The Light Shines in the Darkness (Mark 15:33-47)

So, like I said, we're gonna be in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 15, starting at verse 33.

Mark 15 · chapter mention

Let's stand for the reading of God's word.

It says, When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.

And at three, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Eloy, Eloy, Lamazavakhani, which is translated, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

When some of those standing there heard this, they said, See, he's calling for Elijah.

Someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, fixed it on a stick, offered him a drink, and said, Let's see if Elijah comes to take him down.

Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed his last.

Then the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

When the centurion who was standing opposite him saw the way he breathed his last, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.

There were also women watching from a distance.

Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James the younger, and of Joseph and Solome.

In Galilee, these women followed him and took care of him.

Many other women had come up with him to Jerusalem when it was already evening, because it was the day of preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath.

Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Sanhedrin, who was himself looking forward to the kingdom of God, came and boldly went to Pilate and asked for Jesus' body.

Pilate was surprised that he was already dead.

Summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he had already died.

When he found out from the centurion, he gave the corpse to Joseph.

After he bought some linen cloth, Joseph took him down and wrapped him in the linen.

Then he laid him in a tomb, cut out of the rock, and rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.

Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joseph, were watching where he was laid.

Let's pray.

Lord, as we do every week, and we'll continue to do, Lord, we thank you for your word that we're able to hold in our hands here today.

Lord, I pray that as we go through these verses, that you would make it come alive before us.

Lord, it's already living.

And uh, but I pray that we would see it that way, that you would show us things, even if we've read this story over and over and over, that you would show us things afresh and anew.

If there are um anything that we've become if there is anything that we've become callous to, Lord, I pray that you would rip those calluses off this morning, and that we would recognize the work of Jesus on the cross and all that you did because you love each one of us so dearly.

Lord, help me to rightly divide your word here this morning, and I pray that I would be your mouthpiece, Lord, through the person of the Holy Spirit here this morning.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

And everybody said, Amen.

You may be seated.

So, as you know, and as it was so beautifully just sung about, we're in the midst of Jesus' crucifixion.

Continuing on uh this week from last week and the week before that.

So last Sunday we left off after seeing the first three hours of Jesus' crucifixion, the first three hours of Him on the cross from nine to noon, roughly.

And today we pick up with the last three hours of the cross, and then we're gonna move on to his burial.

And then next week we're gonna uh pick up with the resurrection.

But what I hope that we walk away with today is a renewed outlook on all that Jesus has done for us.

You know, if you've been a follower of Christ for a long time, as I just prayed, you know, it can be easy to become callous to the story of all that Jesus has done for us.

But I'm asking here this morning, if you feel like maybe that is you, that you would ask God right now to rip those calluses off and to see what Jesus did for us, like it was the first time that you've ever seen this story, ever first time you've ever read it, first time that you've ever heard this story.

And if you do not consider yourself a follower of Christ, would you consider today all that Jesus has done for you as we go through this passage?

So we're gonna jump in right there at verse 33, and we're just gonna go verse by verse through this and talk about it.

So it says, when it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.

So last week we saw that Jesus was crucified at nine in the morning.

And like I said, so this is three hours on the cross.

We're at noon on what we refer to as Good Friday, and then at noon, everything goes dark.

You know, a lot of people will try and take the supernatural aspect out of this story by trying to say things like, well, the moon eclipsed the sun, it was a natural phenomena, it was just a coincidence, there's nothing supernatural going on here.

But we need to understand that the Jews celebrated Passover during the full moon.

And it's impossible to have a full moon and experience an eclipse anywhere close to each other.

Because if we're looking at a full moon in the night sky, where's the moon during the day?

It's on the other side of the earth from us, right?

The other thing is a full eclipse, if you're at the dead center of where the eclipse is happening, it only happens for seven and a half minutes that you actually have total darkness.

So what is happening here is supernatural.

And as we'll see, it wasn't dark clouds and it wasn't a dust storm that was blocking the sun.

