His Death and Burial
TRANSLATION
(33) At noon, there was darkness over the whole land until three in the afternoon. (34) And at three Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (35) And some of the bystanders when they heard this said, “Listen, he is calling Elijah.” (36) And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait. Let’s see if Elijah will come to take him down.” (37) Then Jesus groaned with a loud voice and breathed his last. (38) And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. (39) And when the centurion who stood facing him saw how he died, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God.” (40) And there were also some women watching from a distance among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome. (41) These, when he was in Galilee, had followed him and had ministered to him. And many other women that came with him to Jerusalem also were there.
(42) And as evening approached, because it was preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, (43) Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the council who was also waiting for the Kingdom of God, approached Pilate boldly and asked for Jesus’ body. (44) Pilate was amazed (to hear that) he had already died. Summoning the centurion, he asked whether he was already dead. (45) And when he learned from the centurion that this was so, he gave the corpse to Joseph. (46) And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and, taking him down, wrapped him in the shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of a rock. And he rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. (47) And Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joseph, saw where he was laid.
OBSERVATIONS
Each of the two paragraphs of this segment, Mark’s brief account of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial, began with a specific time reference. The first used the words, “at noon,” to specify when three hours of darkness came upon the earth, the time described by Jesus’ quotation from Psalm 24:1, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Not long after that, he groaned and died. The second paragraph began with the words, “when evening had come.” This shifted the scene from Jesus’ death on the cross to his burial. There Mark described how Joseph of Arimathea arranged for Jesus’ body to be removed from the cross and placed in his own tomb which had been cut out of rock (vs. 42).
In the first paragraph, two repetitions, “Elijah” (vss. 35 & 36) and “women” (vss. 40 & 41), should be noted. In the second paragraph, three repeated words captured the essence of what took place: “died/dead” (vs. 44), “laid” (vss. 46 & 47), and “tomb” (twice in vs. 46). The word, “centurion,” meaning leader of one hundred soldiers, occurred in both segments (vss. 39 & 45).
OUTLINE
I. In describing Jesus’ crucifixion... (33-41)
– Mark recalled what happened as Jesus died. (33-38)
– Mark took note of those who witnessed Jesus’ death. (39-41)
II. In describing Jesus’ burial… (42-47)
– Mark related how Joseph obtained Jesus’ body. (42-45)
– Mark noted where Joseph buried Jesus’ body. (46 & 47)
IDEA STATEMENT
What took place during the final three hours of Jesus’ crucifixion and then his burial in Joseph’s tomb left no doubt that he had died while on the cross.
APPLICATION
Over the centuries various skeptics and enemies of the faith have questioned whether Christ actually died while hanging on the cross. In 1965, Hugh Schonfield published a widely read book entitled The Passover Plot. In it he postulated that Jesus, while on the cross, merely fell into an unconscious state or swooned and was later revived by his followers who then falsely claimed that he had risen from the dead. This kind of speculation is typical of a wide variety of attempts to explain the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ from a purely naturalistic standpoint.
In 1 Corinthians Paul declared, “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Cor. 15:14). He could have said the very same thing about the cross: “And if Christ had not died and been buried, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” It was absolutely necessary for Christ to have died on the cross to secure our salvation. Without the death of the sin-bearer and the redemption he accomplished by shedding his blood, we would still be under the condemnation of a wrathful God. However, as Paul expressed it in 2 Corinthians, “We are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Cor. 5:14 & 15).