GOSPEL MEDITATION # 237
Mark 15:42-47
Jesus is Buried
- Find a quiet place without distractions.
- Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace.
- Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer.
- Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
- Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
- Friday evening, observant Jews were now busy making preparations for the Sabbath and this one, a high holy Sabbath day because of the Feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread, was about to begin.
- Joseph of Arimathea, a town the location of which is unknown but likely near modern Tel Aviv, goes to Pilate and asks for the body of Jesus. (Roman practice was to let the body decay on the cross.)
- He was a disciple of Jesus (John 19:38) in addition to being a member of the Sanhedrin. Without that status it is doubtful he would have had access to Pilate.
- Joseph might well have been one who saw in John the Baptist to be the one prophesied in Malachi who would come to announce the arrival of the Messiah.
- Pilate was surprised to hear Jesus was already dead and so asked the centurion, who had been in charge of the execution detail, to make sure Jesus was actually dead.
- John 11:31–37 tells us of the certainty that Jesus was dead; His legs did not need to be broken to expedite His death, per Psalm 34:20.
- Joseph buys a linen shroud to bury Jesus in —Is this the Shroud of Turin? Jesus is buried in the tomb of a rich man though Himself is judged a criminal. (see Isaiah 53:9)
- Buried in Joseph’s tomb, sealed, secured, and night falls, which marks the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Our attention is called now to Romans 6:1-11.
- The burial is observed however, which sets the stage for something unheard of.