It was much more than that.

And it we're also going to see that it wasn't just localized just in Jerusalem.

You know, there's a historian named Phlegon, and there's a lot of historians that wrote specifically about this event.

But Phlegon, he was a first century Greek historian, and he wrote this, and it has nothing to do with any biblical account.

He doesn't have anything to do with that, just a historian documenting what's happening.

He says, Now in the fourth year of the 22nd Olympiad, a great eclipse of the sun occurred at the sixth hour, which is noon, that excelled every other before it, turning the day into such darkness of night that the stars could be seen in heaven, and the earth moved, so an earthquake, in Bithynia, and that's modern-day Turkey, toppling many buildings in the city of Nicaea.

So this is a Greek talking about events in Bithynia, hundreds and hundreds of miles north of Jerusalem, and he's documenting it, saying that the sky was so dark that you could see the stars.

So that rules out dust storms, that rules out dark clouds or a storm or something like that.

And the full moon we've already ruled out as well, because it was on the other side of the earth at this time.

So the question is, what really happened?

Something else supernaturally made the sun fail, or something else eclipsed the sun that day.

And we don't know exactly what happened, but what we do know is that as the light of the world took on the darkness of sin that we brought upon him, a literal physical darkness covered the earth.

You know, and some speculate, and I tend to agree with this, that this was the moment that God placed the sins of the world on Jesus.

And why Jesus says what he says in verse 34, which we're gonna get to here in a second.

But let's first talk about darkness.

You know, the definition of darkness is the absence of light.

It's defined by what it's not.

There was an absence of light for three hours in the physical world while Jesus bore the sin, our sin in the spiritual world.

John 1, 4 through 5 says, in him, speaking of Jesus, was life.

And that life was the light of men.

That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.

You know, I don't like thinking about Satan a lot or teaching, you know, a lot about Satan, but I do wonder at this point, when Jesus is on the cross and when the lights go out, if he somehow at this point thinks that he's winning.

Darkness is everywhere, and God's on the cross.

But as we just read, the darkness did not overcome the light.

The sun and the light came back after, as we'll see, it was finished.

Now, I want us to think about at this point, the darkness comes.

I want us to think about all of those that have condemned Jesus.

What do you think they were thinking at this point when the lights all of a sudden go out unexpectedly?

Think of the men in the Sanhedrin that first initiated all of this.

Think of the mob that yelled for Barabbas instead of Jesus.

Think of the mob that was yelling, crucify him, crucify him.

Think about the soldiers that were carrying out the crucifixion.

And then think about the multitude that mocked Jesus.

And here's a question Was there any mocking after the darkness hit?

I'm guessing no.

I think there was probably a lot of soul searching going on after everything just all of a sudden supernaturally went dark.

I also wonder, what was Joseph of Arimathea and what was Nicodemus doing during that darkness?

Those are the guys that we're gonna see that actually carried out the burial.

What were they doing during those three hours?

I want you to think about it from all of those people's perspective.

If you're crucifying somebody that says that they are God and then everything goes dark with no warning, I think there's a lot of soul searching that was taking place in those three hours of darkness.

You know, I have a feeling that things got a lot more solemn in those last three hours than they did in the first three hours of his crucifixion.

Let's look at verse 34.

Says, and at three, so that's six hours total that Jesus is on the cross, Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloy, Eloy, Lamas of me, which is translated, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

So here Jesus begins to quote Psalm 22.

We talked a little bit about this last week.

So I want you to keep your finger, our bookmark, in Mark, but I want everybody to turn to Psalm 22.

It's about in the middle of your Bible.

It goes Job, Psalms, Proverbs is the order.

So go ahead and turn there.

Like I said, I quoted it last week, but we've come to a point in this psalm where this psalm really starts to come alive in light of exactly where we are in the crucifixion story.

And remember, this was written roughly a thousand years before Jesus' crucifixion, and it was written by King David.

So go ahead and we're gonna read through the whole Psalm, Psalm 22.

