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John 20:7 – Buried Alive!
Being buried alive, pardon the pun, scares people to death. In former times, without our medical advances, people were accidentally buried alive; then literally “saved by the bell” that was placed with the supposed corpse for such emergencies. While being mutilated was a horrible way to die, its benefit was a death that was verifiable and certain.
In Jesus’ time, when preparing a body, they would wrap the entire body while leaving the face unwrapped. Instead it was covered with a cloth. That way if the one buried was only temporarily comatose he could blow off the face cover and yell for help from within the cave.
We see this practice in John 20 where Jesus lay the burial napkin separate from the other linens. There’s a nice story about the meaning of this that probably is more made-up than we want to admit. But what is undeniable about the scene is Jesus did not need to call for help. He laid both the face napkin and body linens aside. Why? He who had been really dead and mutilated by scourging and crucifixion was really alive. He was buried so He could come back alive.
(Burial information from “The Final Days of Jesus, The Archaeological Evidence)
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