Father, we ask that you would gently pour out the Holy Spirit deep within us,
that we might think about Jesus, that we might think about death,
that we might think about his death upon the cross and his being buried in the tomb,
and that you might bring that home to our hearts.
And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
So I spent some time in a grave.
Some of you have heard this story before.
I've been ordained for three years.
I've done lots of funerals here in the city.
And then I got sent to look after four little country churches up the valley
in places called Eganville, Killaloo.
Famous Killaloo Sunrise was invented there.
Tremor and Clontarf.
And I did a lot of funerals when I was in that church, actually.
And I'd only actually been in that little rural church about a week and a half.
And I did my first funeral.
And then about a week later, I did another funeral.
And the second funeral was one of the things they have in small rural places,
which they don't have in the city, is they have private graveyards.
And I went to this.
I did a funeral for this person.
And the burial place was going to be in a private family burial plot.
And one of the things I liked to do in the city when I could, when I was doing a funeral,
was not to be in the funeral director's car.
But I often liked to sort of zoom up in my own car so I could be there a little bit in advance.
And just later on, I didn't have to wait for the funeral director for me to leave the reception.
I could leave when I wanted, either stay longer or earlier or whatever.
Anyway, so I zoom up early, quite a bit faster than a funeral procession.
I get there.
I park.
I walk up.
And I thought I'd just sort of walk to see where the grave is.
And if any of you have been to a grave site in Canada, there's usually artificial grass off on the side.
And I'm walking up to the grave.
And all of a sudden, before I know it, I fall into the grave.
Because the green artificial grass, there are like planks to step on.
And if the plank is over here, the green artificial grass went all the way up to here because there was a hole there, which I did not know about.
So I slid into a seven or eight foot deep grave.
Was I ever embarrassed?
I was so terrified that I would have to be, when the family would come, that I would have to be rescued from the grave and then do the funeral.
And it was really dusty.
So I'm in black, but I'm all covered in dust.
And so I'm trying to scramble up the side of the grave.
I'm also now, I have this double worry that I'll actually make the hole bigger and the grass won't cover it.
Anyway, I eventually am able to scramble up covered in dust.
I go off to the side.
I do the best job I can to beat the dust off my black.
Nobody ever commented on why I was so dusty.
And I never made any reference to it that I actually spent some time in the grave.
So that's been my one time in the grave.
I know that's a very silly introduction to this, which is a very, very serious story.
But we're looking today at the death of Jesus and the death of Jesus and ultimately his burial, entombment in a tomb.
So it would be a great help to me if you got your Bibles and turned to John chapter 19.
And we read here of John's account.
There's a movie reviewer that I quite like.
I read him almost every week.
I won't say what his name is, but there's a movie reviewer that I like quite a bit.
And just a couple of days ago, on Friday, he did a movie review of a new movie that's just come out from Hollywood about Mary Magdalene.
And at the end of the movie review, he made a couple of – it was such a typical type of comment to be made.
He made a comment about how some pope in the 500s made this determination about what Mary Magdalene was.
And then he made a comment about how this movie will help to dispel the inaccuracy, you know, the misinformation that comes from religious bureaucrats or something like that.
And I thought to myself as I read it, I thought, well, you're a really good movie reviewer, but you know absolutely nothing about how the Bible was put together.
Like, your ignorance is unbelievably deep.
If you're here this morning, I don't think you ever come to the church.
I didn't mean to insult you.
So anyway, that's funny.
But so the fact of the matter is that there are four, as we all know, ancient biographies of Jesus.
And so actually, I mean, I think that particular pope was wrong to say what he said about Mary because it was based on tradition, not on what the Bible actually says.
But what we're looking at here is an ancient eyewitness biography of Jesus.
And the way that John has told the story, because that's what you tell when you're telling a person's life story, you tell the story.
It's a biography.
And John has now he's gone through the capture of Jesus, the trial of Jesus, all the shenanigans that went around with this.
And as I said, as introducing the reading, the decision is made to crucify Jesus.
And now we have the crucifixion of Jesus.
It gets right to it.
In those days, that's the way they did it.
And so it begins like this, chapter 19, verse 16.
So they took Jesus, that's the soldiers, and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of a skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.
Now, just pause here for a second.
This is a silly little thing.
Some of you might know, I make some jokes, that if I was ever going to plant a Baptist church, I'd call it 13th Baptist Church.
Why?
I don't know.
