Burial of Jesus

(Mark 15:40-47)

After Jesus had died we see there were some women looking on from afar. They included Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, Joses and Salome, who was actually Jesus’ mother.

When he had been taken down Joseph of Arimathea, who was a respected member of the council, took courage and went to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus to be delivered into his hands. This Joseph although a member of the council was also seeking the kingdom of heaven and clearly recognised in Jesus that there was a teaching he needed to know more of.

Jesus body was given to Joseph and he had him wrapped in a shroud and placed in his own newly carved tomb in which no one had ever lain. The two Mary’s watched and saw where he was laid, intending to return after the Sabbath to attend to the details of his burial as they still did not understand about the resurrection.

There is a key point as Christians we understand from this. The founder of our faith was Jesus Christ. But unlike every other faith or form of worship in the world today that was founded by somebody, there is no tomb that can be visited. Many people who are followers of other religions and their religious founders or leaders build shrines to these people who have died and are dead and buried. But as Christians we cannot do this for the simple reason that the founder of our faith…is alive!

In spite of the plotting and scheming of those who wanted Jesus dead, he could not be held by death and so his remains do not reside in some tomb. We can still communicate with him today and he communicates back to us also. He guards, guides and leads us so that we do not fall and as he said to the disciples all those years ago, “I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)

We can take comfort from this knowledge for we do not worship someone who is dead and gone, but we worship a living and active Saviour who is with us always.

(Picture sourced from oChristian.com https://clipart.ochristian.com/)