I want you to think of this in light of everything that we've seen to this point in the crucifixion.

Looks like most are there.

So I'm just gonna read it to you.

You want to close your eyes and listen to it, if you want to read along with me, whatever you want, whatever's gonna be best for you.

But it says, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

So those are the words that we just saw in Mark.

Why are you so far from my deliverance and from my words of groaning?

My God, I cry by day, but you do not answer.

So nine to noon.

By night, yet I have no rest, noon to three.

But you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.

Our ancestors trusted in you.

They trusted and you rescued them.

They cried to you and were set free.

They trusted in you and were not disgraced.

But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by people.

Everyone who sees me mocks me.

They sneer and shake their heads.

We just saw that last week in Mark.

He relies on the Lord.

Let him save him, let the Lord rescue him, since he takes pleasure in him.

Remember when they were saying, Come down from the cross and save yourself.

Verse 9.

It was you who brought me out of the womb.

Remember, he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, making me secure at my mother's breast.

I was given over to you at birth.

Dedication at the temple.

You have been my God from my mother's womb.

Don't be far from me, because distress is near, and there's no one to help.

Remember, his disciples fled.

Peter denied him.

Verse 12.

Many bulls surround me, strong ones of Bashan encircle me.

They open their mouths against me, lions mauling and roaring.

So more mocking.

I am poured out like water.

Remember, water and blood poured out of his side.

And all my bones are disjointed.

His shoulders and elbows could very well be dislocated at this point from hanging on the cross.

My heart is like wax melting within me.

My strength is dried up like baked clay.

Remember, he had to be carried that last portion of his journey because he lost all strength.

He says, My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.

And as we see, they offered him that drink so they could better understand him.

You put me into the dust of death, for dogs have surrounded me.

Remember the word for Gentiles that they used, which would be these Roman soldiers, is dogs.

A gang of evildoers has closed in on me.

They pierced my hands and my feet.

So further describing the crucifixion.

Verse 17, I can count all of my bones.

So he's feeling everything right now.

People look and stare at me.

Remember, he's on a public road with a sign over his head that says King of the Jews.

Verse 18.

We saw that last week, the casting of lots.

But you, Lord, don't be far away.

My strength, come quickly to help me.

Rescue my life from the sword, my own life from the power of these dogs.

Save me from the lion's mouth, from the horns of wild oxen.

You answered me.

I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters.

I will praise you in the assembly.

You who fear the Lord, praise him.

All you descendants of Jacob, honor him.

All you descendants of Israel, revere him, for he has not despised or abhorred the torment of the oppressed.

He did not hide his face from him, but listened when he cried to him for help.

I will give praise in the great assembly because of you.

I will fulfill my vows before those who fear you.

The humble will eat and be satisfied.

Those who seek the Lord will praise him.

May our hearts live forever.

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord.

That's us.

All the families of the nations will bow down before you.

Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess.

Verse 28 For a kingship belongs to the Lord.

All who prosper on earth will eat and bow down.

All those who go down to the dust will kneel before him, even the one who cannot preserve his life.

Their descendants will serve him.

The next generation will be told about the Lord.

They will come and declare his righteousness to a people yet to be born.

They will declare what he has done.

Written a thousand years before the story we're looking at in Mark here today, with such detail and clarity of what we're seeing.

And as I mentioned last week, this prophecy happened 400 years before crucifixion was even invented by the Persians.

And some speculate that Jesus might be praying through Psalm 22 at this point on the cross, while each of these events that are so clearly described are happening.

But that's just speculation.

But I think the question here is: what does it mean when Jesus says, Why have you abandoned me?

The Father to abandon his son.

Even though Jesus went through plenty of trials on earth and he experienced such loneliness at different times, through all of that, he never lost his connection with God.

That's quite the opposite.

When he would be going through a tough time or be extremely exhausted, he kept getting away to be alone with God, to find that deeper connection with him.

