55 The women who had come with him from Galilee followed along and observed the tomb and how his body was placed. 56 Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.
Luke 23:55-56
Joanna, The Burial Assistant
Today is our third day looking at the life of Joanna as recorded in Luke 8:1-3 and Luke 24:9-10.Joanna's name is mentioned twice in the Library of Scripture, both times in Luke's gospel. There are five things that we know about Joanna from the testimony of Scripture:
- Joanna was healed of evil spirits or sickness by Jesus (Luke 8:2)
- Joanna helped fund Jesus' ministry (Luke 8:3)
- Joanna assisted in the burial of Jesus (Luke 23:55-56)
- Joanna witnessed Jesus' empty tomb (Luke 24:1-5)
- Joanna was one of the first ever to proclaim Jesus' resurrection from the dead. (Luke 24:9-10)
Today let's dig a little deeper into the reality that Joanna assisted in the burial of Jesus (Luke 23:55-56).Following Jesus' death on the cross, a man named Joseph took Jesus's body and placed it into a tomb that was cut into the rock. The text tells us that the women (Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary, the mother of James, and others) had come with Joseph to the tomb and had observed Jesus's dead body being placed in the tomb. They then left to prepare spices and perfumes to place inside the tomb as a means to control the smell of a rotting corpse.Interestingly, all four of the gospel writers present details about Jesus's burial. They do this in order to demonstrate that Jesus was truly dead. The fact that Joanna and these women left to prepare spices and perfume proves that they were convinced that Jesus was truly dead. This is significant because the death of Jesus is the perfect substitute that brings us back to God. If Jesus didn't actually die, then we are still bound by sin and death. If Jesus didn't actually die, then the resurrection was just a masterful sleight of hand.As The New City Catechism states, "Since death is the punishment for sin, Christ died willingly in our place to deliver us from the power and penalty of sin and bring us back to God. By his substitutionary death, he alone redeems us from hell and gains for us forgiveness of sin, righteousness, and everlasting life." Think about it this way: when Jesus was buried, our sin was buried. Our sin was not injured, our sin did not pass out, our sin was not temporarily paralyzed; rather, our sin was buried.Today, may we rejoice in the substitutionary death of Jesus. That as he truly died, our sinful nature and destination died with him!