I think that's just sort of funny, you know, not First Baptist or anything like that, 13th Baptist Church.
But I now have a new name for a Baptist church.
It would be called the place of the skull Baptist church.
Because actually, there's a place of the skull Baptist church in every city of Ottawa, and maybe in North America.
They just don't realize it.
Because you see, this is really funny.
The place of the skull is the literal translation.
And then he says Golgotha.
But what happened is when the people who translated the Greek Golgotha into Latin, they used a different word.
And then, and for many, many years in the West, that Latin word was what people heard in the church.
And then people took the way to pronounce it in English.
And the way you pronounce the Latin word in English is Calvary.
So those of you who are members of Calvary Fellowship, you were a member of the place of the skull fellowship.
Our friends who go to Calvary Baptist, that's the place of the skull Baptist church.
I just think they should just be out front and just claim it, you know.
Just embrace such an unbelievably non-postmodern name.
Actually, it sort of is postmodern to do something like that.
But anyway, that's an aside.
That's so Calvary is how, that's, it's not mentioned here, but that's where the word Calvary comes from.
It comes from Golgotha, and it means in Aramaic, a place of a skull.
Verse 18, there they crucified him and with two others, one on either side and Jesus between them.
And there they crucified him and with him two others, one on either side and Jesus between them.
It's really interesting how the writer here helps us now to remember something which we need to think about a little bit more,
and we often don't think about as Christians, is that on one hand, the crucifixion of a Jewish man was nothing special.
Like even here when we're hearing about Jesus being crucified, he's one of three people who are being crucified.
Because there's so many historical references between the ancient biographies, what we now know of as the Gospels,
and Roman and Jewish life, and you can cross-reference these things with what Roman and Jewish historians have said.
Depending on how you put things together, we know that Jesus was crucified either in the spring of the year 30 or the spring of the year 33.
One of those two years.
It depends on how you put some things together.
But one of those two years is when Jesus actually died.
You can actually go back and you can figure out the actual day because there's so many historical cross-references in the Gospel.
And because they're writing history, right?
It's an historical biography by eyewitnesses.
But in the year 70, so either 40 years after this or 37 years after this, depending on how you put some cross-references together,
the Roman armies surround Jerusalem and they put it under a siege.
And at the end of the siege, they win the siege.
Jerusalem is overrun and the city is destroyed.
But here's the thing.
Historians say that during that, I think it was a four-month siege.
During that four-month siege, as part of the way to terrorize the population within the walls,
the Romans crucified 500 Jews a day.
500 Jews a day for four months.
That's a lot of crucifixions.
In fact, the Roman historians say because the Roman practice of crucifixion was that you'd put the person up on the cross to die.
And that might take, I mean, they might die.
Sometimes people died just by the whipping.
But if they, and then some people would die very quickly on the cross.
But a young, fit person could maybe go three days or whatever.
And the Roman habit was then to leave the body on the grave long enough that some of the decomposition would happen,
as well as the animals being able to eat parts of the body.
And it was just all part of the way to spread terror, of course, right?
And so the Roman historians say that they were crucifying so many Jewish people that they actually started to have problems getting enough wood for the crosses.
And I just mention that because whatever we're going to say about Jesus and what's going on here is that the crucifixion of a Jew is nothing special.
But there's something particularly of interest about this person.
And that's sort of what we need to think about a little bit.
Jesus dies by a way that was commonly used to terrorize indigenous people, I guess we would now say, and by their political masters.
And Jesus was just one more example of an indigenous person being killed by an imperial power.
And even in the story, he's just one of three.
He's the guy who happens to be in the center, but he's just one of the three.
And the story continues.
Pilate also wrote an inscription, which was very common, and put it on the cross.
It read, Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews.
Many of the Jewish people read this inscription for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city,
and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek.
In other words, in the local language, Aramaic.
In Greek, which was the language, the common language of the empire.
And in Latin, which was the imperial language used by their imperial masters.
So the chief priest of the Jews said to Pilate, do not write the king of the Jews,
but rather this man said, I am the king of the Jews.
And Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written.
And those of you who have been following the story, there's lots of irony which is going on here.
One of the ironies is actually the way that it's written here is that the king of the Jews,
and when it says Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews,
and then just a few lines later it says the chief priest of the Jews,
there's a type of a balance that the language is exactly the same,
showing the contrast between Jesus and the religious leaders.
And of course, another important part of all of this is that these same spiritual leaders,
just an hour or so earlier,
had actually publicly acclaimed an act of blasphemy,
that Caesar was their king.
