Matthew 27:57-66 As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb. The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.” “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.
In the above passage we see Jesus dead. As with all flesh in death, He is unable to move. Joseph of Arimathea removes him from the cross and takes him to his newly prepared tomb. Jesus the Christ would now be placed where a rich man and his family would be entombed, fulfilling the prophet’s words. 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. (Isaiah 53:9) Jesus would not be abandoned in that tomb by God, for in three days, He would be delivered from the grave by the power of the Holy Spirit. He would rise again! Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. (Psalm 16:9-10) These words of the prophet Jesus knew and his faith relied on his Father’s faithfulness to him. Later we see the stone rolled away by an angel, not by Jesus getting up out of death and pushing the boulder away. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. (Matthew 28:2) According to prophecy, his Father would raise him from the grave. The religious elite knew of Jesus’ words that he would rise after three days, so they had Pilate insure that this prediction would not be fulfilled by any deception of his followers to make Jesus’ words true. So Pilate had the tomb secured by putting a seal on the stone and posting a guard in front of it. But God’s intention to raise his Son from the grave could not be thwarted by such actions. He would cause the stone to be rolled away, just as He caused Jonah to be released by the great fish. The resurrection of Christ was God’s work, just as Jonah’s freedom of the fish was God’s work. And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. (Jonah 2:10) Jesus knew this story of Jonah being freed from the fish by God. He knew God would rescue him from death. Jonah was unable to help himself from the belly of the great fish. He was as dead in that fish’s interior—no escape at all for him. Jesus understood this hopeless condition would happen to him too, but He had faith in his Father’s goodwill, his deliverance plan, so he told the Sadducees and the Pharisees, Jonah’s situation would happen to him. This alone is the only sign that his Father will give them to prove Jesus is the Son of God. No other miracle will convince the world of Jesus’ status with God. “A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away. (Matthew 16:4) Paul tells Christians that if Jesus did not rise from the grave, all who believe in him are most miserable for their resurrection from the dead is not assured either. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. (1 Corinthians 15:14) Jesus’ resurrection from the dead by the Father God through the power of the Holy Spirit is every Christian’s hope of being resurrected from death. We know we who are found IN CHRIST through trust in his works will be redeemed from eternal death, that which sin pronounced on our lives.
We see in Jesus’ death the beginning of the Davidic covenant being established. After David gained the throne of Israel, he freed Jerusalem from the Jebusites. He then brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, but felt guilty that he was living in a house made of cedar and his Lord God was living in a tent; therefore, he decided that a temple should be built for God. However, because of his many wars and the blood of enemy soldiers on his hands, he was not allowed to build the Temple. His son, Solomon, built the Temple under his rule. But God honored David’s intentions of building a temple for him to abide in by making covenant with David. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever. (2 Samuel 7:16) Jesus came from the house of David, the tribe of Judah. The covenant to king David would be fulfilled through this dead man Jesus, for He would rise again to eternal life. Then, and only then, would the covenant with David be realized. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. (Matthew 2:9-31) Jesus would not rot in Joseph’s tomb, but He would be rescued from the fetters of death by his faithful Father. Jesus went to the grave willingly, putting his trust in his Father God. He was the Lamb of God who laid his life down freely for the salvation of many. For centuries the Israelites sacrificed lambs for their salvation. They placed these lambs on the altar, restraining them with ropes, but Jesus went to the cross in silence, without any need of restraints. He went to the grave trusting his Father’s plan that He would be raised to sit on the throne of the faithful David, who honored God in obedience. Jesus went to the grave, finding himself separated from his Father in the darkness of death. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). (Matthew 27:46) If the Father had not intervened this separation would have been forever.
Jesus’ grave experience emulated Jonah’s existence in the great fish: hopeless, forsaken, abandoned by life. Jonah was in the belly of the fish because he was running from God’s will: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” (Jonah 1:2) Jonah had no love for the people of Nineveh, for he was bitterly disappointed with God for not destroying them after they repented. Jesus was in the tomb of Joseph because the Father’s will was to save his enemies: unrighteous, rebellious humans made in his image. Jonah was unwilling to interrupt his life for the cause of God: to announce judgment on Nineveh. Jesus went willingly to the cross; Jonah went unwillingly to Nineveh. Jesus told the Pharisees and Sadducees that this sign of Jonah would prove He was sent to them from God. The priests’ lives were so corrupt and self-serving that Jesus told the disciples to beware of the yeast of what they are saying to you. The priests’ unbelief, their willingness to carry on with their lives of preference, was contaminating. When Jesus caught the disciples arguing over who forgot to bring bread on their journey across the lake, Jesus tells them that He is in control of these little things like providing bread for people. He reminds them that He fed 4,000 and 5,000 with a few loaves and fishes. He wanted them to understand that they were dealing with the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees by arguing about temporal things such as bread. If their eyes concentrated on these finite things of this world, they would lose their focus on the bread of life. Jesus said to them, “It is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (John 6:32-33) The priests wanted Jesus to perform a miracle for them, to satisfy their immediate desire for Jesus to confirm his authority from God. But Jesus would not do that for them because He was not under their authority, but God’s authority. He tells them, God will validate who I am with only one sign, the resurrection. In today’s focus, we see Jesus lying dead in the tomb of Joseph. We see no angel there at this time; we see only a dead body, brutalized, bloodied, and forsaken. We do not see the coming king in that tomb. We see only the eternal resting place of death there. But the hope of the world lies in that silent tomb, for He will rise again. And then as Isaiah prophesies so beautifully: He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. (Isaiah 9:6-7) We may wonder if Joseph, the Pharisee, realized he was carrying the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace to his tomb. When he lay Jesus down, this innocent man who was so brutally treated, did he know at all that this man was the Son of God, the Lamb of God? We wonder. But three days later the boulder to Joseph’s tomb was rolled away by an angel, and out steps the King of kings, the Lord of lords. God has called us to the gravesite to rejoice over the empty tomb, for He has risen; He has risen indeed! And we shall rise with him to life eternal.
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