The Devotional – Search the Scriptures – 224
Jesus Buried in Joseph’s Tomb
Now behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man. He had not consented to their decision and deed. He was from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock, where no one had ever lain before. That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near. And the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.
Jesus, the Christ of God/Messiah
Jesus’s body is it the tomb, He has experienced physical death in His human body, God estranged from God, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit turned away, away from the thirty-three-year-old body of Jesus lying in the tomb. The words and wisdom of man are not sufficient to explain or comprehend this day in the history of man. And yet, Messiah still had work to do, when the earth quaked and the veil in the Temple was torn into, Matthew records that many graves were opened and that the bodies of Old Testament saints who had fallen asleep were seen walking about in Jerusalem. Matthew, states that after the Messiah was raised from the dead, that these saints were walking about in the holy city. I find in my own mind some confusion.
Here is an excerpt from Dr. Thomas Constable on the tombs of the saints. “The resurrection of the "saints" (lit. "holy people"), that Matthew described here, must have happened later when Jesus rose from the dead. This explanation obviates the problem of people coming out of their graves when Jesus died but not showing themselves until He arose (cf. Acts 26:23; 1 Cor. 15:20). Matthew did not answer many questions that we would like answers to, such as what type of bodies they had, and whether they died again or went directly to heaven. They were Old Testament saints. I suspect that they experienced the same type of resurrection that Lazarus did: resuscitation with death following later. Some, however, have believed that they arose as Jesus did: to die no more.”
I do not agree with the last sentence in Dr. Constable’s comment but feel that the holy people (saints) were resurrected as part of the overall plan of God to raise Jesus from the dead, which emphasizes the power of God in the resurrection. I see this power of God as so abundant that even as David wrote in Psalm 23:5 – Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. The power of God always overflows and always results in blessings that cannot be fully explained.
1 Corinthians 15:20-23 – But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For, since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.
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