John tells us that, rather early in the process, Jesus asked him to assume custody of His mother, Mary. It should be obvious that Jesus didn’t trust His own siblings with the task because they didn’t believe in Him, and John clearly did. The parallel passages are in Mark 15:33-47 and Luke 23:44-56.
By the time Jesus was actually hung on the crossbeam, it was close to noon. Not long after, the sky grew exceedingly dark. None of the Gospels offer a geophysical reason, only that it was enough to be disturbing. This continued for three hours.
At about 3PM, Jesus called out audibly a quote from Psalm 22, lamenting that He had been abandoned by the divine Presence. He spoke in Aramaic, and the Hellenized Jews nearby thought He was calling for Elijah. This was yet another reason to mock Him.
Then Jesus groaned that He was thirsty. He needed to wet this throat so He could cry out in full voice. So the soldiers standing there stuck a sponge into a jug of their low-grade vinegary wine, and then poked a reed into it because His face was just out of reach of their hands. Once He had sucked up some of the wine, He was able to make the official declaration that He had completed this part of His mission. His last words were to resign His spirit into the Father’s hands. Then He collapsed into obvious death.
Apparently the Father agreed with this assessment, because at that point there was an earthquake. Tombs in the area opened up and dead people were resuscitated, walking back into town to find their friends and families. Matthew refers to them as “saints” — pious people of faith.
Most importantly, though, was that the earthquake broke the beam in the Temple from which hung the veil separating the larger open chamber — where the Bread of Presence was stacked, the Menorah stood, and the altar for incense — from the inner chamber called the Holy of Holies. Something about the way that beam broke was able to cause the veil to rip and expose that inner chamber. God Himself was announcing that people could now routinely come into His Presence. The whole ritual system was finished.
There was a Roman centurion there to command the three squads that had escorted the condemned men to Golgotha. With the darkness, earthquakes and resuscitated bodies walking around, it was obvious to Him that Jesus was what He claimed to be, the Son of God. Further, the omens convinced him that Jesus was utterly innocent of any crime.
At least part of the crowd went away striking their chests in the symbol of repentance and deep regret at whatever part they may have played in all of this. We are told that among those women whom Jesus had advised earlier to save their tears, women who lived in Jerusalem but had followed Him a good bit as disciples, those standing there included Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Less and Matthew, and the unnamed mother of James and John.
John reminds us that this was the Day of Preparation for the Passover. Keep in mind that any bodies that bounced out of the graves that weren’t resuscitated could not be reburied until the day after the Passover. But it was simply unacceptable that these men should be left hanging there so close to the Temple during Passover. So the Sanhedrin went and petitioned Pilate to have the soldiers break the legs of these condemned men so they would not be able to keep pushing up to breathe, but go ahead and die by asphyxiation before sundown. Then they wanted to bodies removed.
So the order came down and the soldiers used a heavy blunt weapon and broke the shins of the crucified men. It was a hard job, and the bones might not break with the first blow. The other two went first, but when the soldiers came to Jesus, He appeared to be dead already. As a test, they poked his rib-cage with one of their pilum. After the blood loss from that awful beating, and the sustained racing heartbeat that follows from loss of blood pressure, the lymph system would have flooded the tissues around the heart and lungs. Romans might not have known as much about medicine as we do today, but soldiers who beat and executed a lot of prisoners recognized that separation of blood and lymph was all the proof they needed that Jesus was dead.
John notes that he was there to witness this first hand. He associates this with two prophecies, that none of the Messiah’s bones would be broken, and that they would gaze mournfully upon the Messiah whom they had speared.
Apparently things were wrapped up and only a handful of soldiers stood guard to avoid any last moment rescues.
Collating the parallel passages, we learn that as twilight approached, one of the Sanhedrin came to claim the body of Jesus. He was named Joseph, from Arimathea (AKA Ramathaim), and had dissented from the others regarding Jesus. Pilate wondered if Jesus was really dead by now, and queried the centurion who had been there. Sure enough, Jesus died early in the process, so Pilate released the body to him. Joseph was quite wealthy with servants to help him. They extracted the nails and took the body down, taking it to Joseph’s own tomb, which was obviously not yet in use. He was wealthy enough to afford one of the few places left for sale in Jerusalem where a traditional Hebrew tomb could be built. He could also afford the workers to carve out a space in the rock.
Joining him there was Nicodemas, the one who had met Jesus at night for a private interview. He brought with him a large roll of fabric and sufficient aromatic spices in a mixture of gum Arabic to perform a standard embalming ritual. They washed and wrapped the body of Jesus from the toes to the armpits, slathering the cloth with the gummy mixture. The arms were brought down to the side and the wrapping started again at the hands and went up to the neck. This whole process would leave the body encased in a husk that would dry hard in a matter of hours. They finished with a large flat piece of cloth wrapped around His head.
This use of a freshly carved tomb constituted a proper ritual offering to God, something not yet used for any other purpose. The men and their servants finished just in time to avoid breaking the high Sabbath of the Passover. They rolled a heavy stone against the opening of the tomb to discourage thieves who might be hoping to find expensive trinkets normally buried with wealthy people.
Those three women who witnessed the death had also followed Joseph to the tomb, watched the men and their servants prepare the body, and carefully noted the location in a common garden shared among several tombs. When they left, they gathered their own stock of burial spices and oils, but then had to get home for the Sabbath.
Sometime early during the day of Passover, the same council that condemned Jesus met with Pilate and warned him that He had prophesied He would rise in three days. They asked that Pilate would secure the tomb so that the disciples could not steal the body and claim that Jesus had risen. Pilate agreed that this would be a problem, so he ordered up a squad of guards, and one of them carried a Roman seal. It would consist of something bearing Roman government symbols, including a bit of clay or wax that could be packed around the edge of the stone to seal it against the opening. It would be stamped with a seal that nobody could mistake. Breaking the seal would mean the death penalty.
So a guard was posted on the sealed tomb for the next few days.
