“If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.” This Mosaic law along with the double importance that the Passover Sabbath began at sundown was the motivation behind the Jews’ insistence that Pilate remove the bodies of Jesus and the two thieves from their crosses before sunset. It is significant that the law says that anyone who is executed on a tree is “accursed.” This emphasizes the degree to which Christ took on our sin and death, that he became “a curse” for us. So, the apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13)

I am especially glad on this day that Jesus has removed the curse of sin and death from those who believe in Him. So that the resurrected Lord stands with us even in the cemetery saying, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).