Now when even was come there came a rich man of Arimathaea, his name Joseph, who also himself was a disciple to Jesus.
It is evening on the day of the crucifixion, and a new man steps into the story: a rich man from Arimathea who had followed Jesus in secret. Matthew notes both his money and his discipleship, and each one matters — one cost him courage, the other answers an old prophecy.
Each Gospel adds a different detail about Joseph. Together they give the full picture.
Each of the Gospels mentions him, and each one gives some special detail about him. Matthew tells us that he was rich and a disciple. Mark calls him an honoured member of the council, a man who was waiting for the kingdom of God. Luke says he was a good and just man. Luke adds that he had not agreed to the decision or the act of the great majority of the Sanhedrin in putting Jesus to death. John admits that he was a disciple, but a secret one for fear of the Jews.
Joseph sat on the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council that had condemned Jesus. Matthew's word "disciple" is precise in the original:
The phrase is the same as in Matt. 27:57, where Joseph of Arimathea is said to have been "discipled to Jesus"; that is, of course, made a disciple of Jesus.
We might expect a man of standing to find it easy to speak up. Commentators say the opposite.
God uses a perilous time to call forth His own hidden ones. Joseph of Arimathea can be a secret disciple no longer. He was a rich man (Matthew 27) and an honoured member of the council (Mark 15). But wealth and position only make it harder to confess Christ. Until now, fear of the Jews had held him back. The death of Jesus, which made others afraid, made Joseph bold. He was not alone: Nicodemus... joined him in the last acts of love, with a generous offering of myrrh and aloes.
The timing is striking. Joseph acted when the cause looked lost.
If the Lord had come down from the cross when the priests challenged Him, Joseph might have been bold and said, "I knew all the time who He was." But He hangs dead, looking completely defeated. Peter and the other disciples have left Him and fled. And it is then that this nobleman comes out boldly and asks for His body.
Someone had to bury the body, and the disciples had fled. Help came from an unlikely place — the council itself.
God has always His instruments ready for His work. In this case they came forward of their own accord. There were two of them, and both sat on the Sanhedrin. Neither Annas nor Caiaphas can have had the slightest idea of what was coming. Two men of reputation, one of them wealthy, and both members of the great council of the nation, came forward to bury the body of the Crucified One.
Matthew's mention of wealth points back to Isaiah 53:9. Several writers argue the older English rendering blurs the verse, and that the Hebrew separates two different things — what men intended and what actually happened.
In our usual English version, the grave and the death of our Lord run together in Isaiah 53:9, and we have to separate the two. The literal Hebrew is: "He (one) shall appoint His grave with the wicked, but (He shall be) with a rich man in His death." When Pilate handed the Lord Jesus over to be crucified as a criminal, he was appointing His grave with the wicked... No such place could be for Him. God allows no dishonour to the body of His holy One.
The reason given in the prophecy is the character of the One who died.
There is no doubt what the Jews had planned. They meant to throw the blessed, holy body of the Son of God into the common pit, along with the bodies of the two criminals who died beside Him... It was a terrible hour. Everything seemed over, His own people had lost all hope, and Satan thought he had everything in his hand. But God remembered that "he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth." So the rich man of Arimathea, Joseph, stepped in and secured His body.
The tomb Joseph gave had never held a body. That detail carries its own lesson.
And why a new tomb? Because Christ must ever have the first of everything. He will not take the second ride on an ass (Mark 11:2), the second place in a tomb (Matt. 27:60; John 19:41), or the second place in your heart or mine.
This scene speaks straight to anyone whose faith is still private.
So, in the face of that fanatical hatred, these two disciples honoured our Lord in broad daylight, with no secrecy about it... Is this not a message to secret believers, to timid disciples who keep to the shadows? They should come out boldly into full daylight and confess their Saviour and Lord.
- Hidden — Joseph believed in Jesus but kept it quiet. His wealth and his seat on the council made speaking out harder, not easier.
- Held — God had His servants ready for the hour when the disciples had fled and no one else would act.
- Bold — the death that frightened everyone else brought Joseph out. He asked for the body when there was nothing left to gain.
- Fulfilled — men appointed His grave with the wicked. God gave Him a rich man's tomb, because He had done no violence and there was no deceit in His mouth.
- First — the tomb had never held anyone else; Christ takes the first place, in the grave and in the heart.
*He*, going to Pilate, begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be given up.
Jesus was dead, and His body still hung on a Roman cross. Then a rich ruler of the Jews, who had kept his faith hidden until that hour, broke cover and went to claim it.
Every visible follower had scattered. Into that gap God brought a man nobody expected.
