Three days in the tomb

2:27 p.m. Today's project is to study what we know of scripture concerning the days Jesus lay in the tomb. For a complete picture, we have passages in both Old and New Testaments to guide us. Turning again to the prophecy of Isaiah 53:8b-9a: "For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked--but with the rich at His death..." The Gospel of John 19:38-42 gives the contemporary details of Jesus' burial:


After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took the body of Jesus. And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as was the custom of the Jews to bury. Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So there they laid Jesus...


Doesn't this cause you to gasp at the perfection of our Lord's human life? Born to a virgin, and even laid in a an unused tomb at His death! And even though neither Joseph of Arimathea nor Nicodemus dared to follow Jesus publicly, they provided care at the time it was needed, performing a service that no one else could have. Only the rich owned tombs hewn out of rock for their families--another fulfillment of prophecy!


But what happened in the tomb? Psalm 16:10, New Living Translation, says, Jesus speaking through David, "For You will not leave My soul among the dead." On the Day of Pentecost, Peter spoke of the death of Jesus to the Jews gathered in Jerusalem, Acts 3:23-24: "Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosened the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it." Then Peter proceeded to quote Psalm 16, cited above. Scripture always confirms scripture!


Peter returns to this theme in I Peter 3:18-20a: "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient..." Jesus declared His victory over the forces of hell--He won the battle for the souls of men, once and for all! Satan is a defeated foe! Hallelujah!

The Apostle Paul quotes Psalm 68:18 in Ephesians 4:9-10 when describing Jesus' ascension into heaven: "(Now this, "He ascended"-- what does it mean but that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things)." And there Jesus is to this day, interceding for us to the Father!

Will we ever know, in this life, all that Jesus did while His body lay in the tomb? The answer is a resounding NO! The Apostle John wrote in chapter 21:25, the last verse of his gospel, "And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen."

Amen!


Tomorrow: He is risen!