And then here in his most trying hour, Jesus chose to bear the sin of the world on his shoulders and bear an agonizing death.

But the hardest thing for Jesus at this point in all of this is the separation that he has from his Father.

Jesus is now bearing the cup that we saw him accept in the Garden of Gethsemane.

And he's bearing it to the fullest.

And I want us to remember that sin brings separation from God.

You know, think of our own walk with God.

Have you ever been in the middle of some heinous sin and actually felt close to God?

Or maybe before you came to an abiding relationship with Jesus.

How did that feel?

Does anybody want to go back to that feeling?

I know I sure don't.

And now, with the sins of the world for all time on his shoulders, he's feeling that separation from God.

And he's feeling abandoned by God.

2 Corinthians 5.21 says, he, referring to God the Father, made the one who did not know sin, so Jesus, to be sin for us.

So that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus became sin for us.

So that we could become the righteousness of God.

Think about that for a second.

What that means is right here in our text, in these last three hours on the cross, Jesus is sin for us.

On the cross, and the wrath of God against sin is coming against Jesus right now.

And as Romans 6.23 tells us, the wages of sin is death.

The cross is the wrath of God that is the result of our sin.

And instead of the fellowship that Jesus so enjoyed with the Father, he's now the object of God's wrath.

As he willfully bore our sins and paid the wage that we owed, which was death.

You know, last week we talked about Jesus wanting to experience the worst of the worst in order to become the compassionate high priest that can relate to us in the worst of worst moments.

And he's there right now.

This is the worst of the worst.

He's in the worst place imaginable for anyone.

He's at the brink of death.

He's been tortured for hours and hours.

Friends left him all alone.

And now his relationship with his father, he's experiencing separation for the first time ever.

And Jesus cries out, Why have you forsaken me?

And I don't think this is Jesus not understanding what's going on.

I don't think this is Jesus questioning the Father.

He fully understood what he was getting himself into and what he was accepting.

I think this is Jesus recognizing the state that he's in and recognizing how he's feeling at the moment.

Which makes me wonder have you ever been there?

In one of those God, where are you moments where you have felt forsaken in some way by God?

And I want us to remember that Jesus knows and he understands those moments.

Hand.

And he actually understands those moments to a further extent than we ever will.

And I think in those moments we need to remember that.

God tells us that he will never leave us or forsake us.

Even though there are times where we may feel that way, Jesus knows exactly how you feel in those moments.

Look at verse 35 with me.

When some of those standing there heard this, they said, See, he's calling for Elijah.

So Jesus cries out, Eloy, Eloy, Lamasavacthani.

And remember, his mouth is dry, and his tongue is stuck to the roof of his mouth.

So and remember, too, he's being crucified, so he can barely breathe.

So when he says Eloy, you know, imagine what it would sound like.

Look at verse 36.

So someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine.

So this is a different type of wine than was offered to him at the beginning of the crucifixion.

They fixed the sponge on a stick, offered him a drink, and said, Let's see if Elijah comes to take him down.

Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed his last.

So they give him this drink so that they can better understand what he's saying.

You know, that tells me that something is changing.

Maybe it was the three hours of darkness.

We don't know.

But at this point, they're actually wondering if Elijah will show up.

I think the mocking's over now.

So they run to get Jesus a drink.

Now, now they're interested in what Jesus is saying.

And then it says, Jesus let out a loud cry.

You know, in John's gospel, we see that Jesus actually yelled out, Tetelestai, which means it is finished, or it means paid in full.

And I like how David Gusick paints this picture of a transaction that's taking place in this moment.

He says, At some point before he died, before the veil was torn into, before he cried out, it is finished, an awesome spiritual transaction took place.

God the Father set upon Jesus all the guilt and wrath of our sin deserved.

And Jesus bore it in himself perfectly, totally satisfying the wrath of God toward us.

And therefore Jesus could cry out, paid in full, and then breathe his last breath and die.

Verse 38.

