Of the burial of christ
John Gill
The last degree of Christ's
humiliation, and which it ended in, is his burial, or his being laid in the
grave; where he continued under the dominion of death for a time. This is one
of the articles of the Christian faith, "that he was buried--according to the scriptures", #1Co 15:4. Therefore it will be proper to
observe,
1. First, That Christ was to
be buried, according to scripture prophecies and types of it; and what they
were.
1a. First,
Scripture prophecies; which are the following.
1a1. #Ps
16:10. "For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell", or
body in the
grave. The whole Psalm is concerning Christ, and
this verse
particularly is applied to him, and strongly
argued
to belong to him, and not to David, by two apostles,
Peter and
Paul, #Ac 2:25-31 13:34-37. Indeed, they produce
it in proof
of Christ's resurrection; but it is, at the same
time, a proof
of his burial in the grave, from whence he was
raised. Some
understand it, of his "descent into hell"; as
it
is expressed in some creeds, that of the Apostles, the
Nicene, and
the Athanasian creeds, though foisted into them
in later
times; and which the papists interpret of the local
descent of
the soul of Christ into hell, as it signifies the
place of the
damned, at least into an apartment of it, they
call
"limbus patrum"; whither they say he went, to complete his
sufferings;
to preach the gospel to the Old Testament saints;
to fetch
their souls from thence, and to triumph over Satan.
But it is
certain, that the soul of Christ, upon its
separation
from his body, went not to hell, but to heaven,
being
committed by him into the hands of his Father: nor
needed he to
go thither to complete his sufferings, which
ended on the
cross, when he said, "It is finished": nor to
preach the
gospel, which belongs to the present life, and not
to the state
of the dead; and which had been preached to the
old
testament saints in their lifetime: nor to fetch their
souls from
thence, which were in heaven; as not only Enoch
and Elijah,
both in soul and body; but the souls of Abraham,
Isaac, and
Jacob; and all the rest of the saints: nor to
triumph over the
devil and his angels, that he did when on
the
cross, #Col 2:15. The passages of scripture which all
this is
chiefly grounded upon, and brought for the
confirmation
of, are in #1Pe 3:19,20 4:6 which are
misunderstood,
and wrongly applied; for the words are to be
understood,
not of Christ's going down into the prison of
hell,
after his death, and preaching to the spirits there;
but of his
preaching by his Spirit, to the disobedient ones,
who lived in
the times of Noah; whose spirits, for their
disobedience
to it, were, in the apostle's time, in the
prison of
hell. In like manner the dead, to whom the gospel
is
said to be preached, in #1Pe 3: 4:6 are those that were
then dead
when the apostle wrote, but were alive when the
gospel was
preached unto them. Nor are the words in the
sixteenth
Psalm, and with which the article in the creed is
allowed by
some to agree, to be understood of the
soul
sufferings of Christ; the anguish and distress of his
mind, under a
sense of wrath, and under divine desertion;
which have
been spoken of in the preceding chapter: though
Calvin, and
many that follow him, so interpret the phrases,
both in the
Psalm and in the Creed: but these were what he
endured
in the garden and on the cross, before his death, and
not after it.
By "hell", is meant the grave; and so the word
is used in
many places, #Ge 42:38 1Sa 2:6 Isa 38:18. And by
"soul",
is meant the dead body of Christ; as the word
"nephesh"
sometimes signifies; see #Le 21:1 and then the
sense
is, that God would not leave his dead body in the
grave, at
least not so long as to see corruption, to purify
and corrupt,
as bodies begin to do, usually, on the fourth
day of their
being laid in the grave, #Joh 11:39 but Christ
was to be,
and was raised, on the third day, which prevented
that.
Now this prophecy manifestly implies that Christ's dead
body should
be laid in the grave, though it should not be
left there;
and though it should not lie there so long as to
be corrupted,
or that any worm or maggot should have power
over him, as
the Jews {1} express it.
1a2. Another
passage is in #Ps 22:15. "Thou hast brought me into
the dust of
death"; not only to death, but to dust after
death; to lie
in the dusty grave, according to the
threatening; "To
dust thou shalt return", #Ge 3:19 and to
which
the body does return when laid in the grave; and the
soul to God
that gave it, #Ec 12:7. So Kimchi interprets the
passage;
"I am ready to be put into the grave, which is the
dust of
death. "
1a3.
