by J. Flanigan (Northern Ireland)
Those were highly privileged men who were chosen to handle the holy Body of the Lord Jesus in death, and attend reverently to His burial. To Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus was committed the tender task of preparing the Body of the Saviour for interment, and this involved wrapping Him in His last earthly garments, the linen grave clothes.
The enemies of Jesus had never intended it to be like this, for they had appointed His grave with the wicked, Isa.53.9, JND. As they had numbered Him with transgressors in His death, crucifying Him with malefactors, so would they have buried Him with them in some communal grave. Divine sovereignty, however, had ordered it otherwise. It was as if the hand of God was raised to them, just as it was to the mighty ocean, saying, “Hitherto ... but no further,” Job 38.11. In longsuffering God had remained silent, viewing all that men did to His Son, but there was a limit, and now He took the burial of the Saviour out of their hands completely. Neither the rough and careless hands of Romans nor the irreverent hands of unbelieving Jews must be allowed to handle the sacred Body.
Joseph, the rich man, became a beggar! He went boldly to Pilate, and, as Matthew, Mark, and Luke each record, he begged the Body of Jesus, Matt.27.58; Mk.15.43; Lk.23.52. It was indeed a courageous and bold thing to do, for such an action would identify him with Jesus. Pilate must surely have wondered! Two honourable counsellors interested in the Body of the crucified Nazarene? Members of the Sanhedrim! Notable men of position and standing in the Jewish community! Now, if it had been Simon Peter, or James and John, or some other of those disciples, perhaps he could have understood it. But Joseph? And Nicodemus? However, he duly granted custody of the Body and the two counsellors hastened to attend to the burial before the sun went down.
It was evening as they made the final preparations. Nicodemus brought the embalming spices, a mixture of myrrh and aloes. It was a heavy burden which he brought to the tomb, “about an hundred pound weight,” Jn.19.39. This “pound” was the “litra”, the equivalent of twelve ounces (Strong 3046). It was therefore quite a weight that Nicodemus carried, seventy-five pounds of spices.
They brought also, a roll of linen with which to enwrap the Body of the Lord. The word used by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, signifies “fine linen,” a costly material in which the bodies of the dead were wrapped by those who could afford to buy such. This was to be the Saviour’s last garment. In the sovereignty of God, the Carpenter was to be given the burial of an Emperor!
But the first duty would be to gently remove the holy Body from the cross. How carefully and reverently they must have withdrawn the coarse nails from His hands and feet. With what mingled feelings would they have handled the sacred burden and lifted Him down from the tree. How gently indeed, as if afraid to cause any more pain to a Body already beyond pain. Together, silently, these two counsellors bore the lifeless form of the Prince of Life from the cross to the tomb. That resting-place was a new tomb, whether intended for Joseph himself and his family, or prepared in anticipation of the inevitable death of Jesus, we cannot tell, but the sepulchre was there, nigh at hand, in the place where Jesus had been crucified. It was now given freely by Joseph as a burial place for the Saviour. Little did he know that his gift would be appreciated, but accepted only as a loan, to be returned to him in three days time, with interest. And such interest! The name of Joseph of Arimathea is inscribed indelibly in the pages of each of the four Gospels.
The Body of the Saviour, having been carried to the tomb, must now be wrapped in the linen. Joseph and Nicodemus would attend to this delicate and sacred duty, while some of the women who had followed Jesus from Galilee watched from a discreet distance, beholding how His Body was laid.
As the linen was being wound around the body the powdered spices would be sprinkled between the white folds of the cloth. If it should be objected that it would not be physically possible to enclose seventy-five pounds of spices in the linen wrappings, indeed this may be so. It is often pointed out, however, that at the burial of King Asa in 2Chron.16.14, they made a bed of spices on which to lay his body in the sepulchre, and so it may well have been in the case of our Lord. It will be remembered that after His birth wise men from the East brought myrrh and frankincense. Now, at His burial, others bring myrrh and aloes.
Spices most sweet they chose;
Aloes they brought, and myrrh;
Wound Him with these in linen clothes,
Gave Him a sepulchre.
This was a new and undefiled sepulchre in which they laid Him, and this was fine linen, clean and white, with which they wrapped Him. All is in keeping with His purity. For thirty-three years the Saviour had lived sinlessly, and although He had suffered as a Sin-Bearer, nevertheless He was always personally pure. Notice that it is more than once said of the sin offering of those earlier days, “It is most holy unto the Lord,” Ex.30.10; Lev.6.25. He who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities had neither transgressions nor iniquities of His own and the conditions of His burial must be in accord with His holy life.
There was, however, yet another purpose for these garments of purity. They were to become the silent witnesses to the miracle of the resurrection of the crucified Lord. Three days after the burial, on the first day of the week, early in the morning, Mary Magdalene finds the stone rolled away from the sepulchre, and fearing that the sacred Body had been stolen, she hastily finds Peter and John who come at once to the sepulchre. Three times it is said of these two disciples that they saw the linen clothes “lying”, Jn.20.3-8. Note that this word “lying” is unnecessary if there is no significance in what Peter and John saw. Why therefore does it not simply say that they saw the linen clothes? The grave clothes of the Saviour had been wondrously vacated and left undisturbed, lying as they had been wound around Him, but lying flat because of the weight of the spices in the folds. The napkin however, that had been about His head, was still in its convolutions, still rolled and bearing the same shape as when it had been around His head. There would not have been sufficient weight of spices in the napkin to depress it like the grave clothes. It was in a place by itself too, on the upper ledge where the Saviour’s head had rested while the Body lay on the lower bed of the tomb.
These garments of purity had become evidence of a miracle. They had not been unwrapped and cast aside. They had not been folded either, and laid down in an orderly fashion. They had just been vacated. The Saviour was alive and the tomb was empty except for the linen witnesses, bearing their powerful testimony.
—to be continued (D.V.)