As we come now to the Word of God, I want to take you to a point in the Passion Week which is very often overlooked, and that is the burial of Jesus. We all understand the miracle of the cross. The Son of God is not just a man dying there; He is the God-man, and He is bearing the sins of all who will ever believe through all of human history. It is a death that has efficacy, reaching to millions and millions and millions of people, and an efficacy that results in everlasting life for all for whom He died. It is the most massive miracle ever done by God, and done at the cross.

We also understand the miraculous nature of the Resurrection—that’s obvious. We know that death is the final enemy, and it is the last enemy, and it’s appointed unto men once to die, and then comes judgment. Conquering death is not something that we can do, but Christ did that. Conquered death, and in a miraculous way, as in His atonement, He conquered death for all who will ever believe in Him.

The miracle of the cross is atonement for sins for all of God’s people through all of history, and the miracle of the Resurrection is the gift of eternal life for all who will ever believe through human history. Just the extent of the power displayed spiritually at the cross and the Resurrection is stunning and incomprehensible.

But in between the cross and the Resurrection, there is the burial of Jesus. And most of the time we think little of it and skip over it; and yet, it is one marvelous, marvelous event in itself which portrays the glory of God, the accuracy of Scripture, the perfection of every detail in human history ordered by God for His own purposes. It’s a stunning thing to understand the features of the burial of Jesus.

With that in mind, open your Bible to Mark chapter 15. We’ve been looking at Mark’s gospel primarily, this Passion Week, and we’ll do that again this morning. Let me just read Mark’s account of the burial of Jesus in Mark 15, verse 42 and following.

“When evening had already come, because it was the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the Council, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God; and he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate wondered if He was dead by this time, and summoning the centurion, he questioned him as to whether He was already dead. And ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. Joseph bought a linen cloth, took Him down, wrapped Him in the linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses were looking on to see where He was laid.”

That remarkable, straightforward account of the burial of Jesus is also treated in the other gospels because it has immense importance and ought not to be overlooked. The burial of Jesus was as supernatural as His death and His resurrection, in that God controlled every detail of His burial to keep it on the divine schedule and to fulfill divine prophecy. The burial of Jesus was preplanned, predicted, powerfully executed, and gives us strong evidence for God’s control of history, for the veracity of Scripture, for the deity of Christ, and for the sovereignty of God over all events and all actions and all persons.

Now, God operates in history in two ways. He operates in history by miracles and by providence. What do we mean by that?

Well, God operates by miracles rarely, rarely, and I emphasize that. What does it mean that God operates by a miracle? It means that He suspends the natural law. He interrupts normal processes. He does things that have no scientific explanation. They are a total suspension of natural law and an invasion by divine power. That’s a miracle. And again, they are rare.

A second way that God operates in history is not rare, and it’s by what theologians call providence. This is common. In fact, everything fits into the category of providence. It is God constantly, without interruption, without suspension, controlling everything in the universe to His appointed purpose. That means all the behaviors of all the people—all the attitudes, all the motives, all the choices, all the actions, all the reactions—He weaves together meticulously and perfectly to fulfill His will.

It is a vastly greater miracle than a miracle. It’s one thing for God to just suspend natural law and do what He wills; it’s quite another thing for Him to take all of the infinite number of contingencies and weave them together by His divine wisdom to accomplish His purpose, without those who are acting within that purpose having any idea what is happening. This is the constant astounding wisdom and power of God called providence, operating at all times without suspension, to accomplish His purpose.

There are no miracles in the burial of Christ, but there is providence. And to understand the full story is to understand how God orders everything. Now, we could get lost in a lot of details because He’s in the details, but let me just do what might be a kind of an overview of providence with regard to the burial of Jesus, and we’ll look at three perspectives—the soldiers, the saints, and the spiritual leaders—and how what they did accomplished God’s purpose with absolute and total perfection and provision.

The soldiers: neutral, indifferent. The saints: positive, loving. The spiritual leaders: hostile, hateful. And whether you are indifferent or whether you are loyal or whether you are hostile, your behavior fits in God’s plan into the fulfillment of His divine purpose.

Now let’s begin by looking at the soldiers—fascinating. To do that, we have to take a visit to John’s gospel, the nineteenth chapter of John. Now all of the writers give us insight into the burial of Jesus, all four gospel writers, and we’ll borrow from Matthew a little later, and even from Luke, as we consider Mark.

