A Burial With Honor  

based on Isaiah 53:9a

by Pastor Richard Mau

Good Friday Noon – April 18, 2003

Immanuel Lutheran – Des Plaines, IL

 

 

Isaiah 53:9a He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death.

 

 

            Recently we have seen on the news accounts of military men buried with honors.  The contingent assigned to a proper military burial is called, an honor guard.  Those who have given their lives in military service or have served our nation in extraordinary capacities receive this distinction.  We can also think of burial places marked, and tombs and memorials erected that display the honor given individuals.  Many have been to Springfield to visit Abraham Lincoln’s tomb.  In Washington D. C. we can see the Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and other memorials erected to honor those who served our nation with distinction and bravery.  In contrast, because of war and oppressive governments we see examples of common and mass graves where people’s remains were hastily put aside without any recognition.

 

            In the passage from Isaiah that we read at the beginning of the service, most of the focus was on the prophecy of shame and dishonor that our Lord and Savior suffered on our behalf at the hands of the leaders of the Temple and the Roman government.  We know that all of these things occurred according to God’s perfect plan.  God foretold and led these events to occur for several reasons.  One is to prove to all people his love for you.  Another is to assure you that this was not just another tragic event in the course of human history, but God’s plan.  Another is to demonstrate to us the great extent God would go to save his people from their sins.  From these verses and the account of Jesus’ suffering and death, God impresses on us the immense suffering that Hell must be as Jesus suffered all of these things for you. 

 

            There is one small, hidden verse that we can easily overlook. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death.  [Isaiah 53:9a]  Jesus did die the death of a sinner.  In fact, his crucifixion was officially recorded that he was a traitor.  “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,” was the sentence Pilate had placed on his cross.  Jesus died the sentence that we should be under as we have put ourselves in God’s place in our selfish and self-serving disobedience to his will and commands.  We are guilty of high treason in our sins which are open rebellion against God. 

 

The Jewish leaders charged him with blasphemy, claiming to be God.  How true that charge was because Jesus is “the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds.”  [Nicene Creed]  In the Revelation to John it is stated about Jesus, “On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”  [Revelation 19:16]

 

            The moment Jesus died, his purpose to die to pay the price of all of men’s sins was complete as his last words said, “It is finished.”  His moment of dishonor was now over.  His “state of humiliation” was complete.  It is at this moment that God the Father now honors his “Son in whom he is well pleased.” 

 

            It was common practice to either leave the crucified person on the cross to be destroyed by birds and scavenger animals, or crudely disposed of in a common grave.  The Jews did not allow those who died in disgrace the dignity of returning to their home to be “gathered with their people” and to “rest with their fathers,”  the practice recorded many times in Scripture of both our fathers in faith and the kings who served Israel and Judah. 

 

            By the power of the Holy Spirit, a prominent member of the council, Joseph of Arimathea, had become a disciple of Jesus.  He was joined by Nicodemus who was the Pharisee who came to Jesus at night.   Together they took Jesus’ body to bury him.  They took him to a new tomb that Joseph had recently had hewn out.  It was in a garden, a very special place.  Nicodemus brought seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloes to prepare Jesus body for burial. In contrast to a crude, humiliating and dishonorable death, Jesus’ body is placed in a new, previously unused, and private tomb in a special garden.  In contrast to dying without any possessions as even his clothing was taken away from him, he is now prepared with burial spices in the amount usually put aside for a royal burial.  

 

            The betrayal, mock trials, suffering and cruel death were God’s plan to bring us salvation.  Jesus had lived a life of perfect obedience to God’s will and commands in our stead.  Jesus suffered and died, forsaken by God the Father on the cross in our stead on the cross.  In his death, our sins died with him.

 

            Now, God the Father would not permit disgrace to mock his son in death.  God’s plan was that after Christ died in the company of sinners, he would be “assigned with the rich in his death.”  This burial place, this tomb, would shortly become the greatest monument of all time.  It would be at this tomb that Jesus would rise from the dead.  At the moment of his resurrection, God’s pledge to crush Satan’s head came true.  Death is a captive place for sin.  How can death contain someone who has no sin?  How can a grave contain someone who is righteous before God?  How can a tomb hold captive one who is holy, who is God?  In Jesus’ resurrection this tomb became a monument not for mourning or merely remembering someone who did commendable and brave things.  This tomb becomes a monument to celebrate the riches of eternal life in God’s kingdom that Jesus won for us in his suffering, death, and victory over the grave.

 

            At the end of this evening’s final service, we will extinguish all candles in this church.  We will remove and extinguish the Christ candle to indicate our Savior’s death.  Then, on Easter morning we will light the Paschal Candle.  It represents Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.  It represents the victory over death Jesus gives us in that resurrection.  It represents the new life we have in our baptism as we light it for each baptismal service.  We were baptized into Jesus’ death as he took our sins to that grave.  We are baptized in his resurrection that is the victory over sin, death and the devil.  What an honorable place, that tomb where Jesus lay.  It was made honorable because of what he did for us, and continues to do for us, taking our sins upon himself and presenting us to our heavenly Father in his holiness and righteousness for eternal life with him.  Amen.

 

Contact Us	Immanuel Lutheran Church	Home	Recent Sermons	Immanuel Lutheran School
	The E-Messenger		This Month @ Immanuel