It was a new sepulchre, “where never man had yet lain."[114] In Joseph’s holy task there was associated with him Nicodemus, who brought costly spices wherewith to embalm the body, “as the manner of the Jews is to bury.”  The disciples of Jesus do not appear to have shared in this work, which was watched from a distance by certain women from Galilee, who followed and saw where He was laid.  They, too, made ready spices and ointment with which to honour the body of the Lord; but when they came to the tomb on the morning of the first day of the week, they found it empty, for Jesus had risen.  It is not without meaning that the tomb in which the body of Jesus was laid was a new one.  It was thus impossible to affirm that any other than He had opened a way out of its dark recess, the conqueror of death.

Such was the wonderful combination of circumstances that led to the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy, “He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death.”  The Jews desired that He should be buried with the wicked.  When they besought Pilate to remove the bodies, they wished that Jesus and the malefactors should be laid together.  If the Jewish rulers had not parted with their right to dispose of the bodies, the three who had been crucified together would have been consigned to the burying-ground set apart for the interment of Jewish criminals; but it was the Divine decree that Jesus should make His grave with the rich, and therefore the event was so overruled that the bodies of Jesus and the malefactors were at the disposal not of the Jews, but of the Roman governor, who delivered the body of Jesus to the rich Joseph.  While, therefore, Jesus was executed in such a way that, but for the intervention of the Jews and Pilate and Joseph, He would have been buried with criminals, “he made his grave with the rich in his death.”  Thus He who had humbled Himself in dying was honoured in His burial.  Joseph and Nicodemus were timid men.  The one was a secret disciple and the other, through fear of the Jews, came to Jesus by night.  Though members of the Sanhedrim, they had lacked courage to defend Jesus when He was under trial; but now, grown bold, they identified themselves with Him.

The sepulchre was carefully watched.  The Jews, thinking that they might hear something about the resurrection of Him whom they called “that deceiver,” went to Pilate and made known their fear that the disciples would steal His body and say that He had risen from the dead.[115] The Roman governor made light of their apprehension, and said to them, perhaps sarcastically, “Ye have a watch:  make it as sure as ye can.”  “So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch,"[116]—­proceedings which eventually furnished strong confirmation of the reality of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.

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ARTICLE 5