Standing Up for Jesus: John 19:38-42

Over the past few episodes, we have been focusing on Jesus’ time hanging on the cross. However, we now come to the point in this event where it is time for Jesus’ corpse to be removed from the cross. While Jesus fulfilled a surprising number of prophecies while hanging on the cross, when Jesus’ body is ultimately removed from the cross, a previously unknown disciple, and a secret disciple both step forward with exactly what was needed to save this weekend.

Let’s read what happened and how Joseph and Nicodemus save this Passover weekend.

Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 19, and we will read it using the Contemporary English Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 38, John tells us that:

³⁸ Joseph from Arimathea was one of Jesus’ disciples. He had kept it secret though, because he was afraid of the Jewish leaders. But now he asked Pilate to let him have Jesus’ body. Pilate gave him permission, and Joseph took it down from the cross.

³⁹ Nicodemus also came with about seventy-five pounds of spices made from myrrh and aloes. This was the same Nicodemus who had visited Jesus one night. ⁴⁰ The two men wrapped the body in a linen cloth, together with the spices, which was how the Jewish people buried their dead. ⁴¹ In the place where Jesus had been nailed to a cross, there was a garden with a tomb that had never been used. ⁴² The tomb was nearby, and since it was the time to prepare for the Sabbath, they were in a hurry to put Jesus’ body there.

Some people have speculated that since Joseph and Nicodemus were in a hurry to prepare for the Sabbath, they didn’t prepare Jesus’ body properly, allowing Jesus to have survived. However, this thought doesn’t stand up to the logic that if Jesus could have been alive, these two disciples would not have been allowed to take Jesus’ body off the cross, and Jesus’ legs would have been broken, which we looked at in our last episode.

However, while Joseph and Nicodemus hurriedly prepare Jesus’ body for burial because of the Sabbath, these two men step in with exactly what is needed to save this Passover weekend.

Nicodemus believed and understood that Jesus had died, and while he may have remembered Jesus’ words to him during a secret, late-night meeting several years earlier, Nicodemus brought spices to prepare Jesus’ body for burial. Depending on the translation, we can understand that Nicodemus’ gift of spices weighed anywhere between 75 to 100 pounds. If Nicodemus believed or understood Jesus to be only in the tomb for less than 48 hours, a gift of that many spices to mask the odor of a body decomposing does not make sense. It is very possible that Nicodemus overdid it on the spices because they didn’t have much time, and it is better to have too many spices than too little.

However, Joseph’s gift is equally as significant. While offering Jesus a tomb to lay in doesn’t sound all that significant, it is exactly what everyone that weekend needed. If there was no tomb, then Jesus’ body likely would have been thrown in a communal grave and His body quickly lost among the other corpses. If a resurrection happened following Jesus’ body being tossed in with a bunch of other corpses, rumors would begin to spread that the person who was resurrected wasn’t really Jesus.

With this said, a funny thought just entered my mind. If Jesus’ body was thrown in a mass grave, I wonder if it would have caused every corpse in that grave to have been resurrected. This would have been similar to what happened in 2 Kings, chapter 13, verses 20 and 21 when the corpse of a man is hastily thrown into Elisha’s tomb and when the corpse touched Elisha’s bones, it returned to life. With Jesus’ though, I suspect the effect would have been significantly more powerful.

However, before we digress too far, what everyone that weekend needed was a single location to watch to see what would happen to Jesus’ body. The religious leaders need a place to watch, and to send soldiers to guard so that Jesus’ followers won’t steal the body away. The women need a place to return to in order to pay their respects to Jesus following the Sabbath. And the disciples themselves need a place to go to in order to confirm the women’s crazy story of an empty tomb and to also ultimately come to the conclusion that Jesus rose from the dead. Everyone that weekend needed a place to watch and Joseph steps in with the perfect gift at the perfect time.

Both Nicodemus and Joseph step in with what is needed at that time. Both of these men are described as secret disciples, or as disciples who followed Jesus, but didn’t do so publicly. While we might be tempted to follow the lead of Nicodemus and Joseph, understand that if either of these men had stayed silent, we would have no idea who they were.

Only when each of these men stand up and side with Jesus do their stories get recorded. In Nicodemus’ case, the three times He is mentioned in scripture are only in connection with Jesus. The first time is when Nicodemus comes to see Jesus late at night. The second time is when Nicodemus stands up for Jesus while sitting in a hostile-towards-Jesus meeting of religious leaders. And the third time Nicodemus is recorded is in this passage, when he brings spices to assist in Jesus’ burial.

In Joseph’s case, the only mention of him that I am aware of in the entire scripture is during Jesus’ burial. While I don’t know if Joseph reverts back to the religious leaders after Jesus’ resurrection, or if his story as a disciple gets lost among all the other amazing events in the first century Christian church, Joseph is remembered as the giver of the gift of a tomb for Jesus’ body.

Both Nicodemus and Joseph teach us a powerful truth: If we want our lives to last longer than our lives, and if we want to be remembered for what we have done for eternity, we must step into God’s story and align ourselves with Jesus. When we publicly side with Jesus, letting our lives move God’s story forward, our lives and our witness will be remembered for eternity!

If you have been living as a secret follower of Jesus, consider this a gentle nudge to step forward when God calls you to step forward, and to publicly proclaim Jesus while allying yourself with Him!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to ally yourself with Jesus. If you have been afraid to share your faith, ask God for the strength and courage to stand up when the time is right and to give you the confidence and words to say when you do stand up for Him. Don’t let fear in this world keep you from publicly proclaiming your allegiance to God!

Also, as I always challenge you to do, keep praying and studying the Bible for yourself to personally grow closer to God each and every day. Through prayer and study, you can grow closer to God, and the closer you grow to God, the more the Holy Spirit will show up in your life and transform you into the person God created you to be. With the Holy Spirit in your life, nothing Satan throws your way can scare you out of God’s plan for your life!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or shy away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!