Solely Jesus
John 19:31-42
God at work in the silence
Exploring the life of Jesus through the eyewitness account of the Apostle John
John was the only one of the 12 who lived out his life and died of old age
He was one of the closest/inner circle ofJesus’ followers
Each of the 4 Gospels – ‘Good News’ – are like photo albums of Jesus
They all have some pictures that are similar
They all have pictures that are different
Many of John’s pictures are quite different than those of M, M and L
All four of the accounts of the life of Jesus were written within about 30 years of his death and resurrection
We don’t have the original writings but almost the entire accounts can be reconstructed from other early writings of the time.
It is as if: We had none of the writings of Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln has been written about more than any other president
What Lincoln said and wrote could be reconstructed by the extensive quotes and writings of others who directly quoted him.
We know what Lincoln said
We don’t always know why he said it but we know what he said
It is the same with these first hand accounts
We don’t have the originals … we have copies of copies
But … the copies are being continually compared against what writers who quoted the accounts wrote
Scholars and historians – experts say we know what was originally written in the accounts about Jesus
We know what Jesus said
What we don’t know for certain is why he said what he said … What was he referring to?
One of the other realities about the accounts of Jesus’ life is that we have lots of other accounts that tell different things about Jesus – 100’s of them
Those accounts don’t refute the accounts in M, M, L, J
They have other details/stories/events
What they don’t say is – “You know that part of the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead? That didn’t happen.”
Contrary to what you sometimes here on the street – The accounts of the life of Jesus are very accurate
What Jesus did and said is really not in question
The questions of: What it means and why he did what he did can be debated
But not what he did and said
Let’s jump into John’s account
In John’s account of the life of Jesus we are going look at Jesus’ burial...
Last week he was executed on the cross
If you were not around last week – I would recommend you go to our website or to iTunes and listen to the message
It was one of those teachings that I wish everyone had heard
Center to understanding the cross, the human heart/condition and why the story of the life of Jesus is called the ‘Gospel’ or Good News
Where we ended last week – Jesus dies from the beating, the crucifixion
John said: “It is finished. With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” John 19:30 NIV
John continues his account of the life of Jesus
Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.
The day that Jesus died was what was referred to as the day of Preparation.
The day of Preparation was when the house was fully cleaned, the Passover Lamb was slaughtered
All of the cooking was done.
Since no work could be done on the Sabbath everything had to be prepared in advance.
Thanksgiving:
Cooking all the pies and doing all the preparation that can be done for a Thanksgiving Meal – the day before.
The difference being – we are not ‘forbidden’ from cooking on the Thanksgiving.
They were forbidden from cooking, setting the table, etc
It all had to be done on the day of Preparation
This was no ordinary day of Preparation – this was the Sabbath of Passover – Double Sabbath
The Jews did not, to the best of their ability, allow dying people orcorpses to be left on crosses during the Sabbath
The process of dying and corpses would taint their holy day of worship – in this case the Sabbath of the Passover
The Romans – because they wanted to keep the peace – were usually very willing to comply
Anything to keep the Jews from rioting
So the Jewish leaders went to Pilate, the Governor, and asked that the legs be broken and once the criminals had died that the bodies be taken down
When common criminals were crucified a frequent practice was to break the legs of the criminals with a big hammer in order to quicken their death.
The person hanging on the cross was then unable to lift their bodies up with their legs
They would suffocate in just a short time
Criminals that were executed for rebellion/citing riots/sedition were left hanging on the cross until they were dead
Nothing was done to expedite their death
Maximum determent and terror was squeezed from their death
One of the men that was recently crucified in Syria – hung on the cross dying for 3 days
It was not the Romans who wanted these rebels to be removed from the cross
It was the Jewish leaders who asked for Jesus’ death to be sped up
The Jewish leaders had to ask for Jesus’ legs to be broken for a couple of reasons:
- Jesus and the criminals were hung not for common crimes but for crimes against the state. In normal situations they would have been left there until they were dead.
- In Jesus’ case he was also a Jewish man and the Jewish law was that if a man was ‘hung’ his body should not be left to hang overnight but that it would be taken down before dark. (Deuteronomy 21:23)
The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.
First the soldiers broke one criminal’s legs and then the others
Why they didn’t go down the line – one of those mysteries
Were they afraid of Jesus/all that had happened – the darkness, the earthquake, etc?
When they got to Jesus – he was already dead.
One of them took the spear and pierced Jesus with it.
Interesting that the soldiers didn’t do what they were told – break the legs and did what they were not told which was to pierce him
The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”
“The man who saw it …”
His way of saying – “I’m telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.”
The Apostle John, years later understood that what happened to Jesus was a fulfillment of prophesy about the ‘Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’
The practice of the Jews, according to the instructions given them in the law, was that they could NOT break the legs of the Passover Lamb that they would sacrifice.
Breaking the legs of the lamb made the sacrifice unacceptable.
Another lamb would have to be chosen
Since Jesus was the true Passover Lamb his legs could not be broken.