Yet this was the moment when God emboldened a man of high station, whom we might least have expected — and this despite everything around Him. One disciple had betrayed Him. Another, too confident, had denied Him with oaths. All who ought to have been faithful had forsaken Him and fled. Those who had once followed Him devotedly now looked on from a distance, full of sorrow. Joseph of Arimathea had waited for the kingdom of God for some time. He was a good and just man, and a real believer, though he had shrunk from confessing the Lord Jesus openly. But now, when fear might have kept him back more than ever, grace made him bold. If the death of our Lord does not unlock a man's heart and tongue, I do not know what will.
The cross forced a choice on people the world had kept quiet.
The world had held others back — and this often happens. Then the sufferings of the One they really loved stir the depth of their affection. Other people are terrified, because the moment is so painful. But the rejection of Christ emboldens those who loved Him, and they feel the time has come for decision. They become fearless confessors of the Lord. Until then they had stood with those who crucified Him. Now they must either accept that act or declare themselves. Through grace they do the latter.
Only Pilate could grant what Joseph came to ask.
He went right to Pilate. This man had the authority to dispose of the bodies of the crucified. Usually they suffered every dishonour before being thrown into the graves of criminals. So he asked for the body of Jesus, and Pilate consented readily and gave his permission. The death of Christ had made a deep impression on the Roman governor.
Men planned one grave; God had already recorded another. The prophecy below follows an older English translation.
The Jews had certainly planned to put the blessed holy body of the Son of God into the common pit, along with the bodies of the two criminals who died beside Him. God's answer to this insult to His Son was already on record: "His grave was appointed with the wicked, but He was with the rich in His death." … In that terrible hour everything seemed over. His own had all lost hope, and Satan thought he held everything in his hand. But God remembered that "He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth" (Isaiah 53:9). Joseph, the rich man of Arimathea, stepped in and secured His body.
Notice who overturns the sentence Pilate himself had passed.
When Pilate handed the Lord Jesus over to be crucified as a criminal, he was appointing His grave with the wicked. Jesus was crucified between two thieves, so it was natural that His body should receive the same treatment as theirs. But no such place could be for Him. No one may desecrate the body of God's holy One, so Pilate's arrangement is set aside. In fact, he himself reverses it by handing the body over to the rich man, Joseph.
Behind the governor's consent was another hand.
It was God who then moved Pilate to give Joseph permission to take the body. The Romans had appointed His grave to be with the wicked. It is precious that God allowed no unholy hands to touch Him after He had died. They had done their worst: only after that did God step in. We may be sure Joseph handled that body with reverent affection.
This was no quiet favour; it was bound to cause talk.
It was a great and noble act. The timid, secret disciple came out as bold as a lion. Facing a hostile world, he took his stand beside the cross of his crucified Lord. It was unheard of. Who had ever before set any value on the body of a crucified criminal? That a ruler of the Jews should do it must have caused a sensation. The world would scoff. But there stood one man beside that cross, cut off from his fellows and ignoring all consequences. The sight must have thrilled heaven!
- Grace emboldens. The hour that scattered the bold made the timid brave. Joseph's courage came from grace, not from his nature.
- Decision forced. Joseph had stood with the men who crucified Jesus. Now he had to endorse that act or declare himself — and grace moved him.
- Permission granted. Only Pilate could release a crucified body, and the usual end was a criminal's pit. His consent was God moving the governor's hand.
- Prophecy honoured. Men appointed His grave with the wicked; God handed Him over to a rich man. No unholy hands touched Him after He died.
- Confession public. Asking for that body was taking a stand beside the cross — the stand of a disciple who is secret no longer.
And Joseph having got the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
Jesus has just died. A wealthy stranger asks Pilate for the body, wraps it in clean linen, and lays it in a private tomb. The details are small, but commentators find in them God's answer to everything men had just done to His Son.
Joseph acted when hiding would have been safest. One writer notes that his wealth and rank made confession harder, not easier. The death itself made him bold.
God uses a perilous time to call out His own hidden ones. Joseph of Arimathea can be a secret disciple no longer. He was a rich man (Matthew 27) and an honourable counsellor (Mark 15); but wealth and position make the confession of Christ only harder. Fear of the Jews had prevailed until now. The death of Jesus, which made others afraid, made Joseph bold... The cross of Christ, so offensive to unbelief, tests his faith and brings it into the open. He and Nicodemus grow brave by grace, and they make up for the missing service of the twelve.
Until Jesus died, God let men do their worst. Another writer sees the burial as the point where God stopped them.
But when the great work was finished, and the darkness was past, and His beloved Son hung dead upon the cross, God stepped in and cried, Halt. He let men go no further in dishonouring the One who had done His will with perfect obedience. He pushed His enemies aside, and from this point on those who loved Him honoured and revered Him... It was an unheard-of thing! Who had ever before set any value on the body of a crucified criminal?
Isaiah wrote about this grave long before it was dug. One commentator says older English versions hid the sense of his words.
