Daily Devotion for April 15, 2006

To Jerusalem with the ComPassionate Christ
Day 46

 

A Stone-Cold Tomb

 

So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.  Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.  Mark 15: 46-47

 

Taking fine linen, such as was used for ministering to the dead, they wrapped Jesus’ body when it had been delivered to them, and they laid Him in Joseph’s own tomb. This would have been a single room cut out of the rock, possibly an enlargement of a natural cave, or of a fissure in the rock face. It would have had two benches, one at either side, upon which the bodies of the dead were laid until, their flesh taken with time, their bones were interred elsewhere. It was a rich man’s tomb and it is further proof of Joseph of Arimathea's devotion to our Lord, that he should risk the wrath of both his colleagues and his family by placing a crucified man where the honorable would normally have lain. Then they rolled the stone across the entrance and sealed it. Further work was needed, the body really required anointing with oil, but time was hastening on. It was almost the Sabbath; it would have to wait. Two of the Marys noted where the tomb was, so that they could return.

 

Doubtless, outside the tomb, as night brooded over the land, some watched and waited, not knowing quite what for. At last the anxiety and weariness of the last days was over. Though they mourned His passing they would not wish Him back if He had to suffer such pain again. His light had illuminated their lives for three short yet glorious years; they did not understand, but they were grateful that they had known Him, and glad that He could not suffer any more.

 

Inside the tomb, the One who had had no home on earth, and whose resting place was a borrowed sepulcher, lay bound by bonds of linen, and by the bands of death, and by that love which had brought Him thus far. The One who had flung stars into space, having surrendered to the cruel nails and to the violence of men, awaited His Father’s will.

 

Prayer
Dear Lord, between death and life, there is a stone cold silence, a silence of waiting, of hoping, of longing for better to come.  Grant me patience in silence, grant me solitude to be still, and know that You are God.  Amen

 

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