E120 - Hope’s Harbor Gritty Bible Devotions - Jesus off the Cross - Part 3 of 4

Hope’s Harbor

Gritty Bible Devotions

Episode #120

Title: Jesus Off the Cross – Part 3 of 4

Date: August 21, 2023

Contact: info@hopesharbor.net

Key verses: Matthew 27:59 & 60

Vs 59 – ‘When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,

Vs 60 – ‘and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb, and departed.’

After Joseph left the tomb, this account in Matthew also records in vs 67 that Mary Magdalene and the ‘other Mary,’ sat in front of the tomb. Let us go also and sit by the tomb.

Intro: This episode examines Jesus’s burial and do so from a personal perspective. Also, Jesus's death provided atonement for the sins of the human race and was therefore necessary.

Devotion focus: Jesus was Dead

After Roman soldiers ensured Jesus’s death by stabbing a spear into His heart, a kind man named Joseph, went to the Roman governor and asked him for Jesus’s body in order to bury Him.

A priest named Nicodemus went with Joseph and helped take Jesus to a nearby tomb, wrap Him in linen, and place Him in the tomb. Then a stone was rolled in front of the entrance.

When I visited Jerusalem in 2005 our tour group was taken to a tomb believed to be the one Jesus was placed in. To the left of the tomb entrance was a track carved out to the limestone which would have allowed a large round stone to roll down a slight angle and come to rest over the entrance. You see, this particular tomb was like a cave with room to stand.

{In the show notes appendix for this episode is the link to an image of an artist rendering of the stone in place at the Garden Tomb. The actual stone has long since disappeared.)

Regardless of whether this is the tomb in which Jesus was placed; it gives a good idea of the Biblical account.

While the tour group milled about, I walked a short distance away, sat on a low retaining wall, and thought about the day Jesus was crucified and entombed.

I wondered where Mary Magdalene sat with the other Mary and what they went through emotionally. They were surely traumatized. Crucifixion was possibly the most painful way of death the Romans contrived and they watched it.

This method of death was meant to torture those sentenced to die and serve as a deterrent against rebellion against Roman rule and law.

Since Jesus never rebelled or broke either Roman or Jewish law, the Roman governor declared Him innocent. He only allowed Jesus to die in order to keep the peace.

So now, at the tomb in which lay the body of Jesus sat Mary. And here two thousand years later I sat and considered that day.

For those who lived with Jesus as He traveled about doing good, those called disciples, you know, the ones who abandoned Him, they went into hiding. Only John is mentioned as being at the cross. But not at the tomb.

It’s understandable that self-preservation set in with Jesus’s friends. Who would face their own crucifixion with courage?

I imagine those men who saw Jesus perform countless miracles of healing terminal diseases, casting out demons, walking on the surface of a stormy sea, and raise the dead, never thought mere men could end the life of the Son of GOD. They were certainly in shock.

For Mary sitting at the tomb, she was surely inconsolable. You see, Jesus cast seven demons out of her. She went from being tortured in her mind and soul to being loved, and then having the demons sent packing. I think of how she witnessed Jesus performing other such acts of mercy during her time spent following along on the road with this band of disciples.

There is no way to know just what miracles she witnessed, but the Bible record is clear. Jesus never turned anyone away who came to Him for help, as long as they were sincere. He had no patience with the religious frauds of His day and told them so.

And so, Mary sat in front of the tomb, knowing full well Jesus was dead.

This is important to the Christian system of belief: Jesus had to die for the sins of the human race. It was the only way GOD forgives sin, that it was punished to the full and Jesus took that punishment and it killed him. Yes, the crucifixion was the means of death, but it was Jesus’s death that provided atonement. His death in our place.

The importance of Jesus having died to pay for our sins and then being resurrected is addressed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:12-19. 

Vs 12 – ‘Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

Vs 13 – ‘But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.

Vs 14 – ‘And if Christ has not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.

Vs 15 – ‘Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise.

Vs 16 – ‘For if the dead do not rise, then Christ has not risen.

Vs 17 – ‘And if Christ has not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!

Vs 18 – ‘Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

Vs 19 – ‘If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.’

This passage clearly explains the importance of Jesus’s death and resurrection.

Furthermore, Jesus told His followers His death and resurrection would happen to Him. You’ll find this account in Matthew 16:21 – ‘From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.’

And so, even though Jesus warned His disciples of what would happen to Him, they couldn’t understand it. I believe it probable Jesus’s prediction was too much to take in because by this point in His ministry, His men knew He held power over heaven and earth.

Now, whether Mary Magdalene believed Jesus would rise from the dead is not known. What we do know is she sat by the tomb. Can you imagine her loss? If you’ve ever lost someone you loved dearly, you know that emptiness. We have the hindsight of the Biblical record knowing she would see Jesus on the 3rd day, but don’t let that remove the fact of her sorrow. A sorrow that would be transformed in an instant on the morning of the 3rd day after Jesus died.

Summary: Jesus’s death was necessary to provide atonement for the sins of the human race. A death attested to by numerous eyewitnesses. But it is His death that gives us life, if we chose it, because He rose from the dead.

Action to consider: Read the burial accounts in the four Gospels.

Next week’s devotion: Jesus Beyond the Cross – Part 4 of 4

Appendix: Link to image

Artist rendering of the stone in place at the Garden Tomb. The actual stone has long since disappeared.

https://www.robertaboyd.com/the-garden-tomb