The Good News of Jesus


05/09/2010 - The Burial of Jesus



As we all know we're still living in tough economic times and they've affected Americans in all kinds of ways. This week I read an article that said the cremation rate in this country has increased dramatically over the past couple of years. It's been on the rise anyway, but since the recession began more families than ever are looking for alternative ways to send off their loved ones.

In 2006, cremation was used in 33% of all deaths while in 2009 the rate increased to 37% and by 2018 some experts expect the cremation rate to climb as high as 65 to 70% of all funerals. That's a lot! Why so many?

Well John Ross, Executive Director of the Cremation Association of North America, says that while some factors such as increased acceptance by many religious groups and environmental concerns play a small role in the advancement of cremation the cost factor is undeniably the greatest reason why. On average a cremation costs about 1/3rd as much as a traditional burial. It's cheaper to cremate than to bury our loved ones and for many cost is the bottom line.

Burial practices are changing in this country and they will continue to change, but during the time of Jesus the Jewish practice of burial had remained the same for centuries. It was a sacred part of life, and still is, observed according to very strict protocol. This morning we're going to look at the burial of Jesus as we continue to reflect on the events surrounding the cross.

If you have a Bible meet me at Mark 15:40. Believe it or not we're coming down to the end of this epic series through the gospel of Mark. We actually started it way back before the recession even hit! Not really, but it has been a while.

Two weeks ago we left Jesus hanging on the cross on top of Golgotha, Skull Hill, suspended between heaven and earth, in utter darkness. The sun had stopped shining from noon to three o'clock. The earth shook. Rocks split open. Some of the dead came out of their tombs. The eighty foot high, eight inch thick, veil of the Temple was ripped from top to bottom and collapsed on the marble floor of the Holy Place at about the same time Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It was an eerie, frightening scene. Nothing like it had ever happened before or has ever happened since.

And when the Roman centurion standing at the base of the cross saw how Jesus died he said, "Surely, this man was the Son of God!" That was his conclusion. And there were other witnesses on the hill that day too.

Look at verse 40, Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome. 41In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.

There were women on top of Skull Hill that day watching Jesus die from a distance. What torture that must have been to stand there and witness that awful scene. What would compel them to stay and watch him suffer so? They were there because they loved Jesus. That's what compelled them to stay. And they were determined to stick with him to the end. And for all they knew this was the end. This was the final chapter of the story. Their dream of a glorious kingdom was ending in a gory nightmare.

Mark lists some of their names. There was Mary Magdalene, literally Maria of Magdala. Magdala was a fishing town nestled on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. In fact, next to the capital of Tiberias it was the most important fishing center on the lake.

And Mary was from that town and at some point she had met Jesus during his ministry in Galilee and her life was forever changed. She was saved. She was rescued. She was delivered from seven demons that tormented her soul. That's what Mark says in Mark 16:9 and Luke describes her the same way. Jesus gave Mary a whole new life and she loved him for it.

This is the first mention of Mary Magdalene in the gospel of Mark, but she's going to be a key player in the story. She'll be the only one listed by name to witness all three events ... the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus.

Then there was Mary, the mother of James the Younger and of Joseph. We don't know much about her, at least I don't. Some suggest that she's the mother of James the son Alphaeus who was one of the Twelve apostles. We don't know that for sure, but certainly the early church must have known who she was and her sons as well. That's why she's mentioned.

Then there was Salome. We know a little more about her. Some believe that she was the sister of Mary the mother of Jesus. That's hard to tell but she is identified as the wife of Zebedee and the mother of James and John, the sons of thunder, the two young men who along with Peter made up Jesus' inner circle. James would go on to be the first apostle executed for his faith and John would live a long life and write the Gospel of John, three letters in the New Testament, and the book of Revelation.

But this was their mom watching in horror from a distance. Salome was also the mother who came to Jesus on her knees asking that her two boys be given thrones one on the right side and one on the left side of Jesus in his kingdom. It was a bold request that showed her faith in who Jesus claimed to be. But it ticked off the other disciples. "Who does she think she is asking that? And what are they doing trying to do, get one up on us?" They other apostles were indignant when they heard about Salome's request.

And when Jesus heard it he said to her, "I can't answer that. The thrones are not for me to give." And then he turned the request into a teachable moment about what it means to be great in God's kingdom. "Whoever wants to be great," he said, "must be the servant of all." And now Jesus was demonstrating that right in front of her eyes. "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many."

