Saturday 08 April 2023
- Bible Book:
- John
Nicodemus, who had first come to Jesus by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. (v. 39)
Background
The crucifixion is over. Jesus is dead. The two felons crucified with him had had their legs broken to make sure that they, too, were dead.
It was important that the bodies were not left on the crosses during the Sabbath so Joseph of Arimathea went to ask the Roman governor Pilate if he might take Jesus’ body for burial. Was this request by arrangement with Jesus’ family or the disciples? We cannot know, but it is quite likely that both his family and the disciples were so grief-stricken and fearful that they were paralysed and unable to think clearly about what to do.
This is the first time in John’s Gospel that we meet Joseph but according to other sources he was the owner of the tomb – a brand-new tomb which had not been used before. Additionally we are told that he was a secret disciple of Jesus.
Then there is his companion, Nicodemus who John had written of earlier in his Gospel. He was the person who had come to Jesus by night and with whom he had had a long, theological discussion.
So here we have two secret disciples of Jesus coming just before nightfall on the eve of the Sabbath to perform the last rites for this strange but charismatic teacher, the one whose mocking sign read ‘King of the Jews’. The amount of spices that Nicodemus brought was truly enormous – about a hundred times larger that that poured on Jesus’ feet by Mary at Bethany. Such a quantity and quality of spices were such as would only be used for a prominent person – for a king, no less!
Here were two secret disciples of Jesus doing all they could as their last act of devotion.
To Ponder:
- Faith/belief in Jesus is mocked in some sections of our society. How might we seek to reach out to today’s ‘secret disciples'?
- What do you feel about extravagant gestures of love at funerals in our own time?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, speak to us through your word and through your Spirit so that we might reach out to those who admire Jesus from afar or who count themselves to be his ‘secret’ disciples. Amen.