Death and Burial of Jesus Christ

Transcript

GR 740
3/2/1986
Death and Burial of Jesus Christ
Matthew 27:45-66
Gil Rugh

Matthew 27 contains Matthew’s account of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Sinful men had succeeded in their plan to execute the Son of God, but in an amazing display of the sovereignty of God, even their sinful activity in taking the Son of God and executing Him was used by God to accomplish a plan which He had established before He brought the world into existence. The Bible indicates that before God ever began creation, He had planned and determined that He would provide redemption for fallen, sinful human beings by having His Son die on the cross.
Peter exhorted us to live our lives here in fear as those who are passing through this life destined to stand before God as our Judge. In 1 Peter 1:17-20, Peter wrote, “And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world.” Redemption did not come through your parents or through things received from your parents. Redemption came through the death of Jesus Christ, the shedding of the blood of the Lamb of God. The word ‘foreknown’ when it is used of God in the New Testament always carries the idea of ‘predetermined’ or ‘foreordained.’ God had predetermined or foreordained the death of Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God before the foundation of the world. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” God had already planned the death of Jesus Christ as the One who would bring redemption to sinful human beings. This would entail that His Son would take the place of sinful human beings on the cross so that when He died on that cross, He would be paying the penalty for my sins and your sins.
In 1 Peter 2:24 Peter wrote, “And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” We
experience spiritual healing by the death of Christ, because He bore our sins in His body on the cross. This means that God planned from before creation that His Son would take our place, bear all the suffering and all the agony to pay the penalty for sin that was due to you and to me, and that is what Matthew was unfolding in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This meant that Christ suffered to a depth and to a degree that no one else has ever suffered in dying. He was suffering to a much more intense degree than those who were crucified with Him, because He was not only suffering the agony of crucifixion but He was suffering the agony of bearing the full brunt of the wrath of Almighty God as He paid the penalty for the sin of every man, woman, and child who would ever live on the face of the earth. In doing that, He accomplished God’s plan from the beginning of creation.

Does that mean that God was responsible for the sinful acts of those who crucified Christ? No, it just means that in God’s sovereignty, He controls and uses even the most sinful deeds of men to accomplish His purposes. But those men are still responsible for that sinful conduct.
Christ was crucified, and Matthew 27:45 says, “Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour.” Days were measured from 6 to 6 rather than 12 to 12, so rather than the sixth hour being 6:00 in the morning, it would instead have been 12:00 noon and the ninth hour would have been 3:00 in the afternoon. For a three-hour period, from 12:00 noon to 3:00 p.m., blackness enveloped the land, and I believe that would have referred to the Land of Palestine.
Old Testament and New Testament alike use the picture of darkness to symbolize the judgment of God. This darkness that enveloped the land at the bright part of the day portrayed God’s judgment being poured out. It was a two-fold judgment. First, it was judgment poured out on the nation Israel, that nation which God had chosen to be His own people, a people as His own special possession. He provided for them their Messiah. They rejected their Messiah and they rebelled against God, and they have come under the judgment of God. The darkness portrays that judgment. It enveloped the Land of Israel, the Land of Palestine.
In the prophecy of Amos, the context was the judgment that God was going to bring on Israel and there is a similar picture to what God was doing in the death of Christ. “‘It will come about in that day,’ declares the Lord God, ‘That I shall make the sun go down at noon and make the earth dark in broad daylight. Then I shall turn your festivals into mourning and all your songs into lamentation’” (Amos 8:9-10). The darkness coming during broad daylight would picture the judgment that God was bringing on Israel, and that was carried over in the picture of the death of Christ. The nation Israel was coming under the judgment of God.
Second, the blackness during these three hours even more significantly pictured the wrath of God and His judgment poured out on His Son, Jesus Christ. As Christ hung there, bearing the sins of mankind in His own body, all the wrath of God’s judgment was being poured out upon Him. As Galatians 3:13 says, God made Christ to be a curse for us so that we might be freed from the curse. The darkness is significant; it portrayed the fact that judgment had fallen. Judgment had fallen on Israel, but even more significantly, it had fallen on Jesus Christ as the sin-bearer, the Son of God.
As this awesome scene drew to a climax, after at least three hours of darkness, Jesus Christ cried out from the cross in what I believe is the most significant statement related to His death.
