Striving
“Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment. (Luke 23:50-56)
Jesus’s mother and the other women do not return to the tomb until the following day. They honor the Sabbath, staying home. Resting as best they can in the midst of their grief.
Jesus also rests. His body lying lifeless and still inside the tomb.
But the gospel account of Matthew reports that some surprising work is performed this Sabbath, by a most unexpected group of people. We find out that the chief priests and Pharisees pay a visit to Pilate. Afraid that Jesus’s disciples will steal the body and tell people that He has risen from the dead, they request permission to make the tomb secure. Once Pilate has granted their request, they then go to the tomb to seal it and post a guard. (Matthew 27:62-66)
This is no small matter, considering how careful the Pharisees are to (at least outwardly) follow the law. The whole Pharisee identity is based on rule-following, and one of their main complaints against Jesus was that He kept breaking the Sabbath. Healing at the synagogue. Allowing His disciples to pick and eat handfuls of grain.
Which seem like very small violations by comparison to the Pharisee’s political maneuvering on Good Saturday. Granted, they were probably too distracted to think much about Jesus’s body in the hours before sunset the previous day—They were busy contending with utter darkness, rock-shattering earthquakes, and the tearing of the Temple veil.
Yet, it’s interesting that the Pharisees are suddenly willing to bend the rules that they have so rigidly maintained up until this point. Maybe after murdering an innocent man, breaking the Sabbath seems trivial by comparison.
