Jesus Truly Died

Father, we ask that you would gently pour out the Holy Spirit deep within us,

that we might think about Jesus, that we might think about death,

that we might think about his death upon the cross and his being buried in the tomb,

and that you might bring that home to our hearts.

And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

So I spent some time in a grave.

Some of you have heard this story before.

I've been ordained for three years.

I've done lots of funerals here in the city.

And then I got sent to look after four little country churches up the valley

in places called Eganville, Killaloo.

Famous Killaloo Sunrise was invented there.

Tremor and Clontarf.

And I did a lot of funerals when I was in that church, actually.

And I'd only actually been in that little rural church about a week and a half.

And I did my first funeral.

And then about a week later, I did another funeral.

And the second funeral was one of the things they have in small rural places,

which they don't have in the city, is they have private graveyards.

And I went to this.

I did a funeral for this person.

And the burial place was going to be in a private family burial plot.

And one of the things I liked to do in the city when I could, when I was doing a funeral,

was not to be in the funeral director's car.

But I often liked to sort of zoom up in my own car so I could be there a little bit in advance.

And just later on, I didn't have to wait for the funeral director for me to leave the reception.

I could leave when I wanted, either stay longer or earlier or whatever.

Anyway, so I zoom up early, quite a bit faster than a funeral procession.

I get there.

I park.

I walk up.

And I thought I'd just sort of walk to see where the grave is.

And if any of you have been to a grave site in Canada, there's usually artificial grass off on the side.

And I'm walking up to the grave.

And all of a sudden, before I know it, I fall into the grave.

Because the green artificial grass, there are like planks to step on.

And if the plank is over here, the green artificial grass went all the way up to here because there was a hole there, which I did not know about.

So I slid into a seven or eight foot deep grave.

Was I ever embarrassed?

I was so terrified that I would have to be, when the family would come, that I would have to be rescued from the grave and then do the funeral.

And it was really dusty.

So I'm in black, but I'm all covered in dust.

And so I'm trying to scramble up the side of the grave.

I'm also now, I have this double worry that I'll actually make the hole bigger and the grass won't cover it.

Anyway, I eventually am able to scramble up covered in dust.

I go off to the side.

I do the best job I can to beat the dust off my black.

Nobody ever commented on why I was so dusty.

And I never made any reference to it that I actually spent some time in the grave.

So that's been my one time in the grave.

I know that's a very silly introduction to this, which is a very, very serious story.

But we're looking today at the death of Jesus and the death of Jesus and ultimately his burial, entombment in a tomb.

So it would be a great help to me if you got your Bibles and turned to John chapter 19.

John 19 · chapter mention

And we read here of John's account.

There's a movie reviewer that I quite like.

I read him almost every week.

I won't say what his name is, but there's a movie reviewer that I like quite a bit.

And just a couple of days ago, on Friday, he did a movie review of a new movie that's just come out from Hollywood about Mary Magdalene.

And at the end of the movie review, he made a couple of – it was such a typical type of comment to be made.

He made a comment about how some pope in the 500s made this determination about what Mary Magdalene was.

And then he made a comment about how this movie will help to dispel the inaccuracy, you know, the misinformation that comes from religious bureaucrats or something like that.

And I thought to myself as I read it, I thought, well, you're a really good movie reviewer, but you know absolutely nothing about how the Bible was put together.

Like, your ignorance is unbelievably deep.

If you're here this morning, I don't think you ever come to the church.

I didn't mean to insult you.

So anyway, that's funny.

But so the fact of the matter is that there are four, as we all know, ancient biographies of Jesus.

And so actually, I mean, I think that particular pope was wrong to say what he said about Mary because it was based on tradition, not on what the Bible actually says.

But what we're looking at here is an ancient eyewitness biography of Jesus.

And the way that John has told the story, because that's what you tell when you're telling a person's life story, you tell the story.

It's a biography.

And John has now he's gone through the capture of Jesus, the trial of Jesus, all the shenanigans that went around with this.

And as I said, as introducing the reading, the decision is made to crucify Jesus.

And now we have the crucifixion of Jesus.

It gets right to it.

In those days, that's the way they did it.

And so it begins like this, chapter 19, verse 16.

So they took Jesus, that's the soldiers, and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of a skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.

Now, just pause here for a second.

This is a silly little thing.

Some of you might know, I make some jokes, that if I was ever going to plant a Baptist church, I'd call it 13th Baptist Church.

Why?

I don't know.