There were other women there too, Mark says. John tells us that Jesus' mother was there and his mother's sister, who may have been Salome. They had all followed Jesus from Galilee, but this was not what they expected to find in Jerusalem. Like all of his followers they were expecting a coronation not a crucifixion. They were expecting thrones not thorns.

But in the last few days everything had fallen apart. This was a nightmare for these women, but they weren't going to leave Jesus now. They loved him. He had given them dignity and respect and treated them with value like no one else ever did in that male dominated culture. And Jesus still does that for women today. They had supported him financially and cared for his needs so that he was freed up to travel and to teach and to heal and to mentor the Twelve. They were fully devoted followers of Jesus the Messiah in every way.

Look at verse 42, It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, 43Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus' body.

Jesus had given up the ghost at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and before long the sun was going to set. It was Friday the day of preparation for the Sabbath which always began at sunset on Friday evening. And once Sabbath came the law dictated that no work could be done. So there wasn't a whole lot of time to get Jesus off the cross and to prepare his body for burial.

Typically, crucifixion victims weren't buried. They were left on crosses until their flesh was eaten by birds and wild animals or their body would rot in the sun. And if they were taken down they were thrown onto the garbage dump called Gehenna that burned day and night just outside the Dung Gate south of the city walls, the image that Jesus uses for hell.

But a man named Joseph of Arimathea isn't going to let that happen to Jesus. Instead, he steps out of the shadows and boldly goes to Pilate requesting the body. This was a gutsy move for a man who had a lot to lose.

Joseph was not from Jerusalem. Instead, he was from the village of Arimathea which was in Judea about twenty-five miles northwest. He was a prominent member of the Jewish Council, literally an "honorable member" of the Sanhedrin, that group of seventy men that made up the Supreme Court of Israel that ran the country. According to the Talmud there had only ever been fourteen honorable counselors in the history of the nation. So Joseph was a well respected man of power and influence.

No doubt he had been involved in the discussions about Jesus for the last three years. He had heard what people were saying about him and he knew all the slams and criticisms. But somewhere along the line he had come to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. That's what John's gospel tells us. Joseph had become a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews, he feared his peers.

And he had a lot to be afraid of. There was a lot at stake if you followed Jesus in that political climate. The Jewish leaders had determined that excommunication would be the punishment for anyone who identified themselves with Jesus of Nazareth.

And excommunication meant being put out of the synagogue and cut off from your social network. If Joseph's faith in Jesus leaked out he'd be cut off from his family, cut from his wealth, cut off from his inheritance, cut off doing business in Jerusalem, cut off from the Temple, cut off from the Sanhedrin, cut off from life as he knew it. He'd lose everything!

Joseph of Arimathea was a powerful man, he was a man of faith, and he was a wealthy man as well. He had tomb in Jerusalem that had been hand carved out of rock with hammer and chisel. It was a cave that he had renovated into a final resting place for himself and his family at an enormous expense. It was the sign of his great wealth. Joseph wasn't going to be buried in Arimathea with his ancestors, instead he wanted to buried in Jerusalem because he was waiting for the kingdom of God. And all the promises about the Messiah's coming centered in Jerusalem.

In fact, if you go to the Mount of Olives today you'll see as I've shown you before that the whole mountain is covered with tombs and crypts because the Hebrew prophets said that when Messiah comes he's going to touchdown on the Mount of Olives. And so that's where people of faith want to be buried. And Joseph was wealthy enough to carve out a cave in a garden near by and not just have a stone box.

So Joseph's a powerful man. He's a wealthy man. He's a man of faith who secretly believed in Jesus. And he's been a man who has struggled and wrestled with his convictions for a long time. I'm sure there were many days when he sat in Council meetings thinking, "If they only knew about me. If they only knew that I believe Jesus is the Messiah I'd lose everything."

Luke tells us that he was at the trial the night before Jesus was crucified, but he didn't agree with the outcome or give his consent to their decision to have Jesus executed. No doubt he went home that night as I'm sure he had many nights and tossed and turned and woke up in a cold sweat fearing that he had been found out.

We can hardly imagine what it cost Joseph personally to step out of the shadows and retrieve the body of Jesus. But he has to. And he does without even knowing the next chapter. He's willing to put his whole life on the line for a corpse, for a dead would be Messiah!