Then the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

So this curtain that's being spoken of here, it separated the holy place of the temple from the most holy place of the temple, which is where the ark was kept in the most holy place.

And it was so holy that the high priest, the highest of high priests, was only allowed to go in once a year.

And this curtain was a wall of separation between God and man.

Between the place of worship, the most holy place.

So this tearing of that curtain was showing in a symbolic way that his holy presence and his glory were now accessible to anyone that came to him through the work of Jesus on the cross.

Hebrews 10, verses 19 through 20 says, Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus, he has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain or veil, that is, through his flesh.

Hebrews 10:19–20

So God would no longer dwell in a temple or a tabernacle as he did prior to Jesus' death on the cross.

Because now he wanted to tabernacle among his people.

1 Corinthians 3 16 says, Don't you yourselves know that you are God's temple and that the Spirit of God lives in you?

So we're now temples.

If you're a follower of Christ, we are now the temples that God wants to dwell in.

That is free and unhindered access that nobody before Jesus got to experience to the capacity that we do today.

But we as followers of Christ get to enjoy this from day one of our relationship with Jesus.

That access to God, where he actually wants to come and dwell inside of us.

So Jesus, after all this, yells, it is finished.

The earthquakes, the lights come back on, the veil of the temple is torn into from top to bottom, which is something that only God can do.

Because the curtain was somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 to 60 feet.

We don't know exactly the length of the cubit, we have an idea, but probably 40 to 60 feet tall and anywhere from four to eight inches thick.

And it was ripped from top to bottom, something that no man could do.

So this, what this did is it did away with the need of a priest that stood in between us and God.

Jesus is now the high priest, and now we get to go straight to him, and he is our access straight to God.

The veil's been torn, the wall between us and God is gone, and Jesus ripped that veil through his actions in our place on the cross.

And so I want to ask you again, at this point, it's been three hours of darkness.

Now the veil is torn in two.

How do you think the religious leaders are feeling now?

Verse 39.

It says, When the centurion who is standing opposite him saw the way he breathed his last, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.

I think it's interested.

It was in the way that he breathed his last.

What way did he breathe his last?

It doesn't actually tell us exactly how.

Was there a look of satisfaction and relief on Jesus' face that it was finished?

This day that had been weighing on him so heavily for so long, and all that was set before him, he had now done.

And now he can go back to his rightful place at the right hand of the Father.

Now, this centurion had to be well acquainted with death.

And who knows how many last breaths he had witnessed, and how many last breaths he had witnessed through crucifixion.

But he saw the way Jesus breathed his last, and then he confessed Jesus as God.

You know, maybe it was the darkness, maybe it was the earth shaking, maybe it was a combination of everything that was going on, but the way Jesus died stood out to this guy, and he confessed Jesus as God.

Verse 40.

There were also women watching from a distance.

Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James the younger, and of Joseph and Solome.

So, women here in our congregation, you should love this verse.

Jesus' most faithful and courageous disciples were women.

All the guys ran off.

Peter denied even knowing Jesus.

And who is there at the cross with him in the end?

It's his women disciples.

And among these women was Mary Magdalene, which we see a lot in the Gospels, and Mary, the mother of James the Younger.

So there was Jesus' disciple, James, that was the of the Peter, James, and John that we see, the sons of Zebedee.

And then there was this James, referred to as James the Younger, or maybe your translations might say James the Lesser.

And it was just a way that they distinguished between those two disciples, both named James.

So this is his mom, James the Younger's mom, with Mary Magdalene and with these other women that we see in verse 41.

It says, In Galilee, these women followed him and took care of him.

Many other women had come up with him to Jerusalem.

You know, we often see artwork and these pictures of Jesus surrounded by all men.

And yes, his twelve disciples absolutely were all men, but many of his other disciples were women.

And it says that they took care of him.

You know, and I just picture this, you know, Jesus not being married, of these women just coming like, you're not eating enough.

You know, you look like you're just skin and bones.

Are you getting enough sleep?

You look tired, you know?

