Jesus' Burial: 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, [Preparation Day = Friday, the day before the Sabath] 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 a guard. (NIV) Mark 15: 42-47: It was Preparation Day (that is, the
day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, Joseph 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. Pilate was surprised to
hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus
had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave
the body to Joseph. 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. Mary Magdalene and Mary the
mother of Joses saw where he was laid. (NIV) Luke 24: 50-56: Now there was a man named Joseph, a
member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their
decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was
waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. Then
he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the
rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the
Sabbath was about to begin. The women who had come with Jesus from
Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then
they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath
in obedience to the commandment. (NIV) John 19: 38-42: Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked
Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly
because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body
away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at
night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five
pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in
strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the
place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new
tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of
Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. (NIV) |