I think that's just sort of funny, you know, not First Baptist or anything like that, 13th Baptist Church.

But I now have a new name for a Baptist church.

It would be called the place of the skull Baptist church.

Because actually, there's a place of the skull Baptist church in every city of Ottawa, and maybe in North America.

They just don't realize it.

Because you see, this is really funny.

The place of the skull is the literal translation.

And then he says Golgotha.

But what happened is when the people who translated the Greek Golgotha into Latin, they used a different word.

And then, and for many, many years in the West, that Latin word was what people heard in the church.

And then people took the way to pronounce it in English.

And the way you pronounce the Latin word in English is Calvary.

So those of you who are members of Calvary Fellowship, you were a member of the place of the skull fellowship.

Our friends who go to Calvary Baptist, that's the place of the skull Baptist church.

I just think they should just be out front and just claim it, you know.

Just embrace such an unbelievably non-postmodern name.

Actually, it sort of is postmodern to do something like that.

But anyway, that's an aside.

That's so Calvary is how, that's, it's not mentioned here, but that's where the word Calvary comes from.

It comes from Golgotha, and it means in Aramaic, a place of a skull.

Verse 18, there they crucified him and with two others, one on either side and Jesus between them.

And there they crucified him and with him two others, one on either side and Jesus between them.

It's really interesting how the writer here helps us now to remember something which we need to think about a little bit more,

and we often don't think about as Christians, is that on one hand, the crucifixion of a Jewish man was nothing special.

Like even here when we're hearing about Jesus being crucified, he's one of three people who are being crucified.

Because there's so many historical references between the ancient biographies, what we now know of as the Gospels,

and Roman and Jewish life, and you can cross-reference these things with what Roman and Jewish historians have said.

Depending on how you put things together, we know that Jesus was crucified either in the spring of the year 30 or the spring of the year 33.

One of those two years.

It depends on how you put some things together.

But one of those two years is when Jesus actually died.

You can actually go back and you can figure out the actual day because there's so many historical cross-references in the Gospel.

And because they're writing history, right?

It's an historical biography by eyewitnesses.

But in the year 70, so either 40 years after this or 37 years after this, depending on how you put some cross-references together,

the Roman armies surround Jerusalem and they put it under a siege.

And at the end of the siege, they win the siege.

Jerusalem is overrun and the city is destroyed.

But here's the thing.

Historians say that during that, I think it was a four-month siege.

During that four-month siege, as part of the way to terrorize the population within the walls,

the Romans crucified 500 Jews a day.

500 Jews a day for four months.

That's a lot of crucifixions.

In fact, the Roman historians say because the Roman practice of crucifixion was that you'd put the person up on the cross to die.

And that might take, I mean, they might die.

Sometimes people died just by the whipping.

But if they, and then some people would die very quickly on the cross.

But a young, fit person could maybe go three days or whatever.

And the Roman habit was then to leave the body on the grave long enough that some of the decomposition would happen,

as well as the animals being able to eat parts of the body.

And it was just all part of the way to spread terror, of course, right?

And so the Roman historians say that they were crucifying so many Jewish people that they actually started to have problems getting enough wood for the crosses.

And I just mention that because whatever we're going to say about Jesus and what's going on here is that the crucifixion of a Jew is nothing special.

But there's something particularly of interest about this person.

And that's sort of what we need to think about a little bit.

Jesus dies by a way that was commonly used to terrorize indigenous people, I guess we would now say, and by their political masters.

And Jesus was just one more example of an indigenous person being killed by an imperial power.

And even in the story, he's just one of three.

He's the guy who happens to be in the center, but he's just one of the three.

And the story continues.

Pilate also wrote an inscription, which was very common, and put it on the cross.

It read, Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews.

Many of the Jewish people read this inscription for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city,

and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek.

In other words, in the local language, Aramaic.

In Greek, which was the language, the common language of the empire.

And in Latin, which was the imperial language used by their imperial masters.

So the chief priest of the Jews said to Pilate, do not write the king of the Jews,

but rather this man said, I am the king of the Jews.

And Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written.

And those of you who have been following the story, there's lots of irony which is going on here.

One of the ironies is actually the way that it's written here is that the king of the Jews,

and when it says Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews,

and then just a few lines later it says the chief priest of the Jews,

there's a type of a balance that the language is exactly the same,

showing the contrast between Jesus and the religious leaders.

And of course, another important part of all of this is that these same spiritual leaders,

just an hour or so earlier,

had actually publicly acclaimed an act of blasphemy,

that Caesar was their king.