And so part of the irony of this story is that the religious leaders claim that Caesar is their king,
and Caesar claims that Jesus is their king, which is very ironic.
And the story continues.
Verse 23.
When the soldiers had crucified Jesus,
they took his garments and divided them into four parts.
One for each soldier, also his tunic.
But the tunic was seamless,
woven in one piece from top to bottom.
And just sort of pause here.
There's one of the things here which is very interesting,
if you think about it for a second.
My parents are still alive,
so I haven't had to bury them,
and I haven't had to clean out their house or anything like that.
As many of you know,
what often happens is when you reach a certain age,
you have to downsize,
maybe go into some type of a smaller facility.
You have to get rid of a lot of your furniture and possessions.
It doesn't happen with everybody.
Louise's father died,
owning two properties with lots and lots and lots of stuff to get rid of.
But often,
one of the things you have to,
often,
I mean,
not in every case,
in every case,
one of the things you have to dispose of is the clothes.
And it's just this very,
very small little item,
and we're going to mention another thing about it in a moment.
But if you think about it,
the soldiers are so certain of Jesus's death
that they dispose of his clothes
while he's hanging above them.
See,
one of the things the story is going to do
time and time and time and time and time again
is emphasize that Jesus dies.
The guarantors of his death are the Roman soldiers.
It's not the disciples of Jesus.
Okay,
he's dead.
He's dead.
And then he's not really.
No,
the guarantor of the death of Jesus
is,
in fact,
the Roman soldiers.
And the text,
time and time again,
in small,
subtle ways,
crucified,
his body,
the embalming,
even this very simple act
of disposing of the possessions,
something that we usually do.
It would be as if
I go into the hospital
and because I have a bad,
a bad,
you know,
whatever,
and then I find out that,
you know,
in Louise's,
I'd say,
pre-decease me,
which will definitely not happen,
but just for the case of this story,
she's a vegetarian.
I eat meat.
She eats way healthier than I.
She's going to outlive me by a long time.
Anyway,
and so,
you know,
it'd be as if I'm,
I'm,
I'm in the hospital
and it maybe doesn't look too good for me
and I find out my kids have sold the house,
my house,
and they've sold all my stuff.
And in fact,
they actually come and come into the closet
and take the clothes I have in the closet
and say,
you're not going to need these clothes
because all you have left is the hospital gown
and that's all you need,
dad.
Like,
they're so certain of my death
and so quick to get rid of it.
And,
and that's what's happening here.
It's a,
it's a small thing,
and we read it all the time
without realizing the significance of it.
The soldiers know he's dead.
He's still alive,
technically,
but he's dead.
You get rid of all of his stuff now.
And time and time and time and time again
in the story,
it's going to be emphasized,
Jesus died,
Jesus died.
They do it with different words,
crucifixion,
body,
this,
the piercing of the side,
the embalming process,
all different ways of indicating he dies.
But there's something else here,
which is also significant,
which comes right up in verse 24.
So they said to one another,
remember,
they're dividing up his clothes,
and he must have had like five pieces of clothes,
and they take,
or a big piece that they can sort of separate out the fabric or whatever,
but they come to one piece,
and they decide it's a bit more precious,
and,
and there's four guys,
and just,
anyway,
they decide that we'll gamble for the last piece.
Verse 24,
So they said to one another,
let us not tear it,
but cast lots,
or dice,
to see who it shall be.
And here's this thing,
which is very important.
This was to fulfill.
The scripture which says,
they divided my garments among them,
and from my clothing they cast lots.
So the soldiers did these things.
I was walking with Jason the other day
to have a coffee with him on Friday,
and I made a joke to him
that if you want to have,
I hope there's no weatherman here,
sorry,
I said,
if you want to have a job
where you can be wrong almost all the time
and still have job security,
become a weatherman.
Because as we were walking,
the weatherman got it wrong about the weather.
But I've never heard,
maybe they do,
maybe they fire weathermen
because,
you know,
you said it was not going to rain
until the evening,
and it rained at three or whatever.
I don't know,
maybe that happens,
but it seems as if you can make predictions
in that field,
and it doesn't affect your job security.
But what we see here
is something which is very,
very interesting.
It's not,
prophecy is more than a prediction,
although it is a bit of a,
like a prediction.
But what we're going to see here
time and time again,
and if you go back and read
the other parts of John,
beginning at John chapter 18,
you'll see this constant refrain,
it was fulfilled,
it was fulfilled.
