##DailyDevotion Christian Don’t Fear The Grave. Jesus Sanctified It.

Matt. 27: ⁵⁷In the evening there came a rich man from Arimathea by the name of Joseph, who had also become a disciple of Jesus. ⁵⁸He went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. Then Pilate ordered it given to him. ⁵⁹Joseph took the body, wrapped it in some clean linen cloth, ⁶⁰and laid it in his own unused grave that he had cut in the rock. After rolling a big stone against the door of the grave, he went away. ⁶¹Mary from Magdala and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the grave. ⁶² The next day – the day after the day of preparation – the ruling priests and Pharisees met with Pilate. ⁶³ “Sir,” they said, “we remember how that deceiver said while he was still alive, ‘On the third day I will rise.’ ⁶⁴Now, order the grave to be made secure until the third day, or his disciples may come and steal him and tell the people, ‘He rose from the dead.’ Then the last deception will be worse than the first.”⁶⁵“Take a guard,” Pilate told them; “go and make it as secure as you know how.” ⁶⁷So they went and secured the grave by sealing the stone and setting the guard.

As Jesus went through his passion, i.e. his suffering for us, he sanctified, made holy, our suffering as St. Paul tells in 2 Cor. 1, “⁵As Christ’s sufferings overflow to us, so Christ makes our comfort overflow.” So now too, Jesus sanctifies our graves with his being buried. He has undertaken the whole of human life and sanctified it by becoming one of us in the flesh and experiencing it in our place. Here he takes our place in the grave.

What is Jesus doing in the grave? Some people my refer to Col. 2:15, “He stripped rulers and powers of their armor and made a public show of them as He triumphed over them in Christ.” They may also refer to 1 Peter3, “¹⁸Christ died once for our sins, the Righteous One for the guilty, to bring us to God. He was killed in His body but made alive in His spirit. ¹⁹In this spirit He also went and preached to the spirits kept in prison, ²⁰who disobeyed long ago in the days of Noah when God waited patiently while the ark was being built, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved by water.” Some refer to this as his descent into hell, which is from the Latin translation of Hades (the Greek place of the dead) or Sheol (the Hebrew place of the dead). Hades and Sheol are wide places full of the good and the bad in Greek and Hebrew thought. I’m certain the Jewish writers who wrote in Greek were not adopting everything about Hades when they used that term but imported Sheol meanings into Hades. In any case, Jesus was not suffering in hell (Hades, Sheol). If you want to take these two passages to refer to Jesus’ descent into hell, then would understand them as being part of his exaltation. He does his victory parade over the forces of darkness and preaches his conquering sin, death and the power of the devil.

But there is another understanding of it as well. Jesus is resting on the Sabbath day. It is written in Gen. 2, “²On the seventh day, God finished from all His work of creating; and He stopped working on the seventh day.” Jesus having finished all his work now rests in the grave. Even as he rested from his work of creation on the seventh day now he rest from his work of salvation. Just as you and I need not fear suffering any longer, we need no longer fear the grave. In the grave we rest from all our works with Jesus. We are joined with Jesus in our graves with Jesus’ rest in his grave. We also know Jesus doesn’t remain there but rises on the third day just as he promised. So too, we will not rest in our graves forever but rise from them when he returns.

Heavenly Father, grant us faith to believe Jesus finished his work of salvation for us and just as he rested in the grave and rose again, let us not fear the grave but look confidently at it knowing Jesus has overcome it as well by his resurrection. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.