Mark 15:42-47
Preparation Day
42 It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. 44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. 45 When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. 46 So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.
On Palm Sunday just a few days ago, Jesus had entered Jerusalem on a donkey...This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Zechariah: “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your King comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”...The people lined the streets of Jerusalem...Jesus was later arrested, tried by Pilate, and was crucified on the cross...A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road...The crowds that went ahead of Him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”...“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!”...“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”...When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”...The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”...Jesus' popularity was so high on Palm Sunday...
A few days had passed and now it was Holy Saturday is also Easter Eve...The shouts of Hosanna were gone...The air was full of grief...There is not much Scripture about Holy Saturday and what Jesus Disciples and followers did on the day after His death...The Scripture seem to go straight from Good Friday to Easter Sunday...
A man named Joseph was at the crucifixion and was from the Jewish town of Arimathea...He was a good man, who lived the way God wanted...He was waiting for God’s Kingdom to come...Joseph was a member of the Jewish council...Nicodemus, a Pharisee, helped Joseph prepare the body of Jesus...But he did not agree when the other Jewish leaders decided to kill Jesus...He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus...He took the body down from the cross and wrapped it in cloth...Then he put it in a tomb that was dug in a wall of rock. This tomb had never been used before...It was late on Preparation Day...Preparation Day is the day on which Jesus was buried after His crucifixion and also the Day before the Sabbath...So Good Friday and Holy Saturday was the time that Jesus' body laid in the tomb where Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had buried Jesus...Jesus had told us that He would rise on the third day after His crucifixion...The Roman guards were prepared for that and were guarding His tomb...The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate...“Sir,” they said, “we remember that while He was still alive that Deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’...So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day...Otherwise, His disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that He has been raised from the dead...This last deception will be worse than the first.”...“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.”...So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard...
The Sabbath Day in Jesus' time began at sundown on Friday and ended at sundown on Saturday...When the sun went down on Good Friday, the Sabbath day would begin...The women who had come from Galilee with Jesus followed Joseph...They saw the tomb...Inside they saw where he put Jesus’ body...Then they left to prepare some sweet-smelling spices to put on the body...On the Sabbath day they rested, as commanded in the Law of Moses...
The grief and aching was in place...Jesus had died...Jesus was gone...I am sure Mother Mary ached with faith, yet would have faith, that God had a Plan to somehow continue Jesus' Ministry...The Disciples were probably aching in sadness, despair, grief, isolation without their Master after three years...There are no easy answers to sadness, grief, and isolation...Why had God bring them the Messiah, just to have Him die?...The sadness would be overwhelming Jesus' followers...An indescribable feeling of despair and grief...We had lost our Master and Teacher of all Hope...
The story was not over...God's Plan would continue with His Son...