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This last paragraph of the chapter gives us an account of our Lord's honourable burial: such a funeral as never was since graves were first digged.
Where observe, 1. Our Lord's body must be begged before it could be buried, the dead bodies of malefactors being in the power and at the disposal of the judge: Pilate grants it; and accordingly the dead body is taken dead, wrapped in fine linen, and prepared for the sepulchre.
Observe, 2. The persons who bestowed this honourable burial upon Christ: Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus; the one provided fine linen, and the other fine spices, and they jointly wound and embalmed his body after the Jewish manner; both of them worthy, though close, disciples; grace doth not always make a public and open show where it is; but as there is much secret treasure unseen in the bowels of the earth, so is there much grace in the hearts of some saints, which the world takes little notice of. We read of none of the apostles at Christ's funeral; fear had put them to flight; but Joseph and Nicodemus appeared boldly. If God strengthen the weak, and leave the strong to the prevalency of their own fears, the weak shall be as David, and the strong as tow.
Observe, 3. The grave or sepulchre in which our Lord was buried: it was a sepulchre in a garden, to expiate Adam's sin committed in a garden: as by the sin of the first Adam we were driven out of paradise, the garden of pleasure; so by the sufferings of a second Adam, who lay buried in a garden, we may hope for entrance into the heavenly paradise. And it was in a new sepulchre, wherein never any man was laid, lest his adversaries should say, it was another that was risen, who was buried there before; or, that he arose, as one of the old prophets did, by touching the bones of some other dead person.
Observe, 4. The manner of our Lord's funeral; it was hasty, public, and decent. It was hasty, by reason of the straitness of time; the sabbath was approaching, and all business is laid aside to prepare for that.
Teaching us, how much it is our duty to despatch our worldly business early on the eve of the Lord's day; that we may be the better prepared to sanctify that day.
Again, our Lord's funeral was public, and open; all persons that would, might be spectators, to cut off occasion from any to object, that there was deceit and fraud used in or about our Lord's burial; yet was he also interred decently, his holy body being wrapt in fine linen, and perfumed with spices, according to the Jewish custom.
Observe, 5. The reasons why our Lord was thus buried, seeing he was to rise again in as short a time as other men lie by the walls: doubtless it was to declare the certainty of his death, and the reality of his resurrection, to fulfil the types and prophecies which went before of him; as Jonah being three days and three nights in the whale's belly. He was also buried to complete his humiliation, this being the lowest state to which he could descend in his abased state. Finally, he went into the grave, that he might conquer death in its own territories.
Observe lastly, of what use our Lord's burial is to us his followers. It shews us the amazing depth of his humiliations, from what and to what his love brought him, even from the bosom of his Father to the bosom of the grave. It may also comfort us against the fears of death; the grave could not long keep Christ, it shall not always keep us; it was a loathsome prison before, it is a perfumed bed now: he whose head is in heaven, need not fear to put his feet into the grave. Awake, and sing, thou that dwellest in the dust, for the enmity of the grave is slain by Christ.