Taking the Plunge

“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!’” John 20:1-2 Mary and some other women traveled with Jesus and the disciples and supported the group financially out of their own means. Luke and Mark also tell us that Mary and the other women were coming to the tomb with spices and perfumes. I’m guessing that much like women of today, they didn’t think the men could have done a good enough job!

Mary must have been with Jesus when he taught that he would rise from the dead after 3 days, but she didn’t understand that and was still mourning. When Jesus wasn’t there in the tomb, her assumption is that the body was moved somewhere else. Not knowing what else to do, she runs to tell Peter and John.

“So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally, the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)” John 20:3-9 I get a kick out of John telling this story. Two times, he mentions that he outran Peter. But although he outran Peter and got there first, it was Peter – true to himself – who went straight into the tomb. This is the same Peter that said, “Not just my feet, Lord, but wash my whole body!” Peter is not a halfway kind of guy – though sometimes I believe he is in the middle of something before he realizes how he got there. John seems to be a bit more thoughtful about things and makes deliberate choices. Or, maybe Peter had been elected to be their leader now that Jesus was dead and John was humbly waiting for the leader to arrive and go in first.

Whatever the case, when John got inside and saw for himself, he tells us that he believed. Then why in the next sentence is he saying that, “They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.”? John 20:9 Somewhere down the road, these guys are going to have a ‘Dah!’ moment. Of course he wouldn’t be in the tomb. I think the emphasis in that verse is ‘had to’ meaning that because Jesus was God in human flesh, it was inevitable that he would rise from the dead. Scripture had prophesied this and Jesus had told them this. I think at this moment, Peter and John’s minds are racing as they try to remember all the things Jesus had said. They were so busy trying to not hear what they didn’t want to hear that they had pushed much of what Jesus had said to them about this time aside in their minds. They find themselves trying to make sense of the moment. Had someone moved the body? Or did Jesus rise from the dead like he said he would?

“Then the disciples went back to their homes.” John 20:10 They had been keeping a low profile, though Mary’s news caused them to risk going out. They had to see for themselves. Now they needed to go back and think about things. Did Jesus rise from the dead? Could he really do that? What was going to happen next? What was it Jesus said?

I wonder how many times my unbelief keeps me from hearing or understanding something that is really happening. I wonder how many times I put my hands over my ears or my eyes to not hear or see something I don’t want to deal with. And I wonder how many times I run to the entrance and then stop and miss the truth that awaits me. Thank God for friends and mentors who plunge in and encourage me to come see too!

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!

The Ultimate Gift

Yesterday, I stood with Mary, Mary’s sister, Mary, Mary & John at the cross. I felt their confusion and pain as they watched their teacher, son, nephew, and the one they loved dying. Now, as he hangs in anguish, he asks for one last favor. “I am thirsty.” John 19:28 Isn’t it ironic that the one who gave living water to so many is asking for a drink as he is dying. This is definitely one of the ‘fully human’ things Jesus did – he died! God cannot die. Jesus felt the pain and suffering of death. He felt the anguish of our sins. Death was the ultimate punishment for the sins that began in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden and the Tree of Life. Genesis 3:21-24. Now, on the cross, Jesus is dying a painful, humiliating, physical death.

“When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” John 19:30 He gave up his spirit – it was not taken from him. Right to the end, he could have called on the angels to rescue him from the cross and he could have walked away. How many times before had he walked away from sure death because it was not time. Now, it was time and he was completing what he came to do – become our Passover Lamb, the sacrifice in order for us to be forgiven and saved from sure spiritual death. But unlike any other sacrifice that had happened through the years, this was the ultimate gift of salvation and grace. Over and over, the people had brought lambs and bulls and doves to the altar looking for forgiveness – at first trying to close the gap between them and God – and then because it was a tradition whether or not they understood the significance. But Jesus only had to die once to close that gap forever.

“Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken [so they would die quickly] and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken,’ and, as another scripture says, ‘They will look on the one they have pierced.’” John 19:31-37

Yes, scripture was fulfilled here. But I think God was also at work in another way. It was enough for his Son to die. He could not bear for them to break his bones. In addition, it was part of the instruction in preparing the Passover lamb: “Do not break any of the bones.” Exodus 12:46, Numbers 9:12. As Jesus was the ultimate Passover Lamb, he was not to have any bones broken either. He chose to die for us. He did not fight it. When the time had come, he died willingly. Who but God can love that much!

I wonder if I will ever fully comprehend what God did for me. Sometimes when I am walking and talking with God, my spirit is so overcome with an intense joy and love it almost scares me. I don’t think I can absorb all that he has for me in this life. It is overwhelming to my senses. I think of Moses when he asked to see God’s glory. “And the Lord said, ‘I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.’ Then the Lord said, ‘There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.’” Exodus 33:19-23 God knows that he is overwhelming to our earthly senses. So he places us in the cleft of the rock and covers us with his hand and lets us get as close to his glory as we can stand. And like Moses, I treasure those moments and remember them when I am tempted to doubt God.

Once again, as the Jewish people are preparing for their traditional Passover, God is preparing the Ultimate Passover. And only a few are seeing it and at this moment are still not understanding what they are seeing. I am so grateful that John recorded this event with all the understanding he gained after the fact. I don’t think I could bear to walk through the pain with him without that.

There is still a little more preparing and waiting for the Ultimate Passover Feast God is preparing. I can hardly wait until the table is set and the guests are seated.

King Jesus

They hung him on a cross to die. “Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: ‘Jesus of Nazareth, The King of the Jews’ … the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. The Chief Priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, ‘Do not write The King of the Jews, but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.’ Pilate answered, ‘What I have written, I have written.’” John 19:19-22

I wonder what Pilate was up to. There are so many reasons he could have done this. It could have been fear from the Roman government. After all, the Chief Priests had threatened him earlier by saying that he was not a friend of Caesar’s if they let Jesus go. He may have wanted to make sure that word got back to Caesar that he shut down the insurrection from the Jews.

Or, it could have been that he wanted to antagonize the Jews to make sure they understood that they were not in control, but he was. Or similarly, hanging someone on a cross was meant for people to walk by and see what happens to people who mess with them – to intimidate and keep more uprisings from happening.

Or, after his discussion with Jesus, Pilate may have wondered if Jesus really was who he said he was and while he hadn’t wanted to kill him, the people insisted, and this was his way of saying to Jesus, “I think they are wrong. I tried to let you go. You just might be the King of the Jews.”

One thing is clear. While Pilate and the Chief Priests seem to be in control of this situation, God is still in control. They are actually fulfilling prophecy – right down to dividing Jesus’ garments. “They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.” Psalm 22:18, John 19:24 God not only knew this was going to happen. It was a planned event. Jesus, the Passover Lamb, was being sacrificed to take away the sins of the world.

“Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved, standing nearby, he said to his mother, ‘Dear woman, here is your son,’ and to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.” John 19:22-27 Other than this one, it doesn’t mention the disciples being there. I wonder if they were too afraid for their own lives to be there or if they could not bring themselves to look at their beloved teacher hanging on a cross. Or maybe standing at the cross is such an intense personal moment, there is not an awareness of others being there and since John wrote this, he is the only one there.

At any rate, in his final suffering, Jesus was aware of the needs of his mother and of this disciple. And he made sure that they were taken care of. Jesus apparently had been responsible for the care of his mother by then. Jesus had brothers and it seems that the normal way of things would have been for the next brother in line to care for Mary. But I think John and Mary needed each other. John needed to ask Mary questions about Jesus’ birth and about his growing up years. And Mary needed to hear John talk about what Jesus had done in the last three years. While she was there for some of it, she was not with him the way the disciples were. She needed to know that he was indeed the Christ. So John and Mary had three days to remember, cry and laugh together as they dealt with their pain.

