THE WORDS OF THE BIBLE, THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES, AS FOUND IN THE PROPHECY OF ISAIAH CHAPTER 53, VERSE 9:
53:9 And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.
And He made His grave with the wicked- verses 7 and 8 of Isaiah 53 foretold the way men would treat the Lord Jesus. They oppressed and afflicted Him, sought to destroy His character, and at last took Him and slaughtered Him on a cross. In all this it seemed as if they were in control, and that He was the helpless victim of circumstances, but this verse tells us it was not so. The apostle Peter emphasised this on the day of Pentecost when he declared that the nation of Israel had by means of the wicked hands of the Gentiles crucified Him, and allowed that crucifixion process to continue until He was slain, Acts 2:23; they callously allowed Him to suffer, and only planned to curtail His sufferings because the feast day was near. There was another dimension to this, however, as Peter points out at the same time. The fact is that He was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Men were only allowed to do what they did because it was part of God’s plan. Indeed, the basis of God’s plan.
Now Isaiah 53:10 tells us that the pleasure of the Lord prospers in the hand of the Lord Jesus. As God’s Firstborn Son, as well as His Only begotten Son, He was charged with the task of administering God’s affairs. Not in any dispassionate way, but personally, and a major part of those affairs involved Him in suffering of different sorts. He suffered in life, as earlier verses of the chapter have told us; He suffered in the three hours of darkness, as verse 5 has told us; He suffered injustice and cruelty at the hands of men, as verses 7 and 8 clearly show. But He not only suffered in these ways, as He carried out the will of His Father, He was in control as He did so. So, for instance, we find verses 7-9 alternate between passive and active. He was oppressed…He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. Passive in oppression and affliction, but active in not opening His mouth. He is brought…He is dumb. Men bring Him, and He passively allows this, but He actively remained as dumb. So also in verse 8. He is taken…He was cut off…stricken. But then the active, He made. Each time the active is the answer to the passive. So when He made His grave with the wicked, He was responding to something that He had passively allowed, but during which He was totally in control.
The question is, of course, in what way was He in control so that He made His grave with the wicked? And if He was in control in this matter, why did it not happen? And how can He make His grave with the wicked and with the rich at the same time? So tightly interwoven is this prophecy that it can be fulfilled in the experience of only one man.
We need to notice that the word wicked is in the plural, and the word rich is in the singular. So there are wicked men, and there is a rich man. The word for wicked used here is an actively bad person. We know that all have sinned, but not all set out to be actively bad. We are told in verse 12 that the Lord Jesus was “numbered with the transgressors”, and the word transgressors means persons who have broken away in revolt against just authority. The words are quoted by Mark when he describes the Lord Jesus being crucified between two thieves. So we begin to see a picture building up of Christ in some way making His grave with wicked men by being crucified. He submitted Himself to arrest, trial and execution, knowing that normally the end result of that process was to be flung unceremoniously, (and in company with the others crucified with Him), into a pit dug at the foot of the cross. But even though it is true that He submitted Himself to the process of arrest and all that followed, nonetheless He was in complete control of the situation. He did not call for the legions of angels that were at His disposal, Matthew 26:53. He did not allow His followers to try to prevent His arrest, and rebuked Peter for attempting it, and remedied the damage he had done with his sword. He could have any moment passed through the midst of them and gone His way, as He had done several times during His ministry when the crowds were hostile. He did none of these things. And by thus not resisting He ensured that His grave would be with the others crucified with Him, even though this was a distasteful prospect, and normally to be avoided at all costs.
It is interesting to notice that the words “He was numbered with the transgressors” are quoted twice in the gospel records. Once by Mark as he records the crucifixion, as we have noted, but prior to that by the Lord Jesus as He is about to leave the Upper Room and make His way to Gethsemane, Luke 22:37. So these words bracket together the whole series of events from the arrest in Gethsemane, to the crucifixion at Golgotha.
