The Pierced Heart of Jesus

The Pierced Heart of Jesus

(No. 3559)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1917.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Then came the soldiers and broke the legs of the first, and of the
other which was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus and saw
that He was dead already, they broke not His legs, but one ofthe
soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith there came out
blood and water. And he that saw it bares record that his record is
true: and he knows that he is telling the truth, that you might
believe. For these things were done that the Scripture should be
fulfilled. A bone of Him shall not be broken. And again another
Scripture says, They shall look on Him whom they have pierced." John
19:32-37.

WHAT a wonderful conjunction of Prophecy and Providence! I want you to
behold it, and admire it. Two texts of Scripture predict, the one in
Exodus the other in Zechariah (such a long interval having occurred
between the distinct records), the former that not a bone of the
Paschal Lamb should be broken–the latter that He should be pierced.
How were these two to be fulfilled in the minuteness of one incident?
The rough Roman soldier comes with the iron bar to break the bones of
the three prisoners who have been crucified. He has orders to break
their legs. The well-disciplined soldier acts almost mechanically,
according to orders. Roman discipline was of the very sternest kind.
Will not the soldier, therefore, break the legs of Jesus? No! Moved by
some strange impulse, he marks that one of the three, Jesus, who is
called Christ, is already dead. Though commanded to break His legs, he
forbears–but, most likely to clear himself of all doubt on that point,
he pierces His side with a spear! The willfulness of the soldier,
wavering though wanton, thus fulfilled both the prophecies of which he
must have been, himself, totally ignorant! And this was brought about,
first, by his not doing what he was ordered to do and, secondly, by
doing what he had not been ordered to do! Oh, how inscrutable the
mystery of Providence! How marvelously does God rule the sons of men
while He leaves them to their own free will! Did not this soldier act
altogether as a free agent, whether following the dictates of his
reason or the impulse of his temper, when he thus unwittingly, by his
singular conduct, verified to the letter the words of Prophecy as
precisely and entirely as if he had been a mere puppet moved with wires
at the instigation of another mind and another hand than his own? This
was not an accidental circumstance, or a singular coincidence–it was
Providence–a sublime purpose of God brought to pass by simple means.
Irregularities among men do not disorganize the ordained purposes of
Heaven, and what we think to be chaos is a well-ordered system far
beyond our imagination, into which we vainly attempt to peer.

I need not detain you with any speculations arising out of the piercing
of our Savior by the spear. It has been, I think, very soberly argued
that in all probability the physical cause of our Savior's death was a
broken heart. In a scientific treatise by one who had studied the
anatomy of the subject, and investigated cases which appeared, after
death, to bear some resemblance to our Savior's case, it has been shown
that when, on the heart being pierced, a small portion of blood and
water has flowed, death has been traceable to a broken heart with
intense grief. So, if we may assign a physical cause to the death of
our Lord, it appears most probable to have been so occasioned. It was
anguish that, in the first stage, produced a bloody sweat in
Gethsemane, and in the last stage ruptured His heart. Not, however,
that I am inclined to attach any importance to such arguments or
speculations. For my part I do not see that there is any analogy, or
that analogy need be sought between the case of the Savior and the case
of any common man. The anatomist would be baffled with an analysis! The
body of any ordinary person would exhibit symptoms of corruption. From
this, He that hung upon the Cross was exempt. When death comes, and the
vital spark quits the human frame, the process of decomposition
speedily begins. But our Lord saw no corruption! Overshadowed as was
His virgin mother by the Spirit at her conception,

His birth was predicted as "that holy thingwhich shall be born of you."
Through the entire course of His life on earth, the Spirit rested upon
Him in a special manner. And even after His soul had left His body, the
Spirit preserved and kept that body so that the prophecy was fulfilled,
"Neither will You suffer Your Holy One to see corruption." Hence you
search in vain for a parallel. The disparity of any instances that
might be sought for is so palpable that you really have not any data to
start with, or any premises to reason upon in the effort to judge of
what happened in the anatomy of the sacred body of our blessed Lord.
Instead of following speculations which rather belong to the physician
than the theologian, I desire the Spirit of God to conduct us into some
spiritual reflections arising out of the piercing of the heart of Jesus
Christ by the soldier's spear. One observation, I think, lies upon the
very surface of the narrative. I. EVEN AFTER OUR LORD'S DEATH, MEN
RUDELY ASSAILED HIM.