Some take the words in #Isa 11:10 to be a prophecy of
Christ's
burial; "And his rest shall be glorious"; that the
passage
belongs to the Messiah, is clear from #Isa 11:1,2
and
following; and from the quotation and application of it
to the times
of Christ, #Ro 15:12. And the Vulgate Latin
version
of the words is, "His grave shall be glorious": and
the grave, as
it is a resting place to the saints, so it was
to Christ;
where his "flesh rested in hope" of the
resurrection from
the dead, #Ps 16:9. And though his being
buried was an
instance of his humiliation, and a proof of
the
low estate into which he was brought; yet it was, in
some sense,
glorious, inasmuch as he was honourably interred
in the grave
of a rich man; as the next prophecy suggests.
1a4. In the
passage in #Isa 53:9 "and he made his grave with the
wicked,
and with the rich in his death"; in which words
there is some
difficulty: could they be transposed thus, "he
made his
grave with the rich, and he was with the wicked in
his
death", facts would exactly answer to it; for he died
between two
thieves, and so was with the wicked in his
death;
and he was buried in the sepulchre of Joseph of
Arimathea, a
rich man, and so had his grave with the rich;
but it might
be using too much freedom with the text to
transpose it
at pleasure. The general sense of the words may
be this, that
after his death both rich men and wicked men
were
concerned in his burial, and were about his grave;
Joseph and
Nicodemus, two rich men, in taking down from the
cross his
body, and laying it in the tomb, enwrapped by them
in linen with
spices; and wicked soldiers were employed in
guarding the
sepulchre: or the first clause may respect the
intention
of the Jews, "he" or "it", the Jewish people and
nation,
"gave", appointed and intended that his grave should
be with
"the wicked", that he should be interred in the
common
burying place for malefactors; and the latter clause
may respect
the will of God, but "he made it", that is, God
in
his providence ordered it, that it should be "with the
rich in his
death"; that he should be buried in a rich man's
grave when
dead. Aben Ezra says the word twmb translated
"in his
death", signifies a structure over a grave, a
sepulchral monument;
and so the sense may be, that though
his
grave was put under the care and watch of the wicked
soldiers, yet
he had a famous monument erected at the charge
of a rich
man, where he was laid {2}.
1b. Secondly, There was a
scripture type of his burial, and which our Lord himself takes
notice of; "for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's
belly, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of
the earth", #Mt 12:40 that is, as Jonah was as it were buried so long in
the belly of the whale, so Christ should lie a like time under the earth,
called "the heart of it", as elsewhere "the lower parts" of
it, into which Christ "descended", that is, the grave, #Eph 4:9.
2. Secondly, As Christ should
be buried according to prophecy and type, so in fact he was buried, as all the
evangelists relate, #Mt 27:59,60 Mr 15:46,47 Lu 23:53,55 Joh 19:39-42 though
with different circumstances, yet not contradictory; what is omitted
by one is supplied by another; and from the whole we learn,
2a. That the body being begged
of Pilate by Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, it was taken down from the cross,
and was wrapped or wound about in fine clean linen, as was the manner of the
Jews; see #Joh 11:44 when he was bound hand and foot like a prisoner;
and which may denote the dominion death had over him; for when the apostle
says, "death hath no more dominion over him", #Ro 6:9 it supposes
that it once had; as it had when he was bound with grave clothes and was laid
in the grave, until he was loosed from the pains or cords of death, and
declared to be the Son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead: the
fine clean linen, in which he was wrapped, may be an emblem
of his innocence, purity, and holiness; who notwithstanding all appearances and
charges, was holy, harmless, and as a lamb without spot and blemish; and
likewise of his pure and spotless righteousness, now wrought out, and brought
in by his active and passive obedience completely finished, called fine linen,
clean and white, which is the righteousness of the saints, #Re
19:8 and in which his dead members, his people, who are in themselves dead in
law, and dead in sin, being enwrapped, or having his righteousness imputed to
them, it is unto justification to life.
