His Death and Burial
TRANSLATION
(44) It was now about noon, and darkness came upon the whole land until three in the afternoon, (45) for the sun had stopped shining. The curtain in the temple was torn in half. (46) Jesus, called with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he said this, he breathed his last. (47) Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” (48) When all the crowds that had assembled to witness this spectacle saw what had taken place, they beat their breasts and headed for home. (49) All who knew Jesus, including the women that had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching these things.
(50) Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and righteous man (51) who had not agreed with their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and was waiting for the Kingdom of God. (52) Going to Pilate, he asked for the body of Jesus, (53) and, taking it down, he wrapped it in a linen cloth and placed it in a (new) tomb cut out of rock where no one had ever been laid. (54) It was the Day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was just beginning. (55) The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how (Jesus’) body was laid in it. (56) They returned home and prepared spices and perfumes. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
OBSERVATIONS
Luke’s account of Jesus’ death on the cross and burial in Joseph’s tomb contained several important repetitions. “Saw” and its analogous words, “spectacle” and “watching,” emphasized the extraordinary nature of the events that took place during the crucifixion. Luke focused on the “darkness over the whole land…while the sun’s light failed” (vss. 44 & 45), the curtain of the temple being torn in half (vs. 45), Jesus’ final cry (vs. 46), and the centurion’s confession (vs. 47). The phrase, “what had taken place,” was repeated (vss. 47 & 48). Four more repetitions, “man” referring to Joseph of Arimathea (vss. 50 & 52), “body” (vss. 52 & 55), “tomb” (vss. 53 & 55) and “Sabbath” (vss. 54 & 56), describe for us the benefactor, the place, and the reason for Jesus’ immediate burial.
OUTLINE
I. Jesus, after committing his spirit to God, died on the cross. (44-49)
II. Joseph of Arimathea petitioned Pilate for Jesus’ body and then buried it in his own tomb. (50-56)
IDEA STATEMENT
In Jesus’ death and burial, we observe God’s sovereign hand supervising events that, to those who took part, appeared to be the final chapter of his life.
APPLICATION
Jesus’ final statement from the cross, his last utterance while yet alive, was again a quotation from Scripture: “Into your hands I commit my spirit” (Ps. 31:5). Earlier he had cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Ps. 22:1) while bearing the weight of our sins and enduring the separation from God all of us deserve to experience. In this final statement, he called out to the “Father,” using a term of intimacy that he, as God’s Son, had enjoyed within the fellowship of the Trinity.
In the discourse where he identified himself as “the Good Shepherd,” Jesus made this amazing claim: “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father” (Jn. 10:17 & 18). While from outward appearances Jesus suffered as the victim of enemies who had cried out for his crucifixion, he actually died by choice, willingly laying down his life as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of humanity. After having borne our sins in his body on the cross, Jesus, at just the right moment, yielded up his spirit to the Father with the words of Psalm 31. John’s Gospel describes how a soldier, coming to break his legs to hasten his death due to the imminent Passover, found him already dead. Even at this extreme moment of suffering and shame, Jesus was sovereign over all that took place.
Christ’s death was an act of supreme love in which he offered himself as the Lamb of God who suffered and died to atone for our sins and the sins of the world (Jn. 1:29). In the Upper Room, Jesus described the cross in these terms: “Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (Jn. 15:13).