But at verse 30 of John 19, this is a critical moment. John writes, “Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘[Tetelestai] It is finished!’ And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” This is an act of His divine will. You remember, He said, “No man takes My life from Me; I lay it down of Myself.” He not only offered Himself to die, He controlled His death. He is the one, according to the book of Revelation, who has the keys to death. And when it was time to die, He willed His own death.

You say, “Well, didn’t the crucifixion kill Him?” No. No, He gave up His life. A normal crucifixion would leave a suspended victim alive for up to three days or more. Jesus was on the cross six hours, and the robbers were still alive when He died. But He died when He died because that was God’s plan.

Now, dead bodies were an issue with the Jews. And if these dead bodies were hanging on the cross, still suspended, suffering, into the Sabbath, it would have been a violation of Old Testament law. So look at verse 31: “Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation”—that’s Friday, preparation day before the Sabbath—“so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day).” Deuteronomy 21:22 and 23 says this: “If a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.” If you’re going to crucify someone, you’ve got to get them down before the next day.

Fastidiously following Deuteronomy 21, the Jews are very concerned to get those three bodies down. And even more so—not only was it not to be allowed to stay an extra day, but the next day was the Sabbath. The Sabbath was considered, of course, a high day.

Now this again introduces us to the hypocrisy of the Jewish people. They had already defiled themselves by entering Pilate’s Praetorium to ask him for this. If they came into Pilate’s presence, as a Gentile ruler, that was also a defilement. And to say nothing of the fact that they had already sort of blackmailed the Romans into executing the Son of God—what kind of defilement was that? But in spite of their hypocrisy, they want to follow the letter of the law and get those bodies down.

Now, the Jews all knew about crucifixion. In 4 BC, the Roman general Varus crucified 2,000 Jews—four years BC, before the era of Christ. So the Jewish people were familiar with crucifixion, very familiar with it. Augustus Caesar claimed he crucified in excess of 30,000 people. And what the Jews knew was what everybody knew: that when you were crucified, you would languish for days. And so realizing that, they have a request for Pilate. Verse 31, “[They] asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”

What caused the death of a person being crucified was asphyxiation. There was some blood loss; but eventually, the suspended person on the cross couldn’t push himself up to catch a breath. There was, at the point of the feet, a nail going through both feet or both ankles, and so that even on that wound the crucified person, pulling with his hands and pushing with his feet, could push his body to get a breath. That would immediately be impossible if the legs were broken. This gruesome act was the smashing of the femur with an iron mallet, and this gesture would make death almost immediate—blood loss, trauma, and mostly asphyxiation.

So the Jews, who were familiar with that, said to Pilate, “We want you to break the legs of all three of them so we can get them off the cross while it’s still Friday.” So, verse 32 says, “So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man”—first thief; there were thieves on each side of Jesus, you remember—“broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.” Now these are death experts. They are, by profession, executioners. They do this routinely. They knew He was dead; there is no reason to break His legs.

But in a bizarre gesture, verse 34 says, “One of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.” I don’t know whether that was a gesture of humiliation, I don’t know if it was one final insult to run a spear near the heart area of Jesus on the cross, or if he was just making sure. But they knew death when they saw it. And when he pierced that side, lymphatic fluid and blood came out.

Psalm 69 says, “Reproach has broken my heart.” There was no reason for him to do that in the standard crucifixion. It was a strange gesture for one who was designated already to be dead. In fact, it’s so important that these things happened: that His legs were not broken and that He was speared in the side. It’s so important that John weighs in on it in verse 35, and this is him, first-person, giving a testimony: “And he who has seen has testified,” referring to himself as being there. “I was there. I can testify, and his testimony is true.” And he knows that he is telling the truth. He’s piling on the descriptives here: “I saw. I testified. My testimony is true. I’m telling you the truth, and I’m telling you this so that you also may believe.” Believe what? “That He was dead, that His legs were not broken, and that a spear pierced His side.”

Why is that important? Verse 36, “For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture.” The first Scripture, not a bone of Him shall be broken, Psalm 34:20. “Not [a bone] of [Him] will be broken.” In addition to that, in Exodus 12 and Numbers 9, the Scripture says that the Passover lamb could have no broken bones. The Passover lamb, the one selected to be offered in the sacrifice, could have no broken bones. Christ is the Passover Lamb, chosen by God. The One who sacrificed does take away sin. He shall have no broken bones.

If Jesus had not given up His own life prior to the arrival of the iron mallet, they would have shattered His legs, and Isaiah’s prophecies yet to come, the chain of prophecies that culminate in His burial, would not have taken place. And the picture of the Lamb would have been broken as well. And then in verse 37, another Scripture says, “They shall look on Him whom they pierced.“ That’s from Zechariah 12:10, and it says that the Messiah will be pierced.