2b. Nicodemus, another rich
man, brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred
pound weight; which spices, along with the linen clothes, were wound about the
body of Christ; which may denote the savouriness and acceptableness of the
righteousness of Christ to God, and to sensible sinners; all whose garments
smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia, as those his sepulchral garments did, #Ps
45:8 so the smell of the church's garments, which she has from Christ, is like
the smell of Lebanon, or like the smell of a field which
the Lord has blessed; as the smell of Jacob in his brother's garments was to
Isaac, #So 4:11 Ge 27:27 also the savouriness of Christ's death and sacrifice,
how agreeable to God, being satisfactory to his justice, and so of a sweet
smelling savour to him, #Eph 5:2 and the savour of a crucified Christ diffused
through the preaching of the gospel, which is like a box of ointment
poured forth, and emits such a sweet savour as attracts the love and affections
of souls unto him; and whereby the ministers of it become a sweet savour to God
and men, #2Co 2:14,15 So 1:3.
2c. The body being thus
enwrapped was laid in Joseph's own tomb, a new one, in which
no man had been laid; and this was cut out of a rock. As Jacob, the patriarch
and type of Christ, was honourably buried by his son Joseph, so Christ, the
antitype of him, and who is sometimes called Israel, was honourably buried by
another Joseph, and he a "rich" man, which fulfilled the prophecy in
#Isa 53:9. Christ was laid, not in his own, but in "another's" tomb;
which, as it is expressive of his meanness and low estate,
who in his lifetime had not where to lay down his head to sleep in, and at his
death had no tomb of his own to lay his dead body in; so it denotes, that what
he did and suffered, and was done to him, were not for himself but for others;
he died not for his own sins, but for the sins of others; and he was buried,
not so much for his own sake, but for others, that they and their sins might be buried with him; and so he rose again for their
justification: it was a "new" tomb in which Christ was laid, who
whereever he comes makes all things new; he made the grave for his people quite
a new and another thing to what it was; as, when he is formed, and lies, and
dwells in the hearts of men, old things pass away, and all become new: and in
this tomb "was never man yet laid"; and which, as the former circumstance, was so ordered in providence that it might not
be said that not he but another man rose from the dead; or that he rose not by
his own power, but by the touch of another body, as a man once rose by the
touch of the body of Elisha, #2Ki 13:20 moreover this tomb was "hewn out
in the rock", as was sometimes the manner of rich men to do, to prepare
such sepulchres while living for the greater security of
their bodies when dead, #Isa 22:16 and this prevented any such objection to be
made to the resurrection of Christ, that the apostles through some
subterraneous passages got to the body of Christ and took it away; and to all
this may be added, that at the door of this new tomb hewn out of a rock a great
stone was rolled, and this stone sealed by the Jews themselves; so that no
pretence could be made for a fraud or imposture in this
affair.
2d. The tomb in which Christ's
body was laid was "in a garden"; nor was it unusual for great
personages to have their sepulchres in a garden, and there to be buried.
Manasseh and Amon his son, kings of Judah, were buried in a garden, #2Ki 21:18,26. Christ's sufferings began in a garden, and the last
act of his humiliation was in one; this may put us in mind of the garden of
Eden, into which the first Adam was put, and out of which he was cast for his
sin; and may lead us to observe, that as sin was first committed in a garden,
whereby Adam and his posterity came short of the glory of God, so sin was
finished in a garden; there it was buried, there the last
act Christ's humiliation for it was performed; and hereby way was made for our
entrance into the garden of God, the heavenly paradise above. A garden is a place
where fruit trees grow, and fruit is in plenty; and may direct us to think of
the fruits of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection; who compares himself to
a grain of wheat, which unless it falls into the ground and die, it abides
alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit, #Joh
12:24 such as redemption, reconciliation, pardon of sin, &c. as also that
as Christ's remove from the cross was to a garden, so the remove of saints at
death will be from the cross of afflictions and tribulations, to the garden of
Eden, the paradise of God, where there are pleasures for evermore.
