John 19:38-42

Hey everybody, thanks for joining us.

As we continue to make our way both through Holy Week and the Gospel of John.

We're in the 19th chapter.

Jesus has been on

the cross, has been crucified, has died.

Yesterday we looked at a passage in which his side is pierced with a spear.

And today we transition as John

begins to move toward Easter.

But before we get there, we have the burial of Jesus, which

which is, what closes out this chapter.

So, just kind of read through it quickly, and then we'll come back

and talk it through after these things.

Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus,

though a secret one because of his fear for the Jews, fear of the Jews,

asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus.

Pilate gave him permission, so he came and removed his body.

Nicodemus, who had first come to Jesus by night,

also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about 100 pounds.

They took the

body of Jesus, wrapped it with spices in linen

cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews.

Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified,

and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid.

And so, because it was the Jewish day of preparation, and the tomb was nearby,

they laid Jesus there.

Interestingly,

I suppose the Bible, other than the tomb

and the stone, is not

real interested in the burial.

John gives us

as much information, or maybe even more as anyone else.

But it's not just for history sake, John.

As we've said, but John is also preaching when he's telling stories

and so we meet two men, one of whom is new to us,

Joseph of Arimathea, who evidently is a man of some resources

because he gets to have an audience with Pilate, he gets permission

to take the body, and he evidently has the resources to secure a place for him.

And then, Michael, we meet a man we've already seen, Nicodemus.

And the reason we know that, I suspect the reason we know

this is an important thing to John is because John tells us

who had first come to Jesus by night.

I believe this is Nicodemus third appearance in the gospel.

But significantly,

he comes to Jesus at first skeptical, unable to hear him.

And then here, very near the end, he makes an appearance

in the most unlikely place, helping with Jesus burial.

Standing with Joseph over Matthew, who the text says is a disciple,

and bringing with him or helping transport

at least a mixture of myrrh and aloe weighing 100 pounds, which is,

I think, one of those biblical kind of unimaginable numbers.

I mean, 100 pounds of spices for a burial and a new tomb.

There's an interesting mix here of Jesus is dead

and we know where that's going, but also very high regard for his body,

the idea of a new tomb, the idea of the spices in linen,

is fascinating.

I think the way John is telling us this story.

I don't want to overstretch

this, Clint, but I I'd be interested in your pushback.

I think that John gives the kind of attention here

to Jesus's death and burial, as some of the other gospels, due

to Jesus's birth, with the idea of these gifts

that are brought, the idea of the kingly nature, I,

I think interestingly, in this book, it gets flipped a little bit because here

these extravagant gifts are given to provide the means

to do the ceremonial rites to a body that in most cases,

in a similar circumstance, a Roman execution,

the body is left on the cross and the expectation

is that the birds of the field will do their business.

It's a very gruesome, very bloody, dark practice.

And the purpose is the exhibition of Roman power that the body is

there as a sign to anyone who might be living to see

what Rome is capable of doing, even in death.

And I think here the text is going out of its way

to make it clear to us that there are very prominent, capable

people who are coming at this moment to honor this man, Jesus.

And I think that here, Nicodemus is a fascinating, fascinating example of that,

because we have someone who came to Jesus with an honest and open heart.

And we talked about this when we first had Nicodemus

in the story about the importance of him coming to Jesus

at night in the dark, that that was going to become important later.

Well, here at the end of the day of Jesus's life, Nicodemus is back.

But in this story, Nicodemus is back for the purpose

not of asking Jesus questions, but of honoring him.

And and his life that he gave.

So I think there's a fascinating full circle that John's built into this story.

I do think there's an interesting conversation about Joseph of Arimathea.

What's happening there?

Why do we have this character introduced and what's the meaning there?

I don't have the answers to some of those questions,

but I think Nicodemus now coming back into the story,

it paints this beautiful arc that John's been casting this whole time,

and we are seeing how this story comes

together, that Jesus gave his life willingly.

And these men are honoring that life in this moment.

