Saturday 07 April 2012

Background

This is Holy Saturday - the day following Good Friday when werecall Jesus' crucifixion and death. Today's narrative explainswhat happened to Jesus' body after his death, and how it came to beplaced in its own sepulchre, rather than tossed into a mass gravelike the bodies of other executed criminals.

Around the story of Jesus' death, Mark has been introducing somenamed characters who were clearly known as followers or disciples,beyond the 12 specially picked companions. (The latter are nowhereto be seen at this point.) Joseph of Arimathea appears here for thefirst time, and all four of the Gospel narratives mention him asthe one who provided his own tomb for Jesus' body to be laid in (Matthew27:57-61; Luke 23:50-53; John19:38-42). He must have been a rich man to own such a thing,and interestingly he is said to be a member of the Jewish council,the Sanhedrin, which conducted the first midnight trial of Jesus.So here is an apparent enemy who was nevertheless sympathetic tothe condemned man; he also was "waiting expectantly for the kingdomof God". Other Gospels assert that he did not consent to thedecision (Luke 23:50-51), or that he was a secret disciple(John 19:38).

It would have taken courage to request the body of a criminal; whowould risk being associated with someone condemned by the Romans asseditious? Pilate was surprised that Jesus was already dead (assometimes it took days to die on a cross), but Mark makes it clearthrough repetition that Jesus was really and truly dead, and notcapable of being revived. This would have been a matter of keendebate among some who wanted to believe that he did not really die- either because they wished to assert that the resurrection was aconfidence trick, or because it felt 'wrong' that the holy one ofGod should really have suffered death.

But it did really happen. As with all bereavements, the first taskof grief is to come to terms with the reality of the death that hasoccurred. Like the various women who steadily bore witness to thewhole scene of horror, Joseph was not just generous and brave, buta realist.

To Ponder

A particular kind of courage is needed from theliving, in order to make a practical contribution in the context ofdeath and dying. What has been your experience of 'being there' andbeing useful when someone is dying or has died?

Like Joseph of Arimathea, when have you hadenough courage to do something out of the ordinary in order tofollow through your beliefs? What happened?