I cannot imagine the pain either of them bore at this time. A mother watching a son be fully disgraced, hanging on a cross, and a young man whom Jesus had mentored for the last three years watching his hero, his Christ, his vision for what could be, dying at the hands of others. How they must have ached an inconsolable ache. Yes, Jesus knew that they needed each other to get through the next three days. So as his last duty as Mary’s son, he chose John to care for her. Even in the midst of her pain, that must have warmed her heart. And John must have felt special that Jesus chose him to care for his mother.

Once again I find myself struggling to leave things where they are at for today. I want to rush through this and not think about it too much. It is a dark time filled with true anguish and I like ‘And they lived happily ever after,’ endings. But if I don’t tarry here, if I don’t stand at the cross with Mary and John, I may take too lightly what God did for me through Jesus Christ. If I want to be a true disciple of Jesus, I need to stand here at the cross until I fully understand who he is and what he did for me. Then and only then can he truly be my Lord and my King – King Jesus.

The Passover Lamb

“Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put in on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ And they struck him in the face.’” John 19:1-3 Even if they put the crown of thorns on his head gently it would have caused bleeding, but knowing a little something about prison guards, I can hardly believe they were gentle. They may have pushed hard on it and even twisted it as they ‘put’ it on his head – make sure he knew he was being punished. Jesus did nothing to deserve this treatment.

Pilate tried again to release him, but the people cried all the more vehemently, “Crucify! Crucify!” John 19:6 And when Pilate said he found no fault, they said, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.” John 19:7 They didn’t understand that he was the Son of God. They didn’t understand that he really was their Messiah they were looking for. They were sure they were following their laws that had been given to them through Moses who was instructed by God. They were doing the right thing according to their law.

It is so easy for me to be angry with them and think, “How could they do such a thing?” But these were not bad people. They just made a very bad mistake and missed who Jesus was and what he was about because they were so focused on obeying their laws. Their hearts were hard – they were unteachable. They had their hands over their ears and blinders on their eyes so they would not stray from their laws and they missed the coming of their Messiah. It is a tricky thing to protect ourselves from bad influences and yet be open to learning new things. It takes a strong relationship with our Father made possible through what Jesus did for us and having the Holy Spirit living in us in order to make the right choices as we navigate life on this earth.

When Pilate heard that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, he asked Jesus, “Where do you come from?” John 19:9 He did not take the time to hear Jesus out when he asked about truth, but now he is thinking he might want to know a little more about this man. Even Pilate who is not a Jew is frightened by the possibility this really is the Son of God.

But Jesus showed his grace with Pilate and released him from guilt when he finally answered. “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore, the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” John 19:1. Now Jesus did not say Pilate was not guilty of any sin, but it was the lesser of the sins that were being committed here. Even Pilate, the one who finally signed the documents to have Jesus crucified, was given his power from above. Many times I wish powers in this world were given to someone else than the one there – like Hitler for instance. But it seems that there is still a lot of free will and choices that we have in this world and if we choose poorly, there are consequences. And I think Hitler is one of those consequences. There are many others, but that is usually the first one that comes to mind when this topic comes up.

Pilate tried again to have Jesus released. “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.” John 19:12 Now they have Pilate up against a wall. He loves having the power of being Governor in a strong empire. And if letting Jesus go would cause him to come under scrutiny for his loyalty to Caesar, he could not only lose his power, but his very life, depending on how seriously the accusation was taken. What can he do but turn Jesus over to be crucified.

“It was the day of Preparation of Passover Week, about the sixth hour.” John 19:14 I wonder why John bothers to tell us what day and hour it is. So I did a little research on Passover. What I found was that about mid day on the day before Passover, they took the lamb to the Holy Temple to be slaughtered so they can begin preparation of the food and be ready by sundown. I think John included this detail because Jesus, the Passover Lamb, is being taken to be slaughtered. He wants us to be sure we understand that Jesus is the Passover Lamb.

Finally, Pilate gave up and “handed him over to them to be crucified.” John 19:16 They have their way. They can get rid of this problem – this man who has rocked their boat one too many times.

This is a sad place to leave for the day, and I fear it will get even sadder before it is over. But I know the end of the story and a much happier day is coming. I can hold on to that while I travel on this journey. The disciples of Jesus did not have that yet. This was a very dark hour for them.