“God Buries His Son”
Mark 15:42-47

Introduction

• I believe that the most important part of our Easter celebration is and should be the Resurrection of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
• I do not want to take anything away from the reason why we celebrate Easter.
• In fact the Bible talks more about Christ’s death than His birth. Yet, all the earth and worldly people used to celebrate His birth more than His death.
• Now His birth is more into celebrating a fat man in a red suit who personifies the world’s meaning of gift giving, and giving more attention to angels, snowmen, tree decoration, house decorating, and etc.
• All the while the Christian’s Easter celebration has always played one of the smallest celebratory roles of the world.
• This morning for Easter as I try to do every year…come from a different perspective about the death, Burial and resurrection of our Lord.
• I believe that God wants us to see How He buried His Son.
• I further believe that we need to see the reason for each detail of His Divine will concerning the burial of His only Son.
• There are two ways in which God accomplishes His will… 1) by miracles, which means to CHANGE the natural order of things, and 2) Providence, meaning that He orchestrates the free behaviors of all people, and all actions and reactions and events by NOT CHANGING the natural order of things.    

I.  People Will Do What They Do

A) It accomplishes the will of God

• There are people doing things around the burial of Christ…
• The Roman soldiers
• The loving saints of God
• The confused followers of Jesus Christ
• The abandoned apostles of Jesus Christ
• The hateful  Jewish church leaders of the church
• Each person has their own goals in life and their own decisions to make and they do what they will do to the best of their ability.
• But after everybody has done what they want, it accomplishes the exact will of God.
• I believe that we need to see a perfect example of God’s will being done even though [people do what they always do.

II.  The Soldiers Role (In the burial of Jesus)

A) Jesus Gave His life

• John 19:30…When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
• Important NOTE: He GAVE up His life.
• John 10:17, 18…Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18) No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
• When Jesus gave up His life, the two thieves were still alive.
• The two thieves had to have their legs broken because the Jewish leaders wanted nobody hanging on the cross on the Sabbath.
• Back to John 19:31…The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.  
• They don’t want these dead bodies to defile their Sabbath. They are very picky about defiling their Sabbath aren’t they?
• The Jewish leaders asked Pilate to have the legs of the three crucified men to be broken which would cause them to die early.
• WHY would they die early with broken legs? Because when hanging on the cross a person could live a long time as long as they are able to push up with their legs so that they could receive oxygen into their lungs.
• John 19:32…Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. 33) But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: 34) But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.  
• WHY did they not brake Jesus legs? Because He gave up His own life. The soldiers could not take it.  IT WAS GOD’S WILL.
• Psalms 34:20… He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.
• Why couldn’t Jesus legs be broken?
• Because God made it Law in Exodus 12:46… In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth ought of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof. AND Numbers 9:12…They shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break any bone of it: according to all the ordinances of the passover they shall keep it.
• Any sacrificial lamb shall not be offered up for sacrifice with broken bones. This is a Law God gave to the Jews. God cannot break His own Law.
• The Soldiers did not break Jesus legs because the will of God was to be carried out regardless of the natural order of things.
• Furthermore, they pierced Jesus side to also bring about the will of God in fulfilling prophecy as John witnessed in John 19:36…For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. 37) And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.
• So we see that God’s will is done by the soldiers who did what they normally do crush bones, and pierced sides of those who hang on the cross to accomplish their own personal agenda.

III. The Loving Saints Role (In the burial of Jesus)

A) Joseph of Arimathaea

• Jesus had gave up His life, the Soldiers had pierced Jesus side to prove that he had truly died, and the thieves were dead as well all before the sun went down on Friday.
• Lets us go to Mark 15:42…And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, 43) Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.
• This Joseph of Arimathaea was an “honorable counselor.” Which is another term for a prominent member of the Sanhedrin of whom required Jesus to be hung on the cross till death.
• He comes in begging for Jesus body.
• This is the only time in scripture that this Joseph of Arimathaea is mentioned.
• “…which also waited for the kingdom of God” meaning that he was a true Jew awaiting the Messiah and now believed that Jesus was the Messiah that he had been waiting for.
• In Luke 23:51 is says of Joseph… (The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them😉 he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God.
• This Joseph did not agree with the other council members in crucifying Jesus.
• He is believed to be the one who took the crown of thorns off Jesus head, and remove Jesus’ feet and hands from the nails on the cross.
• WHY did he do all this? Because he realized that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God and He loved Him.
• He did what any lover of another person would do, but by the same token he accomplished the will of God that had to be done.
• What was the will of God?   It was planned long ago when Isaiah prophesied.
• Isaiah 53:9…And he made his grave with the wicked (It was planned by the religious leaders to disgrace him by burying Jesus with the criminals on the cross), and with the rich in his death (BUT, God’s will was for His Son Jesus to be buried with the rich, honorably); because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
• Joseph ends up doing the will of God by doing what he felt the natural thing to do was.

B) Nicodemus

• Go back to John 19:38…And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. 39) And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
• Notice what Nicodemus had brought to Pilate “…a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.”  
• These are spices and embalming items used for stifling the smell of a putrefied body after death.  In fact 65 lbs. worth fit for a King.
• Nicodemus another man accepted Jesus as his Savior.

C) The two women named Mary

• We must know that these two ladies never left Jesus. We see them FIRST up in John 19:25…Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. 
• Then we see them SECOND in John 19:40…Then took they (Joseph and Nicodemus) the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. 
• And in Mark’s gospel he shows the two ladies following Joseph and Nicodemus to the grave to bury Jesus in Mark 15:47…And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where he was laid.
• These ladies were true disciples of Christ as they followed Him even after His death.

IV. The San Hedrin (Haters of Jesus)

•   These men had a goal of making sure that there was no proof of a resurrection. It was a feeble attempt at a cover up.
• They Had to make sure that the disciples of Jesus did not come to steal the body of Jesus away and claim that Jesus had risen from the dead as He said.
• Look at Matthew 27:62…Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, (Here is the Sanhedrin leaders defiling themselves again going to the courts of the world) 63) Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. 64) Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. 65) Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can. 66) So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.
• Sanhedrin mistake number ONE – They should have left the grave unsealed, wide open. Then they could claim that disciples came and stole Jesus body. These stupid leaders made it impossible for the disciples to steal the body. Now the only explanation was a resurrection!
• In their minds they were trying to disprove Jesus as the true Son of God who could be raised by God from the dead.
• All the while they were proving that there was a resurrection, thus carrying out the Divine will of God

IN CLOSING…

• God buried His Son using people who loved God.
• God allowed people to be people to carry out His Divine plan of salvation.
• God Used people to bury His Son according to His plan.
• Remember that no matter what we do, God will is done!