The Burial of Our Lord

Our Lord was buried for good reasons: (a) to establishbeyond all question the fact of his death; Pilate made very sure ofthe fact of death before permitting the body to be taken from thecross and buried; (b) to make possible the glorious Resurrectionfrom the grave, and thus to give hope and promise to mankind of theglory in store for those that do Christ’s will; (c) to indicatethat we should be spiritually buried with our Lord, and hidden safeaway from the rule of sin.

The body of our Lord was wrapped in burial bands,embalmed with a hundredweight of spices, and laid in a new gravewhich was hewn out of a rock. The burial was a work of reverenceand love; it honored the sacred body, and was praiseworthy in allwho took part in it. Such a burial put beyond all question anythought that Christ might not be truly dead.

There was in the perfect body of Christ no weaknessthat could result in decomposition or putrefaction, even afterdeath. And scripture says (Psalm 15:10): “Nor wilt thou sufferthy holy one to see corruption.” There was, therefore, nodissolution of parts, no crumbling into elements, of the body of Christ in the tomb.

St. Augustine (De Trin. iv) says thatthirty-six hours elapsed from the evening of our Lord’s burialto the dawn of the Ressurec-tion. The sacred body was in the tombone day and two nights. As each part of a day was reckoned aday according to prevailing Jewish usage, we say that our Lord’s body was in the tomb for three days.