In other words,
the Bible is saying
that whether,
as Daniel introduced Psalm 22,
whether it's David writing
over a thousand years
before the death of Jesus,
but writing a psalm
which describes the crucifixion.
In fact,
he describes some of the terms
and some of the ways
that a crucifixion works.
My bones out of joint,
my heart,
my lips dry,
and crucifixion hadn't even been invented.
And time and time and time again
in the story,
they're going to say
that Jesus fulfilled this,
he fulfilled this.
And in some cases,
they're even going to say
that Jesus not just fulfilled
a specific prophecy,
but as we're going to see,
you'll see that he fulfilled
the general promises
and longings
and types of the Old Testament.
Like one of the things
which is happening here
is that Jesus is dying
at the same time
that in another part of the city,
they're killing the lambs,
the spotless lambs,
as part of the Passover celebration.
And Passover is the profound act
that makes Israel Israel
when God delivers the Jewish people
out of slavery,
of bondage in Egypt.
And after Pharaoh refuses
and refuses and refuses
and refuses to let these slaves go,
Moses says God is going to do
his final punishment.
And if you want to be saved
and spared and be delivered,
you are to kill a lamb
and you are to take
the blood of the lamb
and you are to use some hyssop
and take the blood of the lamb
to cover the entranceway
of your house.
And if you put the blood of the lamb
using hyssop
on the doorways to the house,
then you will be spared
God's judgment of death
and you will be free
and be delivered.
And at the same time,
we'll even see
that using the hyssop branch
in a few moments,
the same time
that these lambs
are being slaughtered
is when Jesus is dying,
that he fulfills
not just specific scriptures,
but the types.
Jesus is introduced by John
as the lamb of God
who takes away
the sin of the world.
And here we see
the lamb of God
who takes away
the sin of the world
dying at the same time
that the lambs are dying.
And we're seeing here
that the death of Jesus
is a fulfillment
of the promises
and the words of God
that have been made
over centuries
by many, many different writers.
And the other thing
which is so remarkable
about this,
and the word fulfilled,
you'll see it repeated
time and time and time again,
is that Jesus
and his disciples
could not have orchestrated
these fulfillments.
In fact,
the enemies of Jesus
unwittingly
act to fulfill
the prophecies.
How on earth
could the disciples
organize it
that they have,
Psalm 22
would be fulfilled
of somebody gambling
for Jesus' clothes?
It's the soldiers,
the pagan soldiers,
the enemies of Jesus,
the imperial power
that does it.
And later on,
you're going to see
in a moment
that the reason normally,
remember I said
the normal Roman practice
is that you left
the crucified body
on the cross
and whether he died
in a couple of minutes
or whether he died
in three days
or five days
or whatever,
after he dies,
you leave him
on the cross
until his body,
you know,
all the decomposition
and the putrefaction,
the smell,
and that all happens
and he wouldn't have been buried.
And so all of the prophecies
of Jesus rising
from the grave
would not have been fulfilled.
The reason that those
are fulfilled,
of course,
is the power of God,
but that would not have happened
if the Jewish leaders
did not insist
that the bodies die
before the normal Roman practice
not be followed
and Jesus is put in a tomb.
Time and time and time again,
the enemies of Jesus
unwittingly fulfill
the prophecies.
It is not something
that Jesus
and his disciples
orchestrate.
And this is,
just to think about it,
that God could say something
through David
a thousand years earlier
and then he keeps
his word.
That's why we read the Bible.
He keeps his word.
So what happens?
There's still,
look at verse 25.
Remember I said
this is an eyewitness biography
and we hear now
of some of the eyewitnesses.
In fact,
we hear of five
of the eyewitnesses
that are going to be
very important probably
even in the writing of this.
Verse 25,
but standing by the cross
of Jesus
were his mother
and his mother's sister,
second woman,
and Mary,
the wife of Clopas,
a third woman,
and Mary Magdalene,
the fourth woman.
And when Jesus
saw his,
and just pause here,
in the original language
you can't get this
in the English.
And I'm not going to say
very much of it
because on Friday
we're going to have
people talking about
the last words
of the cross,
but,
you know,
the Old Testament,
what we call
the Old Testament
was written in Hebrew,
but very early on,
like at the time of Jesus,
most people,
when they read
the Old Testament,
most Jewish people,
they read it actually
in the Greek version,
the Greek translation
of the Hebrew.
