Narrative Lectionary for Good Friday, 18 April 2014

Narrative Lectionary for Good Friday, 18 April 2014

Lectionary Scriptures:

John 19: 31 Therefore the Jews, because it was the Preparation Day, so that the bodies wouldn’t remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a special one), asked of Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. 32 Therefore the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who was crucified with him; 33 but when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was already dead, they didn’t break his legs. 34 However one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. 35 He who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, that you may believe. 36 For these things happened, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, “A bone of him will not be broken.”[a] 37 Again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they pierced.”[b]

38 After these things, Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked of Pilate that he might take away Jesus’ body. Pilate gave him permission. He came therefore and took away his body. 39 Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred Roman pounds.[c] 40 So they took Jesus’ body, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. 41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden. In the garden was a new tomb in which no man had ever yet been laid. 42 Then because of the Jews’ Preparation Day (for the tomb was near at hand) they laid Jesus there.

Footnotes:

a. John 19:36 Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12; Psalm 34:20

b. John 19:37 Zechariah 12:10

c. John 19:39 100 Roman pounds of 12 ounces each, or about 72 pounds, or 33 Kilograms.

Psalm 31:9 Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am in distress.

    My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief.

10 For my life is spent with sorrow,

    my years with sighing.

My strength fails because of my iniquity.

    My bones are wasted away.

11 Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors,

    A fear to my acquaintances.

    Those who saw me on the street fled from me.

12 I am forgotten from their hearts like a dead man.

    I am like broken pottery.

13 For I have heard the slander of many, terror on every side,

    while they conspire together against me,

    they plot to take away my life.

14 But I trust in you, Yahweh.

    I said, “You are my God.”

15 My times are in your hand.

    Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.

16 Make your face to shine on your servant.

    Save me in your loving kindness.

17 Let me not be disappointed, Yahweh, for I have called on you.

    Let the wicked be disappointed.

    Let them be silent in Sheol.[a]

18 Let the lying lips be mute,

    which speak against the righteous insolently, with pride and contempt.

Footnotes:

a. Psalm 31:17 Sheol is the place of the dead.

Commentary on John 19:31-42 by Thomas B. Slater

The references to the day of Preparation and the Sabbath connoted the holiness of these days on the Jewish calendar.

 It was imperative that this business be completed so that the bodies of the dead might not condemn the land (Deuteronomy 21:22-23). However, for the fourth evangelist the parallels with the Passover Lamb are irresistible. Jesus becomes the new Passover Lamb and so removes the sins of the world. While the original Passover Lamb led to the liberation of a people from bondage, the new Passover Lamb liberates the world from sin.

We have here competing forms of piety and both types of piety are zealous. On the one hand, there is the piety of tradition, the respect and the love for the old. Often it is not piety at all but comfort and fear of change. This piety places its deity in a box. There are no surprises. The second opens itself up to revelation, to God acting in a new way for a new day. This form of piety expects change; it embraces change. It is not that one is correct and one is incorrect. Knowing when one is appropriate and one is not constitutes the real problem. When our concern for tradition or love of novelty exceeds our concern for human beings, then our motives, if not also our actions, are inappropriate.

Pilate orders that their legs be broken so that they might die sooner. Jesus is already dead at this point. One of the soldiers pierced Jesus in the side to make sure that he was dead. Blood and water flowed from Jesus’ side. The blood of Jesus “shall never lose its power.” The blood symbolized the sacrificial death of Jesus on behalf of sinful humanity. He did not seem to die. He actually suffered and died on our behalf. This topic would become a major topic of debate within Johannine Christianity: did Jesus die or die he merely seem to die? Much of 1, 2, and 3 John concerns this very detail and its implications for the ongoing life of the community. The Gospel of John joins Paul (1 Corinthians 10:16) and Mark 14:24 in asserting and affirming the death of Jesus as a means toward grace.

The water from Jesus’ side reminds us that water is crucial for human existence. This passage echoes earlier passages in John. In John 4 Jesus speaks of himself as living water that shall become “a well of water springing up to life eternal” (verse 14). In John 7:38, Jesus says, “The one who believes in me, as the Scripture says, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living waters.’” Jesus embodies eternal life, symbolized by the water that flowed from his side. Thus, the death of Jesus reminds us that true salvation incorporates both the body and the spirit.

Again we note the concern to note the fulfillment of Scripture. This connoted the importance for Johannine Christianity to show that the signs of the messiahship of Jesus were there. Some people simply refused to acknowledge it. Sometimes in life we do good, not amazing, but still good. What is amazing is that someone else gets mad! And they are not mad because we did anything wrong, but because it was indeed good and they did not do it!