2e. The
persons concerned in the burial of Christ, and attended his grave, were many
and of various kinds, and on different accounts: the persons principally
concerned in the interment of him were Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, both
rich men; and though before they did not openly profess Christ, yet now being
wonderfully animated, influenced, and strengthened by the power and grace of
God, boldly appear in his cause, and are not ashamed to own
him, and act on his behalf, though crucified and slain, and lay under so much
ignominy and contempt. And this was so ordered by the wise providence of God,
that it might appear, that though Christ was loaded with the reproaches of the
multitude of the people of all sorts, yet he had some friends among the rich
and honourable, who had courage enough to espouse his
cause; and such faith in him, and love to him, as publicly to do the kind
offices they did to him, in his greatest debasement and lowest state of
humiliation. There were some women also who attended his cross, and followed
him to his grave; and continued sitting over against the sepulchre, saw where
he was and how his body was laid there; and who went and prepared spices to anoint
it, and with which they came early on the first day of the
week; but were prevented doing it by his resurrection from the dead; here the
power and grace of God were seen in spiriting and strengthening the weaker
vessels to act for Christ, and show their respect to him, when all his
disciples forsook him and fled; and this conduct of the women was a rebuke of
theirs. Besides these, there were the Roman soldiers, who were placed as a guard about the sepulchre; and which, not only gave proof of
the truth of his death, and of the reality of his burial; but also of his
resurrection; though they were tampered with to be an evidence against it.
The continuance of Christ in
the grave, was three days and three nights; that is, three
natural days, or parts of them; which answered the type of Christ's burial,
Jonah; who lay so long in the belly of the whale, #Mt 12:40. Christ was buried
on the sixth day, and so lay in the grave part of that natural day, and the
whole seventh day, another natural day, and rose again on the first day, and so
must lie a part of that day in it; and in like manner, and no longer, it may
reasonably be supposed, Jonah lay in the whale's belly.
3. Thirdly, The ends, uses,
and effects of Christ's burial, require some notice.
3a. To fulfil the prophecies
and type before mentioned; for as this was predicted of him,
it was necessary it should be fulfilled in him.
3b. To show the truth and
reality of his death; for though there were other proofs and evidences of it; yet
this must be a very convincing one, since he was taken down from the cross, and
buried, not by his enemies, but by his friends, who would never bury him alive; nor, indeed, did Pilate, nor would he deliver
the body to them until he was certified by the centurion that he was really
dead; and if any doubt could remain after that, it must be removed by the
burial of him.
3c. That it might appear, that
by his death and sacrifice, he had made full satisfaction
for sin, and a complete atonement for it; that as by his hanging on the tree,
it was manifest that he bore the curse, and was made a curse for his people; so
by his body being taken down from the cross, and laid in the grave, it was a
token that the curse was at an end, and entirely abolished, agreeable to the
law in #De 21:23.
3d. To sanctify the grave, and
make that easy and familiar to saints, and take off the dread and reproach of
it: Christ pursued death, the last enemy, to his last quarters and strong hold,
the grave; drove him out from thence, and snatched the victory out of the hand
of the grave; so that believers may, with pleasure, go and see the place where their "Lord lay"; which is now sanctified, and
become a sleeping and resting place for them until the resurrection morn; and
may say and sing, in the view of death and the grave; "O death, where is
thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" For,
3e. In
Christ's burial, all the sins of his people are buried with him; as the
"old man was crucified with him; that the body of sin might be destroyed",
#Ro 6:6. So being dead, that, and its deeds, are buried with him; these may be
signified by the grave clothes with which he was bound, and from which being
loosed, he left them in the grave; signifying that the sins of his people, with
which he was held, but now freed from, having atoned for
them, would never rise up against them; being left in his grave, and cast into
the depths of the sea, and, by the Lord, behind his back, so as never to be
seen and remembered more; and which is emblematically represented in the
ordinance of baptism, designed to exhibit to view the death, burial, and
resurrection of Christ, and of believers in him, #Ro 6:4-6 Col 2:12.
3f. This is an instance of the
great humiliation of Christ; not only to be brought to death, but to the dust
of death. The man, when laid in the grave, is a "vile" body, mean,
abject, and contemptible; it is sown in dishonour and weakness; and so was the
body of Christ; he descended into, and lay in the lower parts of the earth,
where death and the grave had dominion, and triumphed over
him for a while; and so did the enemies of Christ, as the enemies of the two
witnesses will, over their dead bodies, saying, as in prophetic language,
"And now that he lieth", that is, in the grave, "he shall rise up
no more", #Ps 41:8. But they were mistaken; though he died once, he will
die no more; death shall have no more dominion over him; though while he was in the grave it had dominion over him; but now he
is loosed from the cords and pains of death, and lives for evermore, having the
keys of hell and death; and he is quickened and justified in the Spirit; and is
risen again for the justification of his people: which is the next thing to be
considered.
{1}
Midrash apud Kimchium, in v. 9.
{2} See my Book of the
Prophecies of the Old Testament fulfilled in Jesus, p. 166.