There is a big problem, however, with this situation, and it is this. It is vitally important that the Lord Jesus be put in an easily identified and publicly-known grave, and, moreover, is put there on His own. If He is buried at the foot of the cross with the two thieves, who is to know whether He has risen from the dead? In theory those near of kin to the thieves could even come to the place, remove the body of their relative, and claim he had risen from the dead! And even if this is unlikely to be attempted, the followers of the Lord could be accused of doing the same, and pretending that He had risen.
There is also the consideration that the psalmist prophesied by the Spirit that God would not suffer His Holy One, meaning the Messiah, to see corruption, Psalm 16:10. There would certainly be corruption in a grave at the foot of the cross, with the remains of many criminals mingling together there. Now of course whilst the whole of creation is in the bondage of corruption, nonetheless only humans are morally corrupt. So the requirement is that the Lord Jesus must be buried in a marked grave, which has had no-one else in it before, and has no-one else in it whilst He is there. Only in this way can it be sure that the One who was put into it is the One who came out.
How is this situation going to come about? It will be necessary for this grave to be more than a marked grave in the ground. It will need to be secure and unused. This involves expense, and the Lord Jesus had not the material resources to arrange for this to happen. Yet our passage says “He made His grave…with the rich in His death.” It is certainly not that He had influential friends who could rise to the occasion in this matter. His followers were poor, as He was. And yet in a real sense He does arrange this matter, for our passage says “He made His grave…with the rich”.
In the event, the rich individual pinpointed in this passage was Joseph of Arimathea. He was not a prominent member of the disciples that followed the Lord. In fact, he was only a disciple secretly, because he feared the Jews, and what they would think of him. For he was a counsellor, meaning that he was a member of the Sanhedrim, and as such was one of those spoken of in John 12:42,43, which reads, “Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God”. Luke records that “the same had not consented to the counsel and the deed of them”, Luke 23:51. The “them” referring to his fellow-members of the Sanhedrim.
He was assisted by a Pharisee, Nicodemus, who also was a secret disciple, and who is designated by John as “he that came to Jesus by night”, reminding us of his conversation with the Lord Jesus in John 3. He presumably was a member of the Sanhedrim since he is described as a ruler of the Jews, John 3:1. He seems to have had great influence amongst them as we see from John 7:45-53. The chief priests and Pharisees had sent officers to arrest the Lord Jesus, no doubt on the pretence that He had interrupted the temple services by crying out, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink”, verse 37. The officers returned without Him, and when the Pharisees protested at this, Nicodemus said, “Doth our law judge any man, before it hear Him, and know what he doeth? Thus he showed himself to be prepared to defend the interests of Christ in a small way, and to appeal for justice to be done. Things have changed, now, however, for he has to make a decision. He cannot be neutral about Christ any longer, and something makes him side with Christ publicly, like Joseph of Arimathea.
We might well ask ourselves what it is that convinced them of the genuineness of Christ’s claims. Remember, our answer must be in line with what the prophet said, which was, “He made His grave…with the rich in His death. We notice that the words “in His death” are only applicable to His grave with the rich. The prophet did not say “He made His grave with the wicked in His death”. So to all intents and purposes He was destined for a grave with the wicked; but in the event, and by His own ordering, His grave was actually with the rich in His death.
We are told several things about the character of Joseph. First, that he was a good man, the direct opposite of the wicked men between whom the Lord Jesus was crucified. Second, that he was just man, meaning he was diligent in trying to keep the law, in direct contrast to the transgressors, who rebelled against all law. Third, he waited for the kingdom of God, showing that he had a longing for the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. Fourth, he was a rich man, so is a candidate for the role marked out in Isaiah 53. Fifth, he was an honourable counsellor, which implies that, (as indeed was the case), there were members of the Sanhedrim who were not honourable. Sixth, he was prepared to make sacrifices, for he gave up his own tomb in favour of the carpenter from Nazareth. And seventh, he came from secret discipleship to open and bold discipleship at last.
It is the first three qualities that we need to focus on. Now a reading of the gospel records will show that the whole council, meaning the Sanhedrin, of which Joseph was a member, were present at the first trial before Caiaphas. Matthew 26:59 reads, “Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put Him to death”. Here is the first test for Joseph. He is a just man, and he must ask himself whether justice is being done here. He is a good man, and must ask himself if the prisoner is being treated respectfully.
