Event 37 – Jesus’ Burial

Matthew 27:57-61, Mark 15:42-47, Luke 23:50-56a, John 19:38-42

• Jerusalem; Friday, Before 6 PM

^K It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, ^M there came a rich man ^L named Joseph, ^K a prominent member of the Council, ^L a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God. ^J Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. ^L Going ^L boldly ^K to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, ^M Pilate ordered that ^K the body ^M be given to ^K Joseph. So Joseph bought some linen cloth, ^J and took the body away

He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.

At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, ^L cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. ^J Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation ^L and the Sabbath was about to begin ^J and since the tomb was nearby they laid Jesus there. ^K Then Joseph ^M rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. ^K Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses ^L who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and ^M waiting there opposite the tomb ^L saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home.