and placed it in a new tomb that he had had cut into the rock. Then he rolled a large stone to the entrance of the tomb, as the stone that closed the tomb, and went away.
Joseph of Arimathea placed Jesus’ body in a new tomb that he had cut into the rock, thus bringing his work to completion. This circumstance testifies both to the reality of His death and to the divine providence by which the prophecy was fulfilled: “Yet with a rich man he was in his death” (Isaiah 53:9). The new tomb, where no one had ever been laid (Luke 23:53), symbolized the idea that Christ’s body was not to be mingled with the tomb of any mortal. The stone that they rolled as a cover seemed like humanity’s final barrier, but in the divine plan it would become evidence for the resurrection. Joseph’s departure shows the believer’s obedient rest: doing his duty by faith and leaving the outcome in God’s hand. This episode is at once peaceful and mysterious: it seems like an ending, but in truth the preface of new life is being fulfilled.