Station 6: Jesus is taken down from the cross | Reflection by Rick Arbuckle

“He is dead. The witnesses attest to it. The soldier pierced his side and proved it. Now in haste, let’s get him down from the cross. Before sundown we must get him down because this is preparation day. We’ve got cooking and cleaning chores, and only three hours to do it! We can’t have this dead body, this unclean thing, interfere with our religion. The dead body is an unclean body, and we must not handle a dead body on the Sabbath.” So might the words of a Pharisee be following the death of Jesus. The religious folk of this era had to adhere to the rules, had to follow the law. Never mind who this person was, or said he was, or what he said about the sabbath. For example, in Luke’s gospel Jesus deals with several sabbath conflicts head on. In Luke 6, it’s about his disciples plucking and eating grain. In verse 5 Jesus says, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”* On another sabbath he heals a man with a withered hand. In Luke 13 it is a crippled woman who is healed. Jesus says in verse 16, “And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” Yet those against him assumed his death proved them right; now on with business as usual, and get rid of this unpleasant episode. Time to put it behind and get on with rituals and religion.

And now a convenient coda to this drama—a man comes forward wanting to claim the body. Are the authorities surprised, or relieved? I would imagine they are very relieved, because this takes care of disposal in a discrete way. Pilate had already washed his hands, and now he could put it out of his mind. He probably thinks, “It is done; the body will be buried and forgotten, and this Jewish thing will quiet down.”

After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body. Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. (John 19:38-40)

Jesus had friends in high places. Joseph of Arimathea is given credit in all four gospels for going to Pilate and asking for Jesus’ body. In Matthew 27:57 he is described as a rich man; in Mark 15:43 it notes that he is a member of the Council, “a good and upright man.” It seems that he now became bold after being a secret follower of Jesus. Nicodemus is mentioned in John 19:39 as the one who helped Joseph take down Jesus’ body. His story begins earlier in John 3, as the Pharisee who visited Jesus at night. In their dialogue, Jesus is direct with him, explaining in verse 5, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” Verses 14-15: “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” So when Nicodemus saw Jesus lifted up on the cross, perhaps he realized it was time to commit. We also see how he argued fair treatment of Jesus in John 7:51: “Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?” And how fitting that on the day of preparation this man came prepared: one hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes! Those spices are found in an ode to a royal wedding (Psalm 45:7-8): “You love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions; your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia...” Jesus has sacrificed for his bride. Have we sacrificed for him by putting our lives in order?

Commentators suggest that one hundred pounds is much more than could have been placed in the linen which surrounded Jesus’ body. Was it out of love or guilt? We don’t know what motivated Nicodemus, but we can examine our own preparations. Are we “cleaning house” in a ritualistic fashion? Will our fasting aid in cleansing and refreshing our hearts? Are we being filled with anticipation and joy?

Jesus has done the preparation and laid it all out for us. The time has come for us to be bold and claim the body of work that Jesus did. The time has come for us to be bold and claim the body of teaching that Jesus taught. The time has come for us to be bold and claim our birthright as children of God, to affirm our relationship to the Savior. The time has come to ask, “Am I prepared to meet Jesus either at death’s door or when he returns?”

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* Note: All Bible references are from the NRSV.