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The circumstances of our Lord's funeral, and honourable interment in the grave, are here recorded by the evangelist; 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 down, wrapped in fine linen, and prepared for the sepulchre.
Observe, 2. The person that bestows this honourable burial upon our Saviour, Joseph of Arimathea; a disciple no doubt, though he did not make a public and open profession; a worthy, though a close disciple.
Grace doth not always make a public and open shew where it is; as there is much secret riches in the bowels of the earth, which no eye ever saw, so there is much grace in the hearts of some Christians, that the eye of the world takes little notice of. Some gracious persons cannot put forward, and discover themselves, in discourse as others; and yet such weak Christians, as the world counts them, perhaps shall stand their ground when stronger run away.
We read of none of the apostles at Christ's funeral; fear had chased them away; but Joseph of Arimathea appears boldly: if God strengthens the weak, and leaves the strong to the prevalency of their own fears, The weak shall be as David, the strong as tow.
Observe, 3. The mourners that followed our Saviour's hearse, namely, the women which came out of Galilee, particularly the two Marys; a very poor train of mourners; the apostles were all scattered, and afraid to own their Lord and Master, either dying or dead. And as our Lord affected no pomp or gallantry in his life, so funeral pomp had been no ways suitable, either to the end or manner of his death. Humiliation was designed in his death, and his burial was the lowest degree of humiliation, therefore might not be pompous.
Observe, 4. The grave or sepulchre where our Lord was buried: it was in a sepulchre hewn out of a rock; in a new sepulchre; in a new sepulchre in a garden.
1. Our Lord was buried in a garden: as by the sin of the first Adam we were driven out of the garden of pleasure, the earthly paradise; so by the sufferings of the second Adam, who lay buried in a garden, we may hope for entrance into the heavenly paradise.
2. It was in a sepulchre hewn out of a rock; that so his enemies might have no occasion to cavil, and say, that his disciples stole him away by secret holes, or unseen passages underground.
3. It was in a new sepulchre, in which never man was laid: lest his adversaries should say, it was some other that was risen, who was buried there before him; or that he arose from the dead by touching some other corpse.
Observe, 5. The manner of our Lord's funeral; it was hasty, open, and decent; it was performed in haste, by reason of the straits of time; the sabbath was approaching, and they lay all business aside to prepare for that.
Learn hence, How much it is our duty to dispatch our worldly business, as early as we can, towards the end of the week, that we may be the better prepared to sanctify the Lord's day, if we live to enjoy it. Hence it is that we are called upon to remember that day before it comes, and to sanctify it when it is come.
Again, Thae Lord was buried openly, as well as hastily; all persons had liberty to be spectators, lest any should object the there was deceit and fraud used in or about our Saviour's burial; yet was he also interred decently, his holy body being wrapped in fine linen and perfumed with spices, according to the Jewish custom.
Observe, 6. The reasons why our Lord was buried, seeing he was to rise again in as short a time as other men lie by the walls; and had his body remained a thousand years unburied, it would have seen no corruption, having never been tainted with sin. Sin is the cause of the body's corruption; it is sin that makes our bodies stink worse than carrion when they are dead. A funeral then was not necessary for they Christ's body upon the same account as it was necessary for ours.
But, 1. Our Lord was buried to declare the certainty of his death, and the reality of his resurrection; and for this reason did God's providence order it, that he should be embalmed, to cut off all pretensions; for in this kind of embalming, his mouth, his ears, and his nostrils were all filled with odours and spices, that there could be no latent principle of life in him: his being thus buried then, did demonstrate him to be certainly dead.
2. Christ was buried to fulfil the types and prophecies that went before concerning him. Jonas's being three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, was a type of Christ's being three days and three nights in the heart of the earth; yea, the prophet Isaiah, Isa_53:9. declared our Lord's funeral, and the manner of it, long before he was born; He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; pointing that by that expression at this tomb of Joseph's, who was a rich man, and laid him in a tomb designed for himself.
3. He was buried to complete his humiliation; They have brought me to the dust of death, says David, a type of Christ. This was the lowest step he could possibly descend in his abased state; lower he could not be laid, and so low his blessed head must be laid, else he had not been humble to the lowest degree of humiliation.
4. Christ went into the grave that he might conquer death in its own territories and dominions. His victory over the grave causes his saints to triumph and sing, O grave where is thy destruction! Our dear Redeemer has perfumed the bed of the grave by his own lying in it, so that a pillow of down is not so soft to a believer's head as a pillow of dust.
Observe, lastly, Of what use the doctrine of our Lord's burial may be unto us his disciples and followers;
1. For instruction. Here were seen the amazing depths of our Lord's humiliation; from what, and to what, his love brought him; even from the bosom of his Father, to the bosom of the grave. O how doth the depth of his humiliation shew us the sufficiency of his satisfaction, and therein the heinousness of our transgression!
2. For consolation against the fears of death and the grave: the grave received Christ, but could not retain him; death swallowed him up, as the fish did Jonas, but quickly vomited him up again: and so shall it fare with Christ mystical, as it did with Christ personal.
As it was done to the head, so it shall be done to the members: the grave could not long keep him, it shall not always keep us; as his body rested in hope, so shall ours also; and although we see corruption , yet shall we not always lie under the power of corruption. In short, Christ's lying in the grave has changed and altered the nature of the grave; it was a prison before, a bed of rest now; a loathsome grave before, 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.
3. For our imitation: let us study and endeavour to be buried with with Christ; in respect of our sins, I mean, Buried with him unto death Rom_6:4.
Our sins should be as a dead body in several respects.
Are dead bodies removed out of the society of men? So should our sins be removed from us.
Do dead bodies in the grave spend and consume by degrees? So should our sins daily.
Will dead bodies grow everyday more and more loathsome to others? So should our sins be to ourselves.
Do dead bodies wax out of memory, and are quite forgotten? So should our sins also, in respect of any delight that we take in remembering of them; we should always remember our sins to our humiliation, but never speak of them with the least delight or satisfaction; for this, in God's account, is a new commission of them, and lays us under an aggravated guilt and condemnation.