Was it not enough that they had scourged His back? Did it not suffice
that they had put a crown of thorns on His head? Was it not sufficient
that they had nailed His feet and His hands to the Cross? And yet after
they were satisfied that the life had been forfeited to the law, and
the body was already dead, nothing could content human cruelty till His
heart was pierced with the lance! Say, now, was not this man who
pierced Christ's heart a fair, though a foul, sample of our sinful
race? His heartless act a type of our headstrong profanity? We, too,
after the Savior's death, have pierced Him! Shall I show you how? The
crime is so common that you come to condone it. His Godhead is His
Glory. Deny His Deity and you not only detract from His dignity, but
you make Him unworthy of our confidence! This is to thrust the spear
into His very heart! Your tone is treacherous when you say, "He is but
a Man. Though an admirable Teacher, I can only regard Him as a finite
creature." Oh, how many people go up and down among us professing to be
members of a Protestant Church and Believers in the Scripture, who yet
will not acknowledge the miracles of Christ to be authentic, worked in
token of His own Personal authority, bearing the witness of His Father,
and conveying a clear proof that He was the Son of God? The Lord have
mercy upon those who in this respect pierce our dear Redeemer afresh!
If any of us have been guilty of this sin, may we be converted from our
dangerous error, and led to avow Him, like Thomas, "My Lord and my
God."

They pierce Him, too, who attack the Doctrines which He taught, and the
testimony which He delivered. The Truth of God was in Christ's
heart–it was written there. Whatever He preached with His lips, He
sanctified with His life. His heart was a fountain whence came all
those Doctrines which reveal the Father to us. If men attack any Truth
revealed to us by Christ, they do in effect what the soldier did in
fact–they do spiritually as this Roman soldier did literally–they
thrust at His heart! If you disparage the words that Jesus spoke, or
call in question the Truth that He showed to His disciples and made
manifest in the Word of God, what is there left of that mission in
which He made known the will of God, the Father? To proclaim this Truth
He came! To bear witness to this Truth He died! He witnessed a good
confession before Pontius Pilate. If you touch those Doctrines, you
touch the apple of His eye–no, you pierce His heart again! How do they
also thrust at His heart who persecute His people! And has He not often
been wounded thus through all the centuries that have transpired since
He ascended up on high to the Father's right hand? Saul of Tarsus
pierced His heart, for Jesus said, "Why do you persecute Me?" The
sufferings of the men and women, hauled to prison, and beaten in the
synagogue, and compelled to blaspheme, were injuries wantonly and
wickedly done to Christ, Himself! And what shall we say of the martyrs,
their groans in the prisons, their cries at the rack, their pangs at
the stake, their blood so cruelly shed–have not all these touched the
Savior's heart?

So, too, every rude jeer and ribald jest, every hard word and bitter
taunt aimed at a follower of Christ is a reproach of the dear Lord and
Master for whose sake it is meekly borne. But on their part, "who whet
their tongue like a sword," it is aimed at the heart of Jesus, on whom
they cannot otherwise wreak their vengeance, now, for He cannot
henceforth suffer, except in sympathy with the sufferings of His
saints!

And there is yet another class of persons who, although Christ's
sufferings are over, still continue to pierce Him. They are such us
pretend to be His disciples, but they lie and practice a foul
hypocrisy! Are there any such present? I tremble as I ask the question.
As there were false apostles of yore, so there are foul apostates in
these days! Their profession is only the prelude to their perfidy. They
make solemn pledge to obey Him, but, like Judas, they only wait for a
suited opportunity to betray Him. They will sell the Savior for
silver–only let the price be high enough–their principle is low
enough! Their conscience will not hesitate to "crucify the Lord afresh,
and put Him to an open shame." Oh, you inconsistent professors! Oh, you
graceless men and women! How dare you come to the Table of His
fellowship? Youhave a name to live, and yet you are dead! You are
crucifying Him! You are piercing Him! The guilt of the Roman soldier
clings to you!

