It’s Holy Saturday, and Jesus is in a tomb:

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud 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. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb. (Matthew 27.57 – 61, ESV)

A friend of mine gave me an intriguing book, Descent, which is described as:

Part of a series inspired by key events in the New Testament, this book presents a sequence of over 100 great works of art depicting the moving final scene of Christ’s earthly sojourn – the removal of His body from the Cross.

The art had one thing in common: Jesus was dead.

It’s hard to find a picture of Jesus in the tomb as I have posted below. Most tomb pictures are empty. We want to jump straight to the resurrection. But there was a time when Jesus was dead. His followers knew he was dead. No one expected the resurrection. They had no thought of his coming back. It was over.

How would that have felt?

It’s intriguing that his enemies seemed to have a better recollection of Jesus’ words than the disciples!

The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ 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.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.” So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard. (Matthew 27.62 – 66, ESV)

[Originally published in the Ewellogy on April 8, 2023.]