The following rules governed the arrest of prisoners, and Joseph must know that already those rules have been broken:
1. The arrest should have been done voluntarily by those who were witnesses to the crime. It was illegal for the temple guard acting for the High Priest to make the arrest.
2. The arrest should not have been at night, and constituted an act of violence. This is why the disciples were preparing to prevent it. Malchus was probably one of those foremost in the arrest. If Peter had been preventing a legal arrest, he should have been arrested. The fact he was not, showed the authorities knew they were in the wrong.
3. The prisoner was bound, which was unnecessary violence, since he was surrounded by only a few men, and the arrest party consisted of many.
4. The prisoner was taken to Annas first, but he was not the proper magistrate.
5. He was interrogated at night, which was prohibited by law.
6. He was detained in a private house.
7. He was struck gratuitously before any charges had been brought, John 18:22.
And now the first trial before Caiaphas is taking place, and Joseph has further questions to answer, for he is a member of the body that is conducting this trial. Consider the following:
1. The trial was conducted at night, which was illegal. All proceedings of law were prohibited at night.
2. No trial was allowed on a feast day, under penalty of being null and void.
3. He was ill-treated in a private house, (Matthew 26:67,68), with Caiaphas not preventing it, and before a proper hearing had taken place. This was against Jewish law.
4. The trial was conducted by Caiaphas, who was prejudiced, because he had already said that it was expedient for one man (meaning Christ), to die for the nation, John 11:49-52.
5. Caiaphas acted as judge and accuser.
6. He allowed the prisoner to be ill-treated, even though no sentence had been passed, Luke 22:63-65.
And then, the morning comes, and Mark tells us “the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council”. So Joseph must be present at this meeting also. Now further rules are broken, as follows:
1. Witnesses should come forward voluntarily, but these were “sought”, after the attempt to find honest witnesses against Christ was unsuccessful, Matthew 26:59,60.
2. Witnesses who did not speak the truth were to be stoned to death.
3. If witnesses did not agree, the case was to be dismissed immediately. (This was to ensure no frivolous accusations were made). This did not happen.
4. To put a prisoner on oath, and therefore, in effect, to force him to incriminate himself, was illegal.
5. The confession of an individual against himself should not decide a condemnation.
6. If accused wished to speak, he was to be given the most profound attention.
Now at some time during these proceedings Joseph made a stand. We read that he “had not consented to the counsel and deed of them”, Luke 23:51, the “them” meaning the other members of the Sanhedrim. Their deliberations, and what they had done, both by sins of omission and by commission, he disagreed with strongly. But there was more than the breaking of rules involved here. The prisoner is special, and is making dramatic claims. There was something about the way those claims were made that convinced Joseph. What that was is told us in the next phrases in Isaiah 53:9. “He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death, because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth”. The reason why Joseph came forward to offer his tomb, is because there was no violence with Christ, and because he came to believe that when He testified as to His person, there was no deceit in His mouth.
Peter tells us that “when He was reviled, He reviled not again; when He suffered He threatened not”, 1 Peter 2:23. There was something about the way Christ presented Himself, His poise, His calm, His answers, and His restraint under the most intense provocation that so impressed Joseph, that he was resolved to distance himself from the decision of the Sanhedrim. It is too late to resign membership, but he can “bring forth works unto repentance” by honouring Christ in His death, in contrast to the dishonour done to Him in His life.
The testimony of the Lord Jesus revolved around His claim to be the Son of God, and the Messiah, and the Son of Man. Joseph comes to believe that His claims were true, and resolves to act accordingly. His mind is made up, he must absolve himself from complicity in the crime of murdering the Son of God, by repentance and faith in Him, as Peter exhorted the rest of the nation to do at Pentecost, six weeks later.
Now this is very powerful testimony from within the council-chamber itself, and from one who was present as a member of that council. It is also a powerful rebuke for those who remained steadfast in their hostility towards Christ after His resurrection.
So it is that after the Lord Jesus had died Joseph steps boldly forward. Each of the steps in the burial of the Lord Jesus are carefully documented, and there is no room for doubt to any fair-minded person that He who was put, dead, in Joseph’s tomb, was He who rose the third day.
