Isaiah 53:9

Good Friday

Theme: A rich burial

⁹His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

The final honor accorded to an important person is a rich burial. The Pharaohs of ancient Egypt built the pyramids for their tombs and lined them with gold. The Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.E. stand as landmarks to these great men. A towering tombstone or a granite mausoleum is a lasting tribute to honor the one whose name is inscribed there.

On Good Friday, Christ’s ignoble death was in the company of “wicked men,” but according to God’s plan, he received the honor of a burial by a rich man. Joseph of Arimathea gave Christ a tomb that was suitable for a righteous, noble, and wealthy man—a rich burial. All baptized believers are buried with the lavish riches of God’s grace in Christ, which promises resurrection and the priceless inheritance of eternal life.

Our text is a prophecy about the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry. It begins by saying: “He assigned his grave with wicked men.” God the Father is the one who assigned to Christ his grave. The circumstances of Good Friday are not accidents of history. Rather all took place according to God’s plan. And that prophetic plan was for Christ’s grave to be among “wicked men.” Then the verse concludes by saying: “but with a rich man in his death.”

So how was Christ treated—as shameful or honorable, poor or rich?

As Jesus Christ died and was buried on this day nearly 2000 years ago, he fulfilled both lines of our verse. Jesus was assigned a grave with wicked men and with a rich man in his death. His rich burial holds great promise for each of us.

The first part of God’s plan was that Jesus should die in the hands of his enemies. They plotted to kill the one who claimed to be the King of the Jews, even though his kingdom was not of this world. They bribed Judas to betray him. Jesus was arrested and led through a series of sham trials before Jewish leaders and the Roman governor. He was unjustly condemned to what was known in the ancient world as the mors turpissima cruces, “the most vile death of the cross.”

In the story of Jesus’ death we find violent criminals not unlike the terrorists who attacked New York City on September 11, 2001. They imagined that they were serving God by their manslaughter, but in actuality they were serving the devil, who is the author of murder.

Instead of freeing Jesus, Pilate freed Barabbas, a murderous insurrectionist. On Christ’s right and left, were crucified two criminals. Thus Jesus was numbered with the transgressors. The sinless Son of God pined away beside criminals, “although he had done no violence nor was any deceit in his mouth.” Such was the ignomínious death planned for Jesus by his enemies. In this way the first line of our verse was fulfilled: God assigned Jesus’ grave with wicked men.

Jesus’ death in the company of abject sinners was the capstone of his ministry to and among sinners. Christ came to be known as the “friend of sinners.” He associated with tax collectors and prostitutes, the poor and the lowly, those who were despised and scorned. Now alone in his death, Christ identifies with sinners, executed as a criminal in the company of wicked men. His sole possession—a robe—became the soldier’s gamble. Forsaken, stripped of all dignity and bereft of any possession, he dies in utter poverty.

Christ’s death as a criminal and in the company of criminals is fitting for us, because it is on account of our sinful nature that we too shall one day die and be buried. It is in shame and sin that we die for death is the punishment of sin; the wages of sin is death!

Jesus’ death as a criminal and among criminals was God’s plan to bring us salvation. Jesus’ death as a sinner; in the place of sinners. His death as a sinner procured the forgiveness of sins for all humanity. Isaiah expresses this in his words: “He was pierced for our transgression, crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him and by his wounds we are healed.”

By grace alone and through Baptism into Christ’s atoning death God takes away our sin and clothes us in the robe of Christ’s perfect righteousness. He who died in abject poverty gives us a share in the victory’s spoils. The riches of eternal life. This too Isaiah foretold: “My servant will justify the many so that each is righteous and he will carry their iniquities. Therefore Good Friday I will give to him his portion while he is among the many and he will divide the spoil with the numerous.”

In ancient Israel, as today, it was an honor to be buried next to your relatives. A man buried in the family plot slept with his father. It was a dishonor to be consigned namelessly to a public cemetery. To be denied any burial was an abomination and God’s curse. According to the Torah, even the most accursed criminals who were impaled were to be buried, lest the corpse defile the land. But the pagan, gentile Romans, who lacked God’s Torah often left crucified victims on the cross to be attacked by birds of prey and other scavengers, to suffer the most horrific humiliation even after death. Christ’s enemies may have envisioned such a dishonor for him.

But God the Father would not permit such disgrace to mock his Son after his death. As Jesus prayed, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” and breathed his last, he completed the redemption of all humanity for all time. Jesus’ state of humiliation was over. Rich glory awaited.

God’s plan was that after Christ died in the company of wicked men, he was to be “with a rich man in his death.” Joseph of Arimathea was a “good and righteous” Jewish man who had become a disciple of Jesus Christ. He took a bold step of faith. God moved him to ask Pontius Pilate for the body of Jesus. Joseph wished to give Christ his last honors. It took a brave man to request the body of a criminal, for by doing so he declared his allegiance to the one who had been executed and he could be next.

This Joseph was a rich man. His wealth included ownership of a tomb in a garden near Golgotha. Joseph had gone to the expense of having a tomb hewn out of solid rock—the most secure type of grave. It was not the tomb of Joseph’s ancestors, but a new tomb, for no one else had ever been laid in it. Probably Joseph had prepared it to be his own resting place. But out of love for the Lord who had taken his place on the cross, Joseph wanted Jesus to take his place in his costly tomb. Into the virgin tomb was placed the Virgin’s Son.

The sin of the first Adam caused humanity’s expulsion from the garden paradise. But the second Adam leads humanity back into paradise through his burial and resurrection in another garden. Today the church of the Holy Sepulcher marks the traditional location of the tomb. According to our text, Christ’s sepulcher was holy “because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.” By Christ’s rich burial, God testified that his Son is the Lamb of God without spot or blemish.

Most of us cannot afford an imposing stone edifice for our grave. Nevertheless, at the cemetery we pray:

Almighty God, by the death of your son Jesus Christ, you destroyed death, by his rest in the tomb you sanctified the graves of your saints, and by his glorious resurrection you brought life and immortality to light so that all who die in him abide in peace and hope.

Just as Christ’s death among criminals foretells of our death on account of sin, so his burial in a rich grave tells of the forgiveness of our sins and the eternal glory we will share with Christ in his kingdom. We too shall die the humble death of a sinner but rest eternally in glory; raised to a glorious new life as the redeemed children of God in all eternity.

The ancient pharaohs of Egypt filled their pyramid tombs with gold and every precious commodity in the false hope that their wealth could secure a blessed afterlife. But no one can rob us of God’s priceless riches in Christ, which do avail. The forgiveness of sins is ours through Christ’s crucifixion “with wicked men”. God deems us baptized believers in Christ to be Christ like: to have done no wrong nor to have any deceit in our mouth, because Christ has taken away all of our sins. The promise of resurrection is ours through his temporary rest “with a rich man in his death.”

Amen.