And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected memberof the Council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courageand went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.

Those who saw Yeshu’s dead body on the cross included a member of the Council who wanted for him the Jewish honour of proper burial; it was an expensive tomb.

Another person was the centurion, the one who was so impressed by the manner of Yeshu’s death.

And, keeping their distance out of fear and in accord with Jewish convention, were the women who watched so that they could return at the right time and fulfill the custom of embalming the dead. Read on to discover the surprise that awaited them.

And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”           

There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.

The centurion was used to seeing men die, but in Yeshu’s case there was no gradual loss of consciousness. Instead, Yeshu with a strong voice proclaimed that his work of providing salvation for mankind was finished. Then it was time to die.

As for the temple, by what means was that great great thick curtain concealing the way into the Holiest Place ripped open?

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders  hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.”

Yeshu’s cry was no call for help; but the voice of agonizing utter loss, of darkness, and of separation from his loving Father as never before. He used words of a prophecy that foretold Messiah would suffer just such an agony of abandonment.

The onlookers misunderstood Yeshu’s country dialect.