And so part of the irony of this story is that the religious leaders claim that Caesar is their king,

and Caesar claims that Jesus is their king, which is very ironic.

And the story continues.

Verse 23.

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus,

they took his garments and divided them into four parts.

One for each soldier, also his tunic.

But the tunic was seamless,

woven in one piece from top to bottom.

And just sort of pause here.

There's one of the things here which is very interesting,

if you think about it for a second.

My parents are still alive,

so I haven't had to bury them,

and I haven't had to clean out their house or anything like that.

As many of you know,

what often happens is when you reach a certain age,

you have to downsize,

maybe go into some type of a smaller facility.

You have to get rid of a lot of your furniture and possessions.

It doesn't happen with everybody.

Louise's father died,

owning two properties with lots and lots and lots of stuff to get rid of.

But often,

one of the things you have to,

often,

I mean,

not in every case,

in every case,

one of the things you have to dispose of is the clothes.

And it's just this very,

very small little item,

and we're going to mention another thing about it in a moment.

But if you think about it,

the soldiers are so certain of Jesus's death

that they dispose of his clothes

while he's hanging above them.

See,

one of the things the story is going to do

time and time and time and time and time again

is emphasize that Jesus dies.

The guarantors of his death are the Roman soldiers.

It's not the disciples of Jesus.

Okay,

he's dead.

He's dead.

And then he's not really.

No,

the guarantor of the death of Jesus

is,

in fact,

the Roman soldiers.

And the text,

time and time again,

in small,

subtle ways,

crucified,

his body,

the embalming,

even this very simple act

of disposing of the possessions,

something that we usually do.

It would be as if

I go into the hospital

and because I have a bad,

a bad,

you know,

whatever,

and then I find out that,

you know,

in Louise's,

I'd say,

pre-decease me,

which will definitely not happen,

but just for the case of this story,

she's a vegetarian.

I eat meat.

She eats way healthier than I.

She's going to outlive me by a long time.

Anyway,

and so,

you know,

it'd be as if I'm,

I'm,

I'm,

I'm in the hospital

and it maybe doesn't look too good for me

and I find out my kids have sold the house,

my house,

and they've sold all my stuff.

And in fact,

they actually come and come into the closet

and take the clothes I have in the closet

and say,

you're not going to need these clothes

because all you have left is the hospital gown

and that's all you need,

dad.

Like,

they're so certain of my death

and so quick to get rid of it.

And,

and that's what's happening here.

It's a,

it's a small thing,

and we read it all the time

without realizing the significance of it.

The soldiers know he's dead.

He's still alive,

technically,

but he's dead.

You get rid of all of his stuff now.

And time and time and time and time again

in the story,

it's going to be emphasized,

Jesus died,

Jesus died,

Jesus died.

They do it with different words,

crucifixion,

body,

this,

the piercing of the side,

the embalming process,

all different ways of indicating he dies.

But there's something else here,

which is also significant,

which comes right up in verse 24.

So they said to one another,

remember,

they're dividing up his clothes,

and he must have had like five pieces of clothes,

and they take,

or a big piece that they can sort of separate out the fabric or whatever,

but they come to one piece,

and they decide it's a bit more precious,

and,

and there's four guys,

and just,

anyway,

they decide that we'll gamble for the last piece.

Verse 24,

So they said to one another,

let us not tear it,

but cast lots,

or dice,

to see who it shall be.

And here's this thing,

which is very important.

This was to fulfill.

The scripture which says,

they divided my garments among them,

and from my clothing they cast lots.

So the soldiers did these things.

I was walking with Jason the other day

to have a coffee with him on Friday,

and I made a joke to him

that if you want to have,

I hope there's no weatherman here,

sorry,

I said,

if you want to have a job

where you can be wrong almost all the time

and still have job security,

become a weatherman.

Because as we were walking,

the weatherman got it wrong about the weather.

But I've never heard,

maybe they do,

maybe they fire weathermen

because,

you know,

you said it was not going to rain

until the evening,

and it rained at three or whatever.

I don't know,

maybe that happens,

but it seems as if you can make predictions

in that field,

and it doesn't affect your job security.

But what we see here

is something which is very,

very interesting.

It's not,

prophecy is more than a prediction,

although it is a bit of a,

like a prediction.

But what we're going to see here

time and time again,

and if you go back and read

the other parts of John,

beginning at John chapter 18,

John 18 · chapter mention

you'll see this constant refrain,

it was fulfilled,

it was fulfilled,

it was fulfilled.

