Mark 15:39-47 The funeral of Jesus Christ

Joel and Mary Nadel, Covenant United Reformed Church

From: The Holy Bible and J.C. Ryle’s “Expository Comments on the Gospels - Mark”

House Rules: Phones, Respect, Stay on the Text

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Review

Begin with the start of Jesus’ earthly ministry

Message: “Repent and believe the Gospel” - the Gospel was Jesus life and death

Preached, taught, performed miracles for three years”

Now in Jerusalem to fulfill the Gospel promise - to die for our sins

As we begin this text, the Lord has been tried, convicted, tortured, and executed on the cross.

Mark 15:39–47 NASB95

When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” There were also some women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Less and Joses, and Salome. When He was in Galilee, they used to follow Him and minister to Him; and there were many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem. When evening had already come, because it was the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the Council, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God; and he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate wondered if He was dead by this time, and summoning the centurion, he questioned him as to whether He was already dead. And ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. Joseph bought a linen cloth, took Him down, wrapped Him in the linen cloth and laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses were looking on to see where He was laid.

Introduction

The death of the Lord Jesus Christ is the most important fact in the Christian faith

All our hopes for eternity, as sinners, depend on it

It should not be surprising that the reality of His death was carefully verified, and put beyond argument. Multiple testimonies confirm He really died at the cross

In these verses, there are three witnesses

the Roman centurion who stood near the cross

the women who followed Him from Galilee

His disciples

Their witness provides indisputable evidence - they could not be deceived

He did not faint, or enter a trance, of have a seizure of some sort

they all saw the same Jesus, who was crucified, lay down His life, and be obedient to the Father even to death

We need to be certain in our minds - our Saviour really and truly died

Firstly, let’’s take note the honor here given to women

We are specifically told that when He breathed His last “there were women looking on from a distance”

some of their names are recorded

We are also told that some of them had followed the Lord throughout His ministry in Galilee, helping Him and His followers

We are also told that many other women came up with Him to Jerusalem

It is surprising that we should read this in the Bible

We might have expected that when all the disciples ran away, and abandoned the Lord, the supposedly “weaker sex” would have been afraid and hidden as well

This is testimony of what grace can do - God sometimes chooses the weak things of the world to confuse the mighty

The last are sometimes first, and the first last

The faith of women stands strong, when the faith of men fails

Its interesting what we read about women in the New Testament compared to the Old

In the NT, we find the grace of God glorified in women - God has given them much benefit through the Church and blessed the world through their ministry

In the OT, we see sin and death brought into the world by Eve’s sin

In the NT, we see Jesus born from a woman, and eternal life brought to us through that miraculous birth

In the OT, we often see women hindering man’s walk

the women before the flood

Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Delilah, Bath-sheba, Jezebel - all painful examples

In the NT, we see women as helping the cause of the Christian faith - Elizabeth, Mary, Martha, Dorcas, Lydia, the women named by Paul in the book of Romans, are all cases in point

The contrast is striking and intentional

Proof that grace is more abundant under the Gospel than under the law

It is a lesson that women have an important place in the Church

There is great work that women can do for God’s glory, without holding office

Churches are better off when the women know this, and act accordingly

Secondly, Jesus has good friends of whom little is known

The proof if this is someone mentioned here for the first time - Joseph of Arimathea

We have no background or history on this man

We don’t know how he heard about or learned to love Christ, and why He wanted to honor Him

We don’t know what happened to Him after Jesus was crucified and buried

All we know is what we read here in the Bible:

He waited for the kingdom of God

when all the Lord’s disciples had abandoned Him, this man “gathered up courage and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus.” and buried it with honor in his own grave -New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Mk 15:43.

Others honored and confessed the Lord when He was teaching, preaching, and working miracles

Joseph honored and confessed Him as Lord when he saw his cold, blood spattered body.

Others showed love to Jesus when he was speaking and alive, Joseph showed it when He was silent and dead.

Its comforting to know that there are true Christians here on earth that we know nothing about, in places where we might not expect to find them

The faithful are always few, but we shouldn’t judge an area to be godless just because we don’t see the Christians there

We only know in part, and see in part (1 Cor 13) outside of the people we are close to

The Lord has many “hidden ones” in the church that we may never know about, unless they are shown by special circumstances - until the last day.

1 Kings 19:18 ““Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.””

Finally, we should note the honor the Lord places on the grave, by letting Himself be laid in it

Joseph laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. -New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Mk 15:46.

This is a fact, that in a dying world, we need to remember

It is appointed to men once to die and we will all go to one place and we try to avoid it

The coffin, the funeral, the decomposition, are all hard subjects to hear or talk about

They chill us, they sadden us, they depress us

This is natural for us

One thing that should comfort us, however, is that Jesus went there before us

As surely as He rose from the grave in victory, so will we on that great resurrection morning

We may remember that when Jesus rose from the dead, He robbed death of its sting

1 Cor 15:56-57 “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The thing we need to make sure of is that we make sure we are spiritually buried with Christ, while we still live

We need to be joined to Him by faith and conformed to His image

Romans 6:4 “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”

With Christ, we will rise again and be made alive by His Spirit

Unless we know this, Christ’s death and burial will do us no good at all.

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