From Matthew 27:57-61 / Who’s in Your Tomb?

Joseph of Arimathea. From all the accounts combined, we learn that he was a wealthy man; a member of the Sanhedrin; that he buried Jesus with the assistance of Nicodemus; that he had not consented to Jesus’ condemnation by the Sanhedrin, and, that he was a disciple of Jesus. He was not someone who just heard Jesus and secretly believed, but he was a follower, a learner, a true disciple.

Note first: That God has His people in all sorts of unexpected places.

If the Scripture had not recorded it, no one would have suspected that any in the Jewish leadership which condemned Jesus was actually one of His disciples. And yet here Joseph is.

One wonders how Joseph walked such a fine line when his fellow leaders were so violently opposed to Jesus? Somehow he did it. One thinks too of Joanna, who was married to Herod’s own household manager (Luke 8:3). She was apparently one of those who financially supported Jesus in His ministry. Or consider the closing of Paul’s letter to the Philippians when he sends greetings from the saints of “Caesar’s household.”

No doubt, some today would look on such with great suspicion and wonder how they could serve in such places without compromise. But we forget examples such as Joseph ruling over Egypt, while also being required to marry the daughter of a pagan priest. Or Daniel, serving several pagan and even brutal administrations in Babylon. Yet they they were. Serving God in the most unlikely of places.

I know it is popular in some circles to place an almost magical superiority to those who labor in direct ministry – pastors, preachers, teachers, etc. But it is more the norm, and just as blessed and sovereignly appointed to serve God where you are.

Has God placed you in a strange and difficult secular environment? Do not lament it – embrace it. Be God’s light in that place. Do not measure your impact or importance by some invented metric of ministry. Be light there. Be salt there. Let God have the freedom to place you where He deems best in His plans and purposes – though the direct connection to those plans and purposes may not be revealed to us. Sanctify your labors, whatever they may be by serving as unto the Lord in them. The prophet Amos never disowned being a sheepherder and a fig-picker from Tekoa. But he was God’s man too. And so are everyone of His disciples, wherever His providence may have placed you.

Ryle writes cogently here: “This fact is full of comfort and encouragement. It shews us that there are some quiet, retiring souls on earth, who know the Lord, and the Lord knows them, and yet they are little known by the church. It shews us that there are diversities of gifts among Christ’s people. There are some who glorify Christ passively, and some who glorify Him actively. There are some whose vocation it is to build the Church, and fill a public place, and there are some who only come forward, like Joseph, in times of special need. But each and all are led by one Spirit, and each and all glorify God in their several ways.” Ryle, J. C. 1860. Expository Thoughts on Matthew. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers.

Note second: The wonder of the Gospel revealed in the use of Joseph’s tomb.

In Jesus’ occupying Joseph’s grave, we have the doctrine of substitution writ large.

Jesus didn’t just die for our sins, He took His place in our grave. In the place that denominates once and for all that death is final and hints of no unfinished work. This is the work of faith that all who trust in Christ are bid to do – to consider our grave as already filled. That Jesus not only died for us, He was buried for us. There is no going back. The old life is sealed away and cannot be revisited. He took all of our punishment, all of our sin, all of the justice due to us. He submitted to every last aspect of God’s judgment.

Throughout the centuries, as Christians were called upon to recite the Apostle’s Creed, or see it reformulated to accommodate baptismal candidates, the confession was similar to this:

Do you believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth?

Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died, and was buried, rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father?

Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy universal Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting?

There has always been an emphasis placed upon the burial of Jesus, not only His death and resurrection. Burial is the proof that the death has really occured. That the sufferings are over. That the debt has been satisfied once and for all. And that there is no going back.

The tomb Joseph placed Jesus in, was one he had purchased and constructed for himself. So let me ask you, who occupied your tomb? Has Jesus died and been buried in your place? Have you taken His death for yours, and placed Him in your tomb so that you never fear death and judgment again? Is the work of saving grace really complete to you in your heart and mind as a tangible and lasting reality?

If so, then think one step further with me. So, that tomb is now empty as well – in the absolute hope and promise of the resurrection. Indeed, Christian, for all who look to Christ as their sin-bearer, their substitute – the grave we once thought was ours, has already been occupied – and emptied. And we are free in Him!

Hallelujah!