What honour was done to the Lord. They wrapped Him in a clean linen sheet after they lifted Him from the cross. Then came a resting place for Him who had finished the work the Father gave Him to do — a new tomb cut in the rock. It was a fulfilment of Isaiah 53:9... Literally translated it is "And men appointed His grave with the wicked, but He was with the rich in His death, because He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth."... The enemy wanted to throw His body where the bodies of the wicked were thrown, but the power of God made that impossible.
One writer reads both the cloth and the tomb as pictures:
They wrap the body in something that pictures our Lord's perfect humanity: a clean linen cloth. White linen stands for purity and righteousness, as "the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints." They do not lay the body in the earth, as if fulfilling the words "you are dust, and to dust you shall return." They lay it in a new tomb, cut in lasting rock that does not crumble. That rock is a fitting place for His body, which saw no corruption and could not be held by death.
The quality of the burial matched the man who paid for it. Alongside Joseph's linen came Nicodemus with an enormous quantity of spices:
Nicodemus brought a hundred pounds of spices. The Lord had the burial of a rich man. This was ten times what was normally used; so the winding-sheet was surely the kind the wealthy used.
Joseph's care for the body served a purpose larger than affection. Named men handled the body and knew where they laid it. That made the proof of the resurrection solid.
The devoted women were not the only ones watching their crucified Lord. When Jesus was certainly dead, Joseph of Arimathea goes to Pilate and asks for His body. Pilate gives it to him. He wraps it in a linen cloth and lays it in his own tomb, where no one had ever been laid. Then he rolled a great stone to the mouth and went away. In all of them it was respect and attachment. But in Joseph's act God had another purpose. He meant to give due respect to Jesus, and also to give the strongest proofs that He was really risen.
The tomb is not only His. One writer ties Christ's burial to where the believer now stands with God.
At the cross, in burial, in resurrection, and in life, God has identified the believer with Christ. At the cross — pictured by circumcision — Christ actually died to everything after the flesh. In burial He passed out of sight. In resurrection He passed forever beyond the reach of death.
- Reserve. God had kept a man back for this hour. Joseph stopped hiding at the most dangerous moment, and gave the service the twelve failed to give.
- Halt. Human hands had gone as far as God allowed; from the moment of death onward, only love touched the body of Jesus.
- Riches. The linen and the rich man's tomb fulfilled Isaiah's word. Men meant Him a grave with the wicked, but He was with the rich in His death.
- Purity. Clean white linen and a tomb of solid rock picture a life without stain and a body that saw no corruption.
- Proof. The burial that honoured Him also proved the case: He truly died, and He truly rose. And God counts the believer as having passed out of sight with Him.
and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn in the rock; and having rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb, went away.
Matthew ends the crucifixion account with a burial. A rich man takes the body, lays it in an unused tomb cut from rock, and seals it with a great stone. Scripture recorded every detail centuries earlier, and every detail matters three days later.
The burial was not a tidy ending arranged by friends. It was God's reversal of what His enemies had already prepared for the body of His Son. Isaiah 53:9 said His grave would be made "with the wicked and with a rich man in his death." One writer explains what that plan was, and how God answered it. He closes with a line from an older translation of the same verse; the ESV reads, "although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth."
The Jews had certainly planned to throw the blessed holy body of the Son of God into the common pit. The bodies of both the criminals who died at His side would go in with Him. Satan's malice did not only suggest that a close friend should betray Him. It also suggested that after He was dead they should throw His body into the common pit. God's answer to this insult to His Son was already on record. This is beautiful, and the reason is more beautiful still: "Because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth."
Joseph steps forward just when the disciples ran, and he had more to lose than they did.
In Joseph of Arimathea we see a man who had a great deal to lose: a rich man and a councillor, and on top of that a secret disciple of Jesus. Now God brings him to a point when you would least expect it. When Jesus died on the cross — "numbered with the transgressors" — he goes to Pilate and asks for His body. He lays it in his own new tomb and rolls a great stone to the door. Without knowing it, he fulfils Isaiah 53:9 — "with a rich man in His death." If apostles and disciples fled, God can, and does, raise up testimony for His name's sake.
The Greek word for "new" here is not about age. The New Testament uses two different words for "new." The one used here means the tomb had never been used.
Kainos means new in kind. It stands in contrast to what existed before and takes its place… In Matthew 27:60, no dead body had ever made the new (kainos) tomb ceremonially unclean. Workers might have cut it out of the rock years before, so it is not called neos.
That unused tomb guarded a promise made in the Psalms — that God's Holy One would not see decay. One writer presses how completely God kept it:
Only Matthew tells us that it was Joseph's own tomb, and he also says that it was new. Luke and John press the point harder: no one had ever lain there. The Psalms had foretold that the Lord would not let His "Holy One" see corruption… But it also meant that His body should not even touch corruption from the outside. When God fulfils His word, He does it thoroughly and completely.
