Mark 15.42-47, Matthew 27.57-61, Luke 23.50-56, John 19.38-42.
On the afternoon of Good Friday, after a flogging and crucifixion,
Now in previous generations, “buried” means buried: Dig a hole in the ground deep enough for animals to not get at the corpse, put the body in, fill the hole back in. In Jesus’s day, Jewish custom had changed. Now what they did was wrap the body in moist linen strips, and put it on a stone slab in a sepulcher. This way the body would rot quickly—and after a year or so, there’d be nothing left but bones, which were then collected and put into an ossuary. (They figured in the resurrection, all God needed was the bones—
So whenever people make a big deal about
So that’s what happened after Jesus died. Joseph of Ramah (Greek
Mark 15.42-47 KWL - 42 When evening came—because it was Preparation, the day before Sabbath—
- 43 respected senator Joseph from Ramah, who was also awaiting God’s kingdom, came.
- Daring to enter Pontius Pilate’s house, he asked for Jesus’s body.
- 44 Pilate was surprised Jesus was already dead.
- Calling the centurion, he asked him if Jesus was already dead,
- 45 and learning it from the centurion, Pilate gave the corpse to Joseph.
- 46 Buying linen, taking Jesus down, Joseph wrapped him in linen.
- He put the corpse in a sepulcher hewn from rock, and rolled a stone over the sepulcher’s door.
- 47 Mary the Magdalene and Mary mother of Joses saw where the corpse was put.
Matthew 27.57-61 KWL - 57 Come evening came a wealthy man from Ramah named Joseph, who himself was a student of Jesus.
- 58 This Joseph went to Pontius Pilate to ask for Jesus’s body. Then Pilate commanded it be given.
- 59 Taking Jesus’s body, Joseph wrapped it in pure linen
- 60 and put it in Joseph’s own new sepulcher, cut from rock,
- rolled a large stone against the sepucher’s door, and went away.
- 61 Mary the Magdalene and another Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.
Luke 23.50-56 KWL - 50 Look, a man named Joseph, using his position as a senator—
- a good and righteous man; 51 this Joseph hadn’t agreed with the senate and its action—
- from Ramah, Judea, who awaited God’s kingdom—
- 52 this Joseph went to Pontius Pilate to ask for Jesus’s body.
- 53 Taking the corpse down, he wrapped it in linen
- and put it in a stonecut sepulcher in which no one had yet laid.
- 54 It was Preparation Day, and Sabbath was beginning.
- 55 The women who had come together with Jesus from the Galilee, followed Joseph.
- They saw the sepulcher and how Joseph arranged Jesus’s body.
- 56 On returning, they prepared spices and myrrh,
- and once it was actually Sabbath, rested according to the command.
John 19.38-42 KWL - 38 After these things Joseph from Ramah, who was Jesus’s student (secretly, for fear of the Judeans),
- asked Pontius Pilate that he might take Jesus’s body.
- Pilate allowed it, so Joseph came and took Jesus’s body.
- 39 Nikodemus, who had first come to Jesus at night, also came
- bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloe vera weighing 100 Roman pounds [72.5 English pounds, 32.9 kilos].
- 40 So they took Jesus’s body and tied the spices to it with strips, as is the Judean burial custom.
- 41 A garden was in the place where Jesus was crucified,
- and in the garden, a new sepulcher in which no one had yet laid.
- 42 So there, on the Judean Preparation Day,
- because it was near the sepulcher, they arranged Jesus’s body.
Joseph’s motives.
While Mark and Luke were okay with saying Joseph was a good guy who was seeking
Various preachers like to say Joseph outed himself, by burying Jesus. ’Tain’t necessarily so. If you’ve ever read
Y’see, whenever you touched a dead body, you were
Because of the inconvenience, you might wind up with Pharisees who’d never want to avoid synagogue and temple access if they could help it—and would therefore never touch a dead body. (Unless it’s that of a relative; partly out of love, and partly ’cause the L
That’s why the Pharisees encouraged their students to read Tobit. Tobit was a righteous man who buried people after the Assyrians crucified them, or otherwise killed them and threw their corpses out of the city.
But really, Joseph was a student of Jesus, and was doing just one more act of kindness for his master.
John described a garden near Golgotha (and by “garden” he meant a vegetable garden, not a decorative garden like they’ve put round the Garden Tomb), with sepulchers in it. One apparently belonged to Joseph. Whether this was useful coincidence—Joseph realized Jesus got killed near his garden and tomb, and decided to take it upon himself to bury him—or whether Joseph quickly bought the place so he could bury Jesus as soon as he could, I dunno. Doesn’t matter. Joseph and Nicodemus pulled the nails, got Jesus off the cross, wrapped his naked bloody corpse in gooey aloe/myrrh-coated bandages like a mummy, and put him in Joseph’s tomb before sundown.
And
Wait, wasn’t Jesus’s suffering already over?
St. Francis included Jesus’s entombment among his original
There are those who figure the stations represent 14 instances of Jesus suffering. Thing is, in the traditional stations, Jesus dies in the 12th station. (And in St. John Paul’s list of stations which I’m using, the 13th.) So really that’s not 14 instances of Jesus suffering… ’cause once you’re dead, your suffering is over. Isn’t it?
Yes… and no.
For the ancients, being put in the sepulcher, going to the grave, represented going to
But however comfortable paradise might be, being alive is far better. That’s why we look forward to resurrection: We don’t wanna be in paradise forever. We wanna live forever. Eternal life, remember?
So even though Jesus was no longer suffering, no longer miserable, no longer in pain… he still wasn’t where he optimally wanted to be. Nor where we optimally wanna be. Paradise isn’t good enough. It’s why Jesus left it behind, returned to life, returned to heaven… and is preparing to bring us New Heaven.