“About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me?’” (Matt. 27:46). In a unique and incomprehensible way the Father abandoned and forsook His Son as He bore the sin of mankind.
This cry is a quote from Psalm 22; a Psalm that unfolds much information related to the crucifixion of Christ and is quoted many times. Psalm 22:1 says, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” God the Son, who existed through all eternity in a relationship of oneness with His Father, had that oneness broken and shattered as the Father abandoned the Son and separation occurred. This was essential. It had to be, because the penalty for sin is death. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). God made Christ to be sin, to take our place as He hung on the cross, so that He bore the brunt of the wrath of God.
The penalty for sin is death. In the Bible, there are three kinds of death. There is physical death, spiritual death, and eternal death. The key idea in each kind of death is separation. It has nothing really to do with annihilation; it has to do with separation. Physical death is described in the Bible as the separation of a person from his body. In James 2:26 it says, “the body without the spirit is dead.” When your spirit leaves your body, physical death will occur. As a person, you will go on living and existing, but you will no longer be living in that physical body. You will be separated from that body. For a believer that means you will move into the presence of God in glory. Physical death is separation of a person from his body.
The second kind of death in the Bible is spiritual death, the separation of a person from God. In Ephesians 2:1, Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “You were dead in your trespasses and sins.” He was not talking about physical death because he was writing to people who were alive. But he said they were dead, because sin separates. The Old Testament prophet wrote, “Your sins have separated between your God and you.” A person is spiritually dead because he is a sinner, and the penalty for sin is death, which involves separation from God. I believe that was what was happening with Jesus Christ. Since He was bearing the penalty for my sin, He was not only going to have to die physically, He was going to have to die spiritually. And when He cried,
“My God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me?” He was declaring to all humanity that He was enduring spiritual death; He had been separated from His Father as part of the payment for sin. I do not believe we can grasp or understand or enter in to the depth of agony that this experience would involve for the Son of God when the Son of God would be separated from the Father. We do not understand all that this entails, but His declaration makes it clear.
The third kind of death is called eternal death. In Revelation 20:14, 15, it is called “the second death.” All unbelievers who have been separated from God by their sin and have not believed in Jesus Christ are resurrected from the dead and cast into hell. That is the separation from God in torment for all eternity! Every human being is eternal and will live either in heaven or hell for all eternity, either in the presence of God or separated from God.
I believe that when Jesus Christ hung on the cross, because He was not only man but also God, He had the capacity to suffer to an infinite degree. During those hours when He hung on the cross, He was really bearing all the agony of an eternity in hell as He was separated from His Father. He had a capacity to suffer to a depth and degree that it will take a fallen, sinful human being all eternity to endure!
This is a realm that I cannot totally grasp or understand, but I know the truth of it from Scripture. He had to pay the penalty for my sin. The penalty included physical, spiritual, and eternal death.
I think even as believers we sometimes fail to understand the depth of His suffering and to appreciate the fact that it went beyond our understanding. Is it any wonder that it is such an affront to God, such blasphemy, that a person would think he was going to heaven because he had been a good person? Or to think he was going to heaven because he was baptized, or joined the church, or any other thing? It reflects the failure to understand the horribleness of sin and thus the penalty that must be endured. The Son of God had to endure the agony of eternal hell in separation from His Father dying on a cross to pay the penalty for that sin, but some people have the audacity to say ‘I think I’ll make it; I’ve been a pretty good person. ’ Is it any wonder the Scripture speaks so harshly of that?
Scripture says it is an awful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. I really believe this is why Christ three times in Matthew 26 prayed to His Father, “If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me” (v. 39). It wasn’t just the fact that He would have to endure crucifixion. That would be awful. But He understood something of the horror that He would have to go through to really truly fully and adequately pay the penalty for your sin and my sin. He could not help but pull back from that. “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done” (v. 42). Jesus asked that if there would be any other way, then let this cup pass from Him. So it is God’s testimony as Christ was on the cross enduring the pain, that there is no other way. God Himself has no other way to save you but through the death of His Son. Christ paid that penalty.
The people gathered around the cross were blind to what was going on. Religious people were there who thought they knew the Scripture. But Christ cried out quoting a Psalm that they prided themselves in knowing, and they failed to understand. Like so many religious people, they failed to understand the Scripture they did know, and they twisted the rest of Scripture. Christ cried out, “My God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me?” But they were so blind they did not even understand Psalm 22.