In other words,

the Bible is saying

that whether,

as Daniel introduced Psalm 22,

whether it's David writing

over a thousand years

before the death of Jesus,

but writing a psalm

which describes the crucifixion.

In fact,

he describes some of the terms

and some of the ways

that a crucifixion works.

My bones out of joint,

my heart,

my lips dry,

and crucifixion hadn't even been invented.

And time and time and time again

in the story,

they're going to say

that Jesus fulfilled this,

he fulfilled this.

And in some cases,

they're even going to say

that Jesus not just fulfilled

a specific prophecy,

but as we're going to see,

you'll see that he fulfilled

the general promises

and longings

and types of the Old Testament.

Like one of the things

which is happening here

is that Jesus is dying

at the same time

that in another part of the city,

they're killing the lambs,

the spotless lambs,

as part of the Passover celebration.

And Passover is the profound act

that makes Israel Israel

when God delivers the Jewish people

out of slavery,

of bondage in Egypt.

And after Pharaoh refuses

and refuses and refuses

and refuses to let these slaves go,

Moses says God is going to do

his final punishment.

And if you want to be saved

and spared and be delivered,

you are to kill a lamb

and you are to take

the blood of the lamb

and you are to use some hyssop

and take the blood of the lamb

to cover the entranceway

of your house.

And if you put the blood of the lamb

using hyssop

on the doorways to the house,

then you will be spared

God's judgment of death

and you will be free

and be delivered.

And at the same time,

we'll even see

that using the hyssop branch

in a few moments,

the same time

that these lambs

are being slaughtered

is when Jesus is dying,

that he fulfills

not just specific scriptures,

but the types.

Jesus is introduced by John

as the lamb of God

who takes away

the sin of the world.

And here we see

the lamb of God

who takes away

the sin of the world

dying at the same time

that the lambs are dying.

And we're seeing here

that the death of Jesus

is a fulfillment

of the promises

and the words of God

that have been made

over centuries

by many, many different writers.

And the other thing

which is so remarkable

about this,

and the word fulfilled,

you'll see it repeated

time and time and time again,

is that Jesus

and his disciples

could not have orchestrated

these fulfillments.

In fact,

the enemies of Jesus

unwittingly

act to fulfill

the prophecies.

How on earth

could the disciples

organize it

that they have,

Psalm 22

would be fulfilled

of somebody gambling

for Jesus' clothes?

It's the soldiers,

the pagan soldiers,

the enemies of Jesus,

the imperial power

that does it.

And later on,

you're going to see

in a moment

that the reason normally,

remember I said

the normal Roman practice

is that you left

the crucified body

on the cross

and whether he died

in a couple of minutes

or whether he died

in three days

or five days

or whatever,

after he dies,

you leave him

on the cross

until his body,

you know,

all the decomposition

and the putrefaction,

the smell,

and that all happens

and he wouldn't have been buried.

And so all of the prophecies

of Jesus rising

from the grave

would not have been fulfilled.

The reason that those

are fulfilled,

of course,

is the power of God,

but that would not have happened

if the Jewish leaders

did not insist

that the bodies die

before the normal Roman practice

not be followed

and Jesus is put in a tomb.

Time and time and time again,

the enemies of Jesus

unwittingly fulfill

the prophecies.

It is not something

that Jesus

and his disciples

orchestrate.

And this is,

just to think about it,

that God could say something

through David

a thousand years earlier

and then he keeps

his word.

That's why we read the Bible.

He keeps his word.

So what happens?

There's still,

look at verse 25.

Remember I said

this is an eyewitness biography

and we hear now

of some of the eyewitnesses.

In fact,

we hear of five

of the eyewitnesses

that are going to be

very important probably

even in the writing of this.

Verse 25,

but standing by the cross

of Jesus

were his mother

and his mother's sister,

second woman,

and Mary,

the wife of Clopas,

a third woman,

and Mary Magdalene,

the fourth woman.

And when Jesus

saw his,

and just pause here,

in the original language

you can't get this

in the English.

And I'm not going to say

very much of it

because on Friday

we're going to have

people talking about

the last words

of the cross,

but,

you know,

the Old Testament,

what we call

the Old Testament

was written in Hebrew,

but very early on,

like at the time of Jesus,

most people,

when they read

the Old Testament,

most Jewish people,

they read it actually

in the Greek version,

the Greek translation

of the Hebrew.

