And when he confirmed that fact from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph.
After Pilate had verified the fact of Jesus’ death from the centurion, he handed His body over to Joseph of Arimathea. This was another important step of God’s providence: Christ’s body was not left in disgrace and did not remain as the body of an ordinary condemned man, but with lawful permission it was entrusted to a man who desired to bury Him properly. People crucified Him like a criminal, but in the burial of His Son God showed His honor. With this event the word of the prophet Isaiah began to be fulfilled: “They assigned His grave with the wicked, but He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no lawlessness, and no deceit was in His mouth” (Isaiah 53:9). This verse shows that even the handing over of Christ’s body was not accidental: God was directing everything so that after the disgrace of the cross, the course of His honorable burial would begin.