Consider these steps:
1. The Jewish authorities demanded that the victims be taken down before the Sabbath began at 6 o’clock in the evening. Neither Jew nor Gentile authority had any interest in taking down anything other than dead bodies. The Gentiles because their government and power was involved, and the Jews because they wanted above all else to see Christ dead. So it is that the soldiers hasten the death of two thieves, but find Christ is dead already. He must be sure however, so what stops him breaking Christ’s legs? The answer is given to us by the apostle John, who was there as a witness. It is because the Scripture had said that as the true Passover lamb His bones must not be broken. But still the soldier must be satisfied, and so must the centurion, for he is soon going to be asked by Pilate if the Lord Jesus is dead. So it is that the side of Christ is pierced, and the evidence that death has recently taken place is seen in the issuing forth of blood and water, no doubt meaning the watery fluid that surrounds the heart. So it is that there is a unique body in Jerusalem, a crucifixion victim without broken legs, and with a pierced side. The other two victims have broken legs and un-pierced sides.
2. Joseph now goes to Pilate, and begs the body of Jesus. We now have the remarkable sight of a rich man begging, and his request is granted. As a rich man, Joseph had longed to be able to gain many things; now his only desire is to be associated with a dead body, for he is a changed man, and the things of earth that money can buy have now lost their attraction.
3. Pilate is surprised that the victim is dead. It is more than his position is worth for him to allow a body to be taken down from the cross when it is not dead. The victim may recover, and thus escape justice. Pilate may even have faced the death penalty himself if this should happen.
4. He therefore summons the centurion to him, and verifies it from him as the man in charge of the crucifixion, who, as a professional executioner, will certainly know whether a person is dead or not. He does not simply ask the centurion to send a message, but has a face to face conversation with him. There is no possibility of a note being forged and passed off as a message from the centurion, or later, a note passed off as a message from Pilate. This also ensures that the centurion knows who Joseph is, for both are now before Pilate at the same time.
5. Pilate is now in a position to grant the body to Joseph, but why should he do so? It was customary to allow close relatives of the deceased victims to take the body if they wished, but Joseph is not one of these. So why does Pilate allow it? Of course, one reason is that the Scripture says that Christ will be with the rich in his death; but Pilate has no interest in furthering the fulfilment of Scripture. Is it because he has a guilty conscience? His last conversation with Christ had been on the fact that He was Son of God. Superstitious Pilate was no doubt fearful lest he had killed a “son of the gods”, and would receive Divine vengeance. Perhaps this is his feeble attempt to repair the damage his clumsy and cowardly dealing during the trial had resulted in. In any event, he grants the body to Joseph, in effect signing Christ’s death certificate, and thus proclaiming with all the authority of the world-empire of Rome that Jesus of Nazareth was really dead. Those who suggest otherwise, (Moslems, for instance,) must produce their valid reasons for contradicting this. This they have not done.
6. Not only does Pilate give Joseph leave to have the body, but he also commands the centurion to put this into effect. So the jurisdiction of Rome still controls the body until the moment Joseph takes it down from the cross. Every stage of the proceedings depends on the one before.
7. So it is that well-known man, with the authority of the centurion and through him of Pilate, takes a body certified as dead down from the cross. This is possibly the only legal act that has been done in Jerusalem that day. He does this in full view of everyone, for the place of execution was near a highway, xxx. He does it in full view of the Roman authorities, and also, no doubt, of the Jewish authorities also, who are anxious to ensure that the bodies are taken down before 6 o’clock that evening, when the Sabbath day will start. They also are commanded to not allow hanged bodies to remain after nightfall, but to ensure they are buried the day they died, Deuteronomy 21:22,23.
So it is also that He is not taken down by one of His long-time followers, who could be said to have an interest in trying to get Scripture fulfilled. A new convert, who has not spoken to Christ at all as far as the record goes, is now the centre of the action.
8. The body is buried in the Jewish manner, which means that strips of linen cloth are wound round the body, with fragrant spices between the layers. Even if the Lord Jesus were still alive, it would be impossible for Him to extricate Himself from these grave clothes.
