CHRIST LIFTED UP AND BURIED
[p. 77] CHRIST LIFTED UP AND BURIED
John 3:14-16; John 8:28; John 12:32,33; John 19:38-42; Colossians 2:12; Deuteronomy 21:22,23
There is great spiritual gain in the consideration of our Lord Jesus Christ in every aspect in which Scripture presents Him to the view of faith; and the above scriptures call our attention to Him as being lifted up and being buried. The Spirit of God has linked the two thoughts together in Deuteronomy 21: 22, 23. Being hanged on a tree refers to one as “lifted up”, and the thought of burial is closely connected with this.
When the Son of man spoke of being lifted up He referred to the particular manner in which He was about to die. Death by crucifixion involved being held up to view as one worthy of death, and, indeed, seen publicly as having become a curse, “for he that is hanged is a curse of God”. Two of the most profound statements in Scripture are found in Galatians 3: 13 and 2 Corinthians 5: 21: “Christ has redeemed us out of the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, (for it is written, Cursed is every one hanged upon a tree)”. “Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us”. One is the great redeeming act of Christ in love to those under curse; He became a curse; the other is the wondrous act of God having in view His purpose that we should become His righteousness in Christ. The Son of man as lifted up was publicly seen to be in the place of sin and curse, but it is our peace and joy to know that He was not there on His own account at all, but in divine love on behalf of those who were under sin and death. His lifting up, as referred to in John 3: 14, was on God’s part as given in love, that eternal life might be brought in and become the portion of those who were under sin and death.
The “serpent” being lifted up shows that God had in mind the original source of evil. In the lifting up of the Son of man the principle of evil which originated in the serpent was judged. It was judged in man in such a way that its judgment has become favourable towards men as a righteous ground of blessing. The serpent does not benefit by the lifting up of the Son of man, but it has become the way of infinite good to those whom he deceived and brought into transgression.
The state in which man was before God was publicly set [p. 78] forth in the Son of man lifted up. But this testimony comes to men in the way of grace, for the One who has been lifted up in the place of sin was there as the great manifestation of divine love. This is brought into the view of all; it comes within sight for the whole creation under heaven. Attention is called, in the lifting up, to the publicity of it; it is a great universal testimony. The object of gospel preaching is to make men see that they are concerned in this great matter.
In John 8: 28 it is “When ye shall have lifted up the Son of man, then ye shall know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as the Father has taught me I speak these things”. The lifting up in chapter 3 is on God’s part in love, but in chapter 8 it is what men do: “When ye shall have lifted up the Son of man”. Men fully exposed their own state when they put that blessed One to an open shame. He had done nothing but good. We are told that they “sought false witness against Jesus, so that they might put him to death”. If they had wanted true witnesses they would have had no difficulty in finding them. They might have called Lazarus and Bartimaeus and Mary Magdalene and many cleansed lepers and once-blind men who could now see; they might have called many who had heard from His lips mighty words of healing and forgiveness. There was, indeed, the fullest testimony available that the blessed light of God revealed in supreme grace was there, but in lifting Him up men rejected it all in a shameful way; they put Him to public dishonour. In this great and solemn act the whole state of the world, and of man’s heart, has come out. But every one who took part in that act will be made to know that all He said was of the Father, and that the Father was with Him. It is most certainly true that those who put Jesus, or even His feeble representatives, in the place of shame and reproach, will be made to know what they have done.