So here are these ignorant, unbelieving, pagan soldiers, treating the body of Christ in exactly the way the Word of God says it will be treated. Thus they authenticate Scripture; thus they validate the Messiahship of Jesus Christ; thus they set up the reality of His death, which then leads to the reality of His resurrection. The hypocritical Jews, the Roman governor, Pilate, all the soldiers, with a measure of freedom are simply doing exactly what God ordained. God controlled His every move, whether it was Pilate, Jews, or the soldiers, to accomplish His purpose.

Go back to Mark chapter 15 now, and we’ll look at the second group: the saints. This is a marvelous text; we read it a moment ago. Let’s go back to it and consider it in more detail.

Verse 42, “When evening had already come, because it was the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath”—now we know it’s Friday; this is a time stamp. This is Friday; this is very important. We turn from the indifferent soldiers to the actions of those who actually loved the Lord. We meet Joseph of Arimathea, we meet Nicodemus, and Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of Joses. These four saints, you might say, play an important role in God’s operation: burying His Son.

Let’s begin with Joseph of Arimathea. Remember now, it’s Friday. Jesus died, say, at 3:00 in the afternoon, so there are some hours before Friday ends. “Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the Council.” That’s the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court—seventy men plus the high priest. They were the ones who sentenced Jesus to death. In the absence of anyone else showing up to take care of the body of Jesus, this man named Joseph arrives. He’s mentioned by Matthew, by Mark, by Luke, and by John, and he’s only mentioned in connection with the burial of Jesus—his only appearance in Scripture.

But his is a wonderful story. There’s a wonderful story of the conversion of one of the thieves, as you remember, crucified next to Christ. And there is the story of the centurion who said, “Truly this is the Son of God.” And now here is a salvation story, around the cross, of Joseph, who is a member of the Sanhedrin. They were the very body that had procured the death of Christ.

Luke adds that he was “a good and righteous man.” Using that wonderful word, dikaios, we see used throughout Paul’s letters to speak of righteousness. He was a righteous man. That, of course, is what the centurion said about Jesus: “This was a righteous man.” So both Jesus and Joseph were righteous: Jesus by nature, and Joseph by grace. Very few in Israel like that, very few—Zacharias and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist; and John the Baptist; and Simeon and Anna, who appear when Jesus was first brought to the Temple—as true believers.

Matthew says about Joseph he’s “a disciple of Jesus.” And then John gives us the inside. John writes, “a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews”—a secret disciple. He was a true believer, but he didn’t have the courage to let it be known. He’s part of a remnant in Israel. He’s a saint among all those who were indifferent and apostate.

He had been cowardly until this moment. There’s only one thing we know about him other than this act, and it is stated for us in Luke 23:51. Luke says this about Joseph: “He had not consented to the plan [of] action.” He didn’t vote for the execution of Jesus. I don’t know how they voted. He didn’t vote; he abstained, or maybe he was absent.

The only evidence of his love for Christ was abstaining, and now he is horrified at the devastation that has come because of the death of Jesus, and he can no longer maintain his secrecy. I love this. It says of him, he “was waiting for the kingdom of God.” That means he was a true believer in the kingdom and in the Christ who would establish the kingdom. He was a disciple. He believed Jesus was the Messiah. He was a disciple just as much as any other disciple.

Luke identifies him as from “a city of the Jews,” and here it’s stated as Arimathea. There are lots of speculations about where that is. That’s really not important. It’s only important that he’s identified with a city because, later on, Christians will read the gospel of Mark, and Joseph is such a common name, they’ll know which Joseph is being referred to here so that they can get his history right. He was waiting for the kingdom of God, like Zacharias and Elizabeth, like Anna and Simeon, like John the Baptist.

He had to be heartbroken. He had to be devastated beyond belief, because even in spite of Christ being dead on the cross and his anticipation of the kingdom being dashed to pieces, he still had so much love for Christ, and perhaps so much trust in Christ, that “he gathered up courage,” it says in verse 43, “and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus.”

Now he’s not a secret disciple anymore. “He gathered up courage.” Literally you could translate that, “He dared.” He was part of the Sanhedrin. And if Pilate despised any single group in Israel, it would have been them, because they were the Jewish counterpart to his power and position and authority.