Or, you know, your tunic's looking all raggedy and old.

I'm gonna make you another one.

You know, that's just kind of how I picture these women taking care of Jesus in his time of ministry.

But verse 42.

It says, when it was already evening, because it was the day of preparation, that is, the day before Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Sanhedrin, who was himself looking forward to the kingdom of God, came and boldly went to Pilate and asked for Jesus' body.

So here we have Joseph of Arimathea, new character introduced.

And it says that he was not just a member of the Sanhedrin, which is the ruling council in Jerusalem, of the religious council.

He was a prominent member of the Sanhedrin.

And then Matthew's gospel mentions that he was very, very wealthy.

Which I'm guessing Joseph did this unknowingly, but he actually fulfilled the prophecy that we see in Isaiah 53.9 that says, He was assigned a grave with the wicked, but he was with a rich man at his death.

That's Joseph of Arimathea, that's spoken of in Isaiah 53.9.

And you may be asking yourself, you know, where was this guy during Jesus' trial?

Well, Luke's gospel actually fills in a little bit for us, and it says that Joseph did not agree with the Sanhedrin's plan concerning Jesus.

But at the same time, we don't see that he stood up in opposition and made a fuss about it either.

It just says that he didn't agree with it.

And asking Pilate for Jesus' body, it says that it was bold, but it was really a bold move for a member of the Sanhedrin to do this.

Now, the corpse of the crucified, whoever they were, were sometimes given back to family members.

If they were asked for, and then they granted for the family member to have the body of the crucified.

Otherwise, if you were crucified, you'd be thrown into a smoldering garbage dump outside of the city wall to kind of add more insult to injury, so to speak, and like one last shameful act is just to be thrown in a garbage heap that was already smoldering.

Verse 44.

So crucifixion was meant to be this lasting torture and pain and suffocation.

So Pilate's actually amazed that only after six hours on the cross, that he's already dead.

So amazed that he actually has to investigate himself.

Brings the centurion to confirm that Joseph isn't just lying.

Verse 46.

After he bought some linen cloth, Joseph took him down and wrapped him in the linen.

So Joseph did not do this by himself.

It was not a one-person job to do all that we're going to see in the coming passages.

And John, the Gospel of John fills in some gaps for us.

So I'm going to read you John 19, starting in verse 38, to kind of fill in a couple of the gaps that were missing in Mark, because Mark is such a fast-paced gospel.

Some of the details might help us a little bit.

So John 19, starting in verse 38, says, After this, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might remove Jesus' body.

Pilate gave him permission.

So he came and took his body away.

Verse 39.

Nicodemus, who had previously come to him at night, also came bringing a mixture of about seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloes.

They took Jesus' body and wrapped it in linen cloths with fragrant spices, according to the burial custom of the Jews.

There was a garden in the place where he was crucified.

A new tomb was in the garden, no one had yet been placed in.

They placed Jesus there because of the Jewish day of preparation, getting ready for the Passover, and since the tomb was nearby.

So there are probably a handful of people at this point that are helping with all that's going on.

You know, when you think about how many people it would take to carry a body and then to carry the 75 pounds of myrrh and aloees, we're probably talking about at least a handful of people at this point.

And we know that Nicodemus, as we just saw in John, was also a member of the Sanhedrin.

So two guys from the group that initiated Jesus' arrest and crucifixion are the ones that are leading this burial.

This is basically them signing off on ever being a part of the Sanhedrin again.

And I think these guys obviously knew each other before Jesus' trial.

And who knows, maybe they found each other in the three hours of darkness and started chatting about, okay, let's talk about this.

Maybe they were recounting some of the prophecies that they obviously knew so well.

And then maybe they started realizing that maybe they should have spoken up a little bit louder during Jesus' trial.

But at some point they agree, you know what?

Let's go get the body and let's give up our lives as we know it to bury our Messiah.

And I want us for a second, not to be gruesome, but I want us to think about what this took for these two guys and whoever was helping them.

