A Borrowed Tomb

Opening Text

John 19:38–42 KJV 1900

38 And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. 39 And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. 40 Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. 41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. 42 There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews’ preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.

A Borrowed Tomb

When we think of Easter, most often people think of the resurrection. That is the happy ending of course, and people love happy endings. The resurrection morning is perhaps the happiest morning since the dawn of time. Our risen Savior was alive forevermore. He was victorious over death, hell and the grave. He took back what Satan took from us in the garden of Eden. He is a live, the tomb is still empty to this day. Jesus did what no man has ever done. He rose up from the grave by his own power, and conquered the unconquerable last enemy of mankind, and was able to say… O Death where is thy sting? Paul said that the Gospel is the death, burial, AND the ressurrection of Jesus Christ in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. So, we must remember that the Gospel is not just the resurrection only, but the Gospel message must include the death and the burial also. For, you cannot even have a resurrection without a death and a burial.

It is my estimation that the second most emphasized component of the Gospel is the death and suffering of Christ. For it is at the death of Christ, where we find the blood that was shed. The Blood that has the power to cover a multitude of sins. It is also at the point of Death, where we remember the extreme suffering that Jesus had to endure for each one of us. The death and suffering is where we remember that Jesus took those stripes on His back for our healing, where He wore a crown of thorns for our anxiety, where he carried our sorrows, and bore our griefs. John said that the cross was how God showed His love to us. So, it isn’t any wonder why the death gets quite a bit of attention too.

But how often do we spend time talking about the burial? It seems less significant at first glance. It isn’t a tear-jerker like the story of the death. It isn’t as epic as the story of the resurrection. No, the burial is a dark, empty place. A place we often skim over to get to the good part. Oh, how hastily we rush to the happy ending, on that resurrection morning, when the earth began to shake, and the stone was rolled away. Oh, but what about the burial? Paul said, that’s part of the Gospel too you know? You might not dwell on it as long, but that’s part of saving message, the good news of the Gospel.. It might be a dark place, but it is still part of the Gospel. It might be a lonely place, but it is still part of the Gospel. It might not be a happy place, but it is still part of the Gospel message.

We talk about the empty tomb so much, I think we forget that for 3 days it wasn’t empty.

For 3 days, our saviour laid there, seemingly defeated.

His disciples were not there with Him.

The multitudes who had many miracles were no longer interested in a dead Messiah.

The scribes and Pharisees thought they had won out against their religious rival.

Satan surely though victory was his.

The tomb was an empty place. It was dark. It was lonely. It wasn’t as exciting as the resurrection, but it was every bit as important to the Gospel message.

All Four Gospels

Speaking of the Gospel. There are 4 different accounts of the Gospel, as most of you are aware. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all gave their testimony about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. For that reason, It is very common to find a story told two or three times, but when that story is told in all four Gospels, I have learned to pay close attention.

In our text, we read about a man named Joseph who desired to bury Jesus. The details of this man, and the way in which he buried Jesus are found in all four Gospels. As someone that has spent my life studying the Bible, I find this very surprising. It would be less surprising to me if the details about Joseph were found in 3 Gospels, but in the 4th it perhaps had only one verse that sounded like this:

And then a man asked Pilot if he could bury the body of Jesus in a stone tomb.

And then from there it jumped right to the events of the Resurrection morning. However, all four Gospel accounts mention very specific details about the burial process. Some of them highlight details the other’s did not, but they all devote 5 to 7 verses to this man named Joseph when one sentence would seemed to have been sufficient.

If you read all 4 accounts, you’ll find these details concerning the tomb

Matthew tells us that the tomb was new

Luke elaborates and says that no body had ever laid there.

John includes both of those details and said that the tomb was new, and that never a man laid there.

Mark tells us that the linen shroud was purchased by Joseph

Luke tells us that women followed Joseph, and witnessed the burial take place, and watched the stone be rolled in front.

Matthew and Mark tells us those women were Mary Magdalene, and Jesus’ Mother Mary.

John doesn’t mention either Mary being there, but does tell us that Joseph had some help from Nicodemus. Perhaps by the time John wrote his Gospel account, it would have been safe to talk about Nicodemus, who met secretly with Jesus in John chapter 3, and Jesus told Nicodemus about how to enter the Kingdom.

We learn that Joseph is a rich man in Matthew

That he is honorable in Mark

That he is good and just in Luke

And that He is a disciple of Jesus in Matthew.

Mark and Luke both mention that Joseph is from the Sanhedrin Council, the very council that voted to send Jesus off to Pilot to be crucified. However, these two men had dissenting votes during that trial.

And All 4 Gospels tell us that Joseph was from the Jewish town called Arimathaea.

We find out in John that the tomb was in a garden.

But only Matthew records who owned the tomb that Jesus used.

