The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 609

the like. But Pile.te commanded the body to be delivered. He ha.n wMhed his handl! before consenting to the Saviour's death. Perhaps he thought that respect for the lifeless body might help, like that poor outward form, to atone for his guilt. 2. The sepulchre. The holy body was to receive no more innignities. It was not thrown, as the chief priests had probably expected, into some dishonoured gre.ve with the two me.lefactors; it was not left to the eleven, who could provide only some poor interment. He wa.s "with the rich in his death." Joseph and Nicodemus, both rich men and honourable, cast aside their shame and their fears. They took the sacred body from the cross with reverent care, wrapped it in clean a.nd fine linen, with the costly gift of myrrh and aloes brought by Nicodemus, and laid it in Joseph's own tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock. Thus they confessed Christ before men. While the eleven were still overcome with terror aud despair, these two men, who had been so fearful, shook off their fears, and showed openly their reverence for the Lord. They feared neither the fierce anger of the Jews nor the ceremonial defilement which would keep them from the Passover rites. The cross of Chri ■t could make the timid brave. He was laid in a. tomb hewn ont of the rock. The rocks a.bout Jerusalem are full of tombs. The whole world, indeed, is one va.st cemetery. Countless multitudes of the dead lie everywhere around ua. Obrist hath hallowed the grave by himself resting thero. We may be well content that our poor bodies should be where his sacred bo~y lay. Only let us seek first to be buried with him by baptism unto death ; let us seek to realize in our inner souls that burial with Christ of which holy baptism is the token and the pledge-a burial out of the reach of the defiling touch of sin, in the rock where the allurements of sin cannot penetrate, if that spiritual burial is with Chi·ist. 3. The toO'fTUJ'II,. Mary of Magdala and the other Mary were sitting over t1gainilt tbe sepulchre. "Seest thou the courage of these women?" says Chrysostom ; " seest thou' their affection? seest thou how they continued faithful unto death·? Let us men' imitate these women, and let us not desert the Lord in the hour of trial." : ', : ';.. II. TBE BEA.LING OF THE TOMB. 1. The/ears of the chief priests. The awe of ·the· last hours of the Crucifixion was still upon their souls. The Lord was dead, but they could not rest, not even on the sabbath. Even on that holy day they came with ·the Pharisees to the Roman governor; they shrauk not from telling him their fears and from asking his help. They knew of the Lord's prophecy of his resurrection on the third day;· though they perverted it for their own ends. Some of them were present when he said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." They may ha.ve heard from Judas or others something of his more distinct predictions; they would prevent the fulJ filment. The body was safe, hidden in the rock; they would keep it there. '2; The guard. Pilate haughtily dismissed them. It was their busineSI!; he would do· nothing more for them. They had a guard. Probably there was a small body of soldiers put at their dispos&l w keep order during the Passover celebration. "Go," the governor said sternly, "BeCure it as you best can." "So they went and made· the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch." So all through that sa.bbath day, and all through the night that followed, the Roman sentries paced up alid down 'bef~re the sealed stone. .AJ:id now the chief priests felt secure. The Lord's body la.y still and lifeless in the sepulchre; his own followers h&d laid it there. The)'. had· tended it with reverent care; but they had no thought, no hope of a resurrect10n. They had forgotten the Lord's words ; they understood them not. They never seemed ahle to realiu what he told them from time to time of his approaching sufferings and death, and of the glory that should follow. They laid the sacred body in myrrh and aloes; they rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre. The chief priests completed the work; they sealed the stone; they Bet there a.n armed guard; they knew that the Lord's disciples, few and terrified as they were, would never dare to encounter tho_se dreaded Roman soldiers. They had succeeded in accomplfahing their awful sin; and, if their consciences allowed them to sleep, they slept that night securely. LE860NB. 1. We must not judge men hastily. Joseph, once so fearful, showed holy courage at last. 2. The Lord was buried. Let us not fear the grave. 8. His burial has a leBSon for us. We are buried with him by baptism unto death. "How 1hall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? n 4. 'l'he wicked may exult in the seeming success of their designs; but the Lord reigneth. OR, nvu. 1-66.) THE GOSPEL ACCORDING ·ro ST. MATTHEW, 615