"Meditation on the Burial of Our Lord" Easter Vigil April 23, 2011 Matthew 27:57-66
One of the Christmas hymns talks of Jesus being a servant and us a lord. Those who have servants normally are wealthy. It’s only appropriate then, as we consider the fact that our Lord died and was buried, a man named Joseph was taking care of Him. This is what occurred at His birth as well. Joseph was betrothed to Mary and stayed the course with her in obedience to God. He couldn’t provide much, but he faithfully provided Mary and Jesus what he could, and that was love and protection. Now in His death another Joseph comes along and this one with the means to provide an appropriate burial for the Lord. When he asked Pilate for the body of Jesus he ordered it to be given to him. Pilate was the one who gave the order for Jesus to be killed. Sure, he washed his hands of the affair, but he had the power to prevent Jesus’ death. Now we see an act of decency in Pilate in giving Jesus’ body to Joseph. We might speculate how all of these strange events whirled around in Pilate’s mind. What did he end up thinking about Jesus, especially after Jesus rose from the dead? Joseph takes reverent care of the body of Jesus. Again, we might think back to the care Jesus’ father had given Him when He was an infant. The man Mary was betrothed to, a man who was not the natural father, welcomed baby Jesus into his home. Here at the end of Jesus’ life we see another man welcoming Jesus into his tomb. He rolls the stone in front of the tomb and there is a sense of finality to this whole ordeal. When a loved one dies it’s hard to come to terms with it. There’s all the details of funeral arrangements, finances to get in order, the funeral itself. But when our loved one is lowered into the ground the weight of our loss sinks in. So it was on that day when our Lord was buried. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, observing the burial. We aren’t told they said anything. We can surmise that there wasn’t anything that needed to be said. They just sat and watched. He was gone. The next day is a dramatically different scene. We aren’t told now about Jesus’ followers but of His enemies. His followers were mourning, His enemies were scheming. As if they hadn’t done that enough. Have you ever noticed how those who go against Jesus often are ready and willing to use His words? False teachers usually quote the Bible very well. Here, the religious leaders are recalling the words of Jesus in which He said He would rise after three days. Obviously that wasn’t going to happen. They had finally gotten rid of Him. He was dead. They certainly didn’t believe He would rise from the grave. But what would prevent His followers from faking it? They asked Pilate to secure the tomb so that they could lay to rest once and for all that Jesus was a fraud. Pilate had had enough of dealing with them. They could do it themselves and so they did. They secured the tomb and they set a guard—Jesus wasn’t getting out of there dead or alive. Man’s attempts to contain God never work. We can either take Him at His word or we can continue with our attempts to circumvent what He has done. But what He says in His Word, what He has accomplished in history, His return in glory on the Last Day, put to rest our attempts to circumvent His Word. On the last day of the week of Holy Week Jesus rested in the tomb. It was the Sabbath. The day of rest. In the morning something would occur that would change all that. Sunday would become the new day of Rest. A day in which we gather here to receive the blessings Jesus won for us in His suffering, death, burial, and resurrection. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] ___________________________________________________________________ 'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless otherwise noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors; posting of such gives members of this list implied consent for redistribution _with_attribution_ unless otherwise specified by the author (as long as no charge is made for the work and it is not made part of a compilation), as well as for quoting or use in a congregational setting _with_or_without_attribution_. Note: This list's default reply is to the *poster*, NOT the list. Do *not* reply to the list with your comments, but to the poster. Subscribe? Send ANY note to: [email protected] Unsubscribe? Send ANY note to: [email protected] Archive? <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/> For more information on this or other lists offered by Confess And Teach For Unity, you can contact the CAT 41 list administrator at: Rev. Fr. Eric J. Stefanski <MoM [at] lists (dot) cat41 <dot> org>
