The Significance of Jesus’ Burial

By Robb Brunansky

Published April 14, 2025

As we read the biblical narrative of all the events of Good Friday, it’s eye-opening to think about how much happened in just one day.

The number of events that transpired is really shocking, even to 21^st century readers who are used to everything happening in an instant:

• A betrayal, an arrest, multiple trials, mob rule, the release of Barabbas;
• the scourging of Jesus and the presentation of Him having been scourged;
• the journey to Golgotha, crucifixion, three hours of darkness, and death of Christ;
• the breaking of the other two men’s legs, the piercing of Jesus’ side, the removal of Jesus’ body from the cross;
• Joseph coming to ask for the body, receiving it, preparing it for burial, and then the burial of Jesus.

With all that happened, Good Friday ends at a tomb. Our Lord’s body was taken down from the cross, wrapped in a linen cloth with a hundred pounds of spices to mitigate the stench over time, and placed in a new family tomb cut out of rock, sealed with a stone, with a garrison of soldiers to guard it.

Of all the significant events that took place on Good Friday, Jesus’ burial is perhaps the most overlooked today. We rightly emphasize Christ’s cross, the very place and center of our redemption; and we celebrate His resurrection where He overcame death. The event in the middle, though – Jesus’ burial – we often don’t consider.

Christ’s burial is mentioned numerous times in Scripture. It is part of the apostolic description of the gospel itself in 1 Corinthians 15. Here, Paul explains the gospel the Corinthians believed as something of first importance (verse 3). The three events noted in this passage are that Jesus died, that He was buried, and that He was raised (verse 3-4).

When Paul was preaching at Pisidian Antioch, he noted that after Jesus died, they laid Him in a tomb (Acts 13:29). Paul also links the burial of Christ to baptism (Romans 6:4, Colossians 2:12).

The burial of our Lord Jesus was a critical event in His dying and rising for our sins. There are three reasons why His burial is so significant.

First, it provides Messianic credentials.

The Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah demand that He not only die and rise again but that He also be buried. There are two places, starting with Isaiah 53:9.

We see two things in this prophecy relevant to the burial of the Messiah. The first is He must die the death of the wicked, although He Himself is righteous. Somehow, in an unexplained way to Isaiah, the Messiah must be with a rich man in His death. Christ’s burial provides the solution to this prophetic puzzle. Like a vicious criminal, Jesus’ grave was assigned with the wicked. Yet, He ended up being buried in a rich man’s tomb.

Isaiah must have scratched his head and wondered how these two things could both be true at the same time. As we read the gospels, though, we see exactly how God had it all planned out perfectly to fulfill prophecy and show Jesus’ messiahship through His burial.

The second place is in Matthew 12:40. This New Testament passage reveals an Old Testament prophecy from Jonah’s life. Just as Jonah spent three days and nights in the belly of the great fish, the Son of Man would spend three days and nights in the heart of the earth. As we read the book of Jonah, we might not realize it’s a prophecy of Christ, but Jonah is pointing to the one who would bring lasting salvation to the Gentiles, the Messiah. Jonah’s time in the fish foreshadowed the Messiah’s burial.

Jesus’ burial is of vital importance because it shows He is the Messiah.

Second, Christ’s burial proves He really died.

The late Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who was an esteemed physician before he was called into the ministry, noted the significance of burial and physical death. He wrote, “You may look at a body that appears to be inanimate and dead, but if there is any doubt or query you do not bury it until you are absolutely certain that death has taken place.” The fact that Christ’s body was taken down and entrusted to one of His disciples, albeit a secret one until this moment of requesting Jesus’ body, and then that disciple proceeded to bury the body indicates the absolute certainty His loved ones had that He was dead. Lloyd-Jones adds, “His burial is absolute proof of the fact that He died, in the fullest sense of the term, on the Cross. It was not merely a suspension of life or of animation or of breathing; it was a true death.”

Herman Bavinck adds that Jesus’ burial means He “spent three days in the state of death, belonged to the realm of the dead, and thus fully bore the punishment for sin.” Christ’s burial is of great comfort because it gives certainty that He bore the Law’s curse for us. The wages of sin are death, and we have assurance that Christ paid that price for us because He truly died. Understand that Christ’s burial is a sure and certain proof our sins are forgiven once and for all if we have believed in Him, and that there is no more curse for us to bear.

Finally, Jesus’ burial proves He really rose.

The most significant aspect of Christ’s burial is the proof it provides that He really rose from the dead. His tomb was in a known location, guarded by soldiers, and sealed with a massive boulder. All that makes it so easy to show He really rose from the dead because the tomb that was well known, heavily guarded, and sealed, ended up empty, with the burial clothes neatly folded, the soldiers in a panic, and the angels announcing the good news.

Imagine if Jesus had not been buried! Now would anyone ever have been certain He rose again? Where would they go to find the body?

Imagine if the tomb had been in an unknown location or in a mass grave! What if the disciples had just forgotten the location and found the wrong tomb? How could they have been sure it was His body and not someone else’s?

Even the soldiers at the tomb became witnesses, because they were forced to recognize the miracle that had happened, that the tomb was empty. They had been scared out of their minds, knowing Jesus’ body had been raised by God, not stolen by His disciples.

The burial of Jesus Christ marks one of the greatest pieces of physical evidence of His resurrection. Remember the angel at the tomb, whose argument ran like this: ‘He is not here, but He has risen.’ The tomb is empty, and the reason is because the Son of God rose from the dead.

Christ’s burial is often overlooked but vitally important. It is significant because it provided Jesus with Messianic credentials, proved He really died, and demonstrated He absolutely rose from the dead. Good Friday ended the way God said: with the Messiah assigned to die like the wicked, but mysteriously ending up in the tomb of a rich man. That dark tomb, where hope seemed to die, would be the light of the hope of resurrection life for sinners who believe.