Tag Archives: tomb

A Rich Man’s Tomb

Bible Study, , ,

A RICH MAN’S TOMB 

“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.” John 19: 41-42 NIV.

Ever built a 2000 piece jigsaw puzzle? It’s a massive undertaking. First one has to find a table or board big enough to fit the reassembled puzzle and all the loose pieces separated and lying face up. Then one has to find all the edge pieces and put them in their correct places to form the outer frame. Next, one painstakingly studies the picture and the pieces to find the shapes and colours that will fit together to form the picture, either beginning at the outer edge or with some focal point that will fit into the puzzle as one goes along.

As the story of Jesus flowed, things happened in quick succession which replicated the words of the prophets of the Old Testament with uncanny accuracy. It was as though God had in front of Him a picture of the events of Jesus’ life, from His conception to His ascension which He had described to the prophets. As event after event happened, He put the puzzle pieces together exactly as the picture showed.

Isaiah’s prophecy in chapter 53 contributed the details of part of the completed picture. Joseph’s compassionate action provided the pieces which reproduced the picture of His burial perfectly.

“He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death, though He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.” Isaiah 53:9 NIV.

According to Matthew 27:57-61, Joseph of Arimathea was a wealthy man who owned an unused tomb near the crucifixion site, which he had prepared for his own burial. Mark added that he was a prominent member of the Jewish Council. What moved him to request the body of Jesus and to use his own tomb in which to bury Him? Was it love, generosity or perhaps even guilt because he had not been open about his faith in Jesus?

Perhaps, as he watched the terrible events, knowing that Jesus was innocent and that He had been killed to mask the wickedness of his fellow religious leaders, he was moved in his heart to rescue Him from the ignominious end of executed criminals – cremation in the city’s garbage dump in the Valley of Hinnom.

When he was sure that Jesus was dead, he hurried off to Pilate to ask permission to take charge of the body. Together with Nicodemus who allied himself with Joseph, they claimed His body, carrying out hurried burial rites because it was almost sundown and the beginning of the special Sabbath, and placed it in the tomb.

What does this little detail say to us who read it? It fascinates me that God wrote Jesus’ story in His book before He was born. Apart from the fact that it gives me assurance that the Bible really is God’s book — who else can write a biography before it happens and be spot on in every detail? — it also makes me wonder whether He has written my story as well. If He has, it means that I am not an insignificant nobody in His eyes, but someone worth writing about.

“All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:16b.

Does that mean that I am just a puppet that God pushes around at will? I don’t think that’s what David meant when he wrote those words. I think he meant that God sees everything from beginning to end. He is able to write our stories before they happen because He can see the whole thing from His perspective. That means that God is very great, greater than that He can see into the future. Past, present and future are all “now” to God. He is already there, at the end of my story just as He is here now where I am on the journey and was present at the beginning.

That also means that although Jesus died at a specific time in history, all the benefits of His death applied from the beginning of time. God’s people weren’t forgiven because they offered animal sacrifices. That was only a picture to help them to understand that it was the blood of God’s Lamb, His Son that cleansed them from sin.

God has taken care of everything that was needed to forgive us and reinstate us as His children. He left nothing to chance and He leaves nothing to chance as far as our lives are concerned. We can trust Him.

Watch This Space!

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WATCH THIS SPACE! 

“Later, Jospeh of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. 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.” John 19:38-40 NIV.

The wind tugged at a wisp of hair, coated with blood and sweat, that strayed from the matted tangle on the head of the bloodied corpse. A few soldiers stood guard around the crosses in the eerie twilight that had settled prematurely over the landscape, waiting for the order to take down the bodies and deposit them in the smouldering fire in the Valley of Hinnom.

Two men appeared out of the gloom, accompanied by an official from Pilate. A quiet word from the Roman officer and the soldiers heaved the centre cross from its hole in the rock and lowered it to the ground. The body was removed from the wooden torture stake and wrapped in a linen shroud.

Joseph and Nicodemus lifted Jesus and carried His heavy weight to a rocky cave in the nearby hillside. In silence they completed their burial ritual, packing the body with the spices Nicodemus had brought with him and rewrapping the body in the linen cloth and lowering into the raised platform carved out of the rock. The sun was just beginning to set behind the clouds when they had completed their task and said farewell to the Master they had followed in secret.

