And the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment. (Luke 23:55-56)

They Knew Where Jesus Was Buried

Joseph of Arimathea was a man of wealth who prepared his tomb outside of Jerusalem, where he would one day be buried. As a rich man, the tomb was crafted by masters who took time and attention to detail to prepare it for their rich client. A large stone was hewn out of a rock to carefully seal the tomb securely so that tomb robbers would not easily enter it to rob it of its contents. Everything Joseph wanted in his tomb was completed to his satisfaction. It would be an occasion of great pomp and circumstance when the man from Arimathea was buried.

Sometime in the past few years, Joseph had become a disciple of Jesus Christ. He was associated with Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews and a Pharisee. Joseph was a prominent council member himself. Together, Joseph and Nicodemus went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. This was a bold act for both men as Joseph, for fear of the Jews, secretly was a disciple of Jesus. Speculation is given on why Nicodemus had come to Jesus by night. Receiving permission from Pilate, Joseph and Nicodemus went to Golgotha and, with the help of the Roman soldiers, removed the dead body of Jesus from the cross. The soldiers pulled the nails out of the hands and feet of Jesus, and the two men wrapped the body and carried him to the garden where the tomb had been hewn out of solid rock. It was a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.

Joseph and Nicodemus bound the body with strips of linen with spices, planning to return after Sabbath to complete the work. As the two men took the body of Jesus from the soldiers and carried Him to the tomb, certain women were watching carefully what was being done. There were women who had come with Jesus from Galilee, and they observed the tomb, where it was located, which tomb Joseph and Nicodemus had placed the body, and how it was laid. Matthew and Mark detail that Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joses, observed where Jesus was placed.

On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Joanna, Salome, and other women, bought spices to anoint the body of Jesus. They knew exactly where the tomb was in the garden. Many tombs were in the area, but they knew which tomb Jesus was buried. There was no doubt or hesitation as to where they had seen Joseph and Nicodemus bury the body of Jesus. They worried about who would roll the stone away, but when they arrived at the exact tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, they were shocked to see the tomb open. Three days earlier, they had carefully observed how the two men carried the body of Jesus into the tomb and how they laid the body in the tomb. They were not confused, nor did they make a mistake. The women knew precisely where the tomb was. What they found was an empty tomb.

Paul later wrote that after the resurrection of Jesus, more than five hundred people testified to having seen Jesus. The death of Jesus was not something done in a corner. Many people knew about how the Jews had demanded the death of the man from Nazareth and how the Romans had carried out the execution. The empty tomb stood as a monument to the testimony of Christ’s resurrection. There was no doubt which tomb was empty. It was a new tomb made of solid rock guarded by the elite Roman army. If anyone doubted the veracity of the resurrection story, certain women could take the unbelievers to the empty tomb to testify of the resurrection.

The women who observed which tomb Jesus was laid in and how He was placed in the tomb was one of many testimonies to the validity of the resurrection of Jesus. During the early stages of the New Testament church, critics of the resurrection had only to ask certain women what they knew. The testimony of the women confirmed that Jesus had risen from the dead. They knew exactly where Jesus was buried and where He was not found when they returned on the first day of the week. He is not here but has risen!