Matthew 27:47 says, “And some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, ‘This man is calling for Elijah.’” They thought He was calling for Elijah because of the similarity in sound. Elijah had been supernaturally taken to heaven in a whirlwind. In 2 Kings 2, the chariot of God came down and separated Elijah from his successor Elisha; and Elijah was transported to heaven in a whirlwind. The Jews had a tradition that said Elijah would come and deliver his people in their time of distress, and some of the Jews standing at the cross thought that Christ was falling back on that tradition and looking for deliverance from Elijah.
Then one from the crowd gave Christ a drink. “Immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink” (Matt.
27:48). One dipped a sponge on a reed in sour vinegar wine and put it up to Christ’s lips, and He took a drink. In the other Gospels, He expressed His thirst, “I thirst.” I believe He drank the sour wine because His death was imminent and He was gathering strength for His final cry from the cross. That would necessitate extra strength. It is amazing again that in this little detail, Psalm 69:21 was fulfilled, “And for my thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink.” That’s what sour wine is, wine mixed with vinegar. All the little details are accomplished within the sovereign plan of God who is in absolute control.
Most of the crowd simply watched curiously. “But the rest of them said, ‘Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him’” (Matt. 27:49) I received a letter in the mail this past week from someone who signed his name ‘The Antichrist.’ He listens to our radio program in another city in another state. He said, ‘I write as the Antichrist’ because he wants us to know how opposed he is to the teaching that I present. It amazed me as I looked over the material he sent, how he takes the Scripture and twists it and distorts it. People react against things that conflict with their religious ideas. That was the case with the people standing around the cross. They said, “Let’s sit back and see if Elijah comes. Elijah won’t come! And it will just be further confirmation that He’s not genuine, that He’s not really the Messiah. ” The problem was not with Christ; the problem was with them! Their twisted, disorganized minds were controlled by sin so that they failed to understand the significance of Psalm 22:1 and they were looking for something that Christ never said would happen.
At this point, Jesus voluntarily gave Himself over to death. Matthew 27:50 says, “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.” This is a tremendously significant verse. Matthew chose not to record what Christ cried out, but John 19:30 says, “Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” Jesus Christ brought all the work of redemption to completion and fulfillment. The only thing left was for Him to dismiss His spirit and experience physical death, because He had already endured the agony of spiritual death.
He dismissed His spirit and endured physical death and brought to completion God’s plan of redemption. “It is finished!” There should be no argument that salvation involves what Christ did plus what I do. If that were the case, then the work of salvation was only partially finished and He should have said, “I’ve done My part! ” But He finished redemption, and that’s why God offers salvation as a free gift to you and to me. All He asks for is a response of acceptance. He wants us to believe what Christ has done in our place on the cross.
Christ said, “It is finished!” And He yielded up His spirit. The point of this was to demonstrate that Christ was sovereign even over the time of His death. Men could not take the life of Christ against the will of Christ. If Christ had determined that He would not die, then they could not have executed Him. It is to be expected that the Author of Life as He was dying on the cross would be in charge of His own death. This fits with what He said in John 10:17, 18, “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” Christ declared that when He died, He would be in sovereign control and He would determine when death would occur. He voluntarily gave Himself over to death, and then He took life up again in His resurrection.
Several dramatic physical events of great importance occurred in connection with the death of Christ. The first seemingly passing reference was further developed in the New Testament in the Book of Hebrews and is of tremendous importance to every one of us individually. As Christ gave up His spirit and yielded Himself over to death, Matthew 27:51 begins, “And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” This was a tremendous event! There were two veils in the temple. There was a veil that separated the court from the Holy Place and an inner veil that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies was the very place where God’s presence was manifested to Israel. The veil was designed to be a barrier to the people of Israel to keep them from the presence of God in the Book of Exodus, chapter 26.
The inner veil was torn in two. This veil was not like a curtain you have hanging in your window at home. One person has drawn from evidence that it was 60 feet long, 30 feet high, and an inch thick. It would not be possible for someone to grab it and tear it. This massive veil prevented anyone from seeing or coming in to the presence of God. One time each year one person was allowed access, and that person was the high priest in Israel. This served as a reminder to the Jews that because of sin they could not come into His presence.
