A
Study of the Book of John
“That
You May Believe”
Sermon
#50
“It’s
Time To Declare our Belief”
John
19:31-42
“Therefore, because it was the
Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that
Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that
they might be taken away. (32) Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and
of the other who was crucified with Him. (33) But when they came to Jesus and saw that He
was already dead, they did not break His legs. (34) But one of the soldiers pierced His
side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. (35) And he who has seen has
testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that
you may believe. (36) For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled,
“Not one of His bones shall be broken.” (37) And again another Scripture says,
“They shall look on Him whom they pierced.”
While it was not unusual for the
executed to remain on the cross for a few days, the timing of this particular crucifixion
demanded that the crucified be removed from their crosses in a timely fashion so that the
high Sabbath might not be defiled by the dead (v. 42). Orders were given to break the legs
of the victims, which would have prevented their pushing up to relieve the inverted
pressure of the diaphragm, thus exhaling the air in their lungs. The victims would
then literally suffocate due to their inability to exhale.
When the Roman soldiers came to Jesus they
recognized that He was already dead. These men were veterans of
crucifixion. They could spot death since they were trained to recognize it. To
make absolute certain that Jesus was dead one soldier drove his spear through the ribcage,
piercing the pericardium and striking the heart, with the resultant flow of water and
blood.
It is interesting
that at the time when all of the apostles forsake Jesus and flee, a time when all hope for
the movement associated with the name of Jesus seems gone, that it is at this time that
two “secret” disciples boldly step out and see to it that Jesus is given a
proper burial. After Jesus’ death, all the disciples suddenly become “secret”
disciples
What
seems even more incredible is that these two men came from the ranks of the Sanhedrin.
After all it is the Sanhedrin that has managed to maneuver Pilate to bring about the
crucifixion of Jesus. It is the Sanhedrin which manipulated the crowd into asking for
Barabbas. They even mocked him as he hung on the cross. Yet it is out of this most
unlikely of sources that two secret disciples now
step up to care for the body of Jesus.
First, Who these “secret” disciples were.
(19:38-39)
The first of the two secret disciples is
introduced in verse thirty-eight, “After this, Joseph
of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate
that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and
took the body of Jesus.”
The first secret disciple is Joseph of Arimathea, whom
the synoptic gospels portray in a favorable way. Matthew tells us that he was “a rich man” and that was a “disciple”
of the Lord (Matt 27:57). Luke tells that he was a
member of the Sanhedrin (23:50) and he opposed the
councils plans to put Jesus to death (23:51).
After Jesus’ death Joseph went before
Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus that he might be properly buried. To go to Pilate
and make this request took courage as Mark notes in his gospel account (15:43). Luke tells us in his Gospel that Joseph
did not agree with the rest of the Sanhedrin ruling council’s decision that Jesus was
a phony. He didn’t agree with the Council, but he didn’t publicly agree with
Jesus either. Mark tells us that Joseph was waiting for the Kingdom of God. His heart was
open, but he was waiting.
His
action was bold for several reasons:
· He
had no legal rights – As he was
not
· Traditionally
those guilty of treason were not allowed
to be buried, but left hanging in shame. Thus he had every reason to believe that his
request would likely be denied on principle since the official reason for the execution of
Jesus was treason.
· In
doing so he identified himself as a
One has to expect that Pilate was careful,
before granting his request after all the Sanhedrin had already manipulated him into
crucifying this man, and Joseph is a member of that council (Mark 15:43). So Pilate summoned the Centurion in
charge of the crucifixion, and is surprised to learn that Jesus is already dead. In
releasing the body for burial, it does not appear to be something that Pilate grudgingly
grants. If Pilate is suffering guilt over having condemned an innocent man, he may have
felt good to know this “righteous man” as Pilate’s
own wife refers to Jesus (Matt
27:19) was to get a proper
burial. And if the other Jewish religious leaders did not like it, so much the better.
The second “secret” disciple is
named in verse thirty-nine, when Joseph went to claim the body of Jesus, he was
accompanied by another secret disciple, a man named Nicodemus. “And
Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and
aloes, about a hundred pounds.”
We first met Nicodemus in John 3 when he came
to visit Jesus by night and had been told, “You must be born again.” (John 3:3)
In fact everything that we know about Nicodemus we find in the book of John. The next time
we see Nicodemus is John 7:50-52 when Nicodemus objected to the way the Sanhedrin
was proposing to deal with Jesus.
“Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, being
one of them) said to them, (51) “Does our law judge a man
before it hears him and knows what he is doing?” (52) They
answered and said to him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet
has arisen out of Galilee.” Perhaps for us
today the interesting thing is that the Sanhedrin told Nicodemus to look into the subject
more carefully, implying of course that his grasp of the subject was shallow and
inadequate. I believe that he did just that and he came to the conclusion that Jesus was
the messiah.
Evidently Joseph’s
courage in taking a stand for Jesus influenced Nicodemus to do the same. Who knows what
you’re taking a stand for Christ might inspire in someone else.
Secondly, What these “secret” disciples did.
(19:40-42)
Working together these two men are able to accomplish
something that the Lord’s earthly family or His eleven remaining disciples could not,
they gain access to Pilate and are granted the body of Jesus for burial. In verse forty
we are told how Joseph and Nicodemus took the body of Jesus and got it ready for burial. “Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen
with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury.”
