His Fate is Sealed

“Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.” John 19:38-42

I wonder where the disciples were…. Maybe they were hiding in fear of losing their lives as their rabbi Jesus had. But since Joseph of Arimathea had been a secret follower of Jesus, he and his friend Nicodemus could take the body down and bury it with dignity all in the name of following Jewish custom – and Pilate was fine with that.

Nicodemus has me wondering…. Did he ever become a believer in Jesus as the Christ? Was he also a secret disciple? Nicodemus began his discussion with Jesus by saying, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” John 3:2 and Jesus ends the discussion with him saying, “But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” John 3:21 It seems Nicodemus was trying to keep his feet in both worlds – believing Jesus might be the Christ, but not wanting to give up his prestige in the realm of religious rulers or his life as Jesus did on the cross. Now as a last act of reverence for the great teacher, he is helping to bury him with dignity.

Since there had been talk about Jesus rising again, other gospel writers tell us that a big stone was placed in front of the tomb to make sure he didn’t get taken out so they could claim he had indeed risen. I wonder if Nicodemus volunteered to oversee this to keep the Chief Priests happy. On the other hand, I wonder if Nicodemus had a problem with touching a dead body on the day of Preparation and becoming ritually unclean. Yet he was willing to do so.

But my biggest ‘I wonder’ in this Scripture is about God, the Father. I wonder how those three days went for him. He must have missed Jesus something awful! I’m sure his eyes were trained on that tomb and there surely were angels there guarding the body.

Jesus did it. Though he asked to be relieved of it, he never wavered in his obedience to the Father. He went through with it and now the wait. Why did it take three days? I wonder if anything less than that would have made room for them to say he hadn’t really died. After three days, there would be no question that he was indeed dead.

I can hardly wait for Day 3!