A Buried Body In The Garden

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

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It might be an uncomfortable question, but do you know where you will be buried when you die? Some people do. In fact, they already have the grave marker in place. Other people would rather not think about such morbid things.

But all of us are going to die one day. Hebrews 9:27 tells us, “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.”

Most of us have a reasonable expectation that once we are buried, our bodies will lie in the same plot until the return of Jesus. However, some bodies end up moving more than once.

Abraham Lincoln, for example, was buried a number of times. After his untimely death in 1865 he was buried in Springfield, MO. By 1874 a 177 foot tall granite tomb was finally completed and Lincoln’s remains were moved there. But two years later a group of men failed in an attempt to steal the body of the former president and hold it for a ransom.

Plans were then made to make the site more secure. In 1900 Lincoln’s son decided that a more elaborate plan was necessary. The tomb was reconstructed and once again Lincoln’s body was interred in another location until the construction was complete.

When all the preparations were complete, the body was once again taken up and prepared for a permanent burial. This time the coffin would be encased with several feet of concrete, surrounded by a cage and capped off with a large rock.

Before the final burial, some speculated that perhaps something had happened to the body of Lincoln. After all, if a switch had been made previously, it would be foolish to bury the wrong person now.

So they decided to open the coffin and confirm that Lincoln was still there. 23 people each took a turn and viewed the preserved remains of the President. Indeed it was his remains. These people continued to give their eyewitness testimony to others that they knew for certain that Lincoln was buried in that tomb under that concrete, cage and rock.

There was another burial that came under great scrutiny as well. It was the burial of Jesus. In Matthew 16:21 Jesus foretold of not only His death but also of His resurrection.

After Jesus died on the cross, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus claim the body of Jesus from Pilate. They take the body and hastily prepare it for a burial in a new tomb in a nearby garden. Then on the next day several of the Jews become concerned that someone will steal the body and claim that Jesus had been resurrected. They remembered that Jesus said after three days He would rise.

So Pilate tells them to make the tomb as secure as possible. The guards go and do so by sealing the tomb and setting a guard at the entrance. They were taking every precaution to ensure that no one stole the body.

But Jesus was not to be buried for long. Paul states the following in 1 Corinthians 15:3-6.

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.

Jesus died, but He didn’t remain dead. He was buried, but He didn’t stay in the tomb. He arose and because He did we have hope of eternal life.

The Jews worried that someone would steal the body. After the resurrection, they even bribed the guards to say that the body was stolen instead of resurrected. But over 500 people saw Jesus at once, and most of them were still telling that story when 1 Corinthians was written.

A body was buried in the garden one day. But three days later it was no longer there. Praise God!

On Our Daily Walk today, may we never grow tired of hearing the good news that Jesus is alive. May we help others to weigh the evidence, accept the facts and obey that good news in faith.

Our thought for the day: “Belief in the resurrection is not an appendage to the Christian faith; it is the Christian faith.” John S. Whale

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.