In John 12: 32 we pass over to another side of this matter, and we see God’s great design in it, and that He brings it to pass notwithstanding what is true of man. “And I, if I be lifted up out of the earth, will draw all to me”. He becomes, as lifted up out of the earth, a divine centre of attraction. His death has given Him a prominence, a place of advantage in relation to men universally, which He did not have before He was lifted up. As on the earth He said, “I have not been sent save to the lost sheep of Israel’s house”, Matthew 15: 24,
[p. 79] but as lifted up out of the earth He draws all to Him. The particular kind of death that He should die was designed by infinite wisdom, so that He should not die on the earth, but as lifted up out of it. It is important that, when speaking of the death of Christ, we should lay stress on the kind of death that he died. It was the death of crucifixion, so that He died as lifted up out of the earth. As in that position He was outside all limitations; He can draw all to Him. He has died in a way that was designed of God to set forth that it was the divine intent that He should come within the view of all. His death, in this sense, has given Him a wonderful elevation, so that all the ends of the earth can look unto Him and be saved, He can draw all to Him. The divine gathering centre to which all must come for blessing is not any place or person on earth, but One lifted up out of the earth. This is the blessed way which divine love has taken to draw men away from a world fully exposed as having nothing in common with God. All the work of grace during the last two thousand years has been the drawing of men to Christ as the One lifted up. This is still the public position, and the testimony of God as announced to men.
In the light of this we can see how important the cross is as the universal testimony of God to men. Paul and John are in perfect harmony as to this. Paul came to the Corinthians announcing the testimony of God, and he said, “I did not judge it well to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified”, 1 Corinthians 2: 2. The great thing in preaching is “that the cross of the Christ may not be made vain”; that is, emptied of its true meaning. There is wonderful meaning in the lifting up of Christ on the cross, and its real force is to be brought home to men. “The word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us that are saved it is God’s power”. Christ crucified is “to Jews an offence, and to nations foolishness; but to those that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ God’s power and God’s wisdom”, 1 Corinthians 1: 23, 24. When this testimony comes to men “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” it brings them clean out of the world. It is a testimony that can only be truly presented in spiritual power; hence Paul came to Corinth in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, not that he was afraid of the Corinthians, but he feared lest some element of human wisdom should come in to mar his service.
[p. 80] We gather, further, from Deuteronomy 21: 23, that one who has been publicly exposed, as become a curse, is viewed as a defilement to the land. Hence it is written, “thou shalt in any wise bury him that day ... thou shalt not defile thy land”. No doubt it was as having this scripture in mind that the Jews were anxious that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath, John 19: 31. But there is divine instruction in the ordinance, and it gives the burial of the Lord an important place. As having been identified with sin and curse — as bearing it vicariously — the burial of the Lord was necessary that the very condition in which He was made sin might pass completely out of sight. So long as He was exposed upon the cross what was in public evidence was One in the place of sin and curse. His death did not remove Him from that position publicly, but His burial did, and He never reappeared in the condition in which He was made sin. The condition which He had taken up as coming into holy manhood, in which He could bear sin and die, went out of sight when He was buried, and as raised from the dead He is in a new condition to which neither sin nor death could ever be attached. Viewing this matter in the light of Deuteronomy 21: 23 we can understand why the burial of Christ is included in the glad tidings which Paul preached, 1 Corinthians 15: 4. The condition in which Christ was made sin went out of God’s sight in His burial, and this is of immense importance when we consider all its consequences in their bearing on those who love Him. Burial is viewed in Deuteronomy 21: 23 as removing defilement from the land. When seven of Saul’s descendants were hanged before Jehovah for his sin against the Gibeonites, it was when they had been buried we are told, “afterwards God was propitious to the land”, 2 Samuel 21: 14. The sentence having been executed, and the condition in which it was executed having been removed from God’s sight in burial, the matter was righteously ended. The Christ on whom we have believed is One who has not only died, but who was also buried.
