Matthew 27:57-66

57 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. 58 He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. 59 And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud 60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.

62 The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 63 and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ 64 Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.” 65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.

We are almost finished with the Gospel of Matthew! Three quick points on today's account of the burial of Jesus:

• Joseph of Arimathea is a good man. His faithfulness probably seemed like a waste--why lavish so much attention on a man who was already dead? But some actions are just right in themselves, and there doesn't have to be a larger point. And, of course, what can seem useless to us won't really ever be wasted by the Lord anyway.

• The fact that it is a “new tomb” in which Jesus’s body is laid shows that the women couldn’t have been mistaken when they later find it empty—Jesus’s was the only body previously in there;

• Pilate and the Jewish leadership try to prevent the Resurrection by ordering a guard to keep watch over the tomb. Talk about a useless gesture: there was no power in the universe that could have kept Jesus in the grave!