Jan 13
19
The Burial of Christ -MacDuff
“Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and was buried, and rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15:3, 4
It was absolutely necessary, that our Savior should not merely die — but also be buried, as appears from several considerations. It was necessary, in the first place, for the fulfillment of prophecy. “And He made his grave with the wicked,” says Isaiah, “and with the rich in his death:” or, according to the version of Lowth, “His grave was appointed with the wicked — but with the rich was his tomb.” It was the intention of his enemies that he should be interred with the malefactors, as he had been executed with them; but their purpose was defeated by the interposition of Joseph of Arimathea, who went and begged the body, that it might be placed in his own sepulcher, wherein never man was yet laid. He was thus buried according to the Scriptures — those Scriptures which cannot be broken, as this remarkable accomplishment of them clearly shows.
It was also necessary for Jesus to be buried, that there might be no doubt as to the reality of his death. That we should be furnished with the most satisfactory evidence of this great truth, is of the highest importance, as all our hopes depend upon it. It is proved by the fact that the officers did not break his legs, as they did those of the two thieves; by the water and the blood which flowed from his side when pierced with the soldier’s spear — but it is especially proved by his burial. Had he been restored to life in a short time after he died, his enemies would be likely to have contended that there had been merely a temporary suspension of animation; but his having lain in the grave for a portion of three days, rendered such a surmise altogether groundless.
Another reason winch rendered it necessary for him to be buried, was in order to complete his humiliation. As there were successive steps in his exaltation, one rising above the other; so in his previous career we find a similar degradation. It was an astonishing stoop for him to assume our nature at all; it was a greater for him to take it in its lowest form; it was still more amazing for him to suffer in our nature; then for him to die, even the ignominious death of the cross! And, as the climax of all, for him to become a tenant of the tomb, and be confined in its gloomy dwellings. Then the words of the 22nd Psalm, the commencement of which he quoted when forsaken by his Father, were literally verified: “My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and you have brought me into the dust of death!” Lower than this he could not go.
But he who died for our sins and was buried — rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures. The grave was exchanged for a throne, on which he is now seated as Lord of all. If we go, therefore, in the exercise of devout meditation, to see the sepulcher, it must not be to weep there; on the contrary, we have to shout with sacred transport —
He is not here — but he is risen!
Gone beyond the world’s control;
Upward from the body’s prison,
To the regions of the soul.
Time nor chance can longer bind,
Jesus, monarch of mankind!”
And he will again appear on the clouds of Heaven, with power and great glory, according to the Scriptures. It will be to gather his saints together, and take his ransomed home. But while he will then acknowledge them as his own before assembled worlds, he will recompense tribulation to those who know not God, and who have despised the gracious overtures of the gospel. Reader! are you likely to meet him with joy, and not with grief?