According to Matthew, their handiwork was closely supervised by Roman soldiers who rolled the huge circular stone across the entrance and sealed it with PIlate’s official seal because the Jewish religious leaders were afraid. Afraid of what? They had heard a runour that Jesus had threatened to come back again. Just in case His disciples schemed to steal His body and hide it elsewhere, to fuel the runour and stir up more trouble, they had demanded a Roman military guard to make sure that it didn’t happen.

Joseph and Nicodemus walked slowly back to the city in silence, heads bowed, each lost in his own thoughts. They were out in the open; they had burnt their bridges. Everyone now knew where their allegiance lay, but it was too late. Jesus was dead. Had they not just laid Him out, covered His body with spices, bound His face with a burial cloth and wrapped Him in a shroud and said their last goodbye?

The Jewish leaders were satisfied. Their tormentor was dead. No more would they hear His accusing voice, pounding on their awakened consciences, keeping them out of sleep at night. As much as they believed they were right and He was wrong, they could not silence the sound of His voice, the sight of His tenderness towards the ones they despised. He was dead and buried and that was that!

And what of the soldiers? They were just doing their job — but  were they? Was it their job to bully the accused? Were they expected to beat Him in the face with their fists? Was it their duty to mock Him and spit on Him? Were they detailed to crown Him with thorns? What they did was above and beyond the call of duty. How did they handle that when they lay in bed at night, especially because they could not get a rise out of Him, not matter how hard they tried! He was gone and they couldn’t change what they had done!

But was He? Before He left them, many times over in spite of their unbelief He had told His disciples, “Watch this space!”

Convinced Or Convinced?

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CONVINCED OR CONVINCED? 

“Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. ‘Take away the stone,’ He said. ‘But Lord,’ said Martha, the sister of the dead man, ‘by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days.’

“Then Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.’ When He had said this, Jesus called out in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’

“The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Take off the grave clothes and let him go.'” John 11:38-44 NIV.

What a moment! What went through the minds of the two sisters, of the bystanders when Jesus ordered them to remove the stone? ‘No! It can’t be! Is He out of His mind? Is He really going to go in there? What is He going to do?’ As the heavy stone was moved, so the stench of death wafted from the mouth of the cave and they involuntarily stepped backwards.

Jesus was oblivious to the smell of putrefying flesh. He took a step forward and turned His face heavenwards. In a strong, confident voice He addressed His Father, ‘Abba, we’ve already talked and you have heard my request. Now I want all these people around me to know and believe that it is you who sent me.’ When did He speak to the Father? All the time, no doubt.

Then, without hesitating He addressed the corpse — in a loud voice that Lazarus would hear wherever he was — ‘Lazarus, out!’ The bystanders watched and waited, hardly daring to breathe. Was this just a big show? The seconds ticked by, then…out of the darkness a figure emerged, naked but for the strips of cloth around his hands, his feet and his face and probably encasing his body as well. He shuffled towards the entrance, unable to walk because of the linen ties around his feet.

Miraculously, the odour had dissipated. Lazarus was very much alive but still wearing the evidence of his departure encasing his body. Instead of the stink of decay, the fragrant spices of his sisters’ loving preparation for burial still clung to him released by a fresh breeze which blew away the last vestiges of his untimely death.

Trying in vain to free himself of his encumbrances, Lazarus shuffled out of the tomb. The people stared at him, speechless with shock and disbelief. Only one person was with it enough to speak sense in the situation. I can imagine that Jesus was amused by the bizarre scene — dozens of people gawking like beached fish while a man tied up in burial cloths, hands and feet firmly immobilised, and unable to see where he was going, tries to get free of his bonds and speak to them!

‘For pity’s sake,’ I can imagine Jesus saying, ‘Untie the poor guy and let him go.’ With a jolt, someone would come to and take off the bandages from Lazarus’ feet and hands and untie the cloth around his face so that he could breathe freely again and see.

The Bible abruptly halts the story right there. John was not about telling a story. He was about providing convincing evidence that Jesus was the Son of God, sent by the Father to reveal His Father’s glory. What did the Jews think about that? Was this magnificent sign, the climax of the signs John had recorded to reveal the nature of the Father and convince his readers that Jesus was indeed God’s Son, perfectly reflecting Him in everything He did, enough to tip the scales?

