When All Seems Lost
After hanging on the cross for nearly 6 hours, Jesus bows His head and breathes His last breathe. At that moment the curtain of the temple is supernaturally torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shakes and the rocks split. Tombs break open and the bodies of many holy people who had died are raised to life. They come out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they go into the holy city and appear to many people.
It's the day before a special Sabbath so the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath. They ask Pilate to have the legs broken to expedite the condemned deaths and then have
the bodies taken down. The soldiers break the legs of the other two, but when they come to Jesus, they find that he is already dead. Instead, one of the soldiers pierces Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a
sudden flow of blood and water showing that He is dead.
As evening approaches, a rich man named Joseph boldly goes to Pilate and asks for Jesus' body. Pilate orders that Jesus' body be given to
Joseph.
Joseph, accompanied by Nicodemus, takes down the body, wraps it in a clean linen cloth, and places it in a new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolls a big stone in front of the entrance to
the tomb and goes away.
Mary Magdalene and some other women had followed Joseph and see the tomb where Jesus' body is laid.
Meanwhile, some of the religious leaders go to Pilate and say, "We
remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.' So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and
steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first."
"Take a guard," Pilate answers. "Go, make the tomb as secure
as you know how." So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.
The transcript above was taken from passages in Matthew 27; Mark 15; Luke 23; John 19; and miscellaneous passages in both the Old and New Testament as well as from historical
background information.
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