What I want us to see here is that Jesus was buried as a king. A simple commoner might be wrapped in inexpensive cloth with a few spices and placed in a tomb. But a king was wrapped in "linen wrappings" and then large amounts of spices were used for the burial. So Nicodemus and Joseph wrapped the body of Jesus in strips of linen, in accordance with Jewish burial traditions.
Joseph and Nicodemus would not have been able to travel far with the body of Jesus nor go through elaborate preparation for burial. They did what they could do in the limited time-frame; which is a wonderful thought for us in our own devotion to Christ. We may not be able to do all we want to do, but let's at least do what we can do in our expression of love for Christ.
Verse forty-one reveals yet another fulfilled prophecy in the life of Jesus. “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. (42) So there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews’ Preparation Day, for the tomb was nearby.”
The fact that Joseph of Arimathea giving of his tomb for the
burial of Jesus was the fulfillment of prophecy found in Isaiah 53:9, “He
made his grave with the rich.” That Jesus is buried in
a rich man’s tomb is amazing considering that he has just died the death of a
criminal.
We have noted
through out the story of the arrest, trial and execution of Jesus, that John has
emphasized that the kingship of Jesus. We again see this in the burial arrangements for
Jesus. Jesus is buried in a tomb hewn out of rock, which of course was a very expensive
proposition.
John emphasizes the
point that this was an unused tomb that no one had ever been buried there before, and
stresses this by using a double negative -“no
one, not ever was laid” (v. 41), evidence that this is something that John saw as
important Matthew (27:50) informs us that it is in fact Joseph’s own tomb. (But don’t feel bad for Joseph in
giving up his tomb; Jesus will not need it for long!)
Though the Romans might leave a
crucified criminal upon a cross to be devoured by the birds and wild animals, the Jews
would at least put the body into a common grave along with others who suffered the same
death. There might not be much fanfare for a criminal but they at least showed their
sense of dignity for human life by placing the body in a grave. Such a burial would
be the burial of a criminal. But the burial of Jesus Christ was more that of a
King! A number of scholars and expositors affirm that our Lord's burial was royal in every detail. As Leon Morris
expressed it, "Jesus
may have been crucified in the manner of a criminal, but he was buried in the manner of a
king;...in his death Jesus was sovereign" [Leon Morris. Reflections on the Gospel of John, p.684].
There are three things that I would like for us to notice about what these two secret disciples did;
· They gave generously of their own resources in order to honor Christ.
John tells in (v. 39) that Nicodemus brought “a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds
weight," some 100 pounds of spices, shows that the
expense for Christ's burial was kingly rather than the burial of a commoner.
In some ways this is like the story found John 12 where Mary of Bethany poured out the expensive perfume on the feet of Jesus. They were both in preparation for His burial. They were both extravagant expressions of love. They were both one time acts that can never be repeated.
· They honored Christ
when there was
nothing to gain
and everything to lose. Even the Lord’s disciples had not taken the risk of
trying to claim the body of Jesus. These men literally have nothing to gain in stepping
forth now!
· They honored Christ
at the risk of
criticism and
ostracism from their peers. They had every reason to believe that having identified
with Jesus they will lose their position on the Sanhedrin.
Third, What these “secret’ disciples missed.
It may be that
someone in the congreg-ation is really a believer in the Lord but for the most part you
have kept it secret. I want to take just a moment to encourage you step up and make it
public, by showing the sad results of secret discipleship.
· The first result of secret discipleship is
· The second result of failure to declare
Conclusion
Why is it important
to spend time understanding the death and burial of Jesus. “While
the Roman soldiers had already affirmed the death of Christ, the Jews could easily have
spread rumors to the contrary in an effort to claim that Jesus did not really die. There
are even some in our day who have claimed that the death of Christ was not actual, but
that He only "swooned" on the cross…. When you consider the fact of His
entombment after being wrapped thoroughly in linen wrappings, covered with burial spices,
there is no doubt left concerning His death.
Joseph
and Nicodemus, in handling the body of Christ, would also have recognized if there was any
life remaining in Him as they picked up, rolled, and handled the body of Christ in their
burial preparations. If they were risking their reputations and futures in Israel by
caring for the body of Jesus, they certainly would not have put a fainting man into a
tomb!
The burial signified a
public notice that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was dead. For us who are the beneficiaries of
His death, it is public notice that when Jesus said, "It is finished!" that IT
IS FINISHED! Our whole salvation is bound up in the vicarious death of Christ. He died so
that we might live. But if He never died, if He only fainted then revived, then there has been
no satisfaction made before God for our sins nor has there been a true atonement, but only
a useless blood-letting (Rom. 3:21-28). If there is no death, then we are not redeemed from the curse of the
Law, so that we remain under its judgment as lawbreakers (Gal. 3:13). If there
is no death, then there has been no offering for sin through the death of Christ to
condemn sin in the flesh (Rom. 8:2-4). If there has been no
death, then there has been no resurrection. Therefore, without it we have no hope (I Cor. 15:12-28).”
[Phil Newton. “And That He Was Buried.”
www.southwoodsbc.org/
But praise the Lord the story of Jesus does not end with the grave. As the Apostle Paul says in 1Cor 15:67, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The tomb is empty because Jesus rose from the dead and know that I can have eternal life because He did rise from the grave.