John 19:38-42--Jesus Is Buried

John 19:38-42
English Standard Version
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Jesus Is Buried
38 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. 39 Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. 40 So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. 41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. 42 So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

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There was still a little time before the Sabbath, but not much, so Joseph of Arimathea, who was secretly a disciple of Jesus and Nicodemus who we met earlier in John 3 and John 7, made arrangements to secure the body of Jesus and prepare Him for burial.  Joseph asked Pilate for the body and gave Jesus his own grave to fulfill prophecy that Jesus would be laid in a borrowed tomb, and Nicodemus being a Pharisee who was rich was able to gather the necessary ointments and spices to anoint the body for burial, because the Jews do not embalm bodied, but at this time would bury them right away and would use strong oils and spices to help mask the smell of death and decay.  Nicodemus brought quite the offering of seventy-five pounds of these expensive spices.

So they took Jesus and bound Him in linen cloths (much like He was wrapped in at the time of His birth and the same kind of "grave clothes" that we saw in the resurrection of Lazarus) according to the custom of the Jews like I mentioned above.  He was buried in what is known as the Garden Tomb where no one had been laid--the gospel of Matthew tells us this tomb belonged to Joseph of Arimathea as I mentioned before.  Matthew also tells us that Joseph was also a member of "the Council," that is the Sanhedrin, like Nicodemus.  Joseph is also the one who put the stone in front of the tomb.

As long as they could finish burying Jesus before the end of the Day of Preparation, they would be "clean" to be able to celebrate the Passover.  "The women" who came with Jesus from Galilee (we'll see them in the next chapter) followed and saw the location of the tomb.  Something we're not going to see here in the book of John is that after Joseph got permission to bury Jesus, the Sanhedrin fears that Jesus' disciples might steal the body, because they remember He said that He would rise from the dead, so the ask Pilate for a guard to be posted and for the tomb to be sealed.  This will be somewhat important in what we are going to talk about over the next several passages.  The Sanhedrin knew and remember the words of Christ and yet did not believe in Him, but those who believed in Him were unable to recall His words until the right time.  For now it was a time of grief for all of them.  We know the end of the story that Jesus would turn their mourning into joy, but for the time being Jesus would rest on the Sabbath Day (Luke makes this very clear in his account).  As the Jews would celebrate the Passover that day (on Saturday) and would be remember the LORD their Redeemer and the salvation that He brought them as He led them out of slavery from Egypt, Jesus would be redeeming the Elect from their slavery to sin by offering His own blood in the Temple of heaven as our Great High Priest to make atonement once and for all for us sins--not to cover them up, but to take them away as far as the east is from the west.

There is much grief on the part of the disciples, but also much fear on the part of the Sanhedrin that perhaps Jesus was exactly who He said He was and that He would do exactly what He said He would do (or at least that someone would try to make it seem that way).  The Sanhedrin remembers that He said He would rise again on the third day (the sign of Jonah that Jesus says would be the only remaining sign for them), so they make preparations to try to keep the gospel from moving forward--it didn't work for them in the Garden of Gethsemane, and and won't work here at the Garden Tomb.