And when he went in to see Pilate, he also defiled himself on the day before Passover. This is exposing him to the rest of the Sanhedrin, who now know of his allegiance to Jesus. And John 19:38 says that it was right after the Jews asked Pilate to break the legs of the three, and the soldiers went to fulfill that request. Right after that, Joseph shows up and wants Pilate to give him the dead body. He asks for the body of Jesus.

Well, Pilate hadn’t even received a report about whether they were dead. So in verse 44, “Pilate wondered if He was dead by this time”—as I said, it usually took days; this was merely hours—“and summoning the centurion”—perhaps the very one who said, “Surely this was the Son of God,” the one overseeing the crucifixion—and “he questioned him as to whether He was already dead. And ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph.”

The affirmation of the centurion who was, by profession, an executioner, the affirmation of the soldier who didn’t break his legs, all indicate that Jesus was dead. That’s very important to establish, because dying within six hours just didn’t normally happen. But now we know that Jesus was dead, as affirmed by Pilate and the centurion in order to answer the request of Joseph. So “ascertaining this,” verse 45, “he granted the body to Joseph.” The word “body” there is actually the word for “corpse.”

Now why did Joseph do this? Just thinking through why he might have done it, why would he pay the price for the destruction of his reputation, for the loss of the privilege of being accepted in the culture, and certainly the position that he had in the Sanhedrin? Why would he do this for a now-dead Jesus? Was it because he loved Him so much, and he had taken all that he could possibly take, that his conscience had burdened him already about his secrecy, and now he had seen what was being done to Jesus, and it was more than he could handle, and to salve his own conscience, he wanted to make a gesture of honesty and integrity?

Was it because he also knew Deuteronomy 21 said that a body is to be buried? Was he trying to fulfill the law and give to this one he loved an appropriate and proper funeral? Was he trying to act on behalf of Jesus so that the agonizing, embarrassing, criminal, horrible things that were being done to Him would not continue? We don’t know. Or was it that somewhere, down in his heart, he believed Jesus would rise from the dead?

Jesus had been saying that openly and publicly. Everybody knew He said that. Everybody knew He made that claim—as we’ll see in a moment. Maybe all of that is true. But why he did this is because, whatever his motives were, because in God’s plan Jesus had to fulfill Scripture. What Scripture? Isaiah 53, that wonderful chapter about the Lord, describes His burial. Listen to what it says in Isaiah 53:9, “His grave was assigned with wicked men.” OK, that was normal. You were crucified, and you got thrown on Gehenna. Gehenna was the name of the city dump, where the fire burned all the time. It was a picture of hell.

“His grave was assigned with wicked men.” When you died as a cursed person, you were taken down off the cross, and you were thrown into a fire. Your body was reduced to ashes. That was His assignment, as a crucified criminal. “Yet,” Isaiah 53:9, “He was with a rich man in His death.” How do we get to there? How does Jesus, dying as a criminal, cursed and being assigned to be thrown on the city dump, Gehenna, burning with fire—how does He end up in the grave of a rich man? His grave was planned to be with the rest of the criminals.

Joseph, Joseph was a rich man. Joseph was a rich man who had his own tomb prepared, and no one had ever been in it. He’s the right guy to appear. He’s moving at a rapid speed. Perhaps he doesn’t know why, but he comes at the right time to get the body of Jesus, to go and bury Him, because He has to be buried on Friday. Jesus said, Matthew 12:40, that He would be in the grave three days. He had to be in the grave Friday: part of Friday, Saturday, part of Sunday. He had to, because that’s what He claimed: after three days, He would rise.

So here comes Joseph, unwittingly about to get Jesus into the grave on Friday without understanding what he is really doing. Verse 46, “Joseph bought a linen cloth, took Him down, wrapped Him in the linen cloth and laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.” Mark says he took Him down by himself. Imagine him pulling the hands of Jesus over the nails, the feet of Jesus over the nails, wiping the dirt and sweat and blood from His body. Normally, the Jews would wrap a body with a shroud; but underneath, they would put strips of cloth—they didn’t embalm—put strips of cloth; and they would put spices liberally there to minimize the stench of a dead body. But all Joseph had was a linen cloth to wrap Him.

But there’s another person who shows up. Look at John 19—back to the same scene from John’s perspective, in John chapter 19 and verse 39—“Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night”—remember back in John 3, Nicodemus came to Jesus by night to ask how one could enter the kingdom of God. This is that same Nicodemus. He came to Jesus at that time by night; he “also came”—he’s coming to assist with the burial—and He “[brings] a mixture of myrrh,” which was an aromatic powder, “and aloes,” which was something the same from a succulent plant, “about a hundred pounds weight.” That would be for a king. That would be for royalty.

