On Amazing Grace

About a week ago, many of us read today's verses (or similar verses in other Gospels). Matthew 27:57-61 tells about the acts of Joseph of Arimathea after Jesus' death. I'm sure as we've read this account over the years, we've always talked about the sacrifice Joseph made, or the irony of Jesus being buried in a rich man's tomb. The type of tomb Joseph had was very expensive, and criminals who were crucified were usually either left on the cross for the animals to eat (gross, I know - hope you're not eating breakfast right now), or taken down and thrown in a shallow grave in a field like the poor were. But I learned something new this week that I want to share with you.

Jewish law dictates that once a tomb was used, it could not be used again. However, that was only the case if the tomb was used for a non-family member. If, say, your mother was buried in the tomb and someone else in your family died, that person could also be put in that tomb and it would not be unclean. However, in the case of Joseph, since Jesus was not a member of his family, once He was laid in the tomb, it was considered unclean, and no one in Joseph's family would ever be able to use it. Joseph did make a rather significant sacrifice. He now had to go find some new after-life real estate, which was at a prime and would cost quite a bit of money.

What struck me when I learned all of this was the legalism of it all. Please note that I said this all was according to Jewish law, not God's law. Yes, as we read Exodus and Leviticus we see that God had some pretty strange and picky laws for the Jews to follow. But if that weren't enough, the Jewish leaders then decided to add a few thousand more (one version of the Talmud has almost 6,000 pages). To this day, there are Ultra Orthodox Jews who are living under not only the oppression of the blindness Satan is allowed to impose on them, but they are living under the oppression of thousands of man-made laws and the fear that if they break them their names will not be written the Book of Righteousness, and they will not go to Heaven. (An interesting study if you've got some time is of the Jewish holidays Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur - their sole purpose involves the confession of a year's worth of sins and hoping that one does it well enough to please God.)

I read yesterday about a man in Israel named Isaac who is an Ultra Orthodox Jew. According to the person he was talking to, he was searching for Truth. He talked about how he just wasn't sure his religion had it right and about how he was reading the writings of other religions - Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. He said he felt trapped in the ritual of his religion. The writer had the opportunity to share with Isaac about the truth of God's grace, and that is exactly what I take away from today's passage.

Because Jesus borrowed a tomb, we are free from the laws the Jews fear. Because Jesus didn't stay in Joseph's tomb, we can accept God's grace and mercy. We do not have to keep track of our sins and confess them once a year. We're free to do that the second we fall, and know, without a doubt, that because Jesus conquered sin and death "once, for all" (Heb. 7:27), we are bathed in His righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21) and we know our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life (Rev. 21:22-27, 1 John 1:9). If you haven't thanked Jesus for dying for you today, stop and do it now, then pray for someone you know who is still hoping that they'll get into Heaven instead of living with the assurance that comes through Christ that we will one day see Him face-to-face.