A Lesson from the Grave Clothes

“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.”

Mark 15:46

 Until a few weeks ago, this verse had always struck me to be a rather mundane detail tucked into the account of Christ’s death. But to the grieving hearts of those who loved Jesus, the grave clothes would have had a poignant significance.

That length of linen, purchased for the burial of One most dear, would have seemed to Christ’s followers to be symbols of death, decay, and the destruction of their own hopes. Particularly for Joseph and Nicodemus who assisted him, the washing and wrapping of Christ’s broken body would have been a final act of love and devotion.

No doubt their hearts were broken as they laid Jesus on the cold stone slab in the tomb and rolled the stone across the doorway. Their Messiah was dead, gone forever.

Yet what began as the tokens of profound sorrow were to become tokens of greatest joy. Joseph and Nicodemus went to Calvary bearing the precious gift of a loving heart, shown by the selection of the finest linen for Him of whom even the best could never be worthy.

With hearts heavy with grief, they showed their love and devotion to the lifeless body of the One who had spoken the glorious words, “I am the resurrection and the life.” (John 11:25) The pain of their overwhelming sorrow was compounded by confusion and all must have seemed lost.

Yet the depth of their loss would soon give way to the height of joy as, on the morning  of the third day, the grave clothes of finest linen were laid neatly aside and the resurrected body of the Lord of Life put on the far finer cloth of heavenly raiment.

And those grave clothes, laid aside within the tomb, quietly proclaimed the joy of death defeated, reminding all who looked upon them that the Savior’s atoning sacrifice had been accomplished, shown to be so by His victorious resurrection.

From that morning on, death and suffering have taken on the hope and joy of eternal life for those who have accepted the gift of salvation purchased by the blood of Christ. And just as the grave clothes were transformed by the resurrection into tokens of joy and triumph, those things in our lives which seem only to be the things of sorrow can also be transformed.

One day, we who have trusted Christ for salvation will look back over our lives and be able to see how God fulfilled His promise to work all things together for our good and His glory. (Rom.8:28)

 What things in your life seem like the grave clothes? As we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, take them to the Lord and trust Him to transform them!

“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

(1 Corinthians 15:57)