The Burial of Jesus (1 Cor. 15:1-4)

This sermon was preached on 7/7/2013

Paul here is summarizing the gospel that he had preached in Corinth and elsewhere. His message of good news may seem a bit strange at first because he says that part of it is references to the burial of Jesus. Yet if it is strange, then we must say the same about the four Gospels because each of them gives a lot of details about his burial. Furthermore, the Apostles Creed, which is an early creed repeated by countless millions of Christians every Lord’s Day right on to the present time, states about Jesus ‘that he was crucified, died and was buried.’

Of course, the burial proved that Jesus truly died on the cross. There has been a suggestion that Jesus did not die but merely passed out when on the cross and somehow revived when he was in the tomb. Yet the request of Joseph to bury Jesus was only granted once Pilate had confirmed that Jesus was truly dead. The Roman authorities would not have released Jesus if he had shown any sign of life. Indeed the soldiers sent by Pilate to discover whether or not Jesus was dead ensured, from their point of view, that Jesus was dead by piercing him with a spear. It was a dead man who was buried.

Connected to this is the fact that God was prepared to give the impression that the mission of Jesus was a failure. What could be a greater sign his failure than his burial? That was how his disciples responded to it. They saw his death and burial as the end of all the hopes they had connected to Jesus. It all seemed a dismal end to what had been a bright beginning three years earlier when he had begun to preach. The disciples would have been encouraged and the world would have been intrigued if the dead Jesus on the cross suddenly became alive before all those gathered there. But instead, the heavenly Father allowed the impression to be given for a short time that his cause had been defeated, so he allowed that Jesus would be buried. How demeaning for the King when guards are posted round the tomb in order to prevent any of his disciples from attempting to remove the body!

Yet it is not unusual for God to allow the impression that his cause had been defeated. He has done this many times in the past and he is doing it in the present. People today stand at the tomb of the church and imagine that somehow God has been forced to abandon his authority. But he remains in control, even although it might not look like it. What could seem as weak as a kingdom whose leader had just been buried after being crucified? But the kingdom was not weak then, and it is not weak now. Then and now, it is as strong as its King.

Nevertheless a thoughtful reader of the Gospels would have wondered why so much space was given to this incident and a reciter of the Creed would have wondered why it is mentioned as part of his or her faith. After all, was the burial really necessary? Jesus could have risen from the dead without being buried. So why was he buried?

Fulfilments of prophecy

A first answer to this question is that he was buried in fulfilment of prophecy. There were at least two prophecies connected to his burial. One is in the Old Testament and the other is in the New Testament. The Old Testament reference is found in Isaiah 53:9: ‘And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death.’ In that prediction, we have a general statement and a specific statement. The general statement is that he would be buried with sinners (in the sense that it is sinners who suffer death). The specific statement is that he would be buried where a rich man would be buried. No doubt, many people would have been puzzled by what that prediction meant and it would not have been clear until Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, went and buried in his tomb the body of Jesus. So the burial of Jesus proves the accuracy of the Bible.

The New Testament prediction about the burial came from Jesus himself when he said in Matthew 12:39-41: ‘But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”’ Jesus in that interchange with the Jewish leaders made it clear to them that his burial would be a sign to the people of that generation that he was the Messiah. He did point out that part of the significance of the sign was that he would only be buried for three days and nights. So the burial authenticated the prediction of Jesus about himself. Of course, it was an extraordinary prediction because what kind of person could make such an announcement. The answer is that he had to be divine.

Humiliation of Jesus

Theologians have divided the experience of Jesus into two periods, one fixed in length, and the other endless. The fixed period is called his humiliation and the endless period is called his exaltation. His humiliation began at his conception and climaxed in his burial. In between there was his birth in low circumstances, his life in obscurity, his rejection by people during his public ministry, his poor status, his demeaning trial and his dreadful sufferings connected to his death. It was the Son of God who endured such humiliation.

His state of exaltation began with his resurrection on the third day, followed by his ascension to heaven and his enthronement there on God’s throne. This state has continued to the present and will last forever. But we can see that the burial is the last aspect of his humiliation, which means that it has a direct link to his exaltation.