And in the Greek translation

of the Hebrew,

if you're reading it,

if you read Genesis 2

and Genesis 3,

whenever it talks about Eve

in Genesis 2

and Genesis 3,

it uses the word woman,

the same word

that Jesus speaks to Mary.

I don't know what it means,

and maybe Peter's going to say

a few things about it

come on Good Friday,

but it's the same word,

and there's ties in between this

because,

as you see,

Jesus is crucified in the garden,

he's buried in the garden,

and in the garden,

there's a woman

who uses the same word

to refer to all women,

or Eve,

is used to refer to Mary.

It's just one of those

interesting,

there's so many things in here,

there's so many things in here

that poets and theologians

and musicians

and hymn writers

and philosophers

and dreamers,

you can look at it

and meditate upon it

for year upon year

upon year

and never plumb the depths.

Go back to it,

verse 25 again,

but standing by the cross

of Jesus

where his mother,

the first woman,

his mother's sister,

the second woman,

the third woman,

Mary,

the wife of Clopas,

and then the fourth woman,

Mary Magdalene,

when Jesus saw his mother

and the disciple

whom he loved

standing nearby,

he said to his mother,

Woman,

behold your son.

Then he said to the disciple,

Behold your mother.

From that hour,

the disciple took her

to his own home.

And I just want to pause here

for a second.

There's a really important thing.

You know,

we take these last words

of Jesus for granted,

but one of the things

out of the four biographies,

there's things in this biography

that John doesn't talk about

that the others talk about.

There's not going to be

the darkness,

there's not going to be

the earthquakes,

there's not going to be

the rending of the temple.

There's things that

John doesn't tell us about.

He tells us other things.

Three of Jesus'

final seven words

from the cross

are recorded by John.

But do you know

what the final words

of Buddha were

before he died?

Like,

Buddha was probably

an historical person.

And do you know

what the final words

of Buddha were?

They were,

I exhort you,

all compound things

are subject to vanish.

And his final words,

strive with earnestness.

In other words,

unceasingly strive.

It's very,

very interesting,

right?

When he says

the compound,

when he says

all compound things

are subject to vanish,

right?

It's a key part of Buddhism

that I might think

that I'm different than Helen,

but I'm mistaken.

That's an illusion.

I might think

that I want

to have more money

or I'd like to have

a nicer car

or a nicer house.

If you're single,

you might think

you'd like to have

a wife or a husband,

but that's all,

it's an illusion

to think that there's difference.

And at the end

of the end

of the end

of all of the processes,

you come to realize

that it's all illusion,

that there is no difference

between things

and that all is one.

And then he says

to keep striving

for this unfailingly

with earnestness.

And it's so interesting,

isn't it?

Jesus' final words

are so different.

We're going to see here

in a moment

that he looks at his mother

whom he loves

and he looks at the disciple

and he looks at the woman

and he doesn't say,

Mom,

you're just an illusion.

I hope you come to realize

that there's no you

and me.

It's just,

it's all going to vanish.

He says,

no, Mom,

this guy's going to

take care of you.

Friend,

take care of my mom.

He's going to say,

I thirst.

He's going to say,

it's finished.

Very, very different.

But the difference

between the dying words

of Jesus

and the dying words

of Muhammad

are terrifying.

Muhammad died

in the home of Aisha.

Aisha.

Aisha is the woman

that Muhammad married

when she was six.

I'm not making that up.

And he didn't consummate

the marriage

with this six-year-old

right away.

He waited

until she was nine

before he consummated

his marriage.

And he was with

this woman

nine years later.

She was 18

when he died.

And it's recorded

that he talks about

four things

as he's dying.

The first thing

he says

is he curses

all Christians

and Jews.

Curses them.

The second thing

he says

is gives orders

to his followers

to make sure

that every pagan

is expelled

from the peninsula.

They can convert.

If they don't convert

and they don't get

expelled,

they are to be killed.

The third thing

he says

on his deathbed

is that he hopes

that when he dies,

which will be very soon,

that he will get

the highest place

in heaven.

And the fourth thing

that he says

is he's recorded

begging Allah

for forgiveness.

And Jesus

says,

Mom,

here's the guy

who's going to take care of you.

friend,

take care of my mom.

And he's going to say,

I thirst.

And he's going to say,

it is finished.

And these are the final words

of Jesus

in comparison

to the two great alternatives

to Christianity

in the Western world

of Buddhism

and Islam.