Think of the blood and the raw flesh that they're dealing with.

Think of what a gruesome task this would be just to handle the body of Christ after everything that we've seen him suffer through.

And I kind of wonder as they're doing this.

I'm wondering, were they talking?

Or were they doing this in silence?

Were they doing this as they sobbed?

As they realized all that had happened?

Are they wondering if they should have spoken up more?

That maybe their faith in Jesus should have not been a secret?

But maybe they should have spoken up about their faith in Christ with the people that were around them?

Were they sitting there kicking themselves for not standing up more during that trial?

And as they're preparing his body, you know, was prophecy running through their minds.

You know, they knew the book of Isaiah, they knew the book of Psalms as well as anyone in Israel.

So were they cleaning his wounds and thinking of all that took place in Psalm 22?

Or were they thinking of Isaiah 53 as they're sitting there wiping blood off and prepping the body of Jesus and wrapping him in a linen cloth?

But this rich man and Nicodemus took it upon themselves to do this and not allow Jesus' body to be shamed once more by being thrown in the garbage heap.

Because it was finished.

Jesus didn't need to be shamed or experience any more shame, because his body would never be shamed again after it was finished.

Look at the second half of verse 46.

It says, Then he laid him in a tomb, cut out of the rock, and rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.

Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joseph, were watching where he was laid.

So these tombs could only be afforded by the rich.

And Joseph is giving Jesus this tomb.

This is a tomb that had to be chipped out of a rock with a chisel and hammer.

And if you think about all of the labor that that would take, only the very rich could afford.

And so Joseph gives him a burial fit for a king.

And I think it's important to point out that witnesses saw Jesus placed in the tomb.

Witnesses saw the stone rolled into place.

And this is two different groups of people that could corroborate that Jesus was dead and buried and sealed in a tomb.

And we're going to pick up on that idea and that thought next week when we look at Jesus' resurrection.

But today I want to leave you with this.

Kind of the same way that we started.

Regardless of how long you've been following Jesus, this is a great reminder for all of us.

And if you've never considered yourself a follower of Jesus, you need to hear this too.

Jesus became sin for us.

He died in our place on a cross for us.

He paid the wage that was owed because of our rebellion against God.

And he bore the wrath of God towards sin in our place.

And he made a way for us to have direct access to God without the need of a priest or any man standing in between us and him.

And now we have this free gift.

And Jesus is holding it out and he's saying, Will you take it?

He doesn't force us to take it.

We just need to extend our hand to the hand that has holes in it and take that free gift of salvation that he has so freely offered to each one of us.

So my question is, will you reach out to that nail-pierced hand and take that free gift of salvation?

We saw it wasn't free for Jesus.

He paid a lot, he paid everything.

But it's a free gift to us, and all we have to do is just reach out and take it.

The Bible says if we confess with our mouth, and if we believe in our heart that He died for us, that He is God, that we will be saved, that we will get to enjoy eternity with Him.

So will you receive that gift?

Will you pray with me?

And if you want to receive that gift this morning, would you just pray with me right now?

Jesus, I now understand all that you did for me.

I understand the price that you paid for me.

And that it was because of my rebellion and my sin against you that you had to do this for me.

But now I recognize that, and I want to reach out and accept that free gift of salvation so that we can now have direct access to God.

Jesus, I thank you for the sin that you have washed clean through the blood that you spilled on the cross.

And I now want to make you Lord over my life.

To submit to you and to allow you to live in and through me.

God, I thank you so much for the gift of Jesus Christ.

Lord, help us to remember and have hearts of gratitude, like this is the first time we've ever heard any of this.

That we can be washed clean.

That you want to tabernacle among us, you want to live inside of us.

And as a follower of Christ, that we have the Holy Spirit living in and through us is amazing.

And we thank you so much that we get to enjoy that.

That you desire to be that near to us.

So Lord, I pray that we would live like that.

And we would live through you living and working in and through us.

We pray.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.