Holiness of Jesus

Another aspect of the burial of Jesus is what it says about his holiness. I would suggest that this aspect is pointed to in the fact that it was a tomb in which no one had ever been laid before. Usually the bodies of dead criminals would have been placed in common graves and the bodies of rich people would have been placed in family tombs. No doubt, new tombs were used on occasions and we are not told why Joseph did not intend to be buried in a family tomb. Yet no one would imagine that someone regarded as a common criminal could have been buried in the new tomb of a rich person. But God arranged for this to happen.

The unexpected manner of the burial of Jesus was a very powerful voice to those who have eyes to see what was happening. Here was a very public statement that Jesus was not a criminal. Instead of deserving the worst that could be given, he deserved the best. And the reason why he deserved the best was that he was sinless. He was not even guilty of one sin. The Saviour was not merely the holiest person who ever lived (although that is literally true) in the sense that he was holier than others. His holiness was perfection, and that is why the period of his burial would be short.

Hope of Jesus

Jesus died in strong faith as he committed his human spirit into the hands of his heavenly Father. At times such as that, we have to remember that Jesus at the moment of his death was still God and man. His divine nature remained fully divine throughout the three days of his burial. But his human nature experienced the reality of death. When he died, his human spirit went to heaven, to be with the Father and remained there until his resurrection three days later. His final saying on the cross of Calvary revealed that he died confident that his Father would take care of him.

Jesus also was confident that his body would not remain in the tomb. Peter, in his sermon preached on the Day of Pentecost, states that Jesus died in hope that his body would not see corruption (Acts 2:26-27, 31, cited from Psalm 16). Jesus anticipated that his burial would be short and that soon his body as well as his spirit would be in the presence of God. I suppose we could use the language of the Shorter Catechism about our burial and apply it to the Saviour, that he did rest in his grave until his resurrection.

The hope of Jesus at his burial was not only about his personal situation. He also anticipated that it was the path by which he would bring great blessings to his followers. Clearly, when he would rise again from the dead, it would be irrefutable proof that he had defeated death. So he went into its domain as its Conqueror, and that so not only on his own behalf but also on behalf of all of his people. It can be said that Death did not welcome his arrival there, no matter what the gleeful authorities and even his devastated people were thinking.

Heart of Jesus

His burial also shows to us the heart of Jesus. In what ways does it do so? Jesus has sanctified the grave and made it honourable. Death happens because we are sinners. It is a reminder that we humans have lost our greatness. Yet when Jesus was buried, it was not a reminder that he had lost his greatness. Instead it is a reminder that he wanted to share his greatness with us. Although it seemed as if all was lost, in fact his burial was one step away from glory, and because we are united to him by faith, in his burial we were only one step away from glory as well. The grave is a sad place for Christians when their loved ones die in the Lord, but it is not a place of devastation. In reality they are only one step away from glory, and that is what Jesus wants it to be.

Moreover, Jesus has sweetened the grave for his people. Imagine Joseph of Arimathea as he looked at his future tomb every time he went for a walk in his garden. He would say to himself, ‘Jesus has been in there before me and for me.’ That thought would have made it easier for Joseph to face his own demise. And what Jesus did literally for Joseph, he has also done in reality for each of his people. He has left an aroma in the grave that will sweeten the experience for all who depend upon him.

Honour of Jesus

After all, a King had died – the notice on his cross stated that he was a king. Who would be his pallbearers? Here they come, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, both of them rulers of the community, and they are pleased to be the pallbearers of a condemned man. Is this a sign that things have changed, and the burial is the first indication of it? How about some mourners? There are a few women who weep and lament for him and follow the pallbearers as they take the body to the tomb. How about some visiting dignitaries to line the way that the King’s retinue will take? No earthly dignitary was interested, but I suspect that the hosts of heaven somehow watched what was happening.

Apparently the weight of the material used by Joseph and Nicodemus was what would have been used of a monarch at his burial. According to Josephus, only forty pounds weight was used at the funeral of Gamaliel. Joseph and Nicodemus wanted to honour Jesus by giving him a suitable burial. Of course, their honouring of him did not cease with this one action, because they are still doing it, although no longer in an earthly garden, but in Paradise itself.