PT-2 "Joseph of Arimathea" (Matt. 27:57-60)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/15/2024 7:13 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-2 “Joseph of Arimathea”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 27:57-60

 

            Message of the verses:  “And when it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.  This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.  Then Pilate ordered it to be given over to him.  And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.”

 

            Let us begin this SD with what the time means “And when it was evening.”  This refers to the period from 3:00 P. M until 6:00 P.M., which period the Jews considered to be the end of the day and the beginning of the evening.  Jesus spoke His last Words at this time period as seen in Matthew 27:46-50.  It was about the ninth hour,’ or 3:00 P. M.

 

            MacArthur gives us two reasons that it was imperative that Jesus die several hours before the end of the day.  The first one was because the Sabbath began at six o’clock that day, and so He had to be taken down from the cross before then and prepared for burial in order not to profane the Sabbath.  The second reason, as explained in the details below (in MacArthur’s commentary), is that He had to be buried before the end of that day, Friday, in order to be in the earth at least a part of three separate days before his resurrection, as He Himself declared He would be.

 

            Now I have read that the time of Jesus’ death was exactly the time when the Passover lambs were sacrificed, and so that is the reason of the time of His death corresponds with the death of the Passover lambs, as Jesus is our Passover Lamb who died in our place so that believers will not have to die spiritually, although once a person has accepted Jesus Christ they are in Him spiritually and God sees them as dying with Christ, buried with Him and resurrected with Him.  That is what God sees of all believers for they are “in Christ.”

 

            Let us look at John 19:31 “Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”  When I read statements like this one I can see that life seems to be very cheap during that time, and I suppose life is cheap in our time today as millions of babies have been killed in their mother’s wombs for convenience sake, just like what we see in this verse above.  MacArthur then adds “The fact that it was the day before the Sabbath proves conclusively that Jesus was crucified on Friday, commonly referred to by Jews as ‘the day of preparation.’”

 

            MacArthur goes on “Although rabbinical tradition had added many extreme and foolish restrictions to Sabbath observance, God Himself had commanded His people to ‘remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy’ (Ex. 20:8).  Among other things, even food preparation had to be done the day before in order not to work on the Sabbath.  When the Lord provided manna for the children of Israel in the wilderness, He gave a double portion on Friday in order that no collection of it would have to be made on the Sabbath.”

 

            There is more that was required by the Mosaic law as it required that the corpse of an executed criminal not be left hanging “all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance” (Deut. 21:23).  Now if such things were defiling on an ordinary day of the week, it would be more defiling on the Sabbath.  John points out in the verse quoted above (19:31), the particular Sabbath that was about to begin was especially holy because it was also the high day of the Passover feast.  So it would therefore have been extraordinarily defiling for dead bodies to be hanging on crosses just outside the north wall of Jerusalem, possibly in sight of the Temple, on such a high holy day.

 

            I will keep on working on this section in the next SD, Lord willing tomorrow.

 

9/15/2024 7:43 AM