I do think there's a common thread here between the two men, Michael,

the one we seem to know a little and one we don't know at all.

And that's this phrase.

Joseph of Arimathea was a secret disciple

because of his fear of the Jews.

And yet he he takes this public step

to ask for the body and to be involved in the burial.

That none of that is, I think, inferred that it's secret.

I think the idea is that though he had been afraid, he now is less so.

He now is publicly doing this service for Jesus.

By implication, the same thing may be true of Nicodemus

that Nicodemus now is willing to be observed,

and perhaps even identified within Jesus circle,

and that if true,

if that's intended in the text, that really makes these two men

the first kind of disciples that step up in risk.

Because, remember, we've been pretty well told that

the rest of the disciples abandoned them and fled.

And here we have these two men willing to talk to Pilate

and willing to, by all inferences,

do a public act of reverence,

or certainly respect, at least for Jesus.

And I wonder if John is telling us something in that simple phrase that

he hadn't said

anything to that point because he was afraid there.

There's a way you could take this text that I would caution that.

Does a bit of injustice to the idea of the Jews here.

And I want to tease this out for for just a moment.

On one hand, we're told explicitly that

this man is a secret disciple because of his fear of the Jews.

We've said numerous times in this study that the Jews,

as a phrase used uniquely in John with this kind of force,

and it is the source historically in people's interpretation of the Bible

as a kind of seedbed for understanding the vitriol, the

the great animosity that Jesus encounters from the religious leadership of Israel.

If we're going to be honest, it has also, at certain points in history,

sort of shot up weeds out of that seedbed.

And it's actually been used as a kind of justification for anti-Semitism.

And if this was the only gospel, you might see how you get there,

because here, Clint, we have these religious leaders

who, from the very first pages of this book,

have been at a hundred miles an hour, coming after Jesus.

The debates turned to a very,

very dense and very, very vitriolic level.

Fast in this book and early in the book, they're seeking Jesus's life here.

I think it's interesting and important to note that, yes, there's still fear

of that religious power present, even on the other side of Jesus life.

In other words, a disciple who that was their story

is now taking this action, which surely is a public action.

But but that we have that priest story kind of figured here.

I don't want us to miss, though, because it was the Jewish day

of preparation, and this is where we sometimes get our emphasis wrong.

Clint, is that Jesus would be buried and would be treated in

as far as they were able, according to the customs of Judaism.

Jesus was a Jew.

But if you were thinking about Christianity

and this being one of the older gospels in terms of its composition,

you might think that the gospel writers would try to sort of do away with that

Jewish ness. Right?

Say that Jesus was really more of a Gentile figure.

They don't know that even with the Jewish leaders.

But even with all of that vitriol and the rhetoric, with all of it combined,

there's still a recognition that when Jesus is going to be buried,

when Jesus is going to be treated,

when Jesus is going to go to the synagogue, he's going to do so as a Jew.

And I think that's a necessary balance to the conversation.

We have to understand that there's an honoring that's happening here of Jesus

the Jew, and that is within this context of the Jewish

infighting and religious leadership and Jesus's critique and their betrayal.

It's all bundled together. We need to keep it together.

I say one.

I think if if we step back a step that is so built into the story

that it should be hard to miss, though we sometimes do.

Yeah. Nobody goes to the two months Saturday, right?

The Sabbath we we may find it strange that

the expectations and the customs

and the practices of Judaism are so entrenched in the culture

and in the lives of these people that it's not until Sunday

Jesus body is hastily prepared

and then is left alone

for an entire day, because that day is their holy day.

And I think,

that is both kind of hard for us to imagine.

The, the, the violent death of a loved one

and all the shock and grief that would go with that,

and not tending

to that on the Sabbath on a day for a religious reason,

but also

the idea that

that's who they are, that's what they do.

And so we we have this

pause built into the story

that we kind of read over because we know the story

and we because we're not as censored, give to that reality. But,

if you've

never really stopped and thought about,

why didn't they do something.

