Sunday Sermon

"Wrapped in Cloth"
[Mark 15:42-47]
December 10, 2006 Second Reformed Church

"And this will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger" (Luke 2:12). What are "swaddling cloths"? If you've seen artists portraits of the Baby Jesus, He is often wrapped in a fine cloth. But that would not have been the case: babies were wrapped in strips of plain cloth, to keep them warm and safe, and to function as a diaper. Many of us will remember cloth diapers. Jesus was wrapped in something like that as a Baby, in the manger. Mary and Joseph were poor; they couldn't afford finery.

It was a different scene at the crucifixion.

Jesus had been crucified at 9 a. m. and at 3 p. m. -- a mere six hours later -- He had breathed His last and died. His suffering, in hours, was very short -- people who were crucified often hung on the cross throughout the night -- the strongest for days before succumbing. But Jesus was weak after losing a great deal of blood from the flogging and other tortures He endured before the crucifixion. And He had endured the full Wrath of God for all of our sin. And He died.

When it had become late -- that is -- when it was getting close to sunset, Joseph of Arimathea came, asking for the Body of Jesus. Why then? Why before sunset? In the Hebrew way of counting time, the day begins and ends with sunset. So they began each day with rest, and worked until the end of the day. In Western culture, we look at the day as beginning with sunrise, and we work, and then we receive rest, almost like a prize at the end of the day. We fall into our beds, collapse, and go to sleep. The Hebrew way of looking at the day is to see a time of rest that prepares us for the day ahead. Instead of rest being what we do after we have worked all day; rest was what we were given to prepare for and be able to carry out all that the day has for us.

And it happened that the day after Jesus was crucified was the Sabbath -- Jesus was crucified on Friday, so, sunset would be the beginning of the Sabbath day, and they would not work. They would not even do the work of removing a body from a cross. So, the options were to leave Jesus, dead, on the cross until the first day of the week, or to quickly remove Him and put Him in a tomb before the sunset and deal with embalming on the first day of the week.

Notice something here: they were willing to miss some of the prayers and sacrifices of the Passover holiday to see Jesus crucified, and to be with Him while He was crucified, but they were not willing to profane the Sabbath. They understood the Sabbath to be of much greater importance than the holidays.

In Western culture, we've turned that around as well. We've all heard of Christmas and Easter Christians -- people who come to worship on Christmas and Easter Sundays -- the big ones -- even though they never darken the door of the sanctuary any other day of the week. But the example from the Scripture, and from Church History, is that the Sabbath, the Lord's Day, regular Sunday worship is far greater and of much greater importance than the holidays. Showing up for the holidays says little or nothing about a person. A Christian will be in worship for every worship service that it is possible for him to be in.

There has been a great change in emphasis: we use to rest and then work, and celebrate the Lord each week, now we work and then rest, and celebrate the Lord on the "biggies."

Joseph of Arimethea was a member of the Sanhedrin -- a prominent and well thought of member of the Sanhedrin -- the group that condemned Jesus. So, we see that it was not a universal condemnation; not all of the Pharisees and scribes and elders rejected Jesus. Our Scripture tells us that Joseph of Arimethea was one who looked expectantly for the Kingdom of God -- he believed in Jesus for salvation -- he looked and waited expectantly for the Kingdom to break through. He was known as someone who was anxious to see the Work of God come to pass.

What do people think of you? What do non-Christians think of you? Are considered to be an honest and upright person at your job? Do people respect you as a person, even if they believe your religious views are nutty? Or, do they say that you don't let your religion get in the way of being or doing...whatever? Would we have had the courage and conviction to go to the Roman Governor, Pilate, and ask him for the Body of Jesus?

"My lord, the Sabbath is upon us, and we may not do work on the Sabbath. If you be pleased, may I have the Body of Jesus, that we might bury Him before the Sabbath?"

"He's dead? Already? It seems too soon. Centurion -- go, make sure that the King of the Jews is dead, and if He is, then give His Corpse to this man."

And we know from the other Gospels that the centurion went out and thrust a spear into Jesus, and blood and water ran out. He was dead. So the centurion removed Jesus from the cross and gave His Body to Joseph.