The veil was torn from top to bottom. God was doing the opening to demonstrate that access was being provided into the very presence of Almighty God Himself. There would no longer be a barrier between God and man because Jesus Christ was providing immediate access. This is a crucial truth. This is why we do not have a system of priests that stand between God and us. It is why you do not need to come to me and have me go to God on your behalf. God is saying that any one who has a personal relationship with His Son is invited to come directly and immediately into His very presence because Christ died.
The privilege to be invited on a regular basis into the very presence of God was a privilege that not even the greatest saints through the Old Testament were given. The veil kept out even David, the man after God’s own heart. But Hebrews 4:16 says, “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” In other words, “Let us come with boldness into the very presence of God, before His very gracious throne that we might receive what we need. ” What an invitation! What an honor!
Hebrews 10:19-22 says, “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.” Confidence is a key word. We don’t come timidly; we have to come with confidence, not cockiness, but confidence, with respect and awe, but with full assurance that we are accepted in Christ. Are we to enter the holy place through a priest? No. “By the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh” (vv. 19, 20).
Access has been provided. That is the significance of the veil being rent. It is important to every person who is a believer in Jesus Christ because each believer is a priest, one with access to God. The concept of believer-priests with Christ as the High Priest means every person who is a believer in Jesus Christ comes on the same basis. Paul wrote to Timothy and said, “There is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).
Only one individual stands between God and me, Jesus Christ; and He has provided access into God’s presence. You have just as much access into the presence of God as I do. I have just as much access as you do. We all come on the same basis: that Jesus Christ died, and in His death He opened the way through that veil to come before God.
Matthew 27:51 continues, “and the earth shook and the rocks were split.” This is called an earthquake in verse 54. Again the significance of this would be the reference to the context of judgment; God was pouring out His judgment. In the Old Testament earthquakes are often connected with God’s judgment. Jeremiah 10:10, “But the Lord is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure His indignation.” That is what was happening at the time of the death of Jesus, “at His wrath the earth quakes.” Almighty God poured out His wrath in full force on His Son Jesus Christ, and as Christ gave up His life, the wrath of God came to that dramatic climax and the earth was shaken by that wrath.
Another supernatural event occurred in Matthew 27:52, 53, “The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.” The veil of the temple was torn in two, an earth quake occurred, and tombs opened and resurrections happened.
The sequence of these events has been the subject of some discussion, and there are a couple of possibilities. I think that probably what happened is that the earthquake opened the graves, and then following the resurrection of Christ, these individuals came out of their graves and went into the city. That would seem to fit the pattern.
Who are these individuals who were resurrected on this occasion? Were they resurrected in glorified bodies like Christ had and like we will have when we are glorified in His presence, or were they raised back to physical life like Lazarus was? I think both scenarios are possible, and both would be dramatic supernatural events. I tend to agree with the position that they were raised back to physical life like Lazarus for several reasons. In 1 Corinthians 15:20, Christ was called the “first fruits” of the resurrection, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.” He was the first one to be resurrected with a glorified body, the first fruit. He guaranteed all the others are coming. But in 1 Corinthians 15:23 it says, “But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming.” This would seem to indicate that Christ would be resurrected with a glorified body, and the next ones to be resurrected with glorified bodies would be those resurrected in connection with His Second Coming at the Rapture of the Church. Therefore, those resurrected at Christ’s death would have been resurrected with physical bodies.
In addition, this would also seem to fit better with the fact that the tombs were opened providing them a way to come out in three days when Christ was raised from the dead. Similarly, they had to open the way for Lazarus to come out of the tomb when he was raised from the dead. The saints that were raised went into the city of Jerusalem and presented themselves to people. If these were Old Testament saints who had died 500 years ago, nobody would have recognized them. There were no pictures in those days. If someone had claimed to have been risen from long ago, they would have been thought to be crazy. But if these were people who died in recent years and showed up in the city, there would be people in that city that knew them and recognized them and that would have the same dramatic impact as the resurrection of Lazarus.