Yeah, earlier, why would they wait till Sunday that that's the answer.

And yeah, I couldn't agree with you more that that is

front and center in the in the story.

There's also details Clint I think we read by two hastily

such as where was this tomb?

It was in a garden. Right.

And we have this prominent theme throughout the gospel stories

about the importance of the garden, the importance of not only Jesus.

You know, where we have the stories of Jesus and his,

his prayer and his vigil. Right?

But you also have the connection to the Old Testament literature,

what we would call Old Testament literature of the return to the garden.

Right?

The idea that in the beginning God created and God created that beautiful Paradise

here, God's Son is now put into a garden.

And that is not accidental.

Yeah. Where does life start?

It starts in the garden.

So where is resurrected life going to start?

It's going to start in the garden now.

You have to have you have to have some caution

in connecting words just because they're the same word. But

sure, I, I, I think if not intentional,

certainly a profound connection.

It also sets up a conversation that we're going to see,

in the next few sessions.

At some point where Jesus is mistaken to be

a gardener and,

something is some, some detail as small as that

in the Gospel of John can carry a lot of weight.

So when you read that there was a garden, always try to ask those questions,

particularly in a book like John that is very layered and nuanced.

Why would John tell me this?

What what would the significance of garden be?

Is there anything that that could mean?

And in this case, I think it has a lot of depth, a lot of meaning to it.

This is one example from John, among many, many, many.

But I do think this is an example that has something to teach us about

how studying the Bible requires us to slow down, and I do think

it requires us to open our spirits and imaginations to much deeper meanings.

I remember as a high schooler, Clint, reading,

an English book, you know,

essentially one of those literature books that you read in high school.

Then the teacher asked, you know, what is this mean?

And, you know, we gave some cheap high school answers.

And then the literature professor said, well, what about this?

And what about this? And what about this?

And I remember literally thinking to myself, yeah,

or maybe they just sat down the road up an interesting story

about these characters.

And now as adulthood happens, as you mature as a person

and you realize, oh, no, people are capable of writing a story

with so many different layers of meaning and I think we need to give credit

to the gospel writers that their meanings of layer are not just metaphor,

they're they're giving spiritual insight along with the story

that they're telling it.

This is so deep that we are not going to be able to see all of the nuances.

And this story might just seem, oh, it's historical.

John's telling us what happened.

I assure you, it's more than that.

Yeah.

And another good example of that we have here

of an extravagant mixture

of spices and perfume, 100 pounds.

When is the last time we saw an extravagant

amount of perfume in a Jesus story that.

Well, it's when the woman anointed Jesus's feet

and Jesus said, she is anointing me for my for my right. So,

it it

just it will help us read the scripture so much

if we track those details and see those connections.

Because I just,

I think it is I think it is,

I don't I was going to say naive.

Maybe I would, I think it's short sighted.

Let me say that to think that those are just coincidences, I

this book has been carefully crafted, and this story is carefully told

because of how much John

thinks Jesus means and what he believes about Jesus and

and those those things that seem simple often

have a complexity and a dimension that you can miss if you don't

take the time to put them together.

And we need to be wrapping this up.

I just one last note before we go.

So it's been said, it is important that here in the text

we have named people by by name Joseph of Arimathea.

We have pilot himself. Okay.

We have Nicodemus.

All of these would have been known people.

And the idea of attributing the fact that they saw a dead Jesus is also important.

This has a kind of argument built into it.

If Pilate signed off on the death, it was dead.

A soldier's took the body down.

They know what that is. Yeah.

The Romans don't make mistakes about that.

So there's also argument built into this just to hedge.

Hey, don't be making the argument that this was some made up thing.

We've got names. Yeah.

By the way, two people that we know, one explicitly

and one by earlier in the text, are well respected and well thought of.

By who?

The Jews, the, the that the label

that John gives the enemies of Jesus.

So yeah, that they are

that they are legitimate witnesses, that they can be trusted.

Yeah.

That's why we have for you today.

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