VIDEO INVITATION:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuUt9OTPa34&list=UUpUmxduWvxlTv1C-2JA4xtw
SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014
John 19:39 “And there came also Nicodemus…”
SCRIPTURE READING: JOHN 19:31-42
31The Jews therefore,
because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the
cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought
Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
32Then
came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was
crucified with him.
33But
when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his
legs:
34But
one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out
blood and water.
35And
he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he
saith true, that ye might believe.
36For
these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him
shall not be broken.
37And
again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.
38And
after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for
fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus:
and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
39And
there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and
brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
40Then
took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as
the manner of the Jews is to bury.
41Now
in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new
sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.
42There
laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the
sepulchre was nigh at hand.
REFLECTION:
A few years earlier
he came to Jesus “by night.” “Master
we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles
except God be with Him,” Nicodemus confessed.
Jesus didn’t reprove his
secret inquirer, He taught him, “Verily
verily I say unto thee, ye must be born again!”
On the last day of
the Feast of Tabernacles, that great day of the Feast when Jesus proclaimed, “If any man thirst, let him come to me and
drink,” opinions in Jerusalem were sharply divided. Some believed Jesus was the long anticipated
Messiah. The Jewish Sanhedrin was sure
He was an imposter.
Nicodemus emerged from the shadows, not yet ready to openly
proclaim Christ as His Lord, but anxious to hear more, “Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he does?” His authority and influence were sufficient
to pause the Sanhedrin’s rush to judgment.
John tells us that Joseph
of Arimethaea begged Pilate for the body of Jesus. But there was another who
helped him take our Lord from the cross to the tomb.
See Nicodemus.
Together
they did what they could to prepare Christ’s body for burial. They wrapped Him in linen clothes. Then they gently laid him in Joseph’s new
made tomb. Though Nicodemus knew that his faith in Christ would earn him the
scorn of the Jerusalem elite, his admiration for Christ could not longer be
secret, his confidence in Christ would not longer be ambiguous.
He remembered and now
believed what Christ had said to him on that first night they talked. “For God so loved the world, that He gave
His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life.” (John 3:16).
As the cold, lifeless
body of Jesus lay in state on that final Sabbath before the resurrection, there
were no crowds of mourners, nor were there mounds of floral offerings. The
disciples were in hiding.
Shrouded in linen, entombed in stone,
guarded by Rome’s best soldiers, our Lord’s next move would not come until the
break of dawn the next day, the first day of the week. On that day, The Lord of
the Sabbath would rise to inaugurate the first LORD'S DAY.
PRAYER: Our Father in Heaven, We bow before you, grateful that
you so loved the world, that you so loved us.
We marvel at your patience with Nicodemus, and then we are even more amazed
at your patience with us. As we look at the cross we are struck not only by
your love, but by the horror of the sin that separates us from you, and distance
you trave
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