thoughts on John 19
Such a difficult passage to read. Aren't you glad the story doesn't end here? How would things be different if it had?
Some friends of mine just lost their newborn son. As I think about their anguish, it can't help but make me realize again how horrible the crucifixion must have been to Jesus' family and followers. Don't you think they had to keep just hoping against hope that He would resist - heal Himself - come down unharmed from that cross? Right up until He breathed His last (and maybe a little after??) don't you think they would be hoping and hardly daring to hope - or maybe even courageously hoping? After all - they'd seen Him raise Lazarus from the dead not too long before this... surely He wasn't really going to *die*!
And then the utter devastation when they realized it was true; He really was dead. He needed to be buried. Weighed down with spices and grave clothes. Put in a tomb. All the practical, mechanical, horrible stuff that goes along with having your heart torn out and all your dreams in bits at your feet.
I have complete sympathy for Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. They figured out a way to help, even when they didn't have the strength to give up everything they had to follow Him. The Bible has many heroes, but these guys were *real* - doing something, even though it was in secret, to help in some way. It had to take double the courage at that point, because now it seemed like a doomed, crazy call - how much faith did they have at that point? And yet they still did it. I hope - HOPE - to have full courage whenever I'm called upon to have it in my life... and I hope I do something rather than nothing regardless of how much courage I have.
One thing that's encouraging about this passage: that whole idea of having trust when everything seems like it's falling apart. Those times when nothing in the circumstances make sense, when things just don't add up, when I can't possibly see how good can come of the situation. God's about to do something big in the next chapter of John - actually - the biggest thing ever! I like that we can trust Him, then, when those terrible moments hit in our lives - that somehow He *will* work things out, and all will be well. I like that God has our lives in His hands, and that we don't need to fear circumstances.
Created over 2 years ago
