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Author: Stephen Weller
490 words, 3 minutes read time

Jesus Is Placed In the Tomb

Scripture: Matthew 27:60; Mark 15:42; John 19:41-42

In the previous lesson we left Jesus wrapped with burial spices in a linen shroud ready to be placed in a tomb. In this lesson Jesus is actually placed in a tomb.

^{Jn 19:41} Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden [was Joseph’s own] new tomb, ^{Mt 27:60} which he had cut in the rock, ^{Jn 19:41} in which no one had yet been laid, ^{Mt 27:60} and laid [Jesus] in it. ^{Jn 19:42} So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, ^{Mk 15:42} that is, the day before the Sabbath, ^{Jn 19:42} since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there. ^{Mt 27:60} And they rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away.

At that time there were mainly two types of graves: (1) a shallow trench grave and (2) rock-cut tombs. As one would expect the rock-cut tomb were much more expensive than the shallow grave which generally belonged to a single extended family for the burial of their dead. An example of this would be the tomb that Joseph had just built for he and his family.

The exact location of this tomb is not real clear today but would have been located just outside the then current walls of the city of Jerusalem, possibly close to the Damascus Gate. It was also close to where Jesus was crucified.

The Jewish day of Preparation was the day before the Sabbath when all preparations would have to be complete for needs that were expected to occur on the Sabbath, like meals. On this particular day of preparation, it was critically important to remove the body of Jesus from the cross and place in a tomb before the Sabbath started. Since it was getting late in the afternoon it was important that a tomb be nearby to reduce travel time for burial. Since Joseph had a new tomb close at hand it was used. Jesus was laid there, and the stone rolled to close the entrance.

The feeling that one has is that the work of placing Jesus in the tomb and the tomb closed was finished before the Sabbath actually happened, however, this leaves a unresolved issue with Matthew 27:57 which clearly states that it was evening when all this work was happening. Did they violate the Sabbath to complete this work or not? There is not an exact answer to this question.

Conclusion

It seems that the devil and the Jews had gained the victory over Jesus but I don’t think they slept very well that night because we will see in the next lesson the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate with a request concerning the tomb where they laid Jesus. What did they fear?