He is Buried with the Rich

The death of the Messiah was a very painful death in order to pay the penalty for our sins. Despite the loneliness and His disciples and the Father forsaking Him in the time of His burial, He “was given an honorable burial after his dishonorable death because of his perfect innocence.” The Lord Jesus was worthy to receive such honor. In fact prophet Isaiah had recorded through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ would be buried by a rich man after His death (Is. 53:9).

Who was this rich man? Matthew answered that he was a rich man of Arimathaea whose name was Joseph (Matt. 27:57). “He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and departed” (Matt. 27:57-60). Joseph, being a rich man, provided all the necessary things for the burial of the Christ, so that Christ would be buried in a proper way and even according to Jewish tradition. He was not just thrown as the two thieves crucified with Him were.

Joseph together with Nicodemus prepared for the burial of Jesus Christ within a short time. These two disciples of God had shown their love for Christ. They were not one of the twelve disciples, but ordinary people who believed the Lord Jesus to be the Messiah sent by God the Father to fulfill what was written in the Scriptures concerning Him. On the other hand, His own chosen disciples did not come back to see the dead body of Christ, except “Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulcher” (Matt 27:61). God had allowed events to happen in such a way that the prophecy might be fulfilled as it was written.

His Side is Pierced

Having seen that the Lord Jesus Christ was dead, the soldiers did not break his legs or any bone as prophesied by the Psalmist. On the other hand, the prophet Zechariah prophesied about this same occasion describing the action taken by the soldiers toward Jesus Christ. He said, “. . . and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness of his firstborn” (Zech. 12:10). The context of the verse explains the promise of God concerning the repentance of the Jews despite the long time they had been provoking God. This same verse prophesies the piercing of their Messiah.

When the apostle John wrote his gospel, he did see that the incident of the piercing of the Lord Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of the prophecy in the Old Testament. John recorded, “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water” (John 19:34). This soldier was not content just to know that Jesus Christ was dead, he nevertheless pierced Him with a spear.

The crucifixion of Christ was a terrible mode of death. The great pain and torture that He experienced had caused Him to die sooner than the two criminals. As Lockyer commented, "Not only was it punctured by the soldier’s sword thrust, but the extreme mental and spiritual torture was so great that His heart was ruptured before the point of the sword pierced it. Appearance of blood and water indicated that the lymphatic fluid apparently had separated from the red blood, producing “blood and water."

He Has No Bones Broken

After six hours hanging on the cross suffering intense agonies, the time had come when Jesus Christ must die. He died a terrible death. He had finished His work and accomplished perfectly what His Father had commanded Him then when Jesus said, “it is finished.”

It was on a Friday afternoon when the Lord Jesus Christ finished His work of Salvation. Since then, every believer in Him has direct access to the Father. Jesus Christ is the Mediator of man and for this reason He came to this world to accomplish what God the Father had planned for His people. Because Friday was a day of preparation for the Sabbath, the soldiers must remove the body of Christ from the cross. And when they saw Jesus had died they did not break His legs whereas the two persons crucified together with Him had their legs broken by the soldiers (John 19:32-33,36). The explanation is that if the person has not died yet, his legs must be broken to ensure death so that they could bury him before the Sabbath comes. It was the custom of the Jews that nobody can do works, including burial on the Sabbath.

Why didn’t the soldiers break the legs of Jesus Christ? The answer was that God the Father kept His word. The prophecy that says, “He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken” (Ps. 34:20) must be fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. The intense agonies that He suffered were much worse than the two criminals hung together with Him. Nevertheless what was written in the Scriptures must be fulfilled. As Lockyer said, "While it is true that onlookers saw His bones protruding from His naked and emaciated body- “I may tell all my bones; they look and stare upon me”- yet in a miraculous way not a bone of the suffering Messiah was broken, even although some were out of joint. God kept His word, no bone of His Son was broken. But His bones waxed old through His roaring all the day long. It was a miracle of divine providence that Jesus was already dead when the soldiers came to club Him and thus hasten His death and the sooner remove His body from the cross."

He is Forsaken by God

It was in the dark hour when the Messiah bore the sins of the world. In His last three hours of crucifixion the world was coved with darkness, and Jesus was facing the darkest situation as He bore all the sins of this world. He was sinless and yet was made sin for us that man might be reconciled with God and that man might have direct access to God. Truly the suffering Jesus bore on our behalf was indescribable agony.

When Jesus Christ was being hung on the cross, He felt the loneliness. He was alone bearing the sins of the world. The multitudes that had seen the miracles He performed, the sick that had received healing from Him and His own disciples, had all forsaken Him, and left Him alone to be spat upon and smitten. The agonies of Jesus were great and indescribable when His own Father forsook Him. As Lockyer said, “It was heart-rending enough for Jesus to have disciples forsake Him and flee; but to be forsaken by His own Father was surely the crown of His anguish.” God the Father forsook Him not in the sense that He stopped loving His Son but rather because He was the sin-bearer. Lockyer again commented, "The face of God was turned, not so much from His Son in whom He always delighted, but from what His Son was bearing, namely, the sin of a lost world, for He was of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity. “God made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin.” Thus, it was more from Christ as the sin-bearer than from His actual Son that the Father hid His face. The strange enigma of God-forsakenness can only be understood in the light of Christ’s mediatorial office."

Matthew knew that God the Father forsaking His Son (Matt. 27:46) was surely the fulfillment of what the Psalmist had prophesied when He said, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?” (Ps. 22:1). It was the cry of Jesus Christ on the cross when He bore all the sins of the world.