Remember Lazarus had caused the Jewish leaders real problems. The Jewish leaders were going to try to kill Lazarus as well as Christ. “But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also; because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus” (John 12:10, 11). After all these resurrections, the Jewish leaders would have had a whole lot of Lazarus’s on their hands. Not just one man rose from the dead, but a multitude of people- many the Scriptures say--who were raised and were testimonies of the power of Christ and His ability to give life. So even though you could go either way regarding whether the saints who were raised were in glorified bodies, I tend to believe that these were believers who had died in recent years and were given resurrection to physical life as a demonstration of the power of God in resurrection.
These events had an impact on a centurion who was standing guard. Mark 15:39 says, “When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’” The collection of all that happened--the physical signs, the earthquake, the darkness, and the way that Christ died--brought the centurion to acknowledge that Jesus was the Son of God. Matthew recorded this event in Matthew 27:54, “Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’” This may truly be a declaration of saving faith on the part of this centurion and the others because Luke 23:47 says, “Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he began praising God, saying, ‘Certainly this man was innocent.’” To declare that this was truly the Son of God may have been a declaration that he believed Jesus was the Messiah, because the “Son of God” was a Messianic title.
The centurion was there for the crucifixion. He understood why Christ was being crucified, that He had declared Himself to be the Messiah, the Son of God. In the face of all these events and the way that Christ died, he was overwhelmed with the impact. This indeed was the Son of God! And he began to praise God! I think it’s amazing that the religious leaders were there and missed it all. But a Roman centurion was overwhelmed with the impact and began to praise God.
Christ has died. Redemption is accomplished. That is a completed work. The penalty for sin is death, not resurrection. The plan of redemption has been accomplished with the death of Christ. When Christ said, “It is finished!” and dismissed His spirit, the penalty for sin was paid in full. The resurrection was God’s declaration that the payment was acceptably made. Jesus was raised because of our justification according to Romans 4:25. Redemption is finished; it is complete.
His burial is important, because that is the declaration that He really died. Paul wrote regarding the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:3-6, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time.” Being buried was proof that He died. Being raised from the dead was proof that His death accomplished redemption. Being seen by many witnesses was proof that He really was resurrected.
The faithful women followed Jesus from Galilee. Matthew 27:55, 56 says, “Many women were there looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee while ministering to Him. Among them was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.” They had ministered to Him during His earthly life. There was only one of the followers of Christ among the men who was said to be present with Christ during the crucifixion, John the Apostle. But the faithful, committed women were there. The women were not out front making great declarations like Peter, but they were faithful in their service and they were faithful to be with Him through the crucifixion, even to His death. I think sometimes we really find the spiritual strength not in our men but in our women, and I think that’s the testimony of these women.
The burial of Christ must take place, and again it must take place according to Scripture. “When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him” (Matt. 27:57, 58). According to Mark 15:43 and Luke 23:50, 51, Joseph of Arimathea was a prominent member of the Sanhedrin of Israel, not just a member, but a prominent member of the governing body of Israel. He had been looking for the kingdom and had not given his consent to the execution of Jesus Christ. John 19:38 says Joseph of Arimathea had been a “secret disciple” because he was afraid of the Jews. So Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent religious leader in the governing body of Israel, finally gathered up his courage and stepped forward to publicly identify himself with Christ in claiming the body. He had been afraid before this, but he had kept his faith in Christ as the Messiah of Israel and after all this, he came forward.
It is interesting that in John 19:39, John recorded that another important member of the Sanhedrin of Israel came with Joseph; it was Nicodemus! This is the one that, in John 3, came to
Jesus by night; the one that was called by Jesus “the teacher in Israel”; and the one Jesus told “you must be born again or you’ll never see the Kingdom of God.” Evidently by the grace of God Nicodemus believed. I find it exciting that at least at this point Nicodemus came out and identified himself with Joseph of Arimathea to lay claim to the body of Christ. This made clear that they believed in Him and were going to give Him a burial they found fitting.
Pilate assented to the request of Joseph. I’m sure wealthy people would have influence with Pilate. Besides, Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent. This was another chance to slap the face of the Jews. The Jews said that a man, who was crucified, executed as a criminal, had to have a criminal’s burial. But Isaiah 53:9 had to be fulfilled, “His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death.” Jesus’ grave was assigned to be with wicked men, but it was with a rich man in His death.