It is well to bear in mind that when the Spirit of God by Paul draws attention to Christ as descending, He does not stop short of burial. For His burial is clearly the full depth of His descent according to Ephesians 4: 9, 10. “But that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same who [p. 81] has also ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things”. Paul is led to speak of this by thinking of Him as ascended on high according to Psalm 68: 18. His having ascended implied that He had descended, and the depth of His descent was “into the lower parts of the earth”. This is in keeping with the Lord’s own words, “For even as Jonas was in the belly of the great fish three days and three nights, thus shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights”, Matthew 12: 40. He descended from the place that was ever His in eternal deity not only to the cross but to the grave. He descended in the strength of His love to the lower parts of the earth; we get the full measure of His descent as we take in the thought of His burial. Mary of Bethany seems to have been the only one of His disciples who had His burial definitely in view. She was in concert with His mind in this. In anointing His body for burial she showed that the full depth of His descent in love was before her heart. But in doing it “beforehand” she made manifest that she had no thought of His remaining in the tomb. Her pound of costly ointment was put upon Him in view of His burial, but it was done “beforehand” because her heart understood that He would not be available for anointing after His death. The greatness of His divine Person was before her: if such a Person descended to burial it was impossible that He should remain there; He must, as He Himself had said, ascend up where He was before, John 6: 62. The descending and the ascending are equal, for it is the same Person who does both. In ascending up above all the heavens He went to “where he was before”. But He went in a new condition, for He ascended as Man “that he might fill all things”. No scripture could more clearly establish His deity. No wonder that Mary’s heart was filled as in the spirit of adoration she anointed the feet of Jesus! As regarded in the light of Ephesians 4: 9, 10, we could not think of any creature anointing His head. Adoration at the feet of such a Person is the only right attitude.
In Mark’s gospel the setting of the incident is different. The woman is not named, and we are told that she had “an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly; and having broken the alabaster flask, she poured it out upon his head”, Mark 14: 3. Our attention is called in this scripture to the vessel in which the ointment was, and to the fact that [p. 82] it was broken. As seen in Simon the leper’s house the Lord would be viewed as known in the midst of Israel. He was the blessed Person in whom everything that was precious to God was found, and the woman, as divinely taught, understood that His path of service was to lead Him into death. It was what her affections had gathered up as a result of what she had seen and heard. He was God’s Anointed to carry out all His will, the One in whom every promise would be fulfilled. He is viewed in Mark as the great Servant of divine pleasure, and, in keeping with a view of Him in the greatness that attached to Him officially by God’s appointment, the woman poured out her ointment upon His head.
In John the vessel is not mentioned, but we are told that “Mary therefore, having taken a pound of ointment of pure nard of great price, anointed the feet of Jesus”. I believe that in the setting of this gospel the Spirit of God would lead us to regard Mary herself as the vessel. She had stored up in affectionate appreciation, a wealthy knowledge of One who was so great personally that He had descended from Godhead’s fullest glory that He might go down to the lower parts of the earth. He was descending to burial, and He took account of her as having kept her ointment for the day of His preparation for burial. One who could so descend must necessarily ascend up where He was before, and regarded thus in His personal greatness it is fitting that His feet should be anointed and not His head.
It is important to notice that the reference to the Lord descending into the lower parts of the earth is in the epistle to the Ephesians, for that epistle gives us the full height of things, and also the full depth. Indeed, we have the “depth and height” particularly mentioned in it, chapter 3: 18. “The lower parts of the earth” must be understood as indicating where the might of God’s strength wrought in the Christ, as we read in Ephesians 1: 19, 20. The apostle prays that we may know “the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of the might of his strength, in which he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead”. The mighty power of God acted in those “lower parts of the earth” into which Christ had descended in love, so that His burial really took Him to the point which would witness to the fullest expression of the might of God’s strength. I do not know that we have anywhere [p. 83] else in Scripture such an accumulation of words descriptive of divine power, and they impress upon us the greatness of the power that operated in the raising of Christ from among the dead. They give a very solemn impression of the tremendous power that is necessary to effect resurrection. The Lord being found, in infinite grace, among the dead gave occasion for that power to be exercised. His burial brought Him to that low point where the surpassing greatness of God’s power could be known, and known in a way that is “towards us who believe”. As buried, the Lord is viewed as having come under the whole weight of what rested on us, and the surpassing greatness of God’s power came in and raised Him from that point. Love descended to that point, but the might of God’s strength came in to raise Him. The love in which He descended was towards us, and the power that raised Him is towards us also. The whole matter had in view God’s wondrous purposes of love in regard to us.
