ is physical, and He is in that present heaven now. There are many things that we are said to do there that make the most sense if understood in some kind of physical way. Yet we are waiting for the complete fulfillment of the Lord’s resurrection promises in the age to come, when bodies that now rest in graves are given an immortal existence, just as Christ received an immortal human body so long ago.

This is apparently what Joseph of Arimathea believed in: The resurrection of the dead which will happen at the Judgment Day. This belief is consistent with that expectation of the kingdom which Jesus clearly preached. Joseph sought to treat the body of Jesus with the respect that says to anyone who would want to know, “The Lord is not finished with this man yet.” Many surely believed in a coming resurrection, yet no one thought He would rise soon.

The women who were witnesses to the death of Jesus were also witnesses to His burial. The burial of Jesus was not only a statement of faith in the resurrection to come, it was also a certification by men like Joseph of Arimathea and also Nicodemus, another ruler of the Jews mentioned in John’s gospel, that Jesus was in fact reliably dead. They handled the body of the Lord. They had certain burial rituals which they supervised, an important point of evidence as we look forward to the surprising resurrection of Christ within three days, according to His promise. Skeptics have raised the question: Did Jesus actually die? Of course the Word of God tells us that He did, and we should be wary of making ourselves judges of God when God will judge us one day. Nonetheless there is something here that should give skeptics pause. Were these important leaders of the Jews, who handled the body of Jesus sufficiently to have Him buried in a tomb, confused concerning the death of Jesus? Is it remotely possible that these men were wrong when they, the centurion, and the governor understood so clearly that our Savior was dead that they were able to actually bury Him? Of course He certainly was dead, and it should cause us to wonder why people would want to deny that obvious fact in the light of such reliable testimony. The answer must have something to do with the resurrection. If you want to remain unconvinced about the resurrection of Jesus, one way to do this is to deny his death. His burial is a troubling fact that stands between the skeptic and his hope to deny the resurrection.

As secure as you can (62-66)

In fact, the death of Christ was so obvious to all, and his body must have been in such a horrible condition, that there is no record of anyone anywhere who actually expected him to be able to be true to his word to rise from the dead on the third dead. It was hard to believe in the resurrection when you were burying Jesus. While Jesus was alive you could almost believe in resurrection, because a credible performer of resurrections was there with you. But can a clearly dead man raise His own body from the dead? There is no evidence that anyone expected that the answer to that question would actually be Yes, even though Jesus had stated in John’s gospel (10:18) that He had the authority to lay down His life, and the authority to take it up again. At this point no one believed that.

What some people were concerned about was that there would be some trick or confusion whereby people would try to claim that Jesus had risen, though He had not. Even His enemies knew about His claim that He would rise in three days. The chief priests and Pharisees hoped they were finished with Jesus. They took one last action to keep this case closed. They went to Pilate and mentioned their understanding of His claim that He would rise. They asked that the tomb be made secure until the third day because of the fear that the disciples would steal the body and then claim that He had risen. They were given permission to use a military guard in order to see to this, and they did so. The stone was securely in place and they put a seal on it of some kind and then set a guard there.

What now?

What more can be said at this point? The Savior died. However amazing some of the manifestations of that death were, He was still dead. There was no argument concerning that. Reliable men among the leaders had seen to His burial. Where was Jesus? His body was in the grave of Joseph of Arimathea. But His Spirit was with the Father. We know this because in Luke 23:46, Jesus said these words, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” Earlier in Luke 23:43 He had assured the one repentant thief on the cross, “Today, You will be with me in Paradise.” Amazingly, Jesus did what all believers do. He spent time in the present heaven prior to His resurrection while His body was resting in the grave. That was better than an instantaneous resurrection. It warms the heart of mourners and gives us hope that it is not a powerless thing to be in heaven prior to the final resurrection that is surely coming.

Back to Jerusalem and the tomb of Joseph: The battle is at hand. There is only watching and waiting now. Jesus said He would rise, but He is dead. His enemies are going to make sure that no one steals His body. They have a guard there to guarantee that. The question is this: Who is stronger to work out their will? Shall Jesus who is with the Father in the present heaven be stronger than the chief priests and the Pharisees with their military guard on earth at the tomb of Joseph? The answer should be obvious. Heaven rules earth. The contest is not between the dead flesh of Jesus and powerful people that are alive on earth. The contest is between the heavenly Son of God in Paradise with angels and His Father versus a few people who don’t even believe in the Lord’s promises in Jerusalem. What now? The unstoppable will of God now! The same Jesus who died for your sins, will rise for your justification, and will enter into heaven as the resurrection man, the sure guarantee of the coming age of resurrection. Please don’t forget that heaven rules, and let us then pray with a confident expectation, even as we may bury our dead with true mourning, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. What is the significance of Isaiah 53 for understanding the death and burial of the Messiah?

2. Identify the various individuals and groups mentioned in this passage.

3. What perspective does each one have on the burial of Christ?

4. What is the significance of the burial of our Lord to the story of His saving work?