Holy Week: Friday

They took down the Body of Jesus

(John 19:40)

That’s how the day ends. An interesting “they” that took the dead body of Jesus down from the Cross. By surprise, the “they” were a couple of “secret disciples” named Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus who, on this day, both came out of secrecy to openly cared for Jesus’ dead body. Together with those faithful “women who had come with Jesus out of Galilee,” they lug the dead body of Jesus down from the Cross “wrap him in spices with linen cloths, and place him in a tomb.” Meanwhile, the Twelve, are nowhere to be found.

The Bible speaks of this day as “his passion” (Ac 1:3). The passion begins, when religious powers, tipped off by Judas’ kiss, arrest Jesus and put him on trial concerning his treatment of the temple and rather or not he claimed to be their long expected One. During these religious trials, a few folks spot Peter lingering in the courtyard and carry on a littler interrogation of their own: “Surely you are one of his disciples. The way you talk gives you away.” Peter begins to curse and swear, “I do not know the man!” When the cock crowed, Peter “wept bitterly.” While Peter weeps, Judas “repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders” (Mt 27:3).

The religious powers can’t do what only Rome can do, so they hand Jesus over to Pilate, the Roman governor, who alone can do what the religious authorities want done. Before Rome, the charges against Jesus shift to a political nature: “This man forbids paying taxes to Caesar, and claims to be king” (Lk 23:2).  Pilate’s wife, another one of those women who seem to get something real about Jesus, tells her husband that she had a dream that Jesus was an innocent man. Pilate tries to evade his responsibility; but, in the end does what Rome does—sentences him to death by crucifixion.

After mocking and scourging by Pilate’s cohort; Jesus is sent out to carry his cross towards Golgotha. Along the way, Simon of Cyrene, who would later be known by the church in Rome as “the father of Alexander and Rufus” (Mk 15:21), takes upon himself Jesus’ cross and carries it the rest of the way towards Golgotha. (“Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; and greet his mother—she was a mother to me also” ((Rm 16:13)). It’s a greeting that comes some 25 years later, at the end of Paul’s letter to the Roman church. One gets the feeling Rufus, being the son of Simon, was of renown among believers. Somewhere during Paul’s journeys, Rufus’ mom, Simon’s wife, or maybe widow by this time, ended up taking in the Apostle. That’s too good not to parenthesize; isn’t it?)

We need not go into the brutality of Roman execution—Mel Gibson did that for us in his film The Passion. Enough to say that Jesus participated fully in the horrors of crucifixion—even to the point of forsakenness: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” How this day turned into “Good Friday” awaits Easter morning. For now, there is nothing “good” about it.

However, there was something different about it. Uncanny things happened: “Behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Mt 27:51). A strange darkness came over Golgotha while “the earth shook, and the rocks split” causing the military captain of the guard to say, “Truly this was the Son of God!” Was this Roman military officer the first to believe?

It will take Easter morning and more to sort it all out—that this execution had to do with us: “He was handed over to death for our trespasses” (Ro 4:25). I don’t suppose we ever, even in eternity, figure out the whole of it—how it is that God died on that Cross. As the hymn goes: “That Thou, my God, should die for me?”