St.
Matthew 27:57-66
Can it be?
Really? Yes, it’s true. Ask Joseph of Arimathea. He was there.
He went to the governor Pontius Pilate and asked for
the corpse. Carefully, he handles
it. Gently, he washes the wounds. Tenderly, he wraps it in linen cloth. With great care he carries it and lays it to
rest in his own new tomb!
Jesus – dead and buried. Really.
Truly. Incredible!
“O darkest woe!
Ye tears forth flow!
Has earth so sad a wonder?
God the Father’s only Son
Now is buried yonder.”
O sorrow dread!
Our God is dead
Upon the cross extended.
There His love enlivens us
As His life was ended.”[1]
Yes, that’s right:
“Our God is dead.” The Father
didn’t die. The Holy Spirit didn’t die. BUT JESUS DID!
This is what it takes to win your salvation! God must do it! Only God saves! Only God forgives! Therefore the eternal Son of the Father takes
on flesh and He gives His divine life into death on the cross! He sheds His divine blood! That’s Jesus!
He is true God and true man! All
for you! The “It is finished” job of
salvation is done! By Jesus! All sin answered for! All sin died for!
So now He rests from the work of salvation that He
won for you and for the world. The
God-man laid and sealed in the tomb!
There He lays!
But even then – even there – graveyard dead Jesus is
not a nothing! His divine and holy Word
made flesh body hallows, holies, or sanctifies what it touches! And, yes, that includes the cemetery! The tomb!
The grave!
His three day rest in that borrowed tomb was for
you! He was buried for you! Now your grave is holy! Your grave is hallowed! Your tomb is sanctified! All because the divine and holy body of Jesus
has forever changed the cemetery and the grave!
For you who believe in this Jesus the grave is now a
place of rest and peace! Rest in
Jesus! Peace in Jesus!
So when your day of death and burial takes place it
is not the end. Death does not have the
last word. Jesus does.
A sealed and guarded tomb couldn’t keep God-man
Jesus trapped in the grave! The
Scriptures must be fulfilled! Jesus kept
His promise. He would be raised on the
third day! That’s the joy of
tomorrow!
To you for whom He died and was buried He promises
the resurrection of your body on the Last Day.
He is the Firstfruits of those who sleep! Of those who rest in Him!
Today and tomorrow He teaches you to fear the grave
as little as your bed. After all, He
will call you from your sleep! He will
wake you! To a bodily resurrection and
then eternal life with Him together with the Father and the Holy Spirit and all
those who have gone before us in the faith!
In the Name of Jesus.