I fear, too, there is another class that pierces His heart–it includes
those who refuse to believe in His willingness to forgive them. When
under conviction of sin, it may be difficult to believe that one can be
pardoned, but when the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is revealed to us
and His infinite condescension that brought Him to suffer for us–it
does seem unbelievable that any should doubt Him! Yet there are some
who link their chains, sit down in despair, and say, "He is not willing
to forgive." So unkind, ungenerous a thought as that–that He is
unwilling to forgive–pierces Him to the heart and cuts Him to the
quick! I know some of you do not mean this. You are startled, now that
you think what you are doing. I pray the Lord you may humbly trust Him!
Oh, do not doubt Him–the Son of God, who suffered for His enemies,
surrendering His life, even for the ungodly! Will you, can you still
distrust Him? Will you doubt the testimony which God has given
concerning His Son? Were it not far better that you honored Him by
casting yourselves at His feet? Angels that sing His praises night and
day unceasingly do not honor Him more than you will do, if, all black
and defiled as you are, you will come and trust Him that He can wash
you and make you whiter than snow! Oh, do this and pierce His heart no
more!

Some men pierce the heart of Christ through their carelessness. They
trifle and even scoff because they have not known Him, or sought by any
means to learn what claims He has upon their homage. They disparage
those Divine features of His ministry which they have never properly
understood. So they pierce the heart of Christ out of ignorant
prejudice! They are unacquainted with the Gospel. All that they have
heard or read about it has been from the tongue or pen of opponent or
satirist, and then, catching their temper, they have joined in reviling
it! Alas, too, there are some who malign the Savior out of mere malice.
Though they know better, yet they willfully blaspheme His name. Stop,
oh, stop, and pierce Him no more, I pray you, lest He that has meekly
endured so long as the Lamb of God, should suddenly stir Himself up as
the lion of the tribe of Judah and make you feel the terror of His
Power, who will not feel the majesty of His love! So much for our first
point. Even after Jesus' death, there are those who still pierce Him.
Our second thought is such as I am charmed to give you.

II. THESE ATTACKS UPON THE SAVIOR ARE OVERRULED TO DISPLAY HIS GRACE
THE BETTER.

His heart is pierced, it is true, but with what result, my Brothers and
Sisters? Does there flash from it fire? Does the peal of thundering
wrath roll over the sinner's head? Ah, no! It is like the sandal tree
that perfumes the axe that wounds it. That spear, no sooner is it
withdrawn from the wound, than there gushes a fountain of blood and
water. The attacks that are made upon Jesus Christ only display His
virtues. Observe how this is brought about. If the Truth of God is
attacked, and the Gospel is assailed, what is the immediate
consequence? Why, then, the saints search deeper into it, so they come
to understand the Doctrine better! They learn the arguments by which it
is sustained and they love the Truth of God with fonder, as well as
stronger convictions, till they feel moved to sacrifice themselves for
it! The heart of Christ was opened by the spear, and often the heart of
the Truth of God is revealed by the opposition brought to bear against
it. They think to confute our Doctrines–they do but confirm our faith
in their verity! Where they think they shall prove us fools, they help
to make us sages! They drive us to the root of the matter and they
rather establish us in the precious Truth! The March wind tears not up
the oak, but roots it more firmly in its native soil. So shall it ever
be with attacks made upon our Lord and Master! We shall understand Him
the better and discover more of the Scriptures that were fulfilled in
Him!