And in the Greek translation
of the Hebrew,
if you're reading it,
if you read Genesis 2
and Genesis 3,
whenever it talks about Eve
in Genesis 2
and Genesis 3,
it uses the word woman,
the same word
that Jesus speaks to Mary.
I don't know what it means,
and maybe Peter's going to say
a few things about it
come on Good Friday,
but it's the same word,
and there's ties in between this
because,
as you see,
Jesus is crucified in the garden,
he's buried in the garden,
and in the garden,
there's a woman
who uses the same word
to refer to all women,
or Eve,
is used to refer to Mary.
It's just one of those
interesting,
there's so many things in here,
there's so many things in here
that poets and theologians
and musicians
and hymn writers
and philosophers
and dreamers,
you can look at it
and meditate upon it
for year upon year
upon year
and never plumb the depths.
Go back to it,
verse 25 again,
but standing by the cross
of Jesus
where his mother,
the first woman,
his mother's sister,
the second woman,
the third woman,
Mary,
the wife of Clopas,
and then the fourth woman,
Mary Magdalene,
when Jesus saw his mother
and the disciple
whom he loved
standing nearby,
he said to his mother,
Woman,
behold your son.
Then he said to the disciple,
Behold your mother.
From that hour,
the disciple took her
to his own home.
And I just want to pause here
for a second.
There's a really important thing.
You know,
we take these last words
of Jesus for granted,
but one of the things
out of the four biographies,
there's things in this biography
that John doesn't talk about
that the others talk about.
There's not going to be
the darkness,
there's not going to be
the earthquakes,
there's not going to be
the rending of the temple.
There's things that
John doesn't tell us about.
He tells us other things.
Three of Jesus'
final seven words
from the cross
are recorded by John.
But do you know
what the final words
of Buddha were
before he died?
Like,
Buddha was probably
an historical person.
And do you know
what the final words
of Buddha were?
They were,
I exhort you,
all compound things
are subject to vanish.
And his final words,
strive with earnestness.
In other words,
unceasingly strive.
It's very,
very interesting,
right?
When he says
the compound,
when he says
all compound things
are subject to vanish,
right?
It's a key part of Buddhism
that I might think
that I'm different than Helen,
but I'm mistaken.
That's an illusion.
I might think
that I want
to have more money
or I'd like to have
a nicer car
or a nicer house.
If you're single,
you might think
you'd like to have
a wife or a husband,
but that's all,
it's an illusion
to think that there's difference.
And at the end
of the end
of all of the processes,
you come to realize
that it's all illusion,
that there is no difference
between things
and that all is one.
And then he says
to keep striving
for this unfailingly
with earnestness.
And it's so interesting,
isn't it?
Jesus' final words
are so different.
We're going to see here
in a moment
that he looks at his mother
whom he loves
and he looks at the disciple
and he looks at the woman
and he doesn't say,
Mom,
you're just an illusion.
I hope you come to realize
that there's no you
and me.
It's just,
it's all going to vanish.
He says,
no, Mom,
this guy's going to
take care of you.
Friend,
take care of my mom.
He's going to say,
I thirst.
He's going to say,
it's finished.
Very, very different.
But the difference
between the dying words
of Jesus
and the dying words
of Muhammad
are terrifying.
Muhammad died
in the home of Aisha.
Aisha.
Aisha is the woman
that Muhammad married
when she was six.
I'm not making that up.
And he didn't consummate
the marriage
with this six-year-old
right away.
He waited
until she was nine
before he consummated
his marriage.
And he was with
this woman
nine years later.
She was 18
when he died.
And it's recorded
that he talks about
four things
as he's dying.
The first thing
he says
is he curses
all Christians
and Jews.
Curses them.
The second thing
he says
is gives orders
to his followers
to make sure
that every pagan
is expelled
from the peninsula.
They can convert.
If they don't convert
and they don't get
expelled,
they are to be killed.
The third thing
he says
on his deathbed
is that he hopes
that when he dies,
which will be very soon,
that he will get
the highest place
in heaven.
And the fourth thing
that he says
is he's recorded
begging Allah
for forgiveness.
And Jesus
says,
Mom,
here's the guy
who's going to take care of you.
friend,
take care of my mom.
And he's going to say,
I thirst.
And he's going to say,
it is finished.
And these are the final words
of Jesus
in comparison
to the two great alternatives
to Christianity
in the Western world
of Buddhism
and Islam.
