Ryle on Mark 15:39-47

Imported boundary: J. C. Ryle's Expository Thoughts on Mark from the Internet Archive DjVu OCR for the 1858 Robert Carter St. Mark volume. Title pages, preface, contents, running heads, page numbers, OCR boilerplate, and indexes are not mirrored. The source includes Ryle's printed Scripture text and exposition; this scan-derived text remains needs-verification.

Primary passage: Mark 15:39-47.

Source Text

39 And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out. and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God. 40 There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Sa- lome ; 41 (Who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him and ministered unto him ;) and many other women which came up with him unto Jeru- salem. 42 And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, 43 Joseph of Arimathsea, an hon- orable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. 44 And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead : and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. 45 And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. 46 And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre. 47 And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where he was laid. The death of our Lord Jesus Christ is the most impor- tant fact in Christianity. On it depend the hopes of all saved sinners both for time and eternity. We need not therefore to be surprised to find the reality of His death carefully placed beyond dispute. Three kinds of witnesses to the fact are brought before us in the verses we have now read. The Koman centurion, who stood near the cross, - the women who followed our Lord from Galilee to Jerusalem, - the disciples, who buried Him, wTere all witnesses that Jesus really died. Their united evidence is above suspicion. They could not be deceived. What they saw was no swoon, or trance, or temporary insensibility. They saw that same Jesus, who was cm- cified, lay down His life, and become obedient even unto death. Let this be established in our minds. Our Sa- viour really and truly died.

Let us notice, for one thing in this passage, what honorable mention is here made of women. We are specially told that, when our Lord gave up the ghost, " there were women looking on afar off." The names of some of them are recorded. We are also told that they were the same who had followed our Lord in Galilee and ministered unto Him, and that there were " many other women which came up with him to Jerusalem."

We should hardly have expected to have read such things. We might well have supposed that, when all the disciples but one had forsaken our Lord and fled, the weaker and more timid sex would not have dared to show themselves His friends. It only shows us what grace can do. God sometimes chooses the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty. The last are sometimes first, and the first last. The faith of women sometimes stands upright, when the faith of men fails and gives way. But it is interesting to remark throughout the New Testament how often we find the grace of God glorified in women, and how much benefit God has been pleased to confer through them on the Church, and on the world. In the Old Testament, we see sin and death brought in by the woman's transgression. In the New, we see Jesus born of a woman, and life and immortality brought to light by that miraculous birth. In the Old Testa- ment, we often see woman proving a hindrance and a snare to man. The women before the flood, the histo- 351 ries of Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Delilah, Bath-sheba, Jezebel, are all painful examples. In the New Testa- ment, we generally see women mentioned as a help and assistance to the cause of true religion. Elizabeth, Mary, Martha, Dorcas, Lydia, and the women named by St. Paul to the Romans, are all cases in point. The contrast is striking, and we need not doubt intentional. It is one of the many proofs, that grace is more abun- dant under the Gospel than under the law. It seems meant to teach us that women have an important place in the Church of Christ, one that ought to be assigned to them, and one that they ought to fill. There is a great work that women can do for God's glory, without being public teachers. Happy is that congregation in which women know this, and act upon it !

Let us notice, for another thing, in this passage, that Jesus has friends of whom little is known. We cannot conceive a more remarkable proof of this than the per- son who is here mentioned for the first time, Joseph of Arimathasa. We know nothing of this man's former history. We know not how he had learned to love Christ, and to desire to do Him honor. We know nothing of his subsequent history after our Lord left the world. All we know is the touching collection of facts before us. We are told that he " waited for the kingdom of God, and that at a time when our Lord's disciples had all forsaken Him, He " went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus," and buried it honorably in his own tomb. Others had honored and confessed our Lord when they saw Him working miracles, but Joseph honored Him and confessed himself a disciple, when he saw Him a cold, blood-sprinkled corpse. Others had shown love to Jesus while He was speaking and living, but Joseph showed love when He was silent and dead.

Let us take comfort in the thought that there are true Christians on earth, of whom we know nothing, and in places where we should not expect to find them. No doubt the faithful are always few. But we must not hastily conclude that there is no grace in a family or in a parish, because our eyes may not see it. We know in part and see only in part, outside the circle in which our own lot is cast. The Lord has many " hidden ones" in the Church, who, unless brought forward by special circumstances will never be known till the last day. The words of God to Elijah should not be forgotten, " Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel." (1 Kings xix. 18.)

Let us notice, lastly in this passage, ivhat honor our Lord Jesus Christ has placed on the grave, by allowing Himself to be laid in it

We read that he was " laid in a sepulchre hewn out of a rock," and a " stone rolled unto the door." This is a fact that in a dying world we should always remember. It is appointed unto men once to die. We are all going to one place, and we naturally shrink from it. The coffin and the funeral, the worm and corrup- tion, are all painful subjects. They chill us, sadden us, and fill our minds with heaviness. It is not in flesh and blood to regard them without solemn feelings. One thing, however, ought to comfort believers, and that is the thought, that the grave is " the place where the Lord once lay." As surely as He rose again victorious from the tomb, so surely shall all who believe in Him rise gloriously in the day of His appearing. Eemember- ing this, they -may look down with calmness into the " house appointed for all living." They may recollect that Jesus himself was once there on their behalf, and has robbed death of his sting. They may say to themselves, " the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law : but thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. xv. 56, 57.) The great matter that concerns us all, is to make sure that we are spiritually buried with Christ, while we are yet alive.

We must be joined to Him by faith, and con- formed to His image. With Him we must die to sin, and be buried by baptism into His death. (Rom. vi. 4.) With Him we must rise again and be quickened by His Spirit. Except we know these things, Christ's death and burial will profit us nothing at all.