October 3 Daily Devotional

Matthew 27; Mark 15; Luke 23; John 19

According to the Jewish law the bodies of malefactors were not allowed to remain on the cross over night. If crucified malefactors were not dead by evening, their legs were broken and they were put to death, so that they could be buried before nightfall. “The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day (for that sabbath day was a high day), besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Then came the soldier and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water. And he that saw it, bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.”

“And behold, a rich man named Joseph of Arimathea, a counselor: and he was a good man, and a just (the same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them); who also himself waited for the kingdom of God. This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. And Pilate marveled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And there came also Nicodemus (which at the first came to Jesus by night) and bought a mixture of myrrh and aloes. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulcher, that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. There laid they Jesus therefore, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulcher. And the women also, which came with them from Galilee, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of Joses, beheld the sepulcher and how his body was laid … and rested the sabbath day.”

Now on the next day, the sabbath, the chief priest and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, and asked him for a guard. They said, “We remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulcher be made sure until the third clay, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch, go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went and made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.”