The Burial of Jesus

Nakita Kolov, the Russian nightmare.

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But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. It's one of four Gospels. It's a part of prophecy. It's been highlighted for 2,000 years in the ordinance of believer's baptism. And it's mentioned in all the major creeds of the faith.

What are we talking about? The burial of Jesus. When's the last time you heard a whole sermon on the burial of Christ? This even speaks to why we bury versus cremate.

We'll get into that controversial topic today on experienced truth. Between the two monumental events, the huge events of the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ, we have the burial of Jesus Christ. And this week we'll meet a secret disciple who comes out of the closet and surfaces to risk everything to care for the body of Jesus. Even in the burial of his Son, God has a plan.

Yes, Jesus saves. Robby Dillmore, good to have you with us. Also known as the Christian Car Guy.

Always fun to have you in the seat right here as my co-pilot on Experienced Truth. So we're going to read Luke 23, 53, 56. Now behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man.

He had not consented to their decision. Indeed, he was from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and he laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of rock, where no one had ever been lain before. And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew near. And the woman, women, who had come with him from Galilee, followed after, and they observed the tomb and how his body was laid.

Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils, and they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment. That's the word of God. Robby, hit us with that first question, because it's going to take us right into the— So why is the burial of Jesus so significant?

Well, it's significant. It confirms the reality of his death. You bury someone when you know that they're dead, right? Christ had to die for our sins. It was prophesied in Isaiah 53, verse 9, and in the words of Jesus himself that he'd be buried. It's clearly taught as part of the gospel and scripture, the great gospel passage, 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul says this is paramount, right? How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day. We're talking about all over the scriptures, especially Romans 6, verse 4, talks about how we're buried with him in baptism. It's also a beautiful picture of transition required before the new resurrection life can spring forth. And finally, burial richly illustrates the idea of rest after Christ's mighty work of redemption on the cross. The it is finished work. Jesus Christ rested very similar to how God rested on the seventh day after creation.

So there's so much rich stuff in here. The burial of Jesus. One of the kind of unknown doctrines of scripture that we don't teach a lot about, but certain character services who gets right into this with us. Here we go. So what do we know about Joseph? And this isn't his dad. Well, we're going to talk about that.

And then the second part of this question right there is very interesting. What causes his secret disciple to come out into the open, and what did he risk? So, Arimathea. Joseph of Arimathea.

Arimathea was 25 miles northwest of Jerusalem. It's in the land of the tribe of Ephraim. Now, Joseph was a very common Hebrew name.

It has the same roots as the name Jesus, which means deliverer. It's fascinating how Jesus' life, per your little mention earlier, his life is bookended by two Josephs. His stepdad and this man.

And both play critical roles. One was a guardian before and after his birth. The other was a guardian of his body after his death.

It's interesting. Two Josephs. Not to mention the Josephs in Genesis that, you know, clearly was, you know, took care of his whole family.

Or they'd be starved to death. Yeah, he was very important to the life, the birth, and the death of the preservation of, I guess they would have been buried if it weren't for him. In Genesis we have that.

So great point. So there's some neat things with Josephs in the Bible. And Joseph's burial. Think about the bones, man. I mean, you just lit up my whole world.

I'm like, man, this is some cool stuff right there. Yeah, the bones of Joseph. And what did he say? He said, I want to be buried with my fathers. He didn't want to be buried with the pharaohs. He didn't want to be buried in Egypt.

So it's interesting. Another connection with Joseph and the burial. Burial was really significant.

We're going to get into that here in a second. But he was a council member also, which was the elite body of judges known as the Sinhedrin, which we've met already. Really, they were all part of the condemning of Jesus, but Joseph of Arimathea didn't participate in that. He was a good and just man. Matthew actually calls him a disciple in his gospel. But John 8, 1938, indicates that he feared the Jews, so he was a secret disciple.

We have some of those, right? Nicodemus was another one. He came to Jesus by night in John 3. So finally he comes out and he emerges. What is it going to take for you to come out of the closet for your faith?

What is it going to take for you to step out and publicly announce that you are with Jesus? So anyway, Christ, the fulfillment of Isaiah 53, 9, we're told by the prophet Isaiah that Christ was rich with the wealthy, and this was a wealthy man's tomb. And he was the guy, the man that took him off the cross. Well, right there.

Imagine that particular thing. Verse 52 says, this is very interesting, this is verse 52, it says, He went to Pilate. Verse 51 says some really neat things about him. He himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God.

He believed, he trusted. Verse 52 says he went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Now, first of all, it's considered unclean for a Sanhedrin to even cross that threshold, that door to go to Pilate's court or Pilate's hall. So here he's crossing a lot of social lines, ethnic lines, to do this. But this is a very bold step, potentially risking his whole life. He obviously had the wealth to go that high up on the Roman food chain, to be able to have that kind of access. But this is important, here's why it's important.

Crucifixion victims were never afforded the rights of regular burial. So, and this goes to this question right here, Robbie, which I want you to ask it, but we're going to tie all this in here. Why did he have to get Pilate's permission? Why was Pilate surprised by the suddenness of Jesus' death? Yeah, so a lot of things are going on here. Pilate's like, is he already dead?

