He Was Buried

Uplook – April 2020 — Grace & Truth Magazine

“He Was Buried”

On Good Friday, Jesus died. On Easter Sunday, He rose to life! In between there was a quiet period as His body was in the tomb. Nobody really talks about Burial Saturday. Since it looked like nothing much was happening during His time in the tomb, why does 1 Corinthians 15:4, the reference for our quoted title, even mention it?

First, it is worth appreciating the little passage in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5. It is believed to express a very old summary of 1st century Christian faith: “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; ... He was buried, and ... He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (KJV).

There is full scholarly agreement that the letter of 1 Corinthians was written somewhere around the year 55. Since the declaration in the letter had already been circulating for a while, it must have been composed shortly after the crucifixion of Jesus. Today some skeptics claim that 2nd or 3rd century Christians invented the idea of a resurrection (and they claim that the gospels were written then as well), but they cannot explain away this very early statement of faith.

But why not just point out that Jesus died and rose again? Why state the obvious by adding “He was buried”?

It is not because, as some say, He had to fight with the Devil. Sometimes the idea is suggested that Christ struggled against Satan during this time. Older English translations of the Bible which speak about His being in “hell” have been misunderstood as that same word often simply means “the grave.”

We know He was not fighting the devil, for He expected to be with God the Father after His death (Lk. 23:46). He had even promised the sorrowful thief hanging next to Him that they would be in paradise together that very day (v.43). When Jesus declared, “It is finished!” (Jn. 19:30), He meant there was nothing left to do and no more battles to fight, not even against Satan.

So we are still left with our original question: Why does the Bible emphasize that Jesus was buried?

There may be several reasons, but here is one I appreciate: He was buried because sin is terrible, and He was carrying the sins of all who would trust Him as the Savior. We evaluate sins as little ones and big ones, but to God every single one of them is something ugly, putrid and horrifying. That meant every single one of them had to be buried. “Get those sins out of My sight!” we could imagine God saying. Therefore, after Jesus paid the price for them on the cross, they went with His body into the grave (consider 1 Pet. 2:24; Rom. 8:10).

There is a picture of this in the Jewish Day of Atonement, which still appears on our September calendars as “Yom Kippur.” You can read about it in Leviticus 16. Among other events, that day included the ceremonial transfer of the people’s sins onto a living goat. This goat, called “the scapegoat,” was set loose in the desert so it could carry those sins far away to some uninhabited place. Figuratively speaking, no one ever had to see them again.

On the one hand, we should recognize how bad our sins are. They sent Jesus the Lord onto a cross and into a grave!

But on the other hand, do you appreciate that those ugly sins were buried with Him? If you are a believer in Jesus as your Savior, let those sins stay in the grave. Your lies and lusts, your prejudice and pride, your selfish ambitions and shallow jealousies – He took them all into the tomb, and God chooses not to remember them anymore. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:9 NASB).

Do not let guilt have power over you if you know God has forgiven you. Do not let shame harass you if God has given you His dignity as a Christian. Those old sins of the past have been carried far away, and now the risen Jesus beckons you to walk with Him in the newness of life.

By Stephen Campbell

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. —Romans 6:4-6 NASB