And for a second time in His Life, Jesus was wrapped in cloth. But this time it was not in scraps of cloth -- in swaddling cloths -- but it was in a fine linen burial cloth -- something very expensive. We're told in the other Gospels that Joseph of Arimethea was a very wealthy man. So He wrapped Jesus' Body, carefully, lovingly, like the treasure in a burial cloth -- one like the one he would one day have for his own burial. And he took Jesus to the tomb that he had made for himself. As Isaiah prophesied, "And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth" (Isaiah 53:9).

And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw the tomb and knew where He was buried. They had walked to the place and watched Joseph put Him in the tomb, and they had stayed there until the tomb was sealed.

Joseph's grave had been cut out of stone and had a large stone which rolled down into a gully, so once it was sealed, it would be extremely difficult to open again. Yet, the Pharisees were afraid and they went to Pilate, "and said, 'Sir, we remember how that imposter said, while he was still alive, "After three days I will rise." Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him and tell the people, "He has risen from the dead," and the last fraud will be worse than the first'" (Matthew 27:63-64).

So Pilate ordered that wax be poured on the seal of the tomb, and the imperial seal was pressed into the wax, and guards were set at the tomb. The punishment for breaking the imperial seal was death, and the guards were there to carry out the law on any who dared to try to break in.

In theology, we talk about the humiliation and the exaltation of Jesus. Before the creation and up through before the Incarnation, God the Son lived in perfect communion with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. The Three Persons, our One God, sat on Their thrones and ruled exalted over all. In the Holy Counsel of God, the Son decided to become Incarnate for the sake of God's people and to the Glory of the Father.

The Incarnation began the humiliation of the Son. That simply means that He left His Glorious and Exalted State. The Son left His Throne and was Incarnate on earth. Paul wrote, "[The Son], though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even to death on a cross" (Philippians 2:6-8).

Let's not get confused, the Son did not become less that God in the Incarnation, He "simply" -- as great a mystery as it is -- put aside the Glory and the Honor that was due Him as God, and became like you and me in every way, except He did not have original sin, nor did He sin. Jesus was born, a real human being, with a real body, just like every one of our bodies, with all of its needs and struggles. This was part of what is called the "humiliation" of the Son -- He set aside His Glory and Honor, and He became a real human being and lived under His Own Law -- under the Law that God had given to His people -- and He lived under the Law perfectly, never sinning.

The depth of His humiliation is found in His Crucifixion and Death. The Holy God Incarnate became a curse. He became the opposite of what He is that He might be punished for our sake. Paul wrote, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us -- for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree' -- so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith" (Galatians 3:13-14).

For each one of us who would believe and to the Glory of God the Father, the Son humbled, or humiliated, Himself by coming down from His Throne to earth, Incarnate Jesus, lived sinlessly under God's Law, so that that sinless life could and would be applied to each one of us, and then He was crucified, suffered Hell, and died, having descending into the depths of punishment for the sake of our sin. And remember, as I pointed out last week, if Jesus was not forsaken by the Father, if Jesus did not suffer the full Wrath of God and the full extent of the punishment for all of our sins, if there is one depth of sin for which He has not suffered, it will be that very one that we will be lost in forever. But thanks be to God, His Humiliation, His Suffering, was complete, so He cried out, "It is finished!" (John 19:30b).

Let us remember the Hebrew perspective, the perspective of Jesus on this humiliation: yes, it was horrific beyond what we can ever imagine, still, it was He who chose it, with an eye towards His Exaltation after death and the accomplishing of the Work that He set out to do.

As the writer of Hebrews tells us, we ought to be "looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2).

Because His Death was not the end of the story, we can look back now and understand the necessity of His Humiliation and Death. As Paul joyfully reminds us, "We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him" (Romans 6:9). So, we have been freed from our debt for sin, and we too are no longer under the dominion of death. Thanks be to God.

Let us understand the necessity, wonder, and joy of the depths Christ journeyed for us -- from Incarnation to Death. Let us give thanks that He has delivered us by this Finished Work. And let us live lives that are different -- let us be people who are known for being good and honest workers, and for being those who expectantly look for the full coming of the Kingdom of God.

Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for sending Your Son to be born and suffer and die for us. We thank You that this Work the He accomplished is a glory to You. And we ask that You would be gracious and glorified in making us an honest and upright people who long, expectantly and excitedly, for Your Soon Coming Return. In Jesus' Name, Amen.