9. All this is done outside the sepulchre, for it is not until the process is finished that the body is placed within, as both Matthew 27:59,60, and Mark 15:46, 47 show. John seems to go further, for he alone tells us the position of the tomb in relation to the place of crucifixion, but mentions the wrapping in linen before saying where the tomb was, thus suggesting that the wrapping was done near the cross, and then the body was taken to the tomb. In any event, all is under the watchful eye of unbelieving men. There is no possibility of bodies being switched in transit, with a disciple substituted for Christ, and disappearing from the tomb, with Christ’s dead body buried in a secret location. All is open and transparent.
10. Joseph is of Arimathea, a city of the Jews, as Luke carefully tells us. (Arimathea was in Samaria in Old Testament times, but with boundary changes it was classed in New Testament times as a city in Judea). Luke is a world-class historian, and wants us to have the facts in our minds. He draws attention to this relatively obscure matter so that we realise he is competent. We can trust Luke even in apparently inconsequential matters like boundary changes, so we can trust him also in the vital matters also. Yet Joseph’s tomb is not in Arimathea, but Jerusalem. This shows his strength of commitment to the things of God, for he wishes to be buried near the centre of Messiah’s kingdom, for which he waited, and yet it is ordered of God so that his tomb is near the place of crucifixion for the burying of Christ.
11. It is not only important that the body of the Lord Jesus should be immediately identifiable, (which was ensured by the fact that He is the only one of the three persons crucified that day who had unbroken legs and a pierced side), but He must be placed in a readily identifiable tomb. A tomb, moreover, which has no dead bodies in it before Christ’s dead body is placed there, and no dead body in it until He has come forth. Moses’ burying place is unknown, no doubt lest it be turned into a shrine. The tomb of Christ must be known, and yet it was not turned into a shrine. As we read the Acts of the Apostles we look in vain for any reference to the sepulchre, apart from when the resurrection of Christ is preached.
12. So it is that, assisted by Nicodemus, Joseph carries the body and lays it in the sepulchre, and then rolls the stone to the entrance. This was no doubt a stone like a millstone, in a stone channel which sloped towards the entrance, so it was comparatively easy to roll it down, but more difficult to roll it up and away.
13. Joseph departs, Matthew 27:60, his task completed. But the authorities are not satisfied. The chief priests and Pharisees go to Pilate to make a request. They do so on the Sabbath day, so the urgency of the matter makes them endanger the sanctity of the day. They had refused to go in to Pilate because it was the Passover, John 18:28, but they are willing to go to a Gentile’s residence on a day of unleavened bread, even though it may contain leaven. They have a conscience about Christ even when He is dead. They even command Pilate to act, and he, also with a guilty conscience, agrees to do as they say, even though at other times he would loathe them. Pilate’s words are “Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can”. So they had already organised a watch of the tomb, but now have permission to tamper with a private sepulchre.
14. They went with Pilate’s authority, and seal the stone, and set a watch. We may be sure that under no circumstances will they seal the tomb without assuring themselves that the body is still there. They will also be very careful to examine the tomb to make sure that the earthquake that occurred when Christ died, Matthew 27:51,52, and which rent the rocks in the area, has not damaged the rock-hewn tomb of Joseph, thus providing a means of access for disciples without the watch knowing. (Notice that Matthew is not afraid to tell us about the rending of rocks and the earthquake, which caused graves to be opened. He is confident that the truth about Christ’s burial and resurrection will not be compromised by those facts). Having satisfied themselves on these matters, they fasten the stone to the rock-face and place a seal in such a way that any movement of the stone will break the seal.
15. Despite all these precautions, sometime between 6 o’clock on the Sabbath evening, and 4 o’clock on the first day of the week, (the hour at which it begins to get light in Palestine in April), Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God and Israel’s Messiah, rose triumphantly from among the dead, to die no more. Death could not hold Him any longer, for He is God’s Holy One.
As He Himself said,
“Fear not; I am the first, and the last:
I am He that liveth, and was dead;
and behold I am alive for evermore, Amen,
and have the keys of hell and of death”.
Revelation 1:17,18.