Matthew 27:56-66 - The Burial of Jesus
The Hidden Depths of the Burial Narrative
In the grand scope of the Passion narrative, the burial of Jesus Christ often serves merely as a transitional pause between the tragedy of Good Friday and the triumph of Easter Sunday. Yet beneath the seemingly straightforward historical account lies profound theological significance. The burial does not merely record the disposal of a corpse; it verifies the absolute reality of Christ’s physical death, fulfills ancient prophecy, and sets the stage for the definitive victory of the resurrection. When examined closely, the hours between the cross and the empty tomb reveal the unfathomable depth of divine redemption.
The timeline of Good Friday moved with deliberate theological weight. Following His arrest in Gethsemane and six successive trials before Jewish and Roman authorities, Jesus was crucified at approximately nine in the morning. Darkness shrouded the land from noon until three in the afternoon, at which point the Savior cried out and yielded up His spirit. In that climactic moment, the Lord bore the full weight of human sin upon Himself, executing the great exchange wherein He who knew no sin became sin on behalf of humanity.
Matthew 27:46 (NASB)
About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?’ that is, ‘MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?’
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB)
He made Him who knew no sin [to be] sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
The Urgency of the Burial and the Courage of Secret Disciples
With Jesus declared dead at three in the afternoon, a severe logistical dilemma arose. According to Jewish law and custom, the Sabbath commenced at sunset, approximately six o’clock in the evening. During the Sabbath, all labor, transit, and corpse handling ceased completely. With only a brief window before the Sabbath began, the task of securing permission for the body, transporting it, wrapping it with spices, and sealing the tomb required immediate and courageous action.
At this critical juncture, unexpected figures emerged to honor the Crucified King. Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy and respected member of the Sanhedrin who had quietly awaited the kingdom of God, gathered the boldness to approach Pontius Pilate directly. Seeking the body of a condemned and executed prisoner was a perilous endeavor, carrying both social stigma and political risk. After confirming Christ’s death through the testimony of a Roman centurion, Pilate granted the request.
Matthew 27:57-58 (NASB)
When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given [to him].
Mark 15:43-45 (NASB)
Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the Council, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God; and he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate wondered if He was dead by this time, and summoning the centurion, he questioned him as to whether He was already dead. And ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph.
Joseph was joined in this labor by Nicodemus, the Pharisee who had once approached Jesus under the cover of night. Nicodemus brought an extraordinary offering of myrrh and aloes weighing approximately one hundred Roman pounds—a quantity fit for the burial of royalty. Together, these former secret disciples tenderly wrapped the body of Jesus in clean linen cloths according to Jewish customs, demonstrating publicly the faith they had previously kept in the shadows.
John 19:38-40 (NASB)
After these things Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret [one] for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate granted permission. So he came and took away His body. Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds [weight]. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.
Prophetic Fulfillment in a Rich Man’s Tomb
Jesus was laid within a brand-new tomb hewn out of solid rock, which belonged to Joseph himself. While the immediate selection of this site was driven by proximity—the garden tomb was situated near the place of crucifixion—it operated under the sovereign superintendence of God to fulfill ancient Scripture. Centurions typically cast executed criminals into common, unmarked graves alongside the wicked. Yet centuries before the event, the prophet Isaiah foretold that the suffering Servant would be assigned a grave with the wicked, yet find His final resting place with a rich man in His death.
Isaiah 53:9 (NASB)
His 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.
Matthew 27:59-60 (NASB)
And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.
Observing this rushed burial from a distance were the devoted women from Galilee, including Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses. Having noted the exact location and condition of the tomb, they returned home to prepare additional aromatic spices and perfumes, intending to complete the anointing process as an act of worship once the Sabbath concluded.
Luke 23:55-56 (NASB)
Now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed, and saw the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
The Paranoia of the Religious Leaders and the Sealed Tomb
While the disciples mourned and the women rested on the Sabbath, panic gripped the chief priests and Pharisees. In an ironic twist, the religious leaders recalled Jesus’s prophetic declarations concerning His resurrection on the third day far more clearly than His own followers did. Desperate to prevent any claim of a resurrection, they committed a severe religious compromise by meeting with Pilate on the holy Sabbath.
