Luke 23:50-56 And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counselor; and he was a good man, and a just:… The burial of the Lord is a part of the gospel. Thus St. Paul (1 Corinthians 15:4). 1. His burial was an assurance that His resurrection was a reality: for His Body was taken down by friends in the presence of foes who knew that He was dead, and deposited by them, not in a common tomb, but in a cave, hollowed out of a hillside, with a great stone rolled to block up the entrance, which was guarded by the soldiers of Pilate. 2. His burial also was the last humiliation offered to Him; for, though Joseph and Nicodemus and the women who assisted performed it as a work of piety and love, yet in it He was not the less associated with us, whose bodies must be committed to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. He was the Incorruptible, and yet was buried, and they prepared to embalm Him as if He had been corruptible. In birth from a womb, and in burial in a tomb, He was one with His sinful brethren. 3. His burial is in a remarkably mysterious way connected with our baptism. The font represents the grave of the Lord, in which, as having died with Him, we are mystically and sacramentally buried, and from which we rise again, endued with new life from Him, as He rose from His grave endured with new life (Colossians 2:12; Romans 6:1-4). (M. F. Sadler.) Parallel Verses KJV: And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counseller; and he was a good man, and a just:WEB: Behold, a man named Joseph, who was a member of the council, a good and righteous man |