Dear Christian friends:

Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Father into Thy hands I give My spirit. When he had said this, he breathed his last." (Luke 23:46) So, Jesus died. Our text tells how two men freed Jesus' body from the cross and with love their hands carried Him to a new tomb. Did your hands help carry Him to the tomb?


Who was there? Joseph, his home was in Arimathea. He was a rich man and a member of the Sanhedrin. He was a secret follower of Jesus and didn't agree with the Jewish Church Board that Jesus must die. Nicodemus was also there. He was a member of the Jewish Church Board, (Sanhedrin). A few years before he visited Jesus at night, because he didn't want the others to know. Also like Joseph, he was a secret follower of Jesus.

Strange! They have more faith and courage now then the twelve disciples. None of the disciples came to bury Jesus!

So, today, Jesus has many more followers than we think. Some women were there watching how Jesus was buried. These women, too, seem to have more courage than the twelve disciples.

Were you there? Our hands helped to carry His body to the tomb! How? It was our sin, not His that caused His death and burial. "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:5-6)

"We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life." (Romans 6:4) Jesus is our Substitute. What He did, He did for us, not for Himself. What our Sub did for us God considers done by us: He died, we died; He was buried; we were buried.

Were we there? Yes, indeed! It is very important for us to understand and believe that we were there! By His death Jesus has made our death easy, holy and wonderful! We mock death with Paul. "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin; and the power of sin is the law: but thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 15:54-57)

Our sins are buried with Him. So, when you must die, you will not be afraid and without hope as others are. Death is not the end. Yes, it is the end of our troubled life here on earth; but it is not the end. Death now means a new beginning of a new and perfect life with God.

"Everyone dies because all of us are related to Adam, being members of his sinful race, and wherever there is sin, death results. But all who are related to Christ will rise again. Each, however, in his own turn: Christ rose first; then when Christ comes back, all his people will become alive again." (1 Corinthians 15:22-24 The Living Bible)

There is not a difference where you die: in war or peace; on the highway or in bed. No matter where or how you are buried or cremated, funeral or no funeral all will arise with new bodies who believe in Jesus Christ.

Amen.