HOW marvellous are the providential ways of God! Joseph of Arimathea had looked around for a suitable burying place where his mortal remains might ultimately be laid to rest in a manner befitting his status in life. Somehow or other his attention had been drawn to a certain garden where a recess in the rock could be adapted to make an imposing tomb. He had made the purchase and ordered the work to be put into effect. Matthew tells us that it was his own tomb. Mark and Luke report that it was a grave which had never yet been used. And now John provides the information that the tomb was situated in a garden quite near to Calvary.
WHEN Joseph bought that land and hewed out that rock, Calvary could have meant nothing at all to him. In His infinite wisdom, however, God induced him to prepare this virgin tomb so that there would be a suitable resting place for the crucified body of His Son just when it was needed. God's providential ways are marvellous. Yet this miracle of divine foresight is as nothing compared with the wonder of the prophet's words, spoken over seven hundred years earlier: "He was with the rich in his death" (Isaiah 53:9). Jesus was never with the rich in His lifetime, unless it was to correct Nicodemus and to send the young ruler sorrowfully away. The company He kept was the poor of this world. His enemies plotted that He should not only be buried in poverty but in shame: "They made his grave with the wicked". They planned to do this, but Joseph's faith and Pilate's capricious decision foiled all their schemes, so that in the end, as Isaiah had foretold: "He was with the rich in his death". He occupied a rich man's tomb.
OUR attention is therefore drawn to the fact that right in the very vicinity of Christ's crucifixion, God had provided a special grave which was first destined to give refuge to the body of His Son and then to receive fame as 'The Empty Tomb'. God had spoken of this burial centuries before it took place. Some time before the crucifixion Joseph had unwittingly ordered it to be dug out of the rock. We do not know when this was done and wonder whether perhaps it was only just completed in time. What we do know is that the Holy Spirit ordered John to be sure to tell us that right at the place where men and devils had done their utmost to destroy His Son, the Father had arranged for a dignified tomb from whence that Son could be raised from the dead.
THIS is the fifth occasion which we have considered when the flow of John's Gospel narrative was interrupted by an urge to insert a parenthesis. As he went over those terrible hours in his mind, did John remember that even while Jesus was dying, he himself was worrying as to where or how His body would be buried? He and his adopted mother, Mary, were quite helpless to intervene in this matter; it may well have seemed to them a major problem how a tomb could be available or even permitted. But they had no need to be anxious. The Father, ever fully committed to care for the interests of His Son, had watched over this need too, and ensured that right at that very place the right kind of grave had been provided. As John inserted this parenthesis, he must have worshipped God for such a miracle and perhaps he intended to remind us that we may leave all our cares with our heavenly Father who so perfectly cares for us. His provision is always 'nigh at hand'.
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