Buried

Friday was awful. Christ had died, evil seemed to have won, and hope was gone. Two secret followers took Jesus and laid Him in the tomb. The fact that Christ was buried was an anomaly. Most crucified people were left hanging on the cross as a sign of shame or were thrown into the city dump. But Jesus was given the burial of a nobleman. While today's Scripture passage sets the scene for Easter Sunday, we should not gloss over the impact for those in the story. A funeral and burial are solemn and difficult moments. Yet, for two religious leaders, this moment was the place where they stopped trusting the Jewish system and gave themselves to Christ. This moment tells us quite a bit about what it means to live under the cross, and to deal with our own suffering and struggle in the world.