by Jose Barajas
“We all gathered as a family the day we celebrated the life of our father with friends and people who had known my dad. That day was beautiful as the sun shone and I had spent the morning crying and admittedly even had a few shots with my brother in law. I was chosen to be one who would speak to the crowd that gathered and really didn’t know what I was going to say.
I remember talking about each of my siblings and making people laugh because that’s what my dad would have wanted but I know I was in a daze! When we took his body to the spot where it would lay, all of my family stood there, and God only knows what they were thinking. However, because of what Jesus did on the cross, I know in my heart that I will see my dad again.
Saturday of Passover week began with Joseph of Arimathea asking for the body of Jesus as he had donated a never used tomb to lay His body. Nicodemus who had visited Jesus brought perfumed ointment made of myrrh and aloes as Jewish tradition for burial. These Two men, who were part of the religious leaders who had conspired to put Jesus to die, now believed that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah. I now did not care what others thought anymore, only what God thought.
After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but
secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take
away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission. So he came
and took the body of Jesus. And Nicodemus, who at first came to
Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes,
about a hundred pounds. Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound
it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews
is to bury. Now in the place where He was crucified there was a
garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been
laid. So there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews’ Preparation
Day, for the tomb was nearby.
John 19:38-42
The religious leaders went to Pilate to have Roman guards stand before the tomb to guard it from anyone who would come to take Jesus body. In death, these men were still afraid that His missing body would be used to continue a “lie” of who Jesus claimed to be.
On the next day, which followed the Day of Preparation, the
chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate, saying,
“Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver
said, ‘After three days I will rise. “Therefore command that the
tomb be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by
night and steal Him away, and say to the people, ‘He has risen from
the dead.’ So the last deception will be worse than the first.”
Matthew 27:62-64
The world is quick to believe that Jesus didn’t live, and if He did many are making Him out to be a “god” who didn’t rise! Like my dad in his coffin and his body decaying like all bodies do, many have believed and still believe that Jesus body was stolen or decayed and hidden so there wasn’t proof of Him rising. So my question is who do you say Jesus is and His burial, was it just another funeral?
Jesus lay in a tomb and His disciples had scattered and were scared. One had hung himself from guilt instead of seeking repentance from Jesus, he gave up! I can imagine those few days after HE died gave everyone a different feeling as my family experienced at the graveside of my dad. The questions, my dad was strong, how did he give up, what now, the unresolved issues. The disciples had lost hope after Jesus died of not knowing what to do, and most importantly was He truly the Messiah?
Death causes many reactions and affects each person differently, but we can’t put Jesus death in the same scope and plane of man! Don’t let this world make your belief waver. Know that Jesus; though was dead for a time, would answer all their questions and restore hope back to a hopeless world in just a few hours. We are weak apart from Jesus, we are scared and afraid, and that’s okay, because that’s the whole reason Jesus came to die. Paul put it best in his epistle to the Romans;
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for
the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps
for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His
own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:6-8
Don’t forget the cross and the tomb, and remember that the best is yet to come. I have peace in my heart, because not only have I seen Jesus in my life, but I know that I will one day see Him face to face. On that day I will stand by my father and rejoice in our King.
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth;
And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God,
Whom I shall see for myself,
And my eyes shall behold, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!
Job 19:25-27
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