Friday, March 29, 2013 -- What Do We Do With Jesus? (5)
Friday March 29, 2013
38 Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. 39 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. 40 Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41 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. 42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. (John 19:38-42 NIV)
Jesus is dead. What are we to do about that?
Joseph and Nicodemus were two religious leaders who had not agreed to Jesus being put to death. We don't know much about Joseph but we do know that Nicodemus had met secretly with Jesus and asked him what it meant to be born again. We are told that Joseph was a man who was waiting for the kingdom of God and apparently recognized that Jesus was the promised Messiah. Whatever they thought, the sad reality today is that they have watched Jesus be questioned, beaten, handed over, mocked, and horribly crucified. Jesus has died. In a courageous act, these two men -- not any of the 12 disciples who had been with Jesus during his public ministry -- asked for Jesus' body to be released to them so they could honour him in his death. At personal sacrifice to their reputation, their time, and their personal finances, they cared for Jesus and buried him in a new tomb.
What does it take for you and I to figure out that Jesus is who He says He is and that the best course for our lives to give ourselves in allegiance and loving service to Him? Surely Joseph and Nicodemus had many questions and lots of things they didn't understand about the events of the day and yet their hearts, touched by God's Spirit, were responding to truth -- the truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God, the Saviour of the world. You and I don't have all the answers but we do have truth -- Jesus, the truth -- and He is offering us a way of truth and life in Himself. What will we do with Jesus and His offer of life today?
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