Matthew said it was Joseph’s own tomb. The tomb that Joseph would someday use himself. Jesus didn’t have His own tomb. Tombs were for the wealthy, and Jesus didn’t even have a bed to lay His head on while He was alive. Let alone an expensive rock tomb to lay while He was dead. Tombs cut into rock were a luxury of the wealthy upperclass. A luxury that Jesus didn’t have.

Jewish people in the Mediterranean world of late antiquity considered proper burial of the dead a sacred duty. To remain unburied was associated with sin and divine judgment. Jews also practiced proper burial of the dead to avoid defiling the land—a requirement established by Mosaic law.

During the period of the patriarchs, nomadic peoples used a variety of burial types… When possible, though, Israelites were buried in family tombs (Gen 15:15). A tomb that they all shared. This practice could require transportation of the corpse, as in the case of Jacob (Gen 50:12–13). Archaeologists have discovered many tombs dating between 1500 and 1200 BC in which a burial site was used repeatedly; remains of the previously deceased family members were moved to the rear of the cave, and placed into a pit.

The manner in which a person was buried reflected his or her social standing. Only the upper classes of Jerusalem’s population could afford rock-cut tombs because of the expense associated with cutting a burial cave into bedrock (Jodi Magness, Stone and Dung, p156).

The poor had less elaborate burials, sometimes as simple as holes dug into the earth.

We find in Scripture some examples of these burial practices. Abraham paid 400 shekels of silver for the cave of Machpelah so that he could bury his wife Sarah there. Later, Abraham was also buried there. His son Isaac and his wife Rebekah was buried in that same cave, and so was Jacob and Leah. They all reused the same tomb over and over. Jacob asked to have his bones carried out of Egypt so that he could be buried with his ancestors in Canaan, and the Bible says they did just that.

So, it was common practice according to the Bible, historians, and archeologist, for Jewish people to have a family tomb, a tomb that was reused over and over again. When someone in the family died, they would place them on a bench inside of the tomb that was carved out of the rock. Then after the body decomposed, they would take the bones that were left, and place them in a pile of their ancestors bones, freeing up the bench to be used by the next family member to pass away. That is why it says repeatedly of the Jewish kings after their death, that they slept with their fathers. This is referring to the shared tomb.

By the time we reach the days of Jesus, this practice was still in place, but the price of a stone tomb was too much for most families to afford. However, Matthew 27 verse 57 says that Joseph was a rich man. This explains how Joseph was able to afford a stone tomb that was cut out of the rock. However, the Bible also says that this tomb was unused, and that no body had ever laid inside that tomb. Let’s keep that detail in mind as we continue. That it was a brand new tomb.

The Garden

That was a long introduction, but I promise to keep the message short. Choosing which account of the burial to read today was difficult at first. None of them contradict each other, but they do choose to highlight details that the other accounts may have overlooked. In looking at John’s account, something stuck out to me that was not mentioned in Matthew, Mark, or Luke. The Apostle John informs us that the tomb was in a Garden.

Now, you might find that detail insignificant, but I personally believe that all details in the Bible are significant. There are roughly 800,000 words in the Bible, and every one of them are important. To me the detail of the tomb being in a garden is a bigger deal than it might sound like at first glance.

While Jesus was in the tomb, the Bible tells us that He was not just laying there resting in peace. There were some things happening. Peter tells us that Christ served a proclamation to the demons that were in prison in hell, and John says in Revelation that Jesus got some keys while there…

Revelation 1:18 KJV 1900

18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

A Borrowed Tomb

That word “hell” there comes from the Greek word hades, and literally means the grave. A grave is another word for tomb. Jesus got the keys to death and the grave while He was in the tomb. And that tomb was in a garden.

If you recall where death first entered this world, and graves began to be needed. It was also in a garden where Adam and Even disobeyed God and Death became a reality. Prior to that rebellion, there was no need for a tomb, but after Jesus went into a tomb that He did not buy himself… He came out the keys to Death and the Grave that He didn’t lose.

Mankind lost the keys to Death and the Grave in a garden.

And Jesus got the keys back in a garden.

The Day of Preparation

You might be wondering why they used Joseph’s tomb. The obvious answer is that Jesus didn’t have His own tomb. Remember, tombs were expensive. Only rich, and prominent people used stone tombs. Poor people were customarily buried in a dirt grave, like the graves we commonly use today. So, why not just dig a grave? Why mess up Joseph’s brand new tomb?