“So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.” They were giving Him an appropriate and proper burial. These are two unlikely men. Somewhere between the third chapter of John and the Resurrection, Nicodemus became a follower of Jesus Christ. And now these two unlikely men—one, a member of the Sanhedrin; the other, the teacher of Judaism—and the two of them have become followers of Christ.

And they laid Him in a tomb which had been cut out in rock. Matthew 27:60 says it was Joseph’s own tomb. And Matthew says Joseph was “a rich man.” Isaiah 53:9, He would be assigned to the dump, but He would end up in the grave, a tomb of a rich man. And John 19:41 says that rich man’s tomb was in a garden.

All this was, from their perspective, to honor Christ. They were loving followers. They wanted to make sure that nobody did anything to harm His body once it was there, and so they rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb. This is the most loving, careful, honorable burial that two men could offer the one they loved. And God was moving them rapidly because they had to get Him in the grave before sundown so that He was there a part of three days. It was before the Sabbath. “It was”—verse 42 says—“the preparation day.” That’s Friday. That’s Friday. The action of the soldiers, fulfilling prophecy; the action of the saints, fulfilling prophecy from the Lord Himself.

And verse 47 adds, “Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses were looking on to see where He was laid.” These are women mentioned earlier, in verses 40 and 41, and they were looking at the place Jesus was laid—very important. Apparently they’d been following along. They were following afar at the cross, and they’re still hanging back and watching. So they see the place where His body was laid. They’re still paralyzed by inaction. But you could ask the question, Where is Peter, and where are the other disciples? They followed—curiosity, love, disappointment, sadness, faith, hope. We don’t know the motives, but they knew where Jesus’ body was placed.

And Luke picks up the story and says they decided that they wanted to put some spices on the body, so they went away and came back—you remember? They came back—according to Luke’s gospel—on Sunday morning, early, with spices to anoint the body of Christ. They weren’t going to be outdone by strangers. And they came. They honored the Sabbath, didn’t come back on the Sabbath. How important that they came back on the next day. So those loving saints add their personal actions to the providence. He has to be in the grave on Friday. The women have to know where the grave is. They know where it is; they saw it, and they showed up at the grave on the Sunday of His resurrection.

Now, one other thing to consider just briefly—we don’t have time to get into it, but I’ll read it to you—Matthew 27, Matthew 27. This is so marvelous. Verse 62, Matthew’s account of the burial: “On the next day, the day after the preparation”—now we’re onto Sabbath. Jesus was in the grave on Friday, He’s there on Saturday, so—“the chief priests and the Pharisees [get] together with Pilate, and [they] said, ‘Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver”’—that’s their term for Him—“‘that deceiver said, “After three days, I am to rise again.”’” This reminds us that this was widespread public knowledge. “Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise His disciples may come and steal Him away and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.” Put a guard there so the disciples don’t come and roll the stone away, and say He rose from the dead.

Verse 65, “Pilate said to them, ‘You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.’ They went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone.” Now you’ve got the hostile, hateful Jewish leaders, and they are willing now to go to extremes. They want no possibility of the disciples stealing this body and claiming a resurrection, so they sealed and guarded the tomb. This is amazing, all of it.

Some claim Jesus wasn’t even dead, that there was not a resurrection because He didn’t die. That’s not possible because the soldiers all said He was dead, and they were executioners. And some say the women went to the wrong tomb; That’s a popular alternative. But that’s not possible because they knew where the tomb was, and they came back to the same tomb to anoint His body with spices, and the tomb was empty. Well, some say the disciples stole His body. That’s not possible because the grave was secured, sealed, and guarded.

God reigns and controls everything, everything, every detail. And what happened, as Mark concludes his account on that first day, chapter 16, verse 1, “When the Sabbath was over”—now we’re in the third day—“Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so they might come and anoint Him. Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.” It’s now the third day. “They were saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us [at] the entrance of the tomb?’ Looking up, they saw the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large. Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed.” This is an angel. “And he said to them, ‘Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here. Behold, here is the place where they laid Him.’” He’s not here; He’s risen!

If you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, and confess Him as your Lord, you shall be saved. Let’s pray.

Lord, we just feel overwhelmed. It’s almost as if we were there for these incredible, providential moments. I thank You that Christ lives; and because He lives, we live also. May that glorious offer of eternal life through faith in the risen Christ captivate every heart here so that no one walks away from the only Savior, the only One who gives eternal life. Open hearts even to that reality now, we pray. Amen.