The resurrection of Christ is a far greater expression of divine power than creation. In creation God spake and it was done. There is no suggestion of any extraordinary exertion of divine power in creation, but the words used in Ephesians 1: 19 do suggest the exercise of extraordinary power on God’s part. God would have us to ponder this. It is necessary that He should give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him so that we may know this power, and understand that it is “towards us who believe”. But the fact that Paul prayed for it for the saints is evidence that God is willing to give us this enlightenment.
A further result of the burial of Christ is its bearing on those who love Him. We are never to forget that He has been buried here, and that His burial was a matter that brought into activity the affections of His lovers. The world that lifted Him up was not allowed to make provision for His burial. Men did indeed appoint His grave with the wicked, but God would not allow that appointment to stand. In retaining the Lord’s burial in the hands of lovers it seems as though God would say to every lover of Christ, This is a matter for you to be concerned about; how do your affections move in regard to it? We have seen how Mary’s affections moved in relation to His burial, and in Joseph of Arimathaea we see one who took up publicly and wholeheartedly the position of identification with Christ in burial. This was his great privilege, but [p. 84] it is the privilege of all lovers of Christ, and therefore he may be regarded as representative of them all in this character. And there is special instruction in the experience of Joseph, for, though a disciple, he had not been publicly identified with the Lord before. What hindered him is the very thing that hinders us, and God would show us how he got free from his hindrance so that we might get free in the same way.
He had been “a disciple of Jesus, but secretly through fear of the Jews”. There had been with him, as with us all, a shrinking from reproach and suffering, and a desire for the easy path. He had not known what it was to see the body of the flesh cut off, but I believe he had been circumcised in a spiritual sense between the time when he was a secret disciple and the time when he “demanded of Pilate that he might take the body of Jesus”. In the meantime “the circumcision of the Christ”, (Colossians 2: 11), had taken place. Christ after the flesh had been cut off, and if He had been cut off, how could any lover of His desire to retain status as in the flesh? In the solemn hour of the death of Christ Joseph was “circumcised with circumcision not done by hand, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of the Christ”, Colossians 2: 11, and he put off, in a spiritual sense, the whole body of the flesh, and with it his unbelieving fears, and his desire to retain a religious place here. He was prepared now for identification with Christ in burial. Demanding the body of Jesus was claiming a right to it. His love demanded the privilege of identification with Christ in connection with His burial. The tomb was Joseph’s “new tomb which he had hewn in the rock”, and when he put the body of Jesus in it, I think we may say that, in a spiritual sense, he put himself there, as represented in the Person of the One who had died for him. I cannot think that he was ever seen in the council again, nor that he was ever again identified with the religious doings of the priests and others who had consulted and accomplished the death of Christ. He was henceforth a buried man to all that. His going down to burial was a movement of love on his part, and it is a movement which we all have to make if we are to know the true meaning of being “buried with him in baptism”.
It is evident that Joseph had had the thought of burial before him, for he had hewn out for himself a sepulchre in the rock. God had led his thoughts that way in view of the [p. 85] burial of Christ. His tomb was one of the things — like the colt and the guest-chamber — specially provided and reserved for the Lord. The sepulchre being in “the rock” suggested that the idea of burial was to have a permanent place in Christianity. The Lord Himself was to be there only for three days and three nights, but the thought of burial was to be permanent, for it is an abiding truth in Christianity that His lovers are buried with Him (Romans 6: 4; Colossians 2: 12). The Ethiopian eunuch was prepared for burial with Christ, when he said, “what hinders my being baptised”? It was the demand of a good conscience (1 Peter 3: 21), in keeping with Joseph’s demand to have the body of Jesus for burial. The Lord went finally out of this world by burial, and His grave is left “hewn in the rock” as a permanent spot for love to occupy, in a spiritual sense, as soon as there is a readiness to do so. Ruth said to Naomi, “where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried”. How this tests us as to whether we are really prepared to go down out of the life of this world! Paul asks the Colossians, “Why as if alive in the world do ye subject yourselves to ordinances?” They were in danger of following the injunctions and teachings of men, and entertaining religious and philosophic thoughts which all belong to this world. We descend altogether out of that area when we go down in affection to burial with Christ.
