April 17 – LD 16, Day 2: The Fourth State of Humiliation

Acts 13:29 - “And when they had fulfilled all that was written of Him, they took Him down from the tree, and laid Him in a sepulchre.”

The soldiers pierced His side with a sword. As water and blood gushed out, it was evident that Jesus was dead and there was no need to break His legs. They took the body down from the cross. Would one of His disciples come forward to bury the body? None of the twelve were present, but after Jesus’ body was taken down from the cross, Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus requested to have the body so that they could bury it. They took the body and they buried it in Joseph’s new tomb. All of this was according to prophecy.

Not to be buried was viewed a curse. As Jesus had endured the curse of Golgotha and hell itself, no more curse was necessary.

Yet, to have your body buried is not honorable but humiliating. It is difficult for us to lay the bodies of our loved ones in the grave. Man who was created king over the earth, is laid in the dust of the ground. The act is final. We will never know that person like we did before again. This burial for Jesus, the King of kings, was deep humiliation. Jesus entered into the experience and humiliation of man to such a degree that this too was not omitted.

Christ entered the realm of the dead in order to conquer the power of the grave. The body of Christ had to be buried so that it could rise again and overcome the power of sin and the grave. We bury the bodies of our loved ones by faith, believing that their bodies, with that of Christ’s, are sown in corruption, but raised in incorruption.