Matthew 27:59, 60, says, “And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.” Isaiah, centuries earlier, had said that the Messiah would be executed as a criminal but would be buried with the rich, contrary to Roman law. The Romans just let people hang on the cross until they rotted away and the birds ate their flesh. The Jews buried them as a criminal. God provided for His Son, that he would be buried with the rich.
At the tomb you find the faithful women, “Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave” (v. 61). You have to appreciate the faithfulness of these women. Where was everybody else? Where were the mighty, powerful, brave apostles? I don’t know, but the women were there. They stayed with Jesus all the way through. I am not saying there weren’t any apostles there, but the Scripture doesn’t give them any credit; but it does take the time to remind us who was there. These faithful women were with Him right through the crucifixion and through the burial. They were honored, because these faithful women got the first glimpse of the resurrected Christ.
The Jews were still afraid. They were afraid of Christ when He was alive; they were afraid of Him after He died. “Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, and said, ‘Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, “After three days I am to rise again.” 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’” (Matt. 27: 62-64). They remembered that Jesus said that after three days He would be raised up. It seems that all of a sudden, after He was dead, they understood what He was talking about. During the trial they used this statement against Him in connection with the temple.
The Jewish leaders went to Pilate and told him they would have a bigger problem on their hands than they had before if someone came and stole His body and claimed He was resurrected as He said He would be. So they wanted Pilate to give them Roman guards or Roman authority, at
least, for the temple guards to watch the tomb so that nothing could happen. What amazes me in all of this is that all their elaborate preparations serve as a clear testimony and further evidence that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was indeed a real, genuine resurrection. Because the full force of the authority of Rome joined together with the full force of the leaders of Israel to guarantee that no one could get in or out of that tomb! God even used their sinful continual rebellion as an opportunity to give further proof that His Son was really raised.
Matthew 27:65, 66, says, “Pilate said to them, ‘You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.’ And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone.” They had the Roman guards watch the tomb, and they also sealed it. To seal a tomb, they would take a cord or a rope and run it across the stone and along the wall behind the stone. They covered that cord with wax or clay, and then they put the Seal of Rome in that wax or clay. If any man moved the stone, it would break the wax and the clay and they would know something happened. Also, if anyone broke that seal, it meant that he had rebelled against Rome and came under the punishment of death. So they had made it really secure.
But at this point you almost laugh because it seems so ridiculous. These puny, created human beings have taken the Author of Life and put Him in a grave, then they put a cord across it with some clay on it to be sure that He did not get out, and finally they put some created human beings in front to be sure nobody got in to the tomb. Is it any wonder that Scripture says of God “He who sits in the heavens laughs, He scoffs at them” (Ps. 2:4)? The result was that the Son of God broke forth in power and resurrection was accomplished.
Redemption was complete when the Son of God died. He was buried as proof He was dead.
Even the Roman centurion had to acknowledge, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
The most important event in time and eternity is the death of Jesus Christ. The most significant thing as far as you and I personally are concerned is our response to that event. I don’t think enough emphasis can be put on how important it is to come to grips with the death of Jesus Christ. You cannot avoid that. Jesus Christ died. He has borne the full brunt of the wrath of Almighty God. How have you responded to that event? Do you recognize that He is the Son of God and that you’re a sinner deserving of hell? Have you cast yourself in faith upon Him and trusted in Him as the One who died for you? That is your only hope.
Hebrews 10:26-31 warns about the danger for those who stop short of believing in Jesus Christ, “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’ It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” If you have heard that Christ died to pay the penalty for your sins, but you go on sinning by refusing to believe in Him, then there is nothing else that can be done to pay the penalty for your sins. Do you see how God views your refusal to believe in Christ? He says it is just like you are trampling His Son under foot and saying His death is unfit for you. You have insulted or blasphemed against the Spirit of God. In the face of that, the writer reminded us, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the angry, living God.
Christ has done everything that could be done. God was willing to have His Son bear the full brunt of His wrath to pay the penalty for your sin. If you refuse to believe in Him, then God says you will stand before Him as one who has trampled under foot His Son and who has said His death is unclean as far as you are concerned. You have blasphemed against the Spirit. You may think you did not mean to do that. It is important that you understand what a serious thing it is before God. When God poured out His wrath upon His Son, the result was a demand that you believe in Him or else bear the brunt of that wrath yourself. What has been your response to the death of Jesus Christ? All eternity is determined by that one fact.