So he hustles across town over to the Fortress of Antonia and gains an immediate audience with Pontius Pilate himself which seems to suggest that he knew Joseph. And we read in verse 44, Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. 45When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph.

Jesus died in six hours which was brief compared to most crucifixions which could last for days. The longest on record was thirteen days. And because of that Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus was dead. He wants that news confirmed so he sends a messenger to get the centurion to sign off on the death certificate, the same centurion who said, "Surely, this man was the Son of God."

And all this time Joseph is looking out the palace window watching the sunset thinking, "Hurry up! Hurry up! I've got to get Jesus down from the cross, prepared for burial, and into the tomb before the Sabbath begins. I can't let him be eaten by dogs. And I still I have to get the spices and the linen and a ladder. It's going to be a big job."

Fortunately, John tells us in his gospel that Joseph has some help. Another secret disciple named Nicodemus, who was also a member of the Sanhedrin and the teacher in Israel at time, was going to risk everything he had to help as well. He had come to Jesus at night in John 3 and some where along the line had become a believer too. But like Joseph, he had kept it a secret, but not anymore. He's going to lug seventy-five pounds of myrrh, aloes, and spices up Skull Hill to anoint the body of Jesus and he doesn't care who finds out.

So finally the centurion arrives and bears witness that Jesus is really dead and Pilate gives Joseph official permission to take the body down off the cross.

Look at verse 46, So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.

It's difficult for us to imagine what it must have been like to take the body of Jesus down from the cross, to remove the nails from his feet and his wrists, to peal the crown of thorns off his head, to see up close all the abuse that he had taken, all the blood he had lost. This was not a job for a rich man. This was not what Joseph and Nicodemus were accustomed to doing, but they did it. Why? Because like the women standing there they loved Jesus. And when you love Jesus sometimes you do things that are way out of your comfort zone.

Touching a dead body would contaminate Joseph and Nicodemus and render them unclean for the next seven days, which means they couldn't participate in the Feast of Unleavened Bread which followed the Passover. That would raise a lot of eye brows and questions for men in their position, but they didn't care anymore who knew.

The Jews had very strict practices for how bodies were prepared for burial. First, they were washed to remove the blood, dirt and sweat. So Joseph and Nicodemus took some of that linen cloth, soaked it in water and washed down the body of Jesus, his face, his hair, his beard, what was left of it, his arms, his legs, his back that had been mangled, his side that had been pierced, the holes in his wrists and his feet. What a scene, these two wealthy, powerful, prominent men tenderly bathing the body of Jesus.

I wonder if they were thinking of Isaiah 53:5 when they were washing his body, He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Or maybe Isaiah 53:9, He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

After washing his body they laid him on a long, linen cloth, put perfumes and spices on him and carefully folded the linen over top. They tied his feet together and then his knees. They bound his hands to his side and put a wrapping around his chest and then around his head. They wrapped him in a linen shroud and then picked him up and laid him on a stone shelf in a tomb, Joseph's tomb, a tomb that had never been used before. And when they were done they rolled a stone in place to block the entrance.

And Mark tells us, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.

These women were eyewitnesses both to the death and burial of Jesus of Nazareth. And that's a significant part of the gospel story because if Jesus wasn't really dead and buried the resurrection was a hoax. And if the resurrection is a hoax our faith is in vain and we're wasting our time following a dead impostor.

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead was the central message of the early church. It wasn't the claim that Jesus was a great teacher or a powerful healer or an inspiring leader or even the victim of a gross miscarriage of justice. All those were true, of course, but that wasn't the central message of the church. It was that Jesus have been bodily raised from the dead after being truly dead and buried. That's what the apostles announced to a startled world of Jews and Gentiles.

Writing about the gospel the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5, For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures 5and that he appeared to Peter and then to the Twelve.

So Mark and all the gospel writers go to great lengths to confirm the death and the burial of Jesus almost as if they're anticipating that those facts are going to come into question which they will very quickly and still do today.

But what I want to leave you with this morning is what I've been thinking about all week. Joseph of Arimethea, Nicodemus, and these incredible women risked everything to identify themselves with a corpse, with a dead Jesus. They didn't know he was coming back from the dead. They didn't know the next chapter. They didn't know what we know. So what would they say to us today? What do they say to us as they rise off the page?

You know the whole truth. You know the end of the story. You serve a risen Christ. We gave up everything for a dead Christ. Are you willing to give up everything for a risen Christ? Are you willing to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him? Are you?