Saturday Evening Devotion
Matthew 27:57-61
57 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. 58 He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. 59 And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud 60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.
Reflection
“He died and was buried.” We confess His true natural death in the Creeds. Why is that important? It demonstrates that Jesus was fully man, not a ghost, not an apparition. He did not just pass out on the cross, as some claim. Just as every crucified person died, so Jesus died. Joseph of Arimathea takes His body. He physically handles it, wraps it in grave clothes, and places it in his own tomb, and seals it with a rock. This is not some made up story. A real person, a real body, is placed and sealed in a real tomb. It is witnessed by Mary and other women, who had followed Jesus through Jerusalem to Golgotha and watched His suffering and death on the cross. At this point, things seem final. The Messiah sealed in a tomb. Not to be seen again. However, in three days, things would change forever.
At times we may act like Jesus is dead. We fail to trust Him completely; we fail to obey Him completely; we resist His transformation of our hearts. We are a practical, independent people. We can do things ourselves. So, we act like He is dead, in the tomb. But Jesus commands us, as he did Lazarus, “Come out! Take off the grave clothes” (Jn. 11:43–44). Come out to new life in Him. Remove the grave clothes of clinging sins. Be renewed. His death purchased new life for us. Let us live into the fullness of new life in Him.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, fill this body, the temple of the Holy Spirit, so we might have new life in us through the promise of life we have in your Son, Jesus Christ. Forgive those times we have acted like you are dead and in the tomb through our lack of trust, disobedience and unrepentant sin. Cleanse us. Renew us. Fill us with your Spirit. In the name of your Son, our savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
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Artwork: Copy of Deposition of the Cross by M. Koch (1797) in church Santa Maria in Vallicella (the original by Caravaggio, 1571 - 1610), painting from the Church of Holy Cross in Sisak, Croatia, and The Dead Christ by Gustave Doré, 1866