Mark 15:42-47--Jesus Is Buried

Mark 15:42-47
English Standard Version
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Jesus Is Buried
42 And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. 45 And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. 46 And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.

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Evening came (before sundown) on the day of Preparation.  The Sabbath being referred to here probably is the regular Sabbath that starts on Friday evening for us and goes until Saturday evening.  The Gentiles that Mark was writing to would understand that. Remember that the people have, by tradition, changed the command that God had given them in Exodus, and they now kill the Passover lambs on Passover (during the time Jesus was dying on the cross) and they eat the Passover meal that evening (really the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  The people in the house had to be prepared to eat the Feast--they could not be ceremonially unclean, or they would have to wait a month to eat the Passover feast.  This allowance to eat a month later was specifically in the case that someone had to bury a dead body and became ceremonially unclean from touching the corpse.  That's what's going to happen here with all those involved with Jesus's burial and why so few people will be involved in His burial.  Anyone who touched him at this point would be ineligible to eat the Passover (now you probably see why He was sure to celebrate the Passover with His disciples before His crucifixion).

Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin (probably a Pharisee, since it appears he believes in the resurrection of the dead) along with Nicodemus from John 3 (we believe he was also a member of the Sanhedrin and a Pharisee) both went to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus so that they could bury it.  They wanted to get Jesus off of the cross and buried before the Passover was celebrated that evening (in fact, the Sanhedrin wanted all the criminals executed and off their crosses, and the Romans broke the legs of the other two criminals to speed up their deaths, but Jesus had already died so they didn't break any of His bones, which fulfilled Scripture).

Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus had already died as the process of crucifixion was usually long and grueling.  It could take several days, and the soldiers would get in trouble if they beat the criminal so severely that they died too quickly as Rome wanted those on the crosses to suffer for their crimes and to put on a good show for the people.  Pilate confirmed with the centurion in charge of the crucifixions that Jesus was indeed dead, and then granted Joseph and Nicodemus the rights to bury the body in Joseph's tome, for it was nearby.

They didn't have time to prepare the body as fully as they would have liked--normally they would have taken a long time to pack the body with spices and ointments to help cover up the smell of death, for the Jews did not embalm their dead like the Egyptians did.  The Jews buried their dead quickly, before the sun went down, so time was ticking, even if they weren't trying to be ceremonially clean for the Passover meal.  They likely only had a few hours to get permission from Pilate, remove and transport the body and wrap it in the linen shroud, and placed in the tomb with the stone rolled in front of it to keep any animals out that may try to come and eat the flesh and take the bones away.  The Jews will hear of this and go to Pilate to demand that he seal the tomb with a royal seal and post a guard because they remember Jesus said He would rise from the dead and they thought the disciples might try to steal the body to make it look like a resurrection happened that was fake.  I think they were actually trying to keep the Resurrection from happening, but there was no chance of that--this is as silly as the people that have put a graveyard near the entrance to the gate and locked the gate that Jesus is supposed to return through when He comes into Jerusalem for His Second Coming as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Do they really think the lock isn't going to fall off or that Jesus is going to be made unclean by some dead bodies and will be afraid to walk over the graves of those that were probably His enemies?  Certainly not!  God's sovereign plan is not going to be thwarted by the schemes of men and demons.  The forces of evil think at this point that they have won, but they are mistaken.  The Resurrection is coming, and they will not be able to stop it.