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Jesus is dead.
Normally the dead are left on the cross as food for the wild dogs and vultures……a reminder that crimes against the Roman Empire don’t pay.
The religious leaders have asked that the bodies be taken down before the Sabbath…..before this holiest of holy days….Passover.
….Joseph and Nicodemus….secret disciples….seekers of truth….come to bury Jesus….good and upright men, waiting for the Kingdom of God….
Secret disciples…..fearful of the controversy and the consequences of making their faith public…..but Jesus is dead….and with his death comes a new boldness in their lives…..they ask Pilate for the body….they couldn’t bear to see Jesus tossed into the garbage dump…..they are given permission……Joseph brings the linen….Nicodemus brings the spices…and they come to the cross.
They hurry…for sundown is rapidly approaching, waiting to signal the beginning of the Sabbath and Passover. They are stunned at what they see….the torn and lifeless torn flesh that a few hours ago was a living, breathing human being….the Son of God.
Two men…..one a rich and prominent member of the Jewish ruling council…..the other the preeminent teacher in Israel…Israel’s teacher…..both fall on their knees and weep
….they weep for Jesus
….they weep for the world that did this
…..and they weep for themselves…for all they didn’t say…..for all they didn’t do
Nicodemus is reminded of words from that night…not all that long ago…. “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up.”
Lifted up….the Teacher of Israel thumbs through his mind and stops at the words of Isaiah
13 See, my servant will act wisely [b];
he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
heir work continues…..sundown hurries them….the body is laid on the ground and two men survey the damage..head punctured from Jerusalem thorns……his face swollen and discolored from Roman fists…..his shoulders pulled out of the sockets from the gravity of the past six hours…..hands and feet pierced exposing muscle and sinew and bone…his back and rib cage savaged from the cat of nine tails……
The mind of Nicodemus once again wanders to the prophet Isaiah and he sees the physical manifestation of the words….
14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him
his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness—
He sees blood on his own hands and is reminded…..15 so he will sprinkle many nations,
he two continue their work on the body and Nicodemus continues…..
3He was despised and rejected by others,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
In the quiet of their hearts they are convicted….they are convicted because they realize that keeping their discipleship secret was just another way of despising him and esteeming him not…..their own hearts condemn them
Joseph touches the gouge in Jesus’ side made by the spear and he too recalls the words of Isaiah….
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
They are shamed…they could have done something….they had influence….their words carried weight….they could have voiced their objections more forcefully……they could have done something…anything…..but no their careers, their positions in the community kept them.
Shouldering the body of Jesus along with their guilt they begin the short journey to Joseph’s tomb….suddenly Nicodemus remembers other words of Isaiah…..He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, Suddenly they both realized they have done something….it’s as if Jesus has raised his head and whispered in their ears…. “You have done something, you have spared me further humiliation.”
This intimate moment for these two unlikely heroes is also their most passionate……..at a time when hatred against Jesus is most intense…..during a time when friendship with Jesus is most dangerous…they step out of the shadows and into the light and fearlessly befriend their savior. This is what intimacy with Jesus does….it draws us out of the shadows….out of our spiritual shells…..out of our self-centered natures…..out of our shame….into the light of his love……into relationship with our friend, Jesus.