Lessons from the Empty Tomb
“ As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb. ” Matthew 27: 57-61 Some two thousand years ago, on a Friday evening that felt as ordinary as today, a man by the name of Joseph took Jesus off the cross where He hung. In the dusk, as night fell around him, he cleaned a limp, bruised body. I imagine there were tears running down his face as he washed the bloodied remains of Jesus’s short life. The sting of disappointment, the catch of hurt at the back of his throat. He had placed his reputation, his wealth, his respect on the line; ...