Good Friday—39th Day of Lent
Dear friends in Christ. Our text takes us to the last word in the phase in the Apostles’ Creed: Was crucified, died and buried; and in the Nicene Creed: He suffered and was buried. Here with Jesus’ burial we come to the point in Jesus’ life where He most deeply humbled Himself. Jesus humbled Himself most deeply when He died and was buried. Although from the moment He took on human flesh and blood in the womb of Mary, Jesus was and now still is both true God and true man, here in His suffering and His death He looked the most “un-Godlike.” And with His burial there was no way He could humble Himself any further.
And so here before us this Good Friday, with Jesus dead and buried, is pictured most clearly and undeniably what is called Jesus in His state of humiliation. That means that although Jesus, as also true God, always had divine His divine majesty and glory, He did not always use it. Here, as He is lying dead in His tomb, He is not in any way making use of His divine majesty and glory. In fact, what Jesus’ burial does is show and confirm that Jesus is truly dead.
Here we see His great love for us sinners and the great lengths He went to to save us from our sin—not using His divine majesty so that He could suffer the punishment for our sin and by this reconcile us sinners to the holy God.
When we see Jesus today buried in His tomb, the deepest way that He humbles Himself for us and our salvation—not in any way using any of His divine majesty—not only has He entered death, but His burial points us forward to His resurrection. Jesus cannot truly rise from the dead as Victor over sin, death and devil, unless He first truly dies. Jesus’ burial is the way to say: Jesus truly died! –For us and our salvation.
As we examine our text this evening we will see that the time Jesus is in the tomb is a time of unrest both for Jesus’ disciples and for His enemies but for Jesus, it is a time of rest.
1. What’s interesting is that we hear nothing about the 11 disciples after Jesus crucifixion. We know from Scripture that when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, then all the disciples forsook Him and fled [Mt 26.56]. We also know that Sts. Peter and John followed Jesus at a distance to the High Priest’s courtyard—but here it was where St. Peter denied Jesus three times [Jn 18.12 ff.]. St. John is bold enough to be at the foot of the cross [Jn 19.25-27]. But after Jesus’ crucifixion, it isn’t one of the 11 that claims Jesus’ body, but two secret followers of Jesus become emboldened—Joseph of Arimathea, who went to Pilate secretly, for fear of the Jews [Jn. 19.38-42], asking for Jesus’ body to be placed in his own, new tomb; and Nicodemus the Pharisee brought burial spices and they prepared Jesus’ body for burial. So what were the 11 disciples doing during all this time? Scripture doesn’t really tell us, but we do get a hint when we come to Easter and once again find the 11 [Jn. 20.19]: the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews.
The time during which Jesus was buried was certainly a time of great spiritual unrest for them in their hearts and minds. They had fled from Jesus—even though they had all promised to remain faithful to Him. How they must have been filled with shame and guilt! How about fear? Certainly they were afraid of what would happen next—to them. Then there is certainly all sorts of confusion in their minds: was Jesus really the Savior, the long promised Messiah? How could He be if this happened? One of the disciples on the road to Emmaus probably expressed the hope, confusion, sorrow of them all when He said: But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.
The ironic thing about this is that it was Jesus’ enemies not His disciples who remember that Jesus said that He would die but then rise again. Our text: “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’…” Jesus’ enemies gave the disciples too much credit. The shock of Jesus’ death paralyzed them. They were beginning the grieving process and didn’t know which end was up. The time Jesus was in the tomb was a time of great unrest—great spiritual turmoil for them. It was only after the resurrection, and that by the work of the Holy Spirit, that they began to put the pieces together and remember the numerous times Jesus had said to them that He would die and rise again. St. John records one instance [John 2.22]: When [Jesus] had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.
Dear Christian, we are no strangers to times of great spiritual unrest, when it seems that Jesus is dead in His grave unable to help us; or, things turn out other than what we would have expected; or, we feel the weight, guilt, and burden of our sin. What was the disciples’ problem here? What is our problem? We forget Jesus’ word and promise. How did the disciples get out of their great spiritual unrest? Only on Easter Sunday when Jesus came to them and said [Jn. 19.20]: Peace be with you and Jesus showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. The point here for us Christians? In times of spiritual unrest, let us run to our Lord’s holy word and sacrament—where He has promised to meet us and give us His gifts and blessings of forgiveness and peace, where He gives us the assurance that He is our God and Savior and we are His dear Christians whom He loves and for whose good He works out all things.