You see,

we take for granted

these final words

of Jesus

without realizing

how profoundly

radical

they are

in the sea

of religious options

before us.

The story continues.

Verse 28.

After this,

Jesus,

knowing that all

was now finished,

said to fulfill

the scriptures,

I thirst.

A jar full of sour wine

stood there,

so they put a sponge

full of the sour wine

on a hyssop branch

and held it to his mouth.

When Jesus had received

the sour wine,

he said,

it is finished.

In the original language,

that's one word.

It is finished.

It takes three words

in English,

but it's one word

in the original language.

And he bowed his head

and gave up his spirit.

And in the original language,

the phrase

gave up his spirit

in all of the Bible

from Genesis 1

to the end of Revelation,

that way of expressing death

is never used

of any other person.

And it,

in the original language,

implies that Jesus

couldn't have died

against his will.

that he had to actually

allow death,

in a sense,

to consume him.

And that he willingly

allows death

to take him.

And his final words here

are,

it is finished.

And it's a telos word.

It's a word

that's very foreign

to how we tend

to think of

in terms of our own lives.

It's a word

that implies

that there's a purpose,

not just a purpose

that he has grasped

for himself,

but a real purpose,

an ontological purpose,

a purpose

that's been given

to him by God,

by the creator

of the universe,

and that his whole life

had a series of things

that he had to accomplish

and that he had to finish

on behalf of others,

and that as he's dying

on the cross,

that has occurred.

Everything that had

to be completed

was completed.

Everything that had

to be accomplished

was accomplished.

It was finished.

There was nothing left over.

Everything that he came

to earth to do

was done

with not a drop

left over.

That's what he's saying

there in his death.

And then we have here

in a very small

and subtle way

this continual critique

of religion

in verse 31.

Since it was the day

of preparation

and so that the bodies

would not remain

on the cross

on the Sabbath day

for that Sabbath

was a high day,

the Jewish religious leaders,

the spiritual leaders,

asked Pilate

that their legs

might be broken

and that they might

be taken away.

How is this a critique

of religion?

They have just spent

weeks if not months

and an intense,

intense

eight hours

or twelve hours

capturing Jesus

and hectoring

for his judicial murder.

But they're worried

that a tiny

little commandment

in Deuteronomy

will be broken

by having the bodies

displayed.

It is a profound

critique

of the inadequacy

of even

the best religion

in this small

aside.

And as I said earlier,

against their will

they act

to fulfill

the scripture.

Verse 32,

so the soldiers

came and broke

the legs

of the first

and of the other

who had been

crucified with him.

But when they came

to Jesus

they saw that

he was already dead

and they did not

break his legs.

Why?

They'd see that

he was not breathing.

Not only that,

they'd see that

he'd stopped bleeding.

Remember,

he'd had thorns

in his head.

He'd been whipped

mercilessly

on his back.

He stopped bleeding.

These guys

were used to death.

He wasn't breathing.

But one of the ways

that they might have,

there's lots of

historical evidence

of this.

One of the ways

they would just see

if he's still alive

is you go to,

you poke him.

You make some pain

and if the person

jerks,

obviously,

oh,

there's a bit of life

left in that person still

and it was

an ungentle

pricking,

a pricking

that actually went

and pierced

between the ribs

and went right

up to the heart.

But when they came,

verse 33,

to Jesus

and saw that

he was already dead,

they did not

break his legs.

But one of the soldiers

pierced his side

with a spear

and at once

there came out

blood and water.

He who saw it

has borne witness,

his testimony is true

and he knows

that he is telling

the truth

that you may believe.

For these things

took place

that the scripture

might be fulfilled.

Not one of his bones

will be broken.

And again,

another scripture says

they will look on him

whom they have pierced.

And after these things,

Joseph of Arimathea,

who was a disciple

of Jesus,

but secretly

for fear of the Jews,

asked Pilate

that he might take away

the body of Jesus.

Remember all these times,

the piercing,

the body,

the language,

he's dead.

And Pilate

gave him permission.

So Joseph came

and took away his body.

Nicodemus also,

who earlier had come

to Jesus by night,

came bringing a mixture

of myrrh and aloes,

about 75 pounds in weight.

So they took

the body of Jesus

and bound it

in linen cloths

really tight

with the spices

as is the burial custom

of the Jewish people.

Now in the place

where he was crucified,

there was a garden

and in the garden

a new tomb

in which no one

had yet been laid.

No one had yet been laid.

