Mark 15: 42-47

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.

The Jewish day begins and ends at sundown which means that the crucifixion took place during the day of Friday and the sabbath (and thus a new day) began at sundown. In Jewish counting at the time, Friday before sunset would have been one day, Friday sundown to Saturday sundown the second day and then the night of Saturday the third day.

The Romans normally left bodies hanging on crosses for days as a warning but, with the sabbath approaching, the Jews want him down. It was not considered proper for a body to be exposed during the sabbath. Pilate is surprised when Joseph of Arimathea asks for the body since it usually took longer for people to die from crucifixion. The centurion he summons is probably the same one who proclaimed Jesus the son of God.

Normally, the Romans simply threw the bodies of crucifixion victims on the ground without burial unless friends or family took them. Joseph, at some personal risk, goes and asks for the body to give it proper burial. Note that none of the disciples do so which shows their weakness and fear. Note too that Joseph was a respected member of the Sanhedrin. From every point of view it was risky for him to associate himself with someone the Romans considered a rebel and the Jews a blasphemer. Yet he bravely and openly provides Jesus with a tomb.

In verse 43, Joseph is described as “waiting for the kingdom of God” which probably means that he had links with the disciples but was not one of them. The fact that he is remembered and named and figures in Christian traditions (notably with regard to the Holy Grail) suggests that he became a full Christian later. The fact that Joseph was rich, highly educated, and a member of the Jewish elite shows us that Jesus had disciples from many different backgrounds.

Many of the tombs that survive from this period have places for several bodies which is why Mark tells us that Jesus was buried in a tomb that had never been used before. There can be no mistake when the tomb is found empty. In any case, the women who go to the tomb saw where he was laid on Friday. So as we finish the chapter, Jesus is a corpse, wrapped in a shroud and placed in a tomb with a great stone in front of it. He seems very dead.