We have to read on to the conclusion that unfolded in the next few days to discover the depth of wickedness in the hearts of Jesus’ opponents that drove them, not to believe but to plan their murderous end to the story!

Glimpses Of The Great God: Day Twenty One

Devotion, , , ,

DAY TWENTY ONE

 Then the disciples went back to their home,

but Mary stood outside the tomb crying.

As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb

and saw two angels in white

seated where Jesus’ body had been,

one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken away my Lord,” she said,

“and I don’t know where they have put Him.”

At this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there,

but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

“Woman,” He said, “why are you crying?

Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking He was the gardener she said,

“Sir, if you have carried Him away,

tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned towards Him and cried out in Aramaic,

“Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

John 20:10-16

 Can you imagine this moment! Mary’s eyes are swollen with crying.  She does not recognise Jesus.  She pours out her grief to the “gardener” and then hears one word, “Mary!” and her world turns the right way up again.

 

 

Misplaced Expectations

Christian Life, , , ,

MISPLACED EXPECTATIONS!

“The women, who had been companions of Jesus from Galilee, followed along. They saw the tomb where Jesus’ body had been placed. Then they went back to prepare burial spices and perfumes. They rested quietly on the Sabbath as commanded

“At the crack of dawn on Sunday, the women came to the tomb carrying the burial spices they had prepared. They found the entrance stone rolled back from the tomb, so they walked in. But once inside, they couldn’t find the body of the Master Jesus.” Luke 23:55-56; 24:1-3 (The Message).

Everything these loyal women did after Jesus had died was to fulfil a certain expectation. Their beloved Master had perished at the hands of the Jewish leaders and the Roman authorities. All they could do for Him now was to give Him a decent burial. Nothing was spared in their preparation for that final act of love. They had little time before the beginning of the Sabbath at sundown. Working together, they pooled their resources and then waited for the dawn of the first day of the new week.

Although they had a mission to fulfil, they put it in its proper perspective. Their first obligation was to submit to a Higher Authority. Sabbath was a special day every week, symbolic of their covenantal relationship with Yahweh, and they rested as was a custom so deeply ingrained in them that they would no more ignore it than ignore all the other requirements of the Torah.

Even their obedience had a certain expectation in it. It was prophetic of another rest of which their Master had spoken, the rest of release from the tedious details of their teaching which was given to them for the purpose of introducing them into the rest of His completed work.

If they grasped why they had to do so many things to fulfil their Law, they would understand that these were pictures of Jesus’ death as redemption from sin. Jesus had invited them into His yoke of freedom from the “labour’ of trying to satisfy God’s requirements in their own strength.

All their “laws” and cultural practices were the foundation to understand the mighty redemptive work of Jesus which was unfolding before their eyes. Redemption from slavery in Egypt was a picture of His daring rescue of mankind from slavery to sin. The entire rigmarole of sacrifices pictured His once-for-all offering of Himself on the cross as the perfect sacrifice of atonement and the first-fruits of the resurrection.

They were, at that moment, right in the middle of that drama. They had not yet grasped where it was leading. They went to the tomb expecting to find His body where it was placed and to carry out their final loving ministry to all that was left of Him that they could honour. They expected to be the givers and the corpse of the Jesus the taker.

Their first shock was to find the tomb open. Had they not witnessed with their own eyes the mighty effort it took to seal that tomb with a massive stone? In their grief and passion to do something for Jesus, they had not taken into account the problem that faced them when they reached the tomb. A few women’s combined strength would never dislodge the stone.

Even when they found the stone rolled out of the way, they still expected His body to be where Joseph had left it. They did not consider why the stone would have been moved – for one purpose only, for His body to be removed and taken elsewhere, perhaps for reburial at an unknown site, or perhaps to hide in order to offset any false claims that He had risen. Whoever had moved the body would be able to produce it as evidence to disprove that claim.

Whatever their expectations might have been that early Sunday morning, one was too unlikely to consider, that He was not there because He was alive and had walked out of the tomb! In their shock and grief at His loss, they forgot His promise. The reality of His death crowded out the only possibility that befitted the one they had believed was the Son of God.

Because our expectations are often so earth-bound because of present reality that we ignore God’s promises, like the women, we miss the indescribable joy of expecting Jesus to show up in the middle of our crises because He is no longer in the tomb but alive and with us as He promised.