Today's passage fulfills the words of Isaiah, that Jesus would be "with the rich in His death". (Isaiah 53:9) He is going to be laid in a rich man's tomb, but as an old song says, "He'll only need it for the weekend."
"It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath)." (Mark 15:42a) Jesus died at 3pm on Friday and the Sabbath was about to begin at 6pm. In order to keep from breaking the Sabbath, the interment of His body needs to be accomplished before 6pm.
"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." (Mark 15:42b-43) Joseph is a member of the Council, meaning the Sanhedrin. Luke says he is "a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action". (Luke 23:50-51) Some scholars speculate that Joseph wasn't even invited to the illegal nighttime trial of Jesus, and that the Sanhedrin only called together those they could count on to vote for Jesus' execution. Luke's words may indicate that Joseph was present but voted against the majority of his peers.
John tells us that Joseph is accompanied by Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin who once visited Jesus at night to question and examine Him regarding matters of the law. (John 19:39) Nicodemus spoke out against the decision of the religious leaders to take Jesus out of the picture, asking, "Does our law condemn a man without first hearing Him to find out what He has been doing?" (John 7:51) In other words, "You've already decided He's worthy of death. You've never really stopped to listen to anything He's saying. You've never stopped to consider the great works He's doing. In your minds He's already a dead man walking. We know of no crime He's committed. He's been convicted of nothing. Yet you've already decided He doesn't deserve to live. That is against the laws of man and God!"
"Pilate was surprised to hear that He was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died." (Mark 15:44) Crucifixion could take an entire day or even several days, so Pilate doubts whether Jesus could have perished so quickly. He doesn't want a person taken from a cross unless he is truly dead, so he calls for the centurion who witnessed the death of Jesus. The centurion confirms that Jesus died at 3pm. Though it's unusual for a crucifixion victim to die in only a few hours, Jesus has been through more in the past twenty-four hours than most crucifixion victims. He's been given no food or water since the Last Supper. He's been struck repeatedly in the head and face by both the high priest's guards and Pilate's soldiers. It is believed that His flogging with Roman whips was more severe than normal because Pilate hoped that the sight of Him would make His enemies conclude enough punishment had been carried out. It was not customary to beat a condemned man so much that he could not carry his own cross, but Jesus was too weak to carry His. He was already suffering from shock and extreme blood loss before He ever arrived at Golgotha, which is why John tells us both blood and water came out when a soldier pierced His side. (John 19:34) This indicates pericardial effusion: the build-up of fluid in the heart and lungs. Pericardial effusion will occur following a sustained period in which the person has lost 20% or more of his blood and bodily fluids, causing the heart to pump rapidly in an effort to circulate through the body the insufficient volume of blood.
We don't want to be graphic here, but we do want to prevent any doubts from creeping in that Jesus might not have been dead when Joseph took His body down. Over the centuries there have been skeptics who suggested Jesus was not dead and therefore did not rise from the dead, but the Roman soldiers knew the difference between a dead man and a live man. They were experts at execution; they would never have allowed a living man to be taken from a cross. To prove Jesus was indeed dead as He appeared to be and had not simply fainted, a soldier pierced His side. The fact that blood and water poured out proves that the soldier pierced His heart, and He would not have survived that.
Pilate is satisfied with the centurion's account of Jesus' death, so he releases the body. "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." (Mark 15:45-46) Matthew adds the information that this tomb was Joseph's "own new tomb". (Matthew 27:60) Tombs were not intended for only one body but for a whole family. A wealthy man like Joseph would have a tomb cut out that would someday receive his own body along with that of his wife, his children and their spouses, his grandchildren, and so on. A body would be laid on a slab inside until it became skeletal, at which time the bones would be gathered into a box called an "ossuary". This allowed for many generations of a family to use the same tomb because a large number of ossuaries could be stacked inside a tomb.
John says that Nicodemus helped Joseph to wrap the body with about seventy-five pounds of spices that Nicodemus brought with him. (John 19:39-40) After placing the body inside, the stone was rolled over the opening, and Mark concludes today's passage by saying, "Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where He was laid." (Mark 15:47) These women followed Jesus all the way to the tomb, marking the spot so they can return and perform more proper burial rituals later, "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." (Luke 23:55-56)
Unbelievers have tried to claim that the women, and everyone else involved, made a mistake about which tomb Jesus was placed in. They attempt to discredit the accounts of the resurrection by saying the empty tomb was not Jesus' tomb at all. But that doesn't hold water. Joseph certainly knew which tomb was his. Nicodemus knew which tomb he helped place Jesus' body in. The women knew the correct tomb because they intended to come back to it following the Sabbath. Even the enemies of Jesus knew the correct tomb, for later we will find them asking for guards to stand in front of it so that the disciples can't steal the body. No one involved in this matter, whether friend or foe, made any mistake whatsoever in regard to the location of Jesus' body. No one involved in this matter, whether friend or foe, will be able to deny the fact that Jesus' dead body is no longer there on Sunday morning.
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