The Burial - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2025

And men appointed His grave with the wicked, but He was with the rich in His death.
Isaiah 53:9

The Burial
It was the custom of the Romans to leave the bodies of crucified criminals upon their crosses until the carrion birds had cleaned the bones of every shred of flesh and to dig a rough hole near the spot of the crucifixion and cast them in there. These soldiers, who had gambled for the clothes of the Lord, were keen to get back to their dice and their wine, and had prepared beforehand a grave big enough to hold the three corpses. They made His grave with the wicked.

But when the great work was finished, and the darkness was past, and His beloved Son hung dead upon the cross, God stepped in and cried, Halt! No further were men permitted to go on dishonoring the One who had done His will with perfect obedience. His enemies were thrust aside, and from this point onward He was honored and revered by those who loved Him. "He was with the rich in His death." God had held His man in reserve, and now Joseph, the timorous and secret disciple, stood forth with the courage of a lion, and in the very teeth of a hostile world, and regardless of all consequences, took his stand by his crucified Lord and begged His body. It was an unheard of thing! Whoever before had set any value on the body of a crucified criminal? It was so strange that Pilate made special inquiries as to whether He was really dead, and then he granted Joseph's request.

The sacred body was wrapped in pure linen with a hundred pounds of spice, and Joseph and Nicodemus, with two or three women, gave Him the burial of a King. And here lies the meaning of the grave being introduced before the sufferings are fully told. The sort of grave He was to fill was not an afterthought, either on man's part or God's; both were prepared and ready before He died.

J. T. Mawson