Matthew 27:62-64 (NASB)
Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, and said, ’Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I [am to] rise again.’ ’Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise His disciples may come and steal Him away and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.’
Labeling Jesus a deceiver, the authorities petitioned Pilate to secure the tomb until the third day had elapsed. Pilate consented, ordering the Roman guard to secure the entrance. A heavy stone was rolled against the tomb’s opening, stamped with the official imperial seal, and placed under military watch. Far from thwarting God’s redemptive plan, this hostile Roman guard and unbroken seal provided unassailable historical validation that the tomb was occupied and secure, rendering the impending miracle of the resurrection beyond refutation.
Matthew 27:65-66 (NASB)
Pilate said to them, ‘You have a guard; go, make it [as] secure as you know how.’ And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone.
The Intermediate State: Where Was Christ Between Death and Resurrection?
The physical burial of Jesus is historically clear, yet Scripture also provides insight into the spiritual reality of those three days. When Jesus died on the cross, His physical body remained in the tomb, but His human spirit departed into the hands of the Father. A common misconception, rooted in medieval traditions and imprecise creedal translations, suggests that Jesus descended into hell to suffer ongoing torment or do combat with Satan. However, Christ’s definitive declaration on the cross—“It is finished”—signals that the work of atonement was entirely completed at Calvary.
John 19:30 (NASB)
Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
Luke 23:46 (NASB)
And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT.’ Having said this, He breathed His last.
To comprehend the intermediate state of Christ’s spirit, one must understand how salvation operated for Old Testament believers. Across all ages, salvation is by grace through faith alone. Old Testament saints did not possess a full understanding of the historical Jesus, yet they placed their faith in the promise and character of God as revealed in their day—whether through the promise of the seed in Genesis, the covenant with Abraham, or the Davidic promises. Upon physical death, these saints entered a state of comfort often described as Abraham’s bosom or Paradise, separate from the realm of torment.
Genesis 15:6 (NASB)
Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Luke 16:22-26 (NASB)
’Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. ’In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. ’And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’ ’But Abraham said, ’Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. ‘And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and [that] none may cross over from there to us.’
When Jesus assured the repentant thief on the cross that they would be together “in Paradise” that very day, He indicated that His spirit was departing to the realm of the righteous dead, not to a place of punitive agony. The term Hades or Sheol in biblical terminology primarily denotes the realm of the dead rather than eternal damnation. Christ’s entrance into the realm of the dead functioned as a triumphant proclamation of His completed redemptive work, validating the anticipatory faith of the Old Covenant saints and inaugurating the presence of God in Paradise before ascending in glory.
Luke 23:43 (NASB)
And He said to him, ‘Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.’
Acts 2:27 (NASB)
BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT ABANDON MY SOUL TO HADES, NOR ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY.
1 Peter 3:18-19 (NASB)
For Christ also died for sins once for all, [the] just for [the] unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits [now] in prison,
The Sufficiency of the Atonement and the Believer’s Hope
The burial of Jesus stands as an enduring monument to the complete sufficiency of His sacrificial death. There is no ongoing suffering required to purchase redemption, nor is there any need for a purgatorial cleansing of sins. Scripture explicitly affirms that human destiny is settled in this life: it is appointed for humanity to die once, and after that comes judgment. Christ bore the entirety of divine wrath upon the tree, leaving no unpaid debt for those who trust in Him.
Hebrews 9:27 (NASB)
And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this [comes] judgment,
Romans 8:1 (NASB)
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For those united to Christ by faith, physical death holds no enduring terror. The intermediate state for the Christian is immediate entrance into the conscious presence of the Lord, while eagerly awaiting the bodily resurrection at His return. Because Christ entered the grave and emerged victorious, the grave is no longer an eternal prison for His people, but a sanctified passage into everlasting life.
2 Corinthians 5:8 (NASB)
we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 (NASB)
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
The narrative of Christ’s burial calls every individual to reckon with the finality of His work. He was wounded for transgressions, wrapped in linens, and laid in the earth as an unblemished sacrifice. In His burial, prophecy was fulfilled, the law was honored, and the path to life was paved. The stone was rolled, the seal was set, but the grave could not hold the Author of Life.