JOHN 19:38—20:9 SURPRISE!
38 Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. 39 He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. 40 Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41 At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
20:1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
God and men have different ways of preparing a body. Joseph and Nicodemus provided a tomb, spices and perfume for Jesus’ dead body. They were trying to show their love and respect for Jesus by attending to his body. Otherwise it was a pointless exercise. Dead bodies decay in spite of our best efforts.
God’s alternative body preparation was totally unknown to them, as well as totally unexpected. God was preparing a new body for Jesus using the raw materials of the old one. And rather than preserving the body, God made a body that was and is eternal. We know that the old body was used up because it was not in the tomb. We know that it was a new body because it was not limited by space and time. The stone was rolled away so that men could witness the empty tomb, not so that the resurrected Jesus could escape.
The resurrection is God’s promise to those who believe in Jesus that we will not only be redeemed but recreated. And that recreation process begins in this life when we decide to follow Jesus. As St. Paul wrote: “…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Gracious Father, recreate me according to your will as I follow Jesus in this life. May I be a good steward of this body, but not cling to it so tightly that I am unable to fulfill your will. Help me to follow Jesus closely so that I might live this life as an Easter person. Amen.