April 28

And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb.

Matt. xxvii. 59, 60.

JOSEPH of Arimathea was a rich man, a councillor and member of the Sanhedrim, and a private disciple of the blessed Jesus. No sooner, therefore, is the Saviour dead than he steps forth to obtain possession of his body, that he might protect it from the indignities of the executioners, and place it in his own sepulchre. Pilate, having ascertained that Christ was really dead, readily acceded to his request, and thus, although Christ was numbered among transgressors, yet, according to the Prophet, he was placed with "the rich in his death." We are now called to see the mangled form of the Saviour hastily taken down from the cross, because the Jewish sabbath was at hand, as touching a dead body would have prevented those thus employed from engaging in the services of the temple. At this time, Nicodemus, another secret disciple, the same who came to Christ by night, brought a hundred weight of spices to embalm the body of Jesus. In some instances, this rite is one of considerable time and labour: but in this case the body of Christ was simply wrapped in the linen cloth, on which these spices were spread. The place of Christ's interment was Joseph's own sepulchre, and it had yet been unoccupied—it was a new tomb, which he had "hewn out in the rock." Thus Christ, being the only inhabitant of this tomb, his resurrection would be the more obvious and certain. The body of Christ being thus placed in the sepulchre, a large stone is rolled to its mouth, and Christ is left to sanctify and illumine, by his precious remains, the region of the dead. Observe, Christ was so poor that his cradle and his tomb were alike borrowed: even now, it was literally true that "he had no place wherein to lay his head." A sinless Saviour, however, did not require a grave for himself, so it was meet that he should obtain the temporary loan of it, from those whose final resurrection he came to secure.