You see,
we take for granted
these final words
of Jesus
without realizing
how profoundly
radical
they are
in the sea
of religious options
before us.
The story continues.
Verse 28.
After this,
Jesus,
knowing that all
was now finished,
said to fulfill
the scriptures,
I thirst.
A jar full of sour wine
stood there,
so they put a sponge
full of the sour wine
on a hyssop branch
and held it to his mouth.
When Jesus had received
the sour wine,
he said,
it is finished.
In the original language,
that's one word.
It is finished.
It takes three words
in English,
but it's one word
in the original language.
And he bowed his head
and gave up his spirit.
And in the original language,
the phrase
gave up his spirit
in all of the Bible
from Genesis 1
to the end of Revelation,
that way of expressing death
is never used
of any other person.
And it,
in the original language,
implies that Jesus
couldn't have died
against his will.
that he had to actually
allow death,
in a sense,
to consume him.
And that he willingly
allows death
to take him.
And his final words here
are,
it is finished.
And it's a telos word.
It's a word
that's very foreign
to how we tend
to think of
in terms of our own lives.
It's a word
that implies
that there's a purpose,
not just a purpose
that he has grasped
for himself,
but a real purpose,
an ontological purpose,
a purpose
that's been given
to him by God,
by the creator
of the universe,
and that his whole life
had a series of things
that he had to accomplish
and that he had to finish
on behalf of others,
and that as he's dying
on the cross,
that has occurred.
Everything that had
to be completed
was completed.
Everything that had
to be accomplished
was accomplished.
It was finished.
There was nothing left over.
Everything that he came
to earth to do
was done
with not a drop
left over.
That's what he's saying
there in his death.
And then we have here
in a very small
and subtle way
this continual critique
of religion
in verse 31.
Since it was the day
of preparation
and so that the bodies
would not remain
on the cross
on the Sabbath day
for that Sabbath
was a high day,
the Jewish religious leaders,
the spiritual leaders,
asked Pilate
that their legs
might be broken
and that they might
be taken away.
How is this a critique
of religion?
They have just spent
weeks if not months
and an intense,
intense
eight hours
or twelve hours
capturing Jesus
and hectoring
for his judicial murder.
But they're worried
that a tiny
little commandment
in Deuteronomy
will be broken
by having the bodies
displayed.
It is a profound
critique
of the inadequacy
of even
the best religion
in this small
aside.
And as I said earlier,
against their will
they act
to fulfill
the scripture.
Verse 32,
so the soldiers
came and broke
the legs
of the first
and of the other
who had been
crucified with him.
But when they came
to Jesus
they saw that
he was already dead
and they did not
break his legs.
Why?
They'd see that
he was not breathing.
Not only that,
they'd see that
he'd stopped bleeding.
Remember,
he'd had thorns
in his head.
He'd been whipped
mercilessly
on his back.
He stopped bleeding.
These guys
were used to death.
He wasn't breathing.
But one of the ways
that they might have,
there's lots of
historical evidence
of this.
One of the ways
they would just see
if he's still alive
is you go to,
you poke him.
You make some pain
and if the person
jerks,
obviously,
oh,
there's a bit of life
left in that person still
and it was
an ungentle
pricking,
a pricking
that actually went
and pierced
between the ribs
and went right
up to the heart.
But when they came,
verse 33,
to Jesus
and saw that
he was already dead,
they did not
break his legs.
But one of the soldiers
pierced his side
with a spear
and at once
there came out
blood and water.
He who saw it
has borne witness,
his testimony is true
and he knows
that he is telling
the truth
that you may believe.
For these things
took place
that the scripture
might be fulfilled.
Not one of his bones
will be broken.
And again,
another scripture says
they will look on him
whom they have pierced.
And after these things,
Joseph of Arimathea,
who was a disciple
of Jesus,
but secretly
for fear of the Jews,
asked Pilate
that he might take away
the body of Jesus.
Remember all these times,
the piercing,
the body,
the language,
he's dead.
And Pilate
gave him permission.
So Joseph came
and took away his body.
Nicodemus also,
who earlier had come
to Jesus by night,
came bringing a mixture
of myrrh and aloes,
about 75 pounds in weight.
So they took
the body of Jesus
and bound it
in linen cloths
really tight
with the spices
as is the burial custom
of the Jewish people.
Now in the place
where he was crucified,
there was a garden
and in the garden
a new tomb
in which no one
had yet been laid.
No one had yet been laid.
