Jesus Takes Our Tomb
And Joseph took [Jesus’] body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock.
Matt. 27:59-60a
How has your life been this past week, month or even semester? How is your walk with the Lord? At times, we look back and smile, and give thanks for the grace to overcome, and the victories He grants. However at other times, we meet not with jubilant cries of victory, but of compromise, disappointment, and sin. Wherever you are in your walk this day, whether you are victoriously conquering, or crushed by the weight of your unfaithfulness, God has a message of grace for us this day.
Following the crucifixion and death of Christ, Matthew records for us an interesting short story that we often overlook. In verses 57 onwards, the gospel speaks of a rich man named Joseph who obtained Jesus’ body from Pilate and then goes on to place the body in a tomb. But not just any tomb. Joseph placed it in his own tomb.
I find the imagery here startling. It was as if God in His sovereignty had arranged it such that Joseph’s placing of Jesus’ body in his own tomb would serve to show the physical manifestation of an even more glorious truth: Jesus taking our place in our tomb.
Before Christ’s intervention, we, like Joseph and the rest of the world, were carving and cutting out our own tomb in the rock. There is no hope, no future glory, no expectation of salvation. Just death. And many who do not know Christ, are today still figuratively preparing their tomb for their death; tending as lead placed on a well-oiled slope, ever more downward to that end.
But for us who are in Christ, something changed. An intervention has occurred. Someone, before we could use our own tomb that we have made, has taken residence in it. Indeed, the bible tells us that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8, emphasis added) The punishment and death due us was taken, the Lord having “laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isa. 53:5-6b)
And more than that. Jesus doesn’t just take our tomb. On a bright and early Sunday morning about two thousand years ago, in a triumphant show of victory, Jesus’ breaks out of our tomb. Death forever beaten, and Christ forever reigning and glorious! Jesus not only takes our death, He breaks out and gives us new life and assures us of our resurrection!
“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Rom. 4:4-5)
Brothers and sisters, Christ has already taken our place in the tomb. Are we still living as if what awaits us is death? Are we still going back to construct our own tomb through sinful living, or moralistic living (to try to save yourself)? Our death is already taken, so live free, and do not try to earn your escape from death. And our life is already a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17), the old has passed away, so live in the light of your new life.
Yes, we will fail, we will struggle, and there will be periods where we see no end to our cycles of sin. But keep persevering. Hold on on one hand to the freeing truth that death is taken (therefore God’s not going to inflict another round of death on us), and on the other to the reality that we are already a new creation (deep down therefore we now desires God, though some times this desire is really deep down), and the same power that broke open the tomb is at work in us. Hold on, cause He’s not letting go.
be blessed.
