Later (after the crucifixion), 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)
This is an amazing part of the story. Here we have two wealthy prominent men, who were closet followers of Jesus until this point, who decided to give Jesus a proper burial at great cost and great risk. Even asking Pilate for Jesus’ body could have been deadly.
The usual practice of the Romans, when executing a treasonous rebel leader was to let the body hang to rot as a deterrent to anyone else who would get ideas about overthrowing the Roman occupation. But because of the Passover holiday, or the possibility that Pilate felt some remorse for convicting someone who was no political threat, Pilate granted the two men their request.
But what I find amazing is the timing of their coming out as full blown disciples. They had kept their interest in Jesus private while he was teaching and healing people, and now when Jesus was dead they decide to make it public. And not only was Jesus dead, but the movement that he had started was also dead. But there was something that caused these two men to come out into the open at great risk to their reputations, positions, and their very lives.
Maybe that “something” was the way Jesus died that gave them the spine they had lacked until then. Jesus’ soon resurrection validated all the claims he had made about himself and all he had taught about life in the kingdom, but even while dead he turned lives upside down.
Maybe like the centurion who “…heard his cry and saw how he died, and said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39), these two men realized that Jesus, even reduced to a bloody corpse, was far more valuable than anything the world system had to offer.
So because of the holiday and its restrictions, they didn’t have time to do the normal washing and preparation that was usually done to a deceased person, so they packed Jesus’ body in seventy-five pounds of spices to preserve it until after the Sabbath, when they would come back to finish the job. And because of their handling of a dead body, they were not able to celebrate the Passover.
They gave Jesus a burial normally reserved for royalty. A fresh garden tomb and spices were not to be provided for the body of a commoner, and especially not for a treasonous cult leader. Hanging on the cross for many days and being devoured by vultures was the usual way. But even in his death, these men knew he was a king, and one worth losing everything and possibly even dying for, even though he appeared to be a failed king.
I doubt these two sat down and listed all the pros and cons of what they were about to do, or had even a theological understanding of what had transpired, but they had seen and heard Jesus, and that was enough.
There’s something about Jesus, and him alone, that makes it easy to give up everything for him.
