05.04.2014 New Testament: Luke 23.50–53

To read the Bible in a year, read Luke 23.39–56 on May 4, In the year of our Lord 2014

By Don Ruhl

Jesus breathed His last. Therefore, He needed someone to take His body down from the cross and bury it. Luke wrote,

Now behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man. He had not consented to their decision and deed. He was from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock, where no one had ever lain before (Luke 23.50–53).

Joseph did not consent to the deed of the Jewish Council of killing Jesus, but Joseph did consent to having the body of Jesus buried. Luke, by the Holy Spirit, shows Joseph acting honorably in paying due respect to the body of Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus never said that He did not care what people did with His body, saying that He would not be there anyway, but He knew that people would take His body and do the proper things with it.

Oh, Joseph, you did an honorable thing, nevertheless, placing the body of Jesus in hewn rock would not hold the Son of God!