7th April
If someone guilty of a capital offense is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight. Be sure to
bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under
God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the LORD your God is giving
you as an inheritance.
DEUTERONOMY 21:22-23
Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special
Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the
crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken
and the bodies taken down.
Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now
Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the
Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body
away. He was
accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at
night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about
seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in
strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
JOHN 19:31, 38-42