It is helpful to see the steps by which believers are led to correspondence with Christ, as “complete (or filled full) in him”. Those who are filled full in Christ certainly have no need to retain, as of value, anything connected with “the body of the flesh”. So that, as a second step, they can afford to accept circumcision. Then, third, they come to the truth of burial with Christ in baptism. All this being on the way to a fourth step in apprehension that “ye have been also raised with him through faith of the working of God who raised him from among the dead”, Colossians 2: 9 - 12.
In the interval between the lifting up of Christ on the cross and His resurrection by the mighty power of God on the third day, it seems to me that Joseph of Arimathaea was acting spiritually in accord with the mind of God at the moment. The women, we are told in Mark’s gospel, “bought aromatic spices that they might come and embalm him”. Nothing could have been more unnecessary under the circumstances, or less in keeping with the great spiritual truth of the moment.
[p. 86] The Scriptures might have assured them that He would not see corruption, and He had spoken again and again of rising the third day. Persons are embalmed because it is expected that they will long remain in death! The great and important truth of the moment was that He was about to be seen as the risen One. With regard to Nicodemus and his hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes, the Spirit of God is careful to tell us that it was “as it is the custom with the Jews to prepare for burial”. Their doings, particularly as referred to in John’s gospel, are not marked by spirituality. We are perhaps much more influenced than we think by customs current, or that have been current, in the religious world. But spirituality is needed for the apprehension of what is suitable to the Lord at any particular moment; affection and devotion are not sufficient. Human sentiment, even of the choicest kind, tends to obscure what is spiritual. One would desire that there might be much more devotion to the Lord with all of us who believe on Him, but also that there might be more ability to honour Him in a truly spiritual way.
Joseph brought no spices, but he “bought fine linen, and having taken him down, he swathed him in the fine linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was cut out of rock”, Mark 15: 46. I have no doubt the “fine linen” represented his apprehension of the Lord Jesus as having been here in holy flesh for the accomplishment of the will of God. But the very condition in which He had been here, and in which He had accomplished all for the glory of God, was now to disappear from view in the tomb. Christ according to flesh not only died, but was buried. And when He reappeared to His own in resurrection it was in a new condition. How much we need to ponder those words of Paul: “So that we henceforth know no one according to flesh; but if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer”, 2 Corinthians 5: 16. This great truth lies at the root of Christianity. The Christ in whom we are is One who, according to flesh, has died and been buried. He has been raised in a new condition which never had, and never can have, any link with the life of the world. “So if any one be in Christ, there is a new creation”. Nothing is more important for Christians to understand.
In the wisdom of God the fine linen which Joseph brought held an important place, for it became the evidence of Christ’s [p. 87] resurrection. When John saw the linen cloths lying in the tomb we are told that “he saw and believed”, John 20: 8. The very way in which the linen cloths were lying was the proof of resurrection. What he saw convinced him that the Lord would not return to the condition in which they had known Him, and in which He had been made sin and had died and been buried. The “fine linen” represented that condition — a condition absolutely holy and perfect in every way, and divinely suitable to all that was accomplished in it, but “according” to flesh, and therefore a condition in which Christ would be known no longer. They must now look to see Him in a new condition, the First-fruits of the resurrection harvest. His burial was a necessary step on the way to this, and hence its importance in the unfolding of God’s ways in Christ.