Moreover, it often happens that when Christ is opposed by persecution,
the Gospel is proclaimed with more zeal, and diffused with more
rapidity. The saints who were, in early days, persecuted in Jerusalem,
went everywhere preaching the Word of God. What if I say the spear of
persecution does, as it were, set the atoning blood flowing more freely
among the sons of men, and make the purifying water of the Savior's
Sacrifice to be dispersed over a wider area, and among a larger
population? Shall I compare the persecuted Church to an oppressed
nation, and remind you that, like Israel in Egypt, the more they were
oppressed, the more they multiplied and grew? The spear let loose the
blood and water from the heart of Jesus, and the spear of persecution
lets loose the Gospel–and compels Christian men who might have rested
in inglorious ease to go forward and laboriously dispense the Gospel of
salvation, telling the Grace of God to perishing men! So, too (but let
no man turn this into evil), the very sin of men which does wound
Christ becomes the means of magnifying God's Grace! Though it is a vile
thing to say, "Let us sin that Grace may abound," yet is it a most
glorious Truth of God that where sin abounds, Grace does much more
abound! Thus the cleansing power of the blood becomes more renowned by
reason of the sin that made this wondrous Sacrifice necessary. Perhaps
we had never known the Savior so well if we had not seen sin so clearly
in the lives of the pardoned ones, who afterwards were washed, cleansed
and sanctified by His purifying energy. The very opposition that comes
forth is overruled for His triumph! The stronger His foes, the louder
the shout of victory when He returns from the strife!

And when the Church is assailed (which is one way of piercing Christ)
she gets some immediate benefit from the grievous trial, for
persecution acts like a great winnowing fan that drives the chaff away
from the floor on which the pure grain is housed. It is to the Church
like a refiner's fire. The mere dross is separated. The faithless, who
are found among the faithful, soon apostatize, while the sterling gold
and silver, the genuine lovers of Christ, are purged and purified by
the ordeal through which they are compelled to pass! Oh, blessed
Savior, they do pierce You, and pierce You they may, but You are
honored, for their bitter reviling elicits Your sweet virtue! They may
thrust their spears into Your very heart, but by giving forth Your own
energy of love and mercy, and greeting them with salvation, You do
conquer those who thought to conquer You! Put these two things together
Brothers and Sisters–man still continuing to wound the Savior–and the
more redundant display of the Savior's Grace as the consequence! Then
find a total if you can.

Another thought, which diverges a little from the last, may help us to
pursue our meditation. Since the soldier sent His spear into the
Savior's heart–

III. THE WAY TO THAT HEART IS OPEN.

It was always open, in fact, for He always loved the sons of men, but
now you can see it open! It was no little wound that was made by the
lance, for into it, we read, Thomas put His hand. What a gaping fissure
must that have been into which the Apostle might put his palm! "Reach
here, your hand, and thrust it into My side." He still lives, as no one
of us could live, with a passage to the heart always open! In His very
flesh He testifies to us today that His heart is ready to receive any
message that His children may choose to send–and equally ready to
respond with the love that has its fountain there! Behold the open
heart of Jesus! It is open that all the Divine Grace that is within it
may freely flow to undeserving sinners. Think not, Sinner, that you
have need to open Jesus' side. The blood has flown freely. Say now,
will you come and wash in it? You have not to beg for cleansing, as
though it were a gift hardly to be obtained by importunity– it flows,
it still flows! He is willing–as willing as He is able, and as able as
He is willing–to cleanse you from your guilt! Whatever there may be in
the heart of Christ, it all flows out! The precious liquid is kept
within, but set loose for every needy, thirsty soul. His heart is open!

It is open for the doubter t o put his hand into it now. Where are you,
Thomas? Do you ask some hard thing and say, "Except I see this and
that, I will not believe"? Oh, Trembler, weighed down by your sins and
your weakness, do you not see Him this day in Glory, with His heart
still open towards you? Put your hand into the wound and say, "My Lord
and my God." Accept your Savior without hesitation or delay! Come and
find rest in Him. His side is open for your hand to reach His heart. It
is open–that side is open–for those who pierced Him to look in to see
what they have done, and lament it. But see how tender is His heart,
and go to Him without fear. You pierced Him–look at Him and mourn
because you did so. You sinners, though you did put your Lord to death,
His heart is open to you! He invites you to come and receive His mercy
that He has treasured up for you. Oh, come, come! He will receive you
now. His heart is open to sympathize with the griefs and woes, the
prayers and pleadings, the desires and longings of all His people!