Reflections on John 19:38-42

Joseph of Arimathea is a secret disciple. When it seems as if the movement has been squashed into the sands of history, he comes out of the closet of his fears. Often fear presents itself as prudence or caution in order to gain respectability. It hides behind tradition. It warns that the devil one knows is better than the devil one does not know. It proclaims no gospel and warns that anarchy and innovation are two sides of the same coin.

Caution is good, but when our fears govern our actions we have lost before we have even begun to act. Fear is like farmland depleted of its nutrients. The same crop has grown there for so long that eventually the land has lost its ability to produce. Today our fears take many forms: ethnicity, socioeconomic status, human sexuality, political persuasion. Our fears keep us from seeing other human beings as human beings. They keep us from living our faith.

Nicodemus, on the other hand, represents the life of faith. In the first instance (John 3:1-2), Nicodemus came by night to meet with Jesus. Obviously, a person of his status meeting an itinerant Galilean preacher openly would have caused heads to turn at every level of Judean society. Nicodemus has been moved, but he is still reluctant to be seen with Jesus. The second time Nicodemus appears (John 7:50-51) he not only publicly speaks up for Jesus, he does so before his contemporaries.

At the very least, it is obvious that Nicodemus wants his peers to treat Jesus fairly according to the Law of Moses (Deuteronomy 1:16-17). In the third instance, Nicodemus provides for a (very expensive) proper burial for Jesus. The amount of spices used to prepare Jesus for burial implied that Jesus had a royal status. Nicodemus’ faith grows in each instance from inquirer, to advocate, to disciple. This is true faith, not mere belief.

Faith is not a one and done enterprise. It must grow and develop. If it does not, it will become stale and meaningless. If Nicodemus had not taken the first step and gone to Jesus by night, the subsequent steps would have been much more difficult for him. We are no different. If we do not live what we say we believe, our faith cannot grow and develop and become stronger as we go along our Christian journey.

The linen clothes symbolized purity. For example, the high priest wore linen on Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16:4; Ezekiel 10:1-8). Angels also appeared in linen dress (e.g., Daniel 10:5-6). Thus, this image connoted the purity of Jesus and that he had been given a proper Jewish burial. His body was placed in a tomb that had never been used, i.e., if the tomb is empty there can be no confusion whose body is missing. It also enabled them to bury Jesus on the day of Preparation, a holy day in the Jewish calendar.

John Wesley’s Notes-Commentary for

John 19:31-42

Verse 31

[31] The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.

Lest the bodies should remain on the cross on the Sabbath — Which they would have accounted a profanation of any Sabbath, but of that in particular.

For that Sabbath was a great day — Being not only a Sabbath, but the second day of the feast of unleavened bread (from whence they reckoned the weeks to pentecost:) and also the day for presenting and offering the sheaf of new corn: so that it was a treble solemnity.

Verse 34

[34] But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.

Forthwith there came out blood and water — It was strange, seeing he was dead, that blood should come out; more strange, that water also; and most strange of all, that both should come out immediately, at one time, and yet distinctly. It was pure and true water, as well as pure and true blood. The asseveration of the beholder and testifier of it, shows both the truth and greatness of the miracle and mystery.

Verse 35

[35] And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.

His testimony is true — Valid, unexceptionable.

And he knoweth — And his conscience beareth him witness, that he testifieth this for no other end, than that ye may believe.

Verse 36

[36] For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.

A bone of it shall not be broken — This was originally spoken of the paschal lamb, an eminent type of Christ. Exodus 12:46.

Verse 37

[37] And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.

They shall look on him whom they have pierced — He was pierced by the soldier's spear. They who have occasioned his sufferings by their sins (and who has not?) shall either look upon him in this world with penitential sorrow: or with terror, when he cometh in the clouds of heaven, Revelation 1:7. Zechariah 12:10.

Verse 38

[38] And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.

Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate — And Nicodemus also came - Acknowledging Christ, when even his chosen disciples forsook him. In that extremity Joseph was no longer afraid, Nicodemus no longer ashamed.

Verse 41

[41] Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.

In the place where he was crucified — There was a garden in the same tract of land: but the cross did not stand in the garden.

Verse 42

[42] There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.

Because of the preparation — That is, they chose the rather to lay him in that sepulchre which was nigh, because it was the day before the Sabbath, which also was drawing to an end, so that they had no time to carry him far.

Psalm 31:9-18

Verse 9

[9] Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.

Grief — With continual weeping.

Verse 10

[10] For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed.

Iniquity — For the punishment of mine iniquity.

Consumed — The juice and marrow of them bring almost dried up with grief.

Verse 11

[11] I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me.

A fear — They were afraid to give me any countenance or assistance.

Fled — To prevent their own danger and ruin.

Verse 12

[12] I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.

A broken vessel — Which is irreparable, and useless, and therefore despised by all.

Verse 13

[13] For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.

Fear — Just cause of fear.

Verse 15

[15] My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.

My times — All the affairs and events of my life, are wholly in thy power.

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