Luke 23:50 Commentary and Bible Study

Do you understand the burial in the cave? The disciples didn't, they didn't even want to be there. They didn't want any part of it. Isn't it strange that it is an unknown disciple that takes responsibility for the burial of Jesus? He was a man very often described as a secret disciple, not one of the disciples, but another man who we don't hear of before, Joseph of Arimathaea. He was the man who took the body, who had the boldness to go to the authorities and say, ‘Let me bury him.’ Actually, he was saving the authorities from a considerable dilemma, because having crucified the Lord, they didn't quite know what to do with the body, where to bury him. Just at the time, there was this secret disciple who came along and took the body and gave it a tomb. But you notice, the disciples didn't. Why didn't Peter and James and John do that? Because they still didn't understand what was going on. They wanted no part of this, no part of this burial. Why was he buried? Why was he put in a tomb? So that it could be quite clear that he really had tasted death and died for us: that the Son of God was tasting death, that the Son of God, having borne away my sin, was now going to break the bands of death for me. And therefore, he truly died and was put in a tomb. He was going to be put in a tomb so that he could prove that he had the power of life.