Setting the stage
for the resurrection,
there's no other bodies
in there.
It's not like
it would be very common
to have a grave
that had many bodies
in it.
They found them.
Archaeologists find them
all the time.
But in this particular grave,
it's brand new.
No other bodies in there.
There's not going to be
any confusion
when they come in
and say,
did Jesus rise?
Okay, let's just
all these other bodies
to see if...
We're one short,
but is it Jesus?
No, no.
It's setting the stage
and it's going to be
a tomb,
a limestone cave,
no other way into it,
no way to dig into it.
It's setting the stage
for the miracle
of the resurrection.
Verse 41 again,
And now in the place
where he was crucified,
there was a garden
and the garden
a new tomb
in which no one
had been laid.
So because of the
Jewish day of preparation,
since the tomb
was close at hand,
they laid Jesus there.
Now just a couple of things
to bring this home
as a bit of a conclusion.
I was watching a movie
this week,
no surprise to many of you.
I like watching
things like movies
and all,
and I was watching
a movie this week
and part of the movie
is that a young boy,
six or seven year old boy,
his mom dies
and he gets sent
to live with his eccentric
and scientific uncle.
His uncle's consumed
with science.
And so the little boy,
his mom has died.
They don't make any comment
about the biological dad.
Seems to be out of the picture.
So the boy comes
and he's with this
eccentric scientific guy
and the boy out of the blue
says that my mom died
and the guy says,
oh yeah,
I know,
that's sad.
And she said,
well,
she's in heaven.
And without thinking,
the guy says,
that's a fairy tale.
That's a fairy tale.
She's dead.
When you die,
you die.
And he sees the little face
start to crumble.
And he says,
but if that gives you comfort
and makes you feel good,
then you should believe that.
You should believe that.
Don't listen to me.
You believe that.
So he's not completely
hard-hearted.
But he just speaks
like a scientist.
When you're dead,
you're dead.
So here's,
there are not going to be
points that are up
on the screen.
I might put them
in some type of writing
later on.
They'll be posted later.
But there's two things
going on here.
You see,
what people are observing,
remember I said
the death of a troublesome Jew
is not particularly significant.
There's no religious
significance for it
in particular.
And what the people
there were seeing
was the tragic death
of a problematic man.
What people were seeing
was the tragic death
of a problematic man.
But what God wants us
to see and understand
is fairy tales
becoming fact.
Myth becoming fact.
What the crowd sees
is the tragic death
of a problematic man.
But what God wants us
to see
is that fairy tales
and myths
have become fact.
See,
the fact of the matter
is that
if Jesus just stays
dead,
then really
that is just
one more case
that in fact
all life
is tragedy.
All life
is tragedy.
When you die,
you die.
And some people
die young,
some people die old,
but when you die,
you die.
And you lose everything.
And you can't even hope
that you'll be remembered
for very long.
Conan O'Brien
has this very interesting thing
where he realizes
one day
that
he won't be remembered
very long.
within a certain period
of time,
nobody remembers you
that long
and you'll be completely
and utterly forgotten
and when you die,
you die.
That's just the way
life is.
It's all life a tragedy.
But the fact of the matter
is that we human beings,
we don't like tragedies.
Movies that are made
where everything ends
with the bad guys win,
the good guys all die,
those movies don't go
very well
at the box office.
On one hand,
science
and serious philosophy
tells you
that it's all just tragedy,
that in fact,
you know,
the fact of the matter
is in the real world,
Idi Amin did horrendous things
in Uganda,
but he died a rich man
in another country.
Stalin did horrendous things,
but he dies
in his bed.
Yeah,
you have Hitler who died,
but you know,
lots and lots of times,
horrendously evil people
die natural deaths,
not facing any type
of judgment
and that's the real world
and the fact of the matter
is even for them,
when you die,
you die.
But the fact of the matter
is that what we,
the movies that do well
end with a wedding.
They end with applause.
They end with justice.
Triumphing
and being reestablished.
That's the movies
that we actually watch.
It's the movies
that serious thinkers
say are fairy tales.
And what we're to see here
is that fairy tale
has become fact.
That myth
has become fact.
And that's what God
wants us to understand.
The only reason
we can believe this,
of course,
is that as we'll see
next week,
that Jesus really rises
from the dead.
If he didn't rise
from the dead,
then in fact,
all life is tragedy.
It is not comedy.
All life is tragedy.