Setting the stage

for the resurrection,

there's no other bodies

in there.

It's not like

it would be very common

to have a grave

that had many bodies

in it.

They found them.

Archaeologists find them

all the time.

But in this particular grave,

it's brand new.

No other bodies in there.

There's not going to be

any confusion

when they come in

and say,

did Jesus rise?

Okay, let's just

all these other bodies

to see if...

We're one short,

but is it Jesus?

No, no.

It's setting the stage

and it's going to be

a tomb,

a limestone cave,

no other way into it,

no way to dig into it.

It's setting the stage

for the miracle

of the resurrection.

Verse 41 again,

And now in the place

where he was crucified,

there was a garden

and the garden

a new tomb

in which no one

had been laid.

So because of the

Jewish day of preparation,

since the tomb

was close at hand,

they laid Jesus there.

Now just a couple of things

to bring this home

as a bit of a conclusion.

I was watching a movie

this week,

no surprise to many of you.

I like watching

things like movies

and all,

and I was watching

a movie this week

and part of the movie

is that a young boy,

six or seven year old boy,

his mom dies

and he gets sent

to live with his eccentric

and scientific uncle.

His uncle's consumed

with science.

And so the little boy,

his mom has died.

They don't make any comment

about the biological dad.

Seems to be out of the picture.

So the boy comes

and he's with this

eccentric scientific guy

and the boy out of the blue

says that my mom died

and the guy says,

oh yeah,

I know,

that's sad.

And she said,

well,

she's in heaven.

And without thinking,

the guy says,

that's a fairy tale.

That's a fairy tale.

She's dead.

When you die,

you die.

And he sees the little face

start to crumble.

And he says,

but if that gives you comfort

and makes you feel good,

then you should believe that.

You should believe that.

Don't listen to me.

You believe that.

So he's not completely

hard-hearted.

But he just speaks

like a scientist.

When you're dead,

you're dead.

So here's,

there are not going to be

points that are up

on the screen.

I might put them

in some type of writing

later on.

They'll be posted later.

But there's two things

going on here.

You see,

what people are observing,

remember I said

the death of a troublesome Jew

is not particularly significant.

There's no religious

significance for it

in particular.

And what the people

there were seeing

was the tragic death

of a problematic man.

What people were seeing

was the tragic death

of a problematic man.

But what God wants us

to see and understand

is fairy tales

becoming fact.

Myth becoming fact.

What the crowd sees

is the tragic death

of a problematic man.

But what God wants us

to see

is that fairy tales

and myths

have become fact.

See,

the fact of the matter

is that

if Jesus just stays

dead,

then really

that is just

one more case

that in fact

all life

is tragedy.

All life

is tragedy.

When you die,

you die.

And some people

die young,

some people die old,

but when you die,

you die.

And you lose everything.

And you can't even hope

that you'll be remembered

for very long.

Conan O'Brien

has this very interesting thing

where he realizes

one day

that

he won't be remembered

very long.

within a certain period

of time,

nobody remembers you

that long

and you'll be completely

and utterly forgotten

and when you die,

you die.

That's just the way

life is.

It's all life a tragedy.

But the fact of the matter

is that we human beings,

we don't like tragedies.

Movies that are made

where everything ends

with the bad guys win,

the good guys all die,

those movies don't go

very well

at the box office.

On one hand,

science

and serious philosophy

tells you

that it's all just tragedy,

that in fact,

you know,

the fact of the matter

is in the real world,

Idi Amin did horrendous things

in Uganda,

but he died a rich man

in another country.

Stalin did horrendous things,

but he dies

in his bed.

Yeah,

you have Hitler who died,

but you know,

lots and lots of times,

horrendously evil people

die natural deaths,

not facing any type

of judgment

and that's the real world

and the fact of the matter

is even for them,

when you die,

you die.

But the fact of the matter

is that what we,

the movies that do well

end with a wedding.

They end with applause.

They end with justice.

Triumphing

and being reestablished.

That's the movies

that we actually watch.

It's the movies

that serious thinkers

say are fairy tales.

And what we're to see here

is that fairy tale

has become fact.

That myth

has become fact.

And that's what God

wants us to understand.

The only reason

we can believe this,

of course,

is that as we'll see

next week,

that Jesus really rises

from the dead.

If he didn't rise

from the dead,

then in fact,

all life is tragedy.

It is not comedy.

All life is tragedy.