John also saw the piercing as the fulfillment of a prophesy in Zechariah 12:10
They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child … Zechariah 12:10 NIV
Bringing a sudden flow of blood and water
Preachers and Bible teachers for years have used that line to talk about how Jesus died of a ‘broken heart’
It preaches/teaches well – but he used that line for a different reason
During the time that John wrote his account of the life of Jesus there were leaders in the churchwho believed that Jesus was God but he was NOT a man
God yes --- Man NO!
Docetism
He was an apparition, phantom
He only seemed to have a physical body and to physically die, but in reality he was pure spirit, and therefore he could not physically die.
He only appeared to eat, sleep, get tired, etc.
He was not man --- he was God who just made himself look like a man
In our day – most people believe that Jesus was a man, a teacher, a prophet, a charismatic leader and even a miracle worker
People don’t question whether Jesus was a man or not
The part that people find hard to believe is that he was God/Man at the same time.
Today: Man yes --- God NO!
John – I’m telling you the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth … When Jesus died and the executors plunged the spear into his side – blood and water came out
From start to finish he is attacking the teaching of Docetism – that Jesus was God but not man
John started his account with the words:The Word became flesh
Here towards the end of his account he refers to Jesus’ blood and water
Jesus was more than God
Jesus was the God and man at the same time
Jesus was the Son of God who became man – with real flesh and real blood
Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night.
It is interesting that Joseph and Nicodemus were disciples of Jesus but ‘secretly’
Since being convinced that Jesus was the Messiah – Joseph and Nicodemus were always in the shadows, just out of sight, behind a wall, on the other side of the room
NOW they come out of the shadows to ask Pilate for the body of Jesus
- Why?
- Why reveal yourself as a follower after the one that you believed was the Messiah was dead.
- What did they have to gain?
- Their hero was dead
- The other disciples were all in hiding – ‘locked in a house in Jerusalem’ – at an ‘undetermined location’
- The movement was over
Most likely Joseph and Nicodemus had planned to ask for the body of Jesus
They knew that, if the Sanhedrin which they were part of had their way, Jesus was going to be sold, arrested, beaten and executed.
They were in the gathering of the ‘Sanhedrin’ when Caiaphas the HP had made the declaration
It is better if one man die for for leading a rebellion, than for the whole nation to suffer loss.
Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.
Bodies were wrapped in cloth and covered with spices so that when it came time to bury others in the tomb - people would be able to stand to go into the tomb.
The spices had nothing to do with preserving or embalming the body
The ‘body’ would be left for a period of time – until the flesh had rotted away – which in that climate didn’t take that long – the bones would then be collected and put in an ossuary or a bone box
Once the bones were collected and put into a bone box the bone box would be stacked in the tomb.
Tombs have been found with dozens of bone boxes in them.
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. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. John 19:31-42 NIV
One of the mysteries about the burial of Jesus is why Joseph had a tomb so close to the place that the Romans executed people
Being prominent, rich and powerful – he could have purchased a tomb anywhere he wanted
Future burials of his family members would be marred by the sounds of execution and people dying
John simply ends his account of the day: They laid Jesus there.
John says nothing about the next day – the Sabbath
What happened on that Sabbath day?
Where was Jesus?
What was he doing?
The Burial of Jesus - A compilation
As evening approached, a rich man named Joseph from the Judean town of Arimatheawent boldly to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus. Joseph was a prominent member of the Council, he was a good and upright man, who was waiting for the kingdom of God. He had become a disciple of Jesus. He had not consented to the Council's decision to arrest and execution of Jesus.
Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus was already dead. He summoned the centurion who was in charge of the execution, and asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph.
It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was about to begin. So Joseph took down the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth that he had brought with him, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock.
The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee had followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how Jesus’ body was laid in it. They were sitting opposite the tomb while Joseph placed the body inside.
Joseph rolled a stonein front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.
The women then went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.
The next day, the one after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate.
“Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver Jesus said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”
“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and this time rolled a big stone against the entrance of the tomb. They then made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.
All of the accounts of the life of Jesus go silent …
None of them tell us anything about what happened on the Sabbath
The Sabbath, when Jesus was in the tomb is often referred to as Silent Saturday ~ Holy Saturday, Great Saturday
It may be that you have never considered what occurred on, if anything, on Silent Saturday
Too often people jump from Good Friday and The Cross –to Easter and the resurrection
What happened in that middle day?
What happened on that Saturday?
From all appearances, from every vantage point it looks like nothing is happening.
God has gone silent – Silent Saturday
The questions start to pile up:
- Where is God?
- What’s He doing?
- Why isn’t God listening?
- Why isn’t God saying something?
- Why is nothing happening?
- Why isn’t God doing something?
- How long is this going to last?
- Is God mad at me?
Imagine how the people returned to their homes on Friday afternoon discouraged, disappointed, and disillusioned.
- Their hero was dead
- The one they had followed for the last 3 years
- The one that they had put their hopes in was gone.
- He didn’t do what they thought He could do, would do or should do.
- Instead, He had just hung there and died.
- Jesus was no different than every other person who had hung on a cross
What were the disciples doing?
- Crying?
- Praying?
- Replaying the recent days?
- Angry that they hadn’t fought?
- Frustrated that they had wasted 3 years following Jesus?
Probably lots of silence …
I bet you’ve experienced your own Silent Saturday