Compelling case of Christ’s tomb, Joseph of Arimathaea
It is in some of the lesserknown details of the crucifixion and burial of Christ that we find some of the greatest treasures of our faith. Mind you, they are not lesser know because they are of little significance, but merely because they are lesser repeated than the huge facts of the case.
Such is the compelling case of Joseph of Arimathaea.
Most everyone, Christian or not, knows that Jesus Christ was buried in a borrowed tomb. That lovely fact is the subject of sermons, poems and more songs than one can count. But if you were to ask whose borrowed tomb it was, fewer people would know that. If you went further and asked those who do know what details they could give concerning the owner of the tomb, the number would decrease even more. And yet, Joseph of Arimathaea is one of the rare parts of the passion account that is mentioned in all four of the Gospels, and in great detail, at that.
Joseph of Arimathaea was born in the hometown of Samuel, the great Old Testament prophet. And whether or not he was “old money” or simply succeeded wildly on his own, Joseph became extremely wealthy; Matthew’s account calls him a rich man. This was a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 53:9 that the Messiah would make his grave with the rich. The other part of Isaiah’s prophecy, that he would be buried with the wicked, was fulfilled when he was crucified between and died along with two thieves.
Being rich, all by itself would have made Joseph very well known. But the accounts of his success do not stop there. Joseph was also a man whose good character became as or more well known than his riches. Luke’s account calls him both a good man and a just man and informs us that he was looking for the kingdom of God, not fixated on the baubles of this passing world.
Even more striking, though, is the fact that Joseph of Arimathaea was a member of the Sanhedrin counsel. Mark’s account lets us know this when it calls him an “honorable counselor.” Luke bears that out when he says that he “had not consented to the counsel and deed of them.” So not only was he on the Sanhedrin, but he was a known “no” vote on anything bad being done to Jesus.
To be on the Sanhedrin was to be one of the most popular and powerful and well-known men in the entire nation. If you could combine our Senate and Supreme Court into one body, whoever was on that body would be something like what it would mean to be a member of the Sanhedrin. Joseph of Arimathaea was, in deeply Southern vernacular, “Riding the gravy train on biscuit wheels.”
For this man, then, to become a disciple of Christ was the most shocking of all things. And yet both John, who knew Jesus best, and Matthew as well proclaimed him as such. Somewhere along the way, Joseph came to fully trust in Jesus Christ and receive him as his Lord.
The day Jesus died, then, was a devastating day for this rich, powerful, well-connected man. His dreams died with every blow of the hammer that drove the nails into the hands and feet of Jesus. And yet, as soon as Jesus died, Mark’s account tells us that Joseph went in boldly to Pilate and asked to be given the body. And then he himself went and pulled the nails, releasing the body of Christ from the cross. The lifeless body of Jesus would literally have fallen into his arms. Oh, to see the reaction in heaven at that moment, the smile of gratitude from God the Father over the tenderness shown to his Son!
But the stunning facts just keep coming. Assisting Joseph was yet another member of the Sanhedrin, another quiet disciple, Nicodemus. The two of them, while being watched by two Marys and likely many other unnamed witnesses as well, carried the body of Jesus to the tomb.
But not just any tomb; Joseph’s own brand-new tomb that he himself had personally hewn out of solid rock. And not just to any random location either; John tells us that it was in the very same garden in which he had been crucified. Let that sink in; the shadow of the cross literally fell across the tomb in which Jesus was buried. And then Roman guards stepped in, sealed the tomb that Joseph had rolled into place and guarded that body; those who put Christ to death knew of his claims that he would rise again and wanted to make very sure no one could steal the body and pull off a “fake resurrection.”
So as Jesus was laid in the tomb, it was the most improbable of all tombs and all circumstances. The simple carpenter from Nazareth was buried by two of the most powerful and well-known men in the entire nation and in a tomb that would have been as well known in their day as the tomb of JFK is in ours. He had no money, few followers, was despised by 99.99% of anyone with any influence and yet was entombed in such a manner.
God would not have his Son buried anywhere less, even for a mere three days. Nor would he allow any honest, rational person to entertain any doubts as to the location of the body, even all the way down to our day. In Joseph of Arimathaea, God found a man willing and able to make the death of Christ, and then the resurrection itself, something we can know beyond any reasonable doubt.