lil. Tse enrompment. In preparation for this the body was taken down from the cross, was wound iv linen bought for the purpose, being entolded in fragrant myrrh and aloes. Joseph was the owner of a garden near to Calvary, where in the solid rock was hewn a tomb, destined probably for the reception of his own remains—what we might term a family vault. In this suitable and peaceful sepulchre Joseph, aided (as John
ai
818 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. [cu. xv. 1—47.
i
tells us) by Nicodemus, laid the sacred form in which the Lord of life and glory had laboured and suffered for mankind. Against the entrance of the grave a huge stone was rolled, to secure the resting-place from intrusion. Thus, as in a garden Christ had endured his agony, in a garden he rested in the repose of death. How cherished in the memory and heart of Christendom were and are these sad and sacred scenes, none can be ignorant. Christ’s “ precious death and burial” have been celebrated in Christian hymns, commemorated in Christian ordinances, embalmed in Christian liturgies of prayer and intercession. The crucifixion, the descent from the cross, the mourning of the faithful women (the pieta), the entombment of the Saviour,—all these have been favourite and congenial themes with Christian painters. And of all subjects of Christian preaching, none are so pathetic, so melting, so fitted to awaken contrition for sin, so fitted to produce contempt for the world, as the topics suggestea by these mournful incidents. It is solemnly affecting to think of this earth as being, during those sacred hours, the sepulchre of the Son of God.
IV. THE WITNESSES OF CHRIST’s BURIAL. It is observable that the holy and faithful women, who had ministered to Jesus in his public career, who had stood in the neigh- bourhood of the cross, and who had seen him die—they who were to be the first witnesses of his resurrection,—these were present at the entombment, as loth to part from the Lord whom they honoured and loved, as lingering for the last look upon the form of him to whose words they had so often listened with joy, and at whose hands they had received blessings priceless and immortal. :
Appiication. 1. The moment when sin seems tric=uphant is the moment when Divine Providence is preparing for its confusion and destruction. To Christ’s enemies his death appeared simply the end of his holy ministry, and when his lifeless form was committed to the grave they deemed his influence for ever at an end, Yet, in trutk, now was about to commence the reign of him who tasted death for every man, but was about to ascend to the throne of spiritual empire. 2. ‘he burial of our Saviour is to us the token of his love and of the completeness of his mediatorial work. That he did not shrink from even the ignominy and the weakness of the grave should be to us an assurance of his perfect humanity, his complete sympathy, and a pledge that the salvation which he did and suffered so much to secure shall be thorough and complete, shall be sure and everlasting. 3. The burial of Christ is to be, in a spiritual sense, shared by all his believing and renewed people. We are one with Christ, in his death and in his resurrection, And, as if to show how thoroughly we participate in our Saviour’s death unto sin, we are represented as even buried with him. By baptism or consecration unto his death we are said to enter, as it were, his tomb; that, dying unto sin, we may rise again and live unto righteousness, holiness, and God. 4. The inter- ment of our Lord seems to cast most precious and consolatory light upon our own and our friends’ mortality. ‘hat there is naturally a repuisiveness in the grave and in dis- solution is not denied. Yet to know that our gracious Lord deigned to taste death for every man, and to be laid to rest in a cave of the earth, is to be fortified against the unpleasing and distressing associations which are all that unbelievers connect with dissolution. When the lifeless form of a good man is borne to the grave, let us think of such an event in close connection with the burial of him who was and is the Lord of life. 5, Secret disciples should take encouragement from the conduct of Joseph and Nicodemus. Remember this, that whilst you have less excuse than they had for con- cealing your faith and disguising your attachment to Jesus, you have more reasons and stronger inducements to open confession. The Lord Jesus has not hidden his love for you; he has expressed it in words, and proved it by sufferings as well as actions. And he expects that you should boldly avow yourselves his, that you should confess him
before men, ‘hen he will not be ashamed of you before his Father and the holy angels,
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 1—5.—Jesus at the bar of the Roman power. In its officers and agents repre- sentative of the whole Gentile world; so that the whole human race is involved in his eondemnation and death.
I. Tue PURPOSE OF THE FURTHER REFERENCE. ‘To obtain authority for carrying out
ox, xv. 1—47.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. 31
the death-sentence. This would not be allowed to a simple Jewish tribunal. The ste taken was, therefore, a practical abdication of their theocratic pretensions. Hatr drives men into inconsistency and hypocrisy.
Il. THe cHARGE MaDE. Not the same as that upon which they themselves con- demned him, but such an interpretation of it as would most readily render him liable to the judgment of the Roman government.
III, His repLY ro PinatE. An idiomatic equivalent for “ Yes,” “Iam so.” The question is understood as an assertion put interrogatively, “Thou art the King of the Jews?” “The rationale of the idiom is that when the interrogative form is withdrawn from the class of interrogations referred to, the saying that remains is the reality” (Morison). A similar purpose to that which animated the reply to the high priest is here apparent. The Roman world was certified as to the dignity of Christ. In John’s Gospel (xviii. 36—38) the true interpretation of this title as a moral and spiritual one is recorded as having been given by Christ to Pilate. It involved no treason, therefore, against the Roman power.
IV. THE GENERAL DEMEANOUR OF CHRIST TOWARDS HIs AccuUSERS. Silence. 1. A marvel, The calmness of the Prisoner was unlike the behaviour of prisoners generally, and appeared supernatural. 2. [¢ was equivalent to an appeal to a hiyher tribunal. 3. An impressive moral victory —M.