The clue is found in the text we read. The Day of Preparation was upon them. The Day of Preparation was the day prior to the sabbath. On that Day, the Jews had to do double work to prepare for the Sabbath where they could do no work at all. It was also a holy day, during Passover week. So, as evening was already upon them, they needed to move quickly… otherwise, the body of Jesus would have laid outside until after the Sabbath. That is my opinion as to why Joseph’s quick thinking led them him to the idea of letting Jesus borrow his own brand new tomb. They didn’t have time to dig a grave, as the Bible says it was already evening. And Jesus wasn’t from a wealthy family, and didn’t own His own rock tomb. It seems natural then, that Joseph had no other choice given the time constraints. Leaving the body outside would have defiled land, and Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin, and new better than to do that. Jesus didn’t have His own tomb, so, He had to borrow one.

And so, Jesus borrowed the tomb of the rich man name Joseph. Joseph from Arimathaea.

The Crucifixion was a form of capital punishment reserved for slaves. Roman citizens, nor Jews typically had to endure that form of death. Only slaves deserved the extreme torture of the cross.

Jesus died like a slave, but was buried in a rich mans tomb.

To me, this further symbolizes His victory over Death. They didn’t just put his body into the dirt like a poor man that He was. They buried Him in a rich man’s tomb.

And they didn’t skip over the important customs either. Our text says that Joseph and Nicodemus gave Jesus a proper Jewish burial according to verse 40. These two wealthy prominent men of high society, carried a bloody corpse into a grave, and meticulously wrapped Him in linen and covered Him with myrrh and aloes.

He died as a slave, but was buried like a rich man.

Joseph’s Tomb

A rich man’s tomb was always reused by his family. Once the man died, they waited until his body decomposed, and then they gathered his bones up and placed them in the back of the tomb. Freeing up the stone bench to be used again and again. This tradition reminds me of the inevitability of death. The Bible says that it is appointed unto man once to die. Every man and woman has an appointment with death. We all have a grave waiting for us at the end of life.

Joseph had a grave waiting for him too. It was brand new though. No body had ever laid on that stone bench. No bones were sitting in the back corner from ancestors of days gone by. No, this tomb that Joseph bought for himself and his future generations… The one he paid a contractor to dig out of the bedrock… the one that had never seen death or decay, the one waiting for Joseph’s appointment with death… That is the one that Jesus borrowed.

As Joseph carried the lifeless body of Jesus, and conversed with Nicodemus about where they would lay the body to rest… I can almost imagine that If Jesus could talk at that moment, he’d have said, You know what Joseph? Don’t you have a tomb that you haven’t even used yet? The one that was meant for you someday? Why don’t you let me borrow it? I won’t be needing it for long—In fact, I only need it for 3 days.

I know it didn’t happen that way, because Jesus was lifeless as Joseph carried his body, but that is just how my imagination works. In reality, we know that Joseph and Nicodemus were in a hurry to bury the body before the day of preparation came, and since Jesus didn’t have his own tomb, Joseph must of decided to let Him borrow his own. No one else would have had a right to loan it to Jesus, for it was Joseph’s tomb. Joseph alone had to grant Jesus permission to use his tomb.

>>Music

Today, I want to remind us all that we have a tomb waiting on us too. We many only be able to afford a casket in a dirt covered grave, but a tomb is waiting for us nonetheless. When you go to the cemetery, you have to buy a plot of dirt to be buried in. That’s your plot. You own it. And since it is yours, only you can lend it out.

Today, I came to ask someone for a favor. Will you let Jesus borrow your tomb?

Jesus has the keys to Death and the Grave. He has power over your grave. I’m not talking about dirt and stone anymore. I’m talking about your eternity.

The Bible says there are two deaths. The first one is your death on this earth. But the Bible also says there is a second death.

Revelation 20:14 KJV 1900

14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

Revelation 21:8 KJV 1900

8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

But, here is the good news.

That might be the death you paid for, just like Joseph paid for his brand new tomb.

The second death might be the death you deserve.

But, If you will let Him… Jesus would like to borrow your tomb.

Revelation 2:11 KJV 1900

11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

Revelation 20:6 KJV 1900

6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

>>Let’s all stand

Jesus is here today asking you a question…

Can I Borrow Your Tomb?

If you don’t want it back, Jesus doesn’t mind keeping it.

People like to talk about the resurrection because of the happy ending, and the cross is highlighted because of the love of God that was put on display, but in between those two events, Jesus lay in a dark tomb that belonged to another man. And in that tomb, victory over death was won.

The tomb represents a place of change. It is the U-Turn in the Gospel message. Jesus went down in death, and up in the resurrection, but the U-Turn happened in the middle. Is there anyone here that wants to make that U-Turn now? I know you can’t defeat the grave, but will you let Jesus borrow your tomb?

He’s got the keys already.

Is there anyone here that wants to make a renewed commitment to let Jesus keep borrowing your tomb?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my tomb back.

Is anyone here been struggling with going back and forth? You give your tomb to Jesus, and then you take it back, and then you give it to him, and then you take it back?

Why not let go today? Let Him have your tomb.