Joseph of Arithme-what?

Joseph of Arithme-what?  John 19.38-42  

Click to read: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2019:38-42&ver...

“Afterward Joseph of Arimathea… asked Pilate for permission to take down Jesus’ body… and since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.”

Good Day. 

Our Lord has given up his spirit, as his work on the cross is finished.  A man named Joseph (of Arimathea), who was a member of the Sanhedrin went to Pilate and asked to care for the body of Jesus. He took a big risk in doing so, because he obviously 'came out' in support of Jesus by making such a request. Even the disciples, except for John, had fled the scene, concerned that their close relationships with Jesus might find them imprisoned or worse, executed. No, it was not a safe time to come out in support of Jesus--too much risk, too much unknown. So it was particularly unusual that Joseph and Nicodemus (a Pharisee and Jewish ruler), requested to take Jesus. This was no small labor; the burial spices that Nicodemus brought are said to have weighed 95 pounds.

Hmmm … I remember when my father died.  I had been en route to my son's high school basketball game when I got the call. Instead of watching basketball, I went to the hospital morgue. I told Dad 'good bye' that day, face-to-face, but his body had already begun to set, and he was no longer my dad. See, when a body has drawn its last breath, rigor mortis begins to set in--first in the smallest muscles such as those in the face and hands, and then the muscles in the limbs, causing them to stiffen.  The mouth is often slack and seems to freeze while agape (such was the case with my dad). In our culture, we do not typically handle our loved one's lifeless bodies--certainly not in preparing them for burial--but families and loved ones did in Jesus' day.

When Joseph and Nicodemus took Jesus down from the cross, they rubbed his stiff arms to remove the rigor mortis, which kept them in a V-shape, and then carefully washed his bloody, bruised body. Then they anointed it with oil and wrapped it in one long linen cloth. A separate napkin tied under Jesus’ chin kept his mouth from gaping after the muscles began to loosen.

Next, they wrapped his body from head to toe in long strips of linen, using spiced resin and seventy-five to one hundred pounds of heavily scented spices to offset the smell of decomposition. (This was common for the Jews.) The men were working quickly to be sure that Jesus was in the tomb by nightfall as they wanted to keep the Sabbath day sacred.  They also knew the Law required the body of someone who had been executed to be buried that same day.

It is Christmas time … at least at my house, and in my heart.  I have been listening to Christmas carols for many days now.  My house is decorated, the Christmas tree is up, and its fragrance permeates.  Now check this out:  when Jesus was born, he was wrapped in strips of linen called swaddling cloths; when he died, he was wrapped in linen.  Yeah, kinda' interesting to note--when Jesus was born, he was wrapped in linen cloths and laid in a manger . . . when he died, more linen cloths . . . when Jesus was born, he was tended by a man named Joseph; when he died, he was tended by a man named Joseph. . . hmmm.  (But seriously, don’t you find that fascinating?)

How forlorn the men must have felt... their Lord died... their Lord buried...

Yet the same Jesus who died for us was first born for us!  He came that we might come to know him.  Joseph of Arimathea stepped forward for Jesus, who forever has made a home for him.  Sweet.

Christine