But if in fact,
he rises from the dead,
that makes this particular death
and the fulfillment
inherent in all of his life
and in his death
and in his resurrection,
it means there is a God
that does exist.
There can be purpose in life.
There can be meaning in life.
And it means that,
in fact,
death does not have
the final word.
That the myths
and the fairy tales
which we long for
once became fact.
And that means
there is the possibility
that in your life and mine,
life is not,
death is not the final word.
Injustice is not
the final word.
This decomposition
is not the final word,
but the final word is life.
You see,
this is all part of,
if you go back
and you read the beginning
of John's Gospel,
the beginning of John's Gospel
begins like this.
In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
He was with God
in the beginning.
All things were made
through him
and without him
nothing was made
that was made.
In him was life
and the life
was the light of men.
That's the first five verses
in John's Gospel.
And so you see,
what we see here
in John's Gospel
is John is telling
not only the story of Jesus,
but he's telling the story
of Jesus
in combination
with a far bigger story.
And in that bigger story,
John is saying this,
that what caused
all things to be,
all things that exist
were created
by a combination
of life,
light,
and love.
Life,
light,
and love.
That is the source
of all things
that exist.
But human beings
turned away from God
to be God themselves.
And what happens
when you turn away
from life?
You walk towards death.
What happens
when you turn away
from light?
You walk towards darkness.
What happens
when you turn away
from love?
You turn towards
indifference
and hatred.
And human beings
become addicted
to turning towards death
and turning towards darkness
and turning towards
hatred and indifference.
And so God,
the Son of God,
comes and dwells
among us
as one of us.
The light of the world
walks amongst those
who love darkness.
The life of the world
comes amongst those
who will die
and go towards death
and even choose death.
And the love
of the world
comes and walks
amongst those
who choose
indifference
and hatred.
And he doesn't just come
as a tourist
to observe,
but his comes
amongst us
even to the point
that life
takes on
my death
and yours.
Light
takes on
my darkness
and yours.
Love
takes on
my indifference
and hatred
and yours.
And he,
light,
bears the darkness.
Love
bears the hatred.
Life
bears death.
That's the importance
of this tiny phrase,
I thirst.
Because Jesus
is described
earlier as
living water,
as the life
of the world.
And he thirsts.
He is taking
the darkness,
the death,
and the hatred
into himself
in a sense
swallowing
and dealing
with that
which we cannot
deal with
ourselves.
And he arises,
as we will see
on Easter Sunday,
that life
conquers
death.
Love
conquers
hatred
and indifference.
Light
triumphs
over
darkness.
And he does it
for you and me.
that when we put
our faith
and trust
in him,
we are sharing
in his conquest
for us.
Please stand.
Thank you.
Let's pray.
Father, we give you thanks and praise for Jesus,
and we thank and praise you that when he dealt with death,
he dealt with it, it was finished.
We give you thanks and praise that when he dealt with darkness, it was finished.
We give you thanks and praise that when he dealt with hatred and indifference, it was finished.
And we thank and praise you, Father, that when we put our faith and trust in Jesus,
that we share in his finished work over those things.
We give you thanks and praise that when we put our faith and trust in Jesus,
our destiny, Father, is sure.
That the light is our destiny.
That love is our destiny.
That life is our destiny.
Father, on this side of the grave, we still have so many things within us that are addicted to darkness
and addicted to death and addicted to a difference and addicted to hatred.
We give you thanks and praise, Father, that the work of Jesus, it is finished.
It is finished for us.
That when we put our faith in him, the final word will not be those things of hatred.
But, Father, you know how much we struggle now.
And we ask that you grip us with the gospel.
Grip us, Father, with the triumph of life and light and love.
And so help us to be confident in his finished work that with Jesus we might have the confidence and the humility
to look at the darkness and death and hatred and indifference in our own lives.
And as we are gripped by the gospel to deal with it.
That you might give us such a confidence in the finished work of Jesus that we might not only look at the death and darkness and hatred and indifference of our own lives,
but of our families, of our places of work, of our city, of our country, and of our world.
And that you might use us, Father, to walk towards that, to share the gospel.
And be used by you to lessen the darkness and lessen the death and lessen the hatred and lessen the indifference.
As we are used by you to bless the city and bless the world to your great glory.
And, Father, we ask that you would do these mighty works in our lives.
Imperfect people as we are.
May your Holy Spirit move with might and power within us to make us disciples of Jesus' grip by the gospel.
Learning to live for your glory.
And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.
Amen.