Buried

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Introduction: Great Leaders Create Leaders

It has been said that a person’s reputation and influence becomes greater after their life has ended than when they were actually living.

Vincent Van Gogh

Died: 1890

Legacy: Sold only one painting during his life. After death, he became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art.

Paintings sell for as much as $117M (2022).

Emily Dickinson

Died: 1886

Legacy: Published very little in life, but wrote over 1800 poems, which were discovered after her death; her poetry became widely known and highly influential.

Malcolm X

Died: 1965

Legacy: Gained broader respect and admiration after death; his autobiography and philosophies influenced civil rights and Black empowerment movements.

Anne Frank

Died: 1945, at age 16

Legacy: Her diary, published posthumously, became one of the most impactful books about the Holocaust

Nikola Tesla

Died: 1943

Legacy: Often overlooked in life, now celebrated as a visionary inventor; name used for the electric car company “Tesla.”

Known for creating AC or alternating current power systems

However, Mahatma Gandhi said, “The mark of a great leader is not how many followers they have, but how many leaders they raise up.” Today, we celebrate Jesus—not because He was able to amass a huge following, but because He was able to create an empire of leaders who would turn the world upside down for generations to come.

Premise: The burial of Jesus Christ was not the end of His mission but the beginning of a divine harvest.

Through His sacrifice, disciples were not only redeemed into the family of God, but also empowered to transform the world.

The Gap in Sequence: The Burial

For the last three weeks we have studied Jesus’s journey to His resurrection. We have covered:

The trial of Jesus

The crucifixion of Jesus

The death of Jesus

And today we study, the burial of Jesus Christ. I have researched and consulted several scholars whose emphasis is on the trial, crucifixion, and death of Jesus. However, when it comes to the burial of Jesus, it seems to be a subject that is quickly brushed over.

The big question is what happened or what was happening while Jesus was in the grave? Some scholars have quickly ran to 1 Peter 3:19, which declares Jesus preached to the spirits who were in prison. There are two major views on what was actually happening in this text:

Christ’s announcement of his victory over evil to the fallen angels who await judgment for their role in leading the Noahic generation into sin—believed to happen between Jesus’s death and resurrection—the burial.

Christ’s preaching of repentance through Noah to the unrighteousness humans, now dead and confined to hell, who lived in the days of Noah (NET Bible Notes).

I am more inclined to accept the second position. In my opinion, there seems to not be enough there to definitively declare that Jesus preached to those in prison for three days. Furthermore, the aim of 1Peter 3:19 seems to not be towards what Jesus was doing during those three days. Rather, it seems to be relaying a point on suffering.

So, the question stilled remained: What was Jesus doing for three days? What was He doing while He was BURIED?

I began to believe Jesus simply slept—awaiting His resurrection. Then, I did a word study to see how many passages I could find that refers to Jesus’s burial.

Here, I discovered my studies had begun with a major presupposition: that the earliest disciples overwhelmingly described this period in the grave as being buried.

To my surprise, there were not many. In fact, there are three major passages that refer to Jesus’s burial and only one are explicitly clear that Jesus was buried (1 Corinthians 15:4 “4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.”). The other two refer to the preparation for Jesus’s burial.

In fact, none of the gospels make a reference to Jesus’s burial. Rather, they state he was placed in a tomb.

Matthew 27:60 “60 He placed it in his own new tomb, which had been carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a great stone across the entrance and left.”

Mark 15:46 “46 Joseph bought a long sheet of linen cloth. Then he took Jesus’ body down from the cross, wrapped it in the cloth, and laid it in a tomb that had been carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone in front of the entrance.”

Luke 23:53 “53 Then he took the body down from the cross and wrapped it in a long sheet of linen cloth and laid it in a new tomb that had been carved out of rock.”

John 19:42 “42 And so, because it was the day of preparation for the Jewish Passover and since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.”

After doing this research, it became incredibly obvious to me, the dominant explanation of Jesus’s time in death was not overwhelmingly described with terms like “buried.” For, buried seems to be too permanent of a term. Rather, the biblical writers used terms like planted.

We have used terms that define our experience for that which Jesus experienced. We were buried, but Jesus was planted.

Romans 6:4 “4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.”

Colossians 2:12 “12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.”

When reference is made to Jesus it describes his experienced as being planted.

John 12:24 “24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.”

1 Corinthians 15:36 “36 What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first.”

**Proceed with the demonstration to describe the difference between being planted and being buried.**

The difference between planting and burying is the difference between the thing being covered.

A thing that is being buried is wasteful, without any potential of returning anything good. We bury what we don’t intend on seeing again. It’s what we do to waste and trash.

A thing that is planted is expected to bring forth some sort of fruit. It is supposed to produce something.

The first century was careful about how they described Jesus’s time in the grave, because they knew the story does not end here! When Jesus was in the grave He was being planted so, we, who would require burying, could rise alongside Him to walk in the authority and power God ordained from the very beginning.

Really sit in this moment and explain the practical implications of being planted vs. being buried.

You’re at your job and you’re having a hard time. You feel buried but you don’t know you’re just being planted.

You are having issues with your marriage and it feels like the marriage is over and buried, but you are simply going through a season of planting.

You are trying to figure out next steps and things are overwhelming. You feel like the world is burying you with all its problems and circumstances. However, you are simply being planted for a better season to come.

In Romans 6:4, Paul uses the word συνθάπτω (syn-thap-to) which means to be buried or more explicitly to be buried with.

However in Romans 6:5, Paul uses the two words σύμφυτος (sym-phy-tos), which means to grow up or come up and ὁμοίωμα (hom(o)-ioma) which means in likeness, form, and appearance.

So in one verse, he says, we have been buried with Christ. However, in the other he says we have been planted with Christ (to come grow up and come up with him, in homoioma [the same form].

Principle 1: Believers are never simply buried. We are planted.

Results of the Burial of Christ

In our text, we find Nicodemus returns (see John 19:38-42, and it mentions he was looking forward to the kingdom of God (Luke 23:51).

The burial of Jesus overthrew the powers of the grave. Jesus had to sit in the grave, because His redemption of Israel including experiencing everything they experienced—including their “grave” experience.

The grave is a symbol of exile.

Ezekiel 37:12 “12 Therefore, prophesy to them and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again. Then I will bring you back to the land of Israel.”

Hosea 13:14 “14 “Should I ransom them from the grave? Should I redeem them from death? O death, bring on your terrors! O grave, bring on your plagues! For I will not take pity on them.”

Isaiah 25:8 “8 He will swallow up death forever! The Sovereign Lord will wipe away all tears. He will remove forever all insults and mockery against his land and people. The Lord has spoken!”

Revelation 1:18 “18 I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.”

Christ was no criminal, He was a priest-king.

Nicodemus’s offering for burial.

Myrrh was used for embalming and the aloes for the perfume.

Nicodemus what some considered to be 100 times more than what Mary did in John 12:3.

Scholars argue that the writers are trying to depict the burial of a king.

Nicodemus uses linen garments which were worn by Jewish priests and angels.

It depicts the office of a priestly figure, even in his burial.

Jesus becomes hope to those who are sleeping—both figuratively and literally.

1 Corinthians 15:20 “20 But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.”

Matthew 27:52 “52 and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead.”

κοιμάω (ko-i-mao) To sleep comes from the root were which means to lie in a set place.