You know we have to get to some men's hearts through their ears, and
through their eyes. In not a few of our callous race, these passages
are choked up. You show them sorrow, and they see it without emotion.
You cannot reach their heart. If you tell them a pitiful tale of deep
distress, they hear it with indifference, for somehow the story loses
its way in the mazes of the ear–it does not reach the heart. Far
otherwise is it with your Lord. His heart is so accessible that you
need not fear He will not hear you, or that He will not heed your
faintest cry! You will feel that you can come close, straight, quick to
Him, by a near passage you reach His very soul at once. Say not, then,
that no one sympathizes with you! Jesus does! He cannot fail to pity,
solace, or to cheer. His pierced heart sympathizes far more quickly
than the most tender heart that ever lived before or after. His love
passes the love of women, tender as that is. There is no love like that
of Him with the open heart–the love of Jesus with the opened
heart–with the open side!

I cannot express to you what I see in this bare fact, this blessed
Truth. I wish I could. But it would be still better if you could see
the same. Oh, I can come to Him, now, and put my prayers into His
side–can come and put my desires into

His side! Oh, Jesus, "all my desire is before You, and my groans are
not hid from You. I have but five senses, You have a new one–You have
a new way to Your heart such as we poor mortals have not. I and my
Brothers and Sisters may be inattentive, but You never are. You are He
of the wounded heart–forever sympathetic–forever full of gentleness!"

I might linger on this thought, but I prefer leaving it to your
meditation, lest I should darken it with words. So let us finish with a
last reflection.

IV. A WOUND IN CHRIST'S SIDE REVEALS THE HEART OF JESUS IN ITS
PRECIOUSNESS.

That spear did, as it were, break the alabaster box and let out the
sweet perfume. What, then, was there in the Savior's heart? Men carry
in their hearts that which is dearest. The true man is what he is at
the heart's core. What was our blessed Redeemer's life-thought–the
compelling motive of His life-work? Upon what did He most of all
concentrate the desires and affections of His heart? See you not that
when pierced, there flowed forth blood and water? Those two things,
then, must have been the nearest to the purpose of His heart. Hence I
discern that in my Lord's heart, there was, first, a strong
determination to purge sinners from their guilt by His blood. The
atoning Sacrifice is not merely the hand blood of the Savior's work,
nor is it merely the foot blood of the Savior's journeying through the
vale of tears–it was His heart's blood, indicative of heart-work–it
was the blood of Redemption shed for us. He loved that work. He was
straitened till He could accomplish it. And let me tell you it is
Christ's joy to wash you from your sin! Start not back because your
conscience is troubled. He has opened a fountain for your
uncleanness–in the very midst of the house of David has He opened it.
He delights to take away your guilt–

"Dear, dying Lamb, Your precious blood Shall never lose its power, Till
all the ransomed Church of God Is saved to sin no more."

It has not lost its power! Then let it plead for me! To me let it be
precious! Let me feel its potent virtue. By it may I have boldness.
Like the Apostle, may I say, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect? It is God who justifies; who is he that condemns? It is
Christ that died." Oh, to have the blood applied to the conscience!
Rest not till you hear it speak peace through your whole nature, till
you see the curse removed and are assured that there now is, therefore,
no condemnation for you because you are in Christ Jesus! It is Christ's
heart-work to redeem His people by His blood. Oh, that He may now see
of the travail of His soul in your redemption!

