THEN CAME THE MORNING

     And after the death of Jesus on the cross, Joseph of Arimathaea, a disciple of Jesus, went to Pilate to beg for the body of Jesus in order to give the Lord a proper burial according to the Jewish tradition.
     Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus was dead so soon, for the Roman method of crucifixion was not designed to kill people quickly; instead, it was a form of punishment that would produce extreme pain and extended suffering, torture was purposely prolonged, and death was thereby delayed for several hours or even days before victims suffocated.  When Pilate conferred with the centurion on this matter, thus confirming that Jesus was dead, he consented to Joseph's request.
     Returning to Golgotha, the place where prisoners were executed, Joseph took the body of Jesus, wrapped him in fine linen, and laid him in a sepulchre hewn out of rock, and which had been purchased by Joseph.  Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses were there, too, since they had followed Jesus from Galilee, bringing with them spices and ointments. Nicodemus, a priest of the Jews, brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes.
    Perhaps it is fitting to say here that these believers were stunned and even somber as they beheld the body of Jesus---the man they could not recognize from the scourging he had received by the hands of the Roman soldiers as well as from his punishment on the cross.  Nevertheless, they quietly performed their duty and closed the door of the tomb.
     Centuries earlier, the prophet Isaiah wrote of the Messiah:  his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men; he hath no more comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;  and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
     Early in the morning on the third day since Jesus' death, his resurrection was as silent as his birth had been in Bethlehem.  There were no trumpets blasting, no singers singing, and no shoutings from the roof tops, for making noise was not his way.  His life was an example of humility, as was his death, and so was his resurrection.  His life and his message were not to draw attention to himself, for such attention he did not seek.  Everything he did was for us and not for himself.  He gave his life freely that we, who will trust in him by faith, will be forgiven for our sins and live again also.  This is the simple message of Jesus.