What are you talking about? You know, A and B have got someone wanting a crucifixion victim, which is, to the Jews, an unclean person. To the Romans, we don't want to dignify this person's death by giving them a burial.

A burial was actually a compliment. Like, a burial was actually a way of giving someone a legitimate rest, a ceremony of sorts, and so it was a preparation of the Passover. The bodies couldn't be left off the cross anyway, so the question is, where are they going to take these bodies and throw them?

You know, in the Gehenna area, in the trash dump of town. Normal crucifixion victims would die over a period of days. They'd be eaten by wild animals, be eaten by vultures. But this was a case where Christ's body, and the bodies had to come down per the Sabbath, and they had to be disposed of before sundown at the beginning of the Sabbath. Yeah, there was no ordinary Sabbath. I mean, this was preparation for the Passover Sabbath.

That's exactly right. And this is the body of the Lord of the Sabbath, who is resting after his work going into the Sabbath rest, the seventh day. So a whole lot going on, but fulfilling all kinds of prophecies. And they went around to break the legs. The legs, you know, there couldn't be a bone broken per, I believe it's Psalm 34.19. Not one of his bones were broken. John's Gospel talks about how they speared him in the side and created that scar.

So you have, oh, 34.20 of Psalms, and plus other prophecies. Yeah, not to mention Passover lamb, you couldn't break its bones. Couldn't break any bones, that's right. So they took the body down. This question right here, Robbie, ask this question. I want everyone to kind of picture yourself at the scene of the cross, this gruesome execution, bloodied Jesus Christ on the cross.

Ask that question right there. What would it have been like to take down the body of Jesus from the cross, and why the hurry? Can you imagine, Robbie, being a part of that detail? You're going to go get that body off the cross. You know, un-affixing the nails, the hands from the nails, the feet from the nails, somehow with a ladder, somehow maybe they took the cross out and dropped it on the ground, but somehow taking this, extracting this body, a dead body of your Lord and Savior, the King of the universe, the giver of all life, taking that body. And the Roman executioners had affixed the living body of Christ to the cross for shameful extermination. Joseph and his company took the body down to give honor in just burial.

So they were actually doing the opposite of what was intended for this. But not to embalm it. That's what the Egyptians did. But this was a Jewish custom to wrap a body with spices in order to offset the putrification that would come naturally in the smells and the decays and all that.

So this balm would be given. We heard about myrrh. Remember at his birth? Again, at his birth. What are the wise men?

Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. So these spices were also put on his body. Maybe they weren't so sure of the resurrection. We look back and say, hey, he's only going to need three days' worth of this stuff, right?

Well, they didn't know that for sure. And there is also a question about his funeral. I mean, what would it have been like to be at the funeral of Jesus Christ?

Ever thought about that? Yeah, and there's the angle from my perspective. You know, Christ means the anointed one, as does, you know, the word Messiah in Hebrew. And so this in its way is final anointing before the resurrection, as he's anointed numerous times through the Scriptures. Here he's, you know, getting another one.

And it's significant. Now, you've been to a lot of funerals, Robbie. What would it have been like to go to the funeral?

You put the fun in a funeral. You and I have both. I'm a lot older than you, so I get to go.

You and I have both. What does the old Yogi Bear say? Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they may not go to yours. But there's something significant, you know, about Jesus Christ, the funeral for Jesus Christ.

And of course, we don't want to go beyond Scriptures. There's no record of, like, a ceremony or they all got together. But very likely, around his body, maybe still at the cross, or maybe as they are entombing him in Joseph of Arimathea's tomb, there was some sort of, maybe a prayer said, you know, as they're anointing the body, as they're wrapping the body, right, in the burial linens, very likely there's some sort of little service for Jesus. The one who just, not weeks earlier, at the graveside of Lazarus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he die, yet he will live. And here they are having a little ceremony.

Would that not have been a phenomenal, just a fascinating, you know, kind of a bird on that limb listening to that? I guess likely Mary, that was Lazarus' sister, you know, was likely there. And how many hours, you know, was it that her brother came out of the grave, and you know, what were her thoughts? And, you know, she can probably still vividly remember her brother's burial clothes that came off him. Are all their hopes and dreams being buried now through the one who inspired them, the one who led them, the one who wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in the manger, is now participating in wrapping his body in burial cloths and linen and applying myrrh.

Maybe some of the myrrh given to her by those wise men who knew that he would need this, who knew in that message that this newborn king would be a royal king, but he'd also be a lamb, a sacrifice, and he would take away the sins of the world. So really just fascinating. So we are going to come back to the burial of Jesus, really one of the greatest events in history that is the least spoken about. And by the way, you've got to stay tuned next time, because we're going to tackle this tough topic of cremation versus burial.

It's not going to be as controversial as you think, but we're going to get into why are those significant, and why does it even matter, next time right here on Experience Truth. Hey, read the Word for yourself, share the Word, meditate on it, memorize it. This week we've been in Luke chapter 23 verse 50 through 56, and we'll pick right back up there next time on Experience Truth.

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