Moreover, Beloved, in Christ's heart there was the water as well as the
blood. He would have His people sanctified as well as pardoned. He
would deliver them from the power as well as from the guilt of sin! I
believe this is very near Christ's heart. That He may present His
Church without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, is His design as
well as His desire. His Spirit is working to this end. That He might
not allow so much as a single stain to rest upon the nature of His
people is alike the pleasure and the purpose of Christ! He has put
their guilt away by the Sacrifice of Himself. This is done. Yet He
continues to demand their self-sacrifice, that He may put away their
evil propensities, the fruit of their first father's fall. My Soul,
glorify the pierced heart of Christ! Give Him to see in yourself the
effect of the water that flowed from His heart! "Be you holy," He says,
"as I am holy." "Be you perfect," He says again, "even as your Father
which is in Heaven is perfect." Deny the flesh with its affections and
lusts! Separate yourselves from sinners! Avoid partaking of other men's
sins! Like Christ, be you "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from
sinners." This can only be effected by the Spirit's vital application
of the Savior's atoning death. Stay at the foot of the Cross. Live
under the influence of His Passion. Pray that you may rise out of this
world's fading, failing vanity, into newness of life through His
pierced heart! In other words, let us stand in penitence before the
Crucified One and mourn that we pierced Him. But let us stand in His
Propitiation, rejoicing that His piercing has procured our pardon!

So let us go on our way, resolved, by His help, that we will glorify
Him "in all manner of holy conversation and godliness." For, "He that
saw it bares record, and his record is true, and he knows that he is
telling the truth, that you might believe." May you believe, may you
all believe the record is true! Believing, you shall have life through
His name! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW27:50-66.

Verse 50. Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up
the ghost Christ's strength was not exhausted–His last word was
uttered with a loud voice, like the shout of a conquering warrior! And
what a word it was, "It is finished"! Thousands of sermons have been
preached upon that little sentence, but who can tell all the meaning
that lies compacted within it? It is a kind of infinite expression for
breadth, and depth, and length, and height altogether immeasurable!
Christ's life being finished, perfected, completed–He yielded up the
ghost–willingly dying, laying down His life as He said He would! "I
lay down My life for the sheep. . .I lay it down of Myself. I have
power to lay it down and I have power to take it again."

51-53. And, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top
to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks were split, and
the graves were opened; and many of the bodies which slept, arose and
came out of the graves after His Resurrection, and went into the holy
city, and appeared unto many. Christ's death was the end of Judaism–
"The veil of the Temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom." As
if shocked at the sacrilegious murder of her Lord, the Temple tore her
garments, like one stricken with horror at some stupendous crime. The
body of Christ being rent, the veil of the Temple was torn in two from
the top to the bottom. Now was there an entrance made into the Holiest
of All by the blood of Jesus–and a way of access to God was opened for
every sinner who trusted in Christ's atoning Sacrifice!

See what marvels accompanied and followed the death of Christ–"The
earth did quake, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened."
Thus did the material world pay homage to Him whom man had rejected,
while Nature's convulsions foretold what will happen when Christ's
voice once more shakes not the earth only, but also Heaven! These first
miracles worked in connection with the death of Christ were typical of
spiritual wonders that will be continued till He comes again–rocky
hearts are split in two, graves of sin are opened, those who have been
dead in trespasses and sins, and buried in sepulchers of lust and evil,
are quickened and come out from among the dead, and go into the holy
city, the New Jerusalem.

54. Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching
Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared
greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.These Roman soldiers had
never witnessed such scenes in connection with an execution, before,
and they could only come to one conclusion about the illustrious
Prisoner whom they had put to death–"Truly this was the Son of God."
It was strange that those men should confess what the chief priests and
scribes and elders denied, yet since their day it has often happened
that the most abandoned and profane have acknowledged Jesus as the Son
of God, while their religious rulers have denied His Divinity.

55-56. And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed
Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto Him: Among which was Mary
Magdalene, and Mary the Mother of James and Joses, and the mother of
Zebedee's children. We have no record of any unkindness to our Lord
from any woman, though we have many narratives of the loving ministry
of women at various periods in His life. It was meet, therefore, that
even at Calvary, "many women were there beholding afar off." The ribald
crowd and the rough soldiers would not permit these timid, yet brave
souls, to come near. But we learn from John 19:25 that some of them
edged their way through the throng till they "stood by the Cross of
Jesus." Love will dare anything.