But if in fact,

he rises from the dead,

that makes this particular death

and the fulfillment

inherent in all of his life

and in his death

and in his resurrection,

it means there is a God

that does exist.

There can be purpose in life.

There can be meaning in life.

And it means that,

in fact,

death does not have

the final word.

That the myths

and the fairy tales

which we long for

once became fact.

And that means

there is the possibility

that in your life and mine,

life is not,

death is not the final word.

Injustice is not

the final word.

This decomposition

is not the final word,

but the final word is life.

You see,

this is all part of,

if you go back

and you read the beginning

of John's Gospel,

the beginning of John's Gospel

begins like this.

In the beginning was the Word

and the Word was with God

and the Word was God.

He was with God

in the beginning.

All things were made

through him

and without him

nothing was made

that was made.

In him was life

and the life

was the light of men.

That's the first five verses

in John's Gospel.

And so you see,

what we see here

in John's Gospel

is John is telling

not only the story of Jesus,

but he's telling the story

of Jesus

in combination

with a far bigger story.

And in that bigger story,

John is saying this,

that what caused

all things to be,

all things that exist

were created

by a combination

of life,

light,

and love.

Life,

light,

and love.

That is the source

of all things

that exist.

But human beings

turned away from God

to be God themselves.

And what happens

when you turn away

from life?

You walk towards death.

What happens

when you turn away

from light?

You walk towards darkness.

What happens

when you turn away

from love?

You turn towards

indifference

and hatred.

And human beings

become addicted

to turning towards death

and turning towards darkness

and turning towards

hatred and indifference.

And so God,

the Son of God,

comes and dwells

among us

as one of us.

The light of the world

walks amongst those

who love darkness.

The life of the world

comes amongst those

who will die

and go towards death

and even choose death.

And the love

of the world

comes and walks

amongst those

who choose

indifference

and hatred.

And he doesn't just come

as a tourist

to observe,

but his comes

amongst us

even to the point

that life

takes on

my death

and yours.

Light

takes on

my darkness

and yours.

Love

takes on

my indifference

and hatred

and yours.

And he,

light,

bears the darkness.

Love

bears the hatred.

Life

bears death.

That's the importance

of this tiny phrase,

I thirst.

I thirst.

Because Jesus

is described

earlier as

living water,

as the life

of the world.

And he thirsts.

He is taking

the darkness,

the death,

and the hatred

into himself

in a sense

swallowing

and dealing

with that

which we cannot

deal with

ourselves.

And he arises,

as we will see

on Easter Sunday,

that life

conquers

death.

Love

conquers

hatred

and indifference.

Light

triumphs

over

darkness.

And he does it

for you and me.

that when we put

our faith

and trust

in him,

we are sharing

in his conquest

for us.

Please stand.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Let's pray.

Father, we give you thanks and praise for Jesus,

and we thank and praise you that when he dealt with death,

he dealt with it, it was finished.

We give you thanks and praise that when he dealt with darkness, it was finished.

We give you thanks and praise that when he dealt with hatred and indifference, it was finished.

And we thank and praise you, Father, that when we put our faith and trust in Jesus,

that we share in his finished work over those things.

We give you thanks and praise that when we put our faith and trust in Jesus,

our destiny, Father, is sure.

That the light is our destiny.

That love is our destiny.

That life is our destiny.

Father, on this side of the grave, we still have so many things within us that are addicted to darkness

and addicted to death and addicted to a difference and addicted to hatred.

We give you thanks and praise, Father, that the work of Jesus, it is finished.

It is finished for us.

That when we put our faith in him, the final word will not be those things of hatred.

But, Father, you know how much we struggle now.

And we ask that you grip us with the gospel.

Grip us, Father, with the triumph of life and light and love.

And so help us to be confident in his finished work that with Jesus we might have the confidence and the humility

to look at the darkness and death and hatred and indifference in our own lives.

And as we are gripped by the gospel to deal with it.

That you might give us such a confidence in the finished work of Jesus that we might not only look at the death and darkness and hatred and indifference of our own lives,

but of our families, of our places of work, of our city, of our country, and of our world.

And that you might use us, Father, to walk towards that, to share the gospel.

And be used by you to lessen the darkness and lessen the death and lessen the hatred and lessen the indifference.

As we are used by you to bless the city and bless the world to your great glory.

And, Father, we ask that you would do these mighty works in our lives.

Imperfect people as we are.

May your Holy Spirit move with might and power within us to make us disciples of Jesus' grip by the gospel.

Learning to live for your glory.

And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.

Amen.