And after this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. (39) And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound w eight.(40) Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. (41) Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. (42) There laid they Jesus therefore, because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.
I do not think it necessary to enlarge on the circumstances relating to these honorable men. But in addition to what hath been offered by way of note in the history of it, as recorded by Mark and Luke; I would just observe, that the interment of the body of Christ became a most important service, both as it proved the reality of his death, and as it confirmed the types and prophecies concerning him. Isaiah 26:19; Psalms 16:9-10; Matthew 12:38-40. And as the life of the Church in her recovery from the Adam-nature fall, ariseth out of the assurance, that Christ by his death had destroyed death; so the reality and certainty of it became a momentous article of the faith in Christ. It was necessary Christ should die, to do away sin and death by the sacrifice of himself. It was as necessary that he should be buried, that his humblings might be complete. The Lord had said by the spirit of prophecy a thousand years before; thou hast brought me into the dust of death. Psalms 22:15. And it was necessary, that though he died as one under the hands of justice, he should have an honorable funeral, and therefore, though his body was forfeited; yet to fulfil the seemingly contradictory prophecies, in which it was said, h e is taken from prison and from judgment, and cut off out of the land of the living; yet, contrary to all human probabilities, he should make his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; Isaiah 53:8-9. these godly men, Joseph of Arimathea, an honorable counsellor, and Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, should arise to perform this office. And, as all these things were done by his death, his burial, and the honorable nature of it to fulfil those grand purposes; so his resurrection which followed, arose out of all those circumstances. Jesus must conquer death by his own death. He must go into the grave to subdue the power of the grave. And he must arise from the dead, in proof that he hath triumphed over both death and the grave in their own territories, and shewed the way to all his followers, how they are by virtue of their union with him, and communion in all that belongs to him, secured in all the blessings of his resurrection. So interesting an article of our holy faith, becomes therefore the certainty of Christ's burial; and blessed be God, who hath made such ample provision in the scriptures to ascertain its reality.