57, 58. When the evening was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea,
namedJoseph, who also, himself, was Jesus ' disciple. He went to
Pilate, and begged for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the
body to be delivered. This rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, a
member of the Jewish Sanhedrim, was Jesus' disciple, "but secretly for
fear of the Jews" (John 19:38). Yet when his Lord was actually dead,
extraordinary courage nerved his spirit and he boldly went to Pilate
and begged for the body of Jesus. Joseph and Nicodemus are types of
many more who have been emboldened by the Cross of Christ to do what,
without that mighty magnet, they would never have attempted! When night
comes, the stars appear–so in the night of Christ's death, these two
bright stars shone forth with blessed radiance! Some flowers bloom only
at night–such a blossom was the courage of Joseph and Nicodemus.

59, 60. And when Joseph had taken the body, he 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 great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and
departed.Our King, even in the grave, must have the best of the
best–His body was "wrapped in a clean linen cloth, and laid in
Joseph's own new tomb, thus completing the fulfillment of Isaiah 53:9.
Some see in this linen shroud an allusion to the garments inwhich
priests were to be clothed. Joseph's was a virgin sepulcher, wherein up
to that time no one had been buried, so that, when Jesus rose, none
could say that another came forth from the tomb instead of Him.

That rock-hewn cell in the garden sanctified every part of God's acre
where saints lie buried. Instead of longing to live till Christ comes,
as some do, we might rather pray to have fellowship with Jesus in His
death and burial.

61. And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over
against the sepulcher. Love and faith were both typified by these two
Marys sitting over against the sepulcher. They will be the last to
leave their Lord's resting place, and the first to return to it when
the Sabbath is past! Can we cling to Christ when His cause seems to be
dead and buried? When the Truth of God is fallen in the streets, or is
even buried in the sepulcher of skepticism or superstition, can we
still believe in it and look forward to its resurrection? That is what
some of us are doing at the present time. O Lord, keep us faithful!

62-64. Now the next day, that followed the day of preparation, the
chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, Saying, Sir, we
remember that that Deceiver said, while He was yet alive, After three
days I will rise again. Command therefore that the Sepulcher be made
sure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night, and
stealHim away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so
the last error shall be worse than the first. Those punctilious priests
and Pharisees, who were so scrupulous about keeping the Sabbath, did
not mind profaning the Day of Rest by holding a consultation with the
Roman governor! They knew that Christ was dead and buried, but they
still stood in dread of His power. They called Him a "deceiver," and
they even pretended to "remember" what "He said, while He was yet
alive." At His trial, their false witnesses gave another meaning to His
words, but they knew all the while that He was speaking of His
Resurrection, not of the Temple on Mount Zion! Now they are afraid
that, even in the sepulcher, He will bring to nothing all their plans
for His destruction. They must have known that the disciples of Jesus
would not steal Him away and say to the people, "He is risen from the
dead"–so they probably feared that he really would come forth from the
tomb! Whatever conscience they had, made great cowards of them, so they
begged Pilate to do what he could to prevent the rising of their
Victim.

65, 66. Pilate said unto them, You have a watch: go your way, make it
as sure as you can. So they went and made the sepulcher sure, sealing
the stone, and setting a watch. The chief priests and Pharisees wanted
Pilate to make the se-pulcher sure, but he left them to secure it.
There seems to have been a grim sort of irony about the governor's
reply, "You have a watch; go your way, make it as sure as you can."
Whether he meant it as a taunt, or as a command to secure the
sepulcher, they became unconsciously witnesses that Christ's
Resurrection was a supernatural act! The tomb in the rock could not be
entered except by rolling away the stone, and they guarded that by
sealing the stone, and setting a watch.

According to the absurd teaching of the Rabbis, rubbing ears of corn
was a kind of threshing and, therefore, was unlawful on the
Sabbath–yet here were these men doing what, by similar reasoning,
might be called furnace and foundry work, and calling out a guard of
Roman legionaries to assist them in breaking the Sabbath!
Unintentionally, they did honor to the sleeping King when they obtained
the representatives of the Roman emperor to watch His resting place
till the third morning, when He came forth Victor over sin, and death,
and the grave! Thus once more was the wrath of man made to praise the
King of Glory, and the remainder of that wrath was restrained.