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The burial of Jesus

Jesus died on a Friday. The Jews went to Pilate and asked for permission to take down the crucified men from the crosses, so that their bodies would not be there on the Sabbath, because that Sabbath was a special Sabbath. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,”Exodus 12:46 and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced”, Zechariah 12:10.

After this, a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph went to Pilate. He was a member of the Jewish council and had become a disciple of Jesus, but in secret, because he was afraid of the Jews. Going to Pilate, he asked for the body of Jesus, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. He was accompanied by another member of the Jewish council, Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought big bowls of a mixture of myrrh and aloes. Taking the body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.

At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a newly made tomb in the rock. Joseph and Nicodemus placed the body of Jesus in the tomb. They rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.

On the Sabbath the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”

“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. Matthew 27:57-66; John 19:31-42.