The 5th Day (Thursday) of the Final Week From Matt 27:57-61, Mark 15:42-47, Luke 23:50-55, and John 19:31-42 Because it was preparation day for the Passover celebration which was also called a high Sabbath, the Jewish leaders were required to have the dead bodies buried before 6:00 PM, the start of the holiday. They went to Pilate to request that the men who had been crucified have their legs broken so they would die quicker and could be removed from the crosses and buried. So soldiers were sent out and they broke the legs of the two criminals but when they came to Jesus, they discovered that he was already dead. Instead of breaking his legs, one of soldiers stabbed Jesus in the side with his spear and immediately blood and water came pouring out. His followers who were still watching from a distance witnessed all of this. It fulfilled an ancient scripture that said, “Not one of his bones will be broken,” and another that said, “They will look on him who they pierced.” Then one of the members of the Jewish high council, a man named Joseph from the town of Arimathea in Judea, went to Pilate to ask if he could take Jesus' body and have it buried. He was an upright and honest man who had secretly been a follower of Jesus and was waiting for the day when God would come to set up his kingdom. He did not agree with the decision of the council to have Jesus killed but he was afraid of the Jewish leaders. Now he got his courage up and went to see Pilate anyway. Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus was already dead so he called in one of his commanders and he confirmed that Jesus had actually been dead for a while now. Pilate gave him permission to take the body so Joseph and his friend Nicodemas, the Jewish religious leader who had visited Jesus in the middle of the night three years earlier, went and took Jesus down from the cross. They had brought along about seventy-five pounds of embalming ointment made from myrrh mixed with aloes. They took a long strip of brand new linen cloth and according to Jewish burial custom, wrapped it along with the ointment tightly around the body ofJesus. Joseph owned a brand new tomb that had been carved out of a rock in a garden right near the place where the crucifixion had taken place. Since it was close by, they buried Jesus there. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph were following them and sat watching as the two men placed the body in the tomb and then rolled a large stone over the entrance. Then they and the other women from Galilee went back to the place they were staying and prepared spices and burial ointment for Jesus so that after the Sabbaths were over, they could go back and prepare Jesus properly for burial. By the time they finished, the special high Sabbath for the Passover celebration had begun so they rested from their work as they were required by Jewish law. |
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