Who Moved the Stone? | The Church KC

DID JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA MOVE THE STONE! While millions of Christians around the world are thinking about Jesus' burial in the tomb and his resurrection on the first Easter Sunday morning, it behooves any who want to know what really happened on the first Good Friday to contemplate how Jesus never got a proper burial and, because he didn't, the world was forever changed! The Canonical Gospels tell us a very wealthy, if distant, admirer of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a member of the highest, Jewish, religious body at the time (the Sanhedrin) wanted to give Jesus a proper burial. However, he ran into a long delay, leaving him with very little time to get all the proper supplies needed for even a modest funeral. Then, once he FINALLY got back from the market place where he was only able to find the fine linens to wrap him in, but nothing else, it was all he and his slaves could do but quickly wrap up his bloodied and soiled corpse, lay it on the stone burial bed, roll the stone over the tomb opening and rush home. Why? Well, we need to recall that the Jewish Sabbath, (a 24 hour period, beginning at sundown on Friday and ending at sundown the following Saturday, during which Jews were strictly forbidden from doing anything that could be perceived as "work") was about to begin, and Joseph of Arimathea had run out of time, thanks to Pontius Pilate taking his sweet time to grant him custody of Jesus' body (insisting he had to personally get confirmation of Jesus' death from the centurion at the site of execution), plus the fact that Joseph had not thought his chances of getting the body of Jesus were good enough to buy, ahead of time, everything needed for even a modest funeral! By the time he got to the market, a lot of the shops had already closed down, so he couldn't get the traditionally required funerary spices and ointments, just the fine linen! Once he got back, with the sundial edging right up to minutes before sundown, he figured the only thing to do was to put Jesus' body in the tomb and come back later to do the job right! Trouble was, he didn't exactly coordinate with the women who had been tagging along, like Mary Magdalene about his backup plan! She and at least one, other woman, were close enough to see which tomb Joseph's slaves stuck Jesus' body in, but clearly had not gotten with Joseph on when or how they would come back later to complete the funeral...as was evident when they were asking each other on the following Sunday morning, "Wait, who is going to move the stone cover?" Little did they know, Joseph and his slaves had already discreetly removed the body under the cover of darkness, shortly after sundown (the end of the Sabbath) on the Saturday evening beforehand, with the innocent intention of getting the rest of the supplies the next Sunday morning and, after having Jesus' body properly washed, anointed, re-wrapped, a few prayers said, and maybe a hymn sung, then nicely replace it in the tomb....problem solved! Well, like Robert Burns said, "The best laid plans of mice and men do oft' go awry!" That fateful Sunday morning, probably just as Joseph of Arimathea was about to have his slaves put Jesus' body back in the tomb, someone came running by his villa to pass on a rumor that was spreading like a fire all through Jerusalem, "Jesus has risen from the dead!" Imagine how Joseph's heart sunk to the bottom of his stomach as he quickly put two and two together, figuring that, once Pilate got wind it was HE who took the body from the tomb, Pilate was going to find it very difficult to believe Joseph was not the main conspirator in league with Jesus' disciples to steal his body for the purpose of faking his resurrection, making a mockery of him and Rome itself! At that moment, Joseph probably decided his best chance for not ending up on the next cross to be executed, was to have his slaves quickly dispose of Jesus' body in some secret location, set them free with a bribe and one-way tickets on the next boat out of Judea, and took his secret to the grave! To be sure, this means he would have subsequently thrown the disciples of Jesus under the bus when he was probably asked, "Did you know anything about this fake resurrection business?" and all he had to do was shrug up his shoulders and say, "I know as much as you do!" Or who knows, he may even have been the first to suggest to the Temple priests, "Maybe it was Jesus' disciples who stole the body!" Rick Lannoye, author of https://www.amazon.com/Real-Life-Jesus-Nazareth-Really-Stood/dp/B09TPHRY41