The time of Jesus’ burial was not only certainly one of unrest for the disciples but also especially for Jesus’ enemies, the religious leaders. Although we have to read between the lines for the disciples’ unrest, the unrest of Jesus’ enemies comes out loud and clear in our text: The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate. So great was their unrest that on the Sabbath day itself this delegation goes to Pilate. Not even the regulations of the Sabbath, which they accused Jesus of breaking when He showed mercy and healed people, stopped them from marching to Pilate for an audience. What hypocrites these enemies of Jesus are! But for them to do this shows their feeling of unease. And who could blame them? After all they saw and experienced the events that happened at Jesus’ death—the black sky, the earthquake, the tearing of the temple veil. They heard about and saw the miracles that Jesus performed during His earthly ministry—in particular, when Jesus raised the four day dead Lazarus from the dead. Behind all their unease was the secret fear that the dead Jesus really was capable of rising from the dead.
They said to Pilate, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.” Unlike with the disciples, Jesus’ words of His resurrection [Mt. 12.40, John 2.19], worked their way into the minds of His enemies and caused them unrest—especially now that He was dead and buried. The secret fear in their conscience was that Jesus really was not a deceiver, that He was not in cahoots with the devil but taught and did miracles in the power of God.
But instead of examining the OT Scriptures and their prophecies in light of the words and claims of Jesus, they harden themselves all the more against Jesus and His claims; they ridicule Jesus calling Him an imposter and calling His preaching, the Gospel a fraud. Does that sound familiar? Isn’t still the way of the world today, the way of Jesus’ enemies? Jesus is held up to ridicule and His saving word and work is called a fraud and replaced by the current worthless way of thinking—be it that all religions lead to the same god or that this life is all there is or that except for a small handful of really bad people, all people will get to heaven.
Why? Because like the chief priests and Pharisees, if the claims of Jesus are taken seriously by people today, they will have to be believed. That puts the person at the crossroads. But it is easier to ignore Jesus’ claims and the teachings of His Church or dismiss them—and try to keep Jesus in His tomb. Things don’t change.
2. So what is Jesus doing during all this? His body is resting in the tomb. Here is a glorious image for us this Good Friday and Holy Saturday: Jesus is resting in His tomb. Rest! That’s the true Sabbath rest. Unlike the Pharisees and chief priests running around in all sorts of turmoil, Jesus is resting—the Sabbath. Why is He resting? Because the work for the salvation of the world is done! Jesus, by His holy life and innocent suffering and death both kept God’s holy Law for all people and died for their sins. We poor sinners are now in Christ forgiven our sins and reconciled to God. Now, in Christ, God’s verdict on us has changed from “condemned” to “forgiven!” And that verdict becomes visible for all to see when Jesus rises from the dead on Easter. On the cross, after offering that once for all perfect sacrifice for sin, when all of God’s wrath over sin—your sin and mine—was poured out on Jesus, [John 19.30, Lk. 23.46] He said, “It is finished!” And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Father, into Your hands I entrust My spirit.” After He said this He bow His head and gave up His spirit. Jesus’ soul was right away in the hands of His Father in heaven and now His body was buried. A glorious picture to us that our salvation is completely won for us—by Jesus! There is nothing more to be done! Jesus is resting in His tomb! His job He came to do is done.
Notice, Jesus is resting in His tomb all the while His enemies continue their futile efforts to stop it. The devil and his allies from the very beginning tried to foil, stop God’s plan of bringing salvation to the world, saving the world from its sin and rescuing us from death and hell. They failed—Jesus is resting in His tomb, job done—but now they are still running around trying to stop salvation history. So what is God doing? Just like St. David says of Him in the psalm when the world rages against God, trying to stop Him from carrying out His plans [Psalm 2.4]: He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision. Our text: Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.” So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard. The point? God used all their unrest and all their efforts to make the ground/ foundation of Jesus’ resurrection certain. When they seal the stone, a cord is strung across it and fastened at each end with clay to show if there was any tampering. The ones guarding the tomb became one of the first human witnesses of the resurrection. Now there is nothing but compelling evidence for the resurrection; nothing but confidence that the resurrection is not a hoax. According to God’s counsel and will, Jesus’ enemies confirm the truth of the Gospel and so further God’s work. Jesus was quietly resting in the tomb as all the foolish workings of His enemies were in vain.
Dear Christian, what a glorious rest of heart and conscience we now have that our sins are forgiven and a glorious eternity in heaven awaits us. Our salvation is sure in Jesus; we need not fret. We can be at ease not wondering if we have done enough good and avoided enough evil. Jesus did it all for us—so that He could rest in His tomb. And because Jesus did it all, perfectly reconciling us sinners to the holy God, we can wait in peace and confidence for that glorious announcement in a few short days: Jesus is risen! Amen