Luke 23:50 - 24:12
Last week we read in Luke of the death of Jesus – His trials and His brutal flogging, His being ridiculed and mocked, His carrying His cross and needing assistance, His words of prophecy to the women following behind Him, His crucifixion, His prayer that His Father would forgive those involved because they did not know what they were doing, the casting lots for His clothing, the sign saying “This is the King of the Jews,” His discussion with the two criminals being crucified on His left and right, His final words, and His death. Luke 23:49 mentioned that those who knew Jesus watched all this from a distance.
Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. – Luke 23:50-54
Now the Romans probably did not care much about when they got around to taking down crucified men – in some cases the kept them up to serve as a warning to the people. But for Jews, it was important that the crucified men be taken down quickly and buried. Why was this? It is explained in Deut. 21:
If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. – Deut. 21:22-23
Anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse. They are cursed by God. This means that Jesus was cursed, or rejected by God the Father! We talked a little about this last week – that as terrible as all the physical events were in Jesus’ last hours, there was another dimension to this that we frankly cannot really even begin to imagine. God not only gave up His Son as a sacrifice for our sins; He poured out on Jesus the punishment for our sins. He rejected Jesus. He poured out His wrath on Him – meting out all the demands required of being a just God, a God who is a God of justice. He was under God’s curse.
Now it is unlikely anyone present at the crucifixion understood this. But they did understand Deut. 21. You should hurry and take down someone hung on a tree and bury him, because God’s curse is being poured out on him. You leave him out, and the curse on him will desecrate the land – this seems to say that such things that are detestable to God must be hidden away – buried.
Now does this mean that if Joseph of Arimathea had not done this task that another Jew would have? Maybe, and maybe not. But it is certain that the kind of burial that would have been provided would have been quite different – probably there was a common grave for all the Jewish criminals, and Jesus would have just been tossed in there.
Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. – Luke 23:50-54
Now who is this Joseph guy? He is a member of the Council – this means that he is one of the Sanhedrin. Mark calls him a prominent member of the Council. Matthew calls him one who had become a disciple of Jesus, and John says he a secret disciple of Jesus, because he feared the Jews.
Luke’s description is especially interesting to me – he is called one waiting for the kingdom of God. If you have been with us through the entire series on Luke, can you remember another time or two when this phrase was used? It goes all the way back to Simeon and Anna, who were waiting for the baby Messiah. Joseph was like these people – he was eagerly waiting for the promised Messiah.
It says that Joseph had not consented to the decisions and actions of the Sanhedrin regarding Jesus. John’s gospel notes that he was accompanied by Nicodemus, a man who was also a member of the Sanhedrin. Nicodemus in John 3 is described as visiting Jesus in secret at night so as to learn more about Him. Together, the two of them are willing to give up their secrecy so as to do what they felt led by God to do – to get Jesus’ body. To do this would make them immediately earn the scorn and contempt of the rest of the Sanhedrin. Contrast the actions of these men with that of Peter, who had the night before rejected Jesus three times – quite a difference!
So they went to Pilate, something that had to take considerable courage. Joseph seems to be taking the lead here. Receiving permission (to understand why, recall that Pilate was never particularly excited about the plan to crucify Jesus), they take Jesus’ body down from the cross and bring Him to a cave cut into rock – and never before used. Why is this important? It shows that Joseph has the highest respect for Jesus – such a tomb as this would cost a fortune – presumably, it had been cut for Joseph and his family, but now he gives it up for Jesus. But even more importantly, Luke tells us that it was new because this means that it was impossible that when Jesus’ body is found missing it is because means there could be no confusion over the identity of Jesus in that cave.
John explains that Joseph and Nicodemus prepare the body and wrap Him in linen strips, and Matthew explains that they then place Jesus’ body in the tomb and roll a large stone in front of the door before leaving. They did all this on Friday before sunset.
The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment. – Luke 23:55-56
So these women knew where the tomb was. They have seen these events with their own eyes. This meant they could easily find it again when they were to go back after the Sabbath is over.
For the women and the disciples, this had to be the most depressing Sabbath ever. It had all happened so suddenly. Jesus, the man they were all following, the miracle worker, healer, teacher, and man of compassion, the person they thought was the promised Messiah, was dead! Impossible! But yet it was true!
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. – Luke 24:1-3
Now we come to good part! In some ways I have been waiting all year for this! What they found was perplexing – the stone was rolled away. Who had done this? Why? And where was the body? Why in the world would someone take a dead body? And even more odd, as we know from later in this gospel, the strips of linen are on the floor. This is even stranger! Nobody, absolutely nobody, would first take the burial strips of linen off of a dead body before moving him. Why in the world would anyone do this?
While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee: 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.'" Then they remembered His words. – Luke 24:4-8
Angelic visitations are also something we really haven’t seen much of since the beginning of Luke, with the birth of the Christ child. But here they are, privileged to announce the greatest news ever given in the history of the world – He has risen! Three times Jesus had told His disciples that He would die and then rise, but each time the disciples didn’t understand it. Now the angels remind the women of these words. But can it be true? Is it possibly true? But here are angels, shining like lightning, announcing this fact. How can it not be true? The Greek word for “remembered” implies more than this – it means that they have understanding – they get it. They believe it. Jesus has risen from the dead!
When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. – Luke 24:9-11
So the women come back, bursting with excitement, and they joyfully share their news. But how do the Eleven respond? They think of the news as utter nonsense. The Greek word for this is leros, from which we get the word “delirious.” The disciples think they are crazy.
Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened. – Luke 24:12
Peter is true to himself – he goes out himself to see what is going on. He sees evidence that something has happened, but he is not yet ready to believe as the women do. He is wondering, perplexed, disturbed, by what he has seen. Now we know just what had happened, and by the end of this chapter, Peter will too.
Why is the resurrection so important? This could be an entire teaching, or a series of teachings. But I simply want to quote from I Cor. 15:
If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But He did not raise Him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. – I Cor. 15:13-17
As we partake in the bread and the cup, remembering the Lord, let us not only remember that He died for us, but that He rose from the dead. God’s raising Jesus from the dead proves that everything Christ taught, everything Christ did, everything we have read in the Book of Luke, is the work of the Son of God, without sin, and totally in the will of God the Father. God sent Jesus as a baby down to earth to rescue us from the effects of our sin. We all deserve eternal separation from God – indeed, no man with even a hint of sin can stand before Holy God and live. But we are redeemed by Christ. He died the horrific death on the cross and endured the unimaginable consequences of bearing the punishment for the sins of the world so that we could be cleansed and have our sin removed from us. Let us remember all that He has done for us with the bread and the cup.
During our sharing time, we discussed the following questions:
1.How important is what Joseph of Arimathea did? How did this fit into God’s plan?
2.Is there humor in the angels’ message? What is it? Is humor part of God’s nature? Is this important?
3.How could the disciples still not remember Jesus’ prediction of His resurrection? Do we do things like this?
4.Why did these particular women love Jesus? (See Luke 8) What about you?
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