Scripture Reading: Luke 23.50-56

Now there was a man named Joseph, from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, a good and righteous man, who had not consented to their decision and action; and he was looking for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid Him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with Him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments.

-from John 19, we know that Nicodemus, (the teacher who had come at night to ask Jesus questions about how he could be born again), brought aloe and myrrh and helped prepare Jesus' body.

Good Morning.

In yesterday's passage, our Lord died on the cross; today, we look closely at His burial. A man named Joseph who was a member of the Sanhedrin went to Pilate and asked to care for the body of Jesus. He took a big risk in doing so, because he obviously 'came out' in support of Jesus by making such a request. He went public with his faith. The disciples, except for John, had fled the scene, concerned that their close relationships with Jesus might find them imprisoned or worse, executed. No, it was not a safe time to come out in support of Jesus--too much risk, too much unknown. So it was particularly unusual that Joseph and Nicodemus (a Pharisee and Jewish ruler), requested to take Jesus. This was no small labor; the burial spices that Nicodemus alone brought are said to have weighed 95 pounds. The women also brought spices with which to wrap the body--so, really--with all that they were doing, do you think they trusted that Jesus was going to be resurrected? Were they even thinking about it?

I remember when my father died, I had been en route to my son's high school basketball game, when I got the call. I turned the car around and headed for the hospital morgue. I told Dad 'good bye' that day, face-to-face, but his body had already begun to set, and he was no longer my dad. When a body has drawn its last breath, rigor mortis begins to set in--first in the smallest muscles such as those in the face and hands, and then extending to the muscles in the limbs, causing them to stiffen--the mouth is often slack and seems to freeze while agape. In our culture, we do not typically handle our loved one's lifeless bodies--certainly not in preparing them for burial; but families and loved ones did in Jesus' day. When Joseph and Nicodemus took Jesus down from the cross, they rubbed His stiff arms to remove the rigor mortis which kept them in a V-shape, and then carefully washed His bloody, bruised body. Then they anointed it with oil and wrapped it in one long linen cloth. A separate napkin tied under His chin kept His mouth from gaping open after the muscles began to loosen.

Next, they wrapped His body from head to toe in long strips of linen, using spiced resin and seventy-five to one hundred pounds of heavily scented spices to offset the smell of decomposition. (This was common for the Jews.) The men were working quickly to be sure that Jesus was in the tomb by nightfall. They wanted to keep the Sabbath day sacred (began at sundown), and also knew the Law required the body of someone who had been executed to be buried that same day.

I wonder. . . what ran through their minds as they tended Jesus' lifeless, battered corpse? Did Joseph and Nicodemus talk? Did they wash and comb Jesus' hair? How far off were the women standing? Did the women wait there until the men rolled the stone in front of the cave opening?

Kinda' interesting to note--when Jesus was born, He was wrapped in linen cloths and laid in a manger. . . when He died, more linen cloths. . .

when Jesus was born, He was tended by a man named Joseph; when He died, He was tended by a man named Joseph. . .

How forlorn the men must have felt. . . how sad and scared were the disciples. . . their Lord gone. . . their Lord buried. . .

our Lord died. . . our Lord buried. . .

May God renew our faith, and stiffen our resolves to seek after the heart of this Man from Galilee, who lived and died for us.

Grace and peace to you~

Christine