The tomb belonged to Joseph, not to Christ.
When it was all over, He had only a tomb that another man lent Him… Certain millionaires pay for lavish tombs out of their own wealth; but the Son of God was laid in the lent tomb of another. "For your sakes" was all this.
To everyone watching, the great stone settled the matter. It did the opposite.
The world rejoiced when the tomb closed upon Jesus. But what a wonderful Seed was sown in that tomb in the garden! It was sown with the tears and grief of Joseph and Nicodemus and the women. And how wonderful was the springing up of that Seed on the resurrection morning! That was the day of victory, the beginning of a new creation.
The unused tomb also shut down a lie before anyone could tell it.
Why is God so careful to say the tomb was new? Turn to the Second Book of Kings. Some men were burying a body when they saw a raiding band. They threw the body into the tomb of Elisha. When the man touched the bones of Elisha, he came back to life and stood on his feet… If the Spirit of God had not recorded this, Satan and the Jews would soon have spread a story: Jesus had risen from the dead, but that was nothing new. He had been put into a tomb where the bones of a prophet lay, and so He had revived again. God foresaw that lie, and took great care to tell us it was a new tomb.
- Appointed — Men had a criminals' pit ready for His body; God had already written down a different grave for Him.
- Given — A wealthy councillor had kept quiet. He came out into the open just when the disciples fled. God raises up witnesses when others fail.
- New — Kainos means unused, not recent. No dead body had ever defiled this tomb. So the promise held: the Holy One would not see decay.
- Lent — He had no grave of His own. They buried Him in another man's tomb, and it was "for your sakes."
- Empty — The great stone looked like the end of the story. But no one else had ever lain there, so no one could explain His rising away.
But Mary of Magdala was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the sepulchre.
The crucifixion is over. The tomb is shut, and everyone has gone home — except two women who sit down facing the grave and stay there. Matthew ends the burial account with them, not with the men who arranged it. Their love raises a question: how much did it understand?
The disciples had scattered. Notice who was still there, and how close they came.
But if disciples fail, there are others who do not. At first the women who followed Him from Galilee watch that scene of horror from a distance, as we would expect. Later, it seems (John 20), they come as near as the spears of the Roman guard allowed. Faith may have died out of their hearts, but fear found no place there. Love marks them out, and love is never stronger than when the one it loves is most in need. That is how the Spirit of God describes their devotion. They would watch by His body until the stone concealed it from their sight.
Joseph finished his work and left. The women stayed.
Joseph leaves, and we may be sure it was not from indifference. He leaves because his precious task is done. The women, however, cannot tear themselves away from the spot. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary keep the vigil of love.
One writer names the second Mary, and describes what kept both women at the grave:
Joseph took the body down with Pilate's permission. He placed it in his own tomb, which had never covered man's corruption. That was a blessed testimony to the perfection of that blessed One whose body they laid in the grave. That tomb was the spot prepared for the spotless body of Jesus, and there they laid Him. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, that is, the wife of Cleopas, were sitting opposite the tomb. They saw it. Their affection for Jesus kept them there. Their eyes, their hearts, all their interest and powers stayed fixed on the place where they saw that blessed One.
They sat facing a grave they expected to stay shut.
It was affection, but with little intelligence. Their love lingered over the scene of His death and burial. For the moment they did not realise at all the life He would soon show in such glory. Had they not heard His words? Would He, would God, not make them good?
But that criticism cuts both ways:
In love they had followed the Lord through His life of service. They clung to Him in His death on the cross. They watch as His body is laid in the grave. It is easy to dwell upon their lack of intelligence, while falling far behind them in their devoted love.
Two opposite kinds of attention settle on the same tomb.
Joseph's new tomb receives His body. Love laid Him there. Hatred sealed the stone and set a watch. The women had followed Him from Galilee. They had waited at the cross to see what they thought was the end. They wait still, to see the place where He was laid.
Where they sat at the burial decided where they went next.
With the many women the two Marys had looked on the terrible crucifixion scene. How they must have suffered in those hours of the agony of Him whom they loved. Then we see them sitting opposite the tomb. Others had gone away to rest. These women could not stay away. They overcame all fear and went out to the tomb once more.
- Love stays. When the disciples had fled, these women stayed to the last; faith may have failed in them, but fear found no room.
- Love watches. Their affection held them opposite the tomb, eyes and hearts fixed on the spot where He was laid.
- Love may not yet understand. Their affection was real, but their understanding was small. They lingered over His burial and missed the life about to break out of it.
- Love outlasts hatred. Love laid Him in the tomb; hatred sealed the stone and set a guard. The watchers of love were still there.
- Love returns. They could not stay away. Once the others left to rest, the two who sat facing the grave went out to it again.