Author: Jeff Englund

With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. 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.

Two men of high standing and wealth. Both know each other. Both serve on the Jewish Council that has condemned Jesus to death. Both are disciples of Jesus.

It is late in the day. A day that has seen our Lord taken prisoner in the night, tried before the governor in the early morning, flogged and then crucified by midday. By late afternoon Jesus is dead. Certified dead. Instead of breaking his legs they ran a spear through his liver and lungs to make sure.

Almost miraculously, Joseph of Arimathea gets permission to remove the body of Jesus before the sun sets. Meanwhile, Nicodemus has to obtain burial materials. A large quantity of myrrh and aloes.

How did these two men come to know each other was a disciple?

How did they come to be comrades in a mission to bury Jesus?

Why is this important?

Both were disciples in secret. Both were afraid of the Jewish leaders. If they could figure out that each other was sympathetic to Jesus’ cause, why did others on the Council not see it?

Application: There is strength in fellowship. These two men overcame their fears and risked everything the world holds dear to honor Jesus with a decent burial. The Bible does not tell us what happens to these men after they choose to associate themselves with our Lord. It is hard to imagine that their lives were not changed for the better, and forever.

Food for Thought: What brought Joseph and Nicodemus together?

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Continue reading “Heroes – John 19: 38c – 39a”

Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders.

Imagine being afraid to admit that you believe in Jesus.

Oh, wait…

A lot of us still are.

Why is that?

Joseph of Arimathea was afraid of the Jewish leaders. They did bad things to people who disagreed with them. Public humiliation was the least of worries for someone who went up against them. They had the power to throw people out of the synagog. People who confessed that Jesus was Lord were quickly tossed out on their ear. In Jesus’ case, they put him to death. The leaders of the Jews were not nice people.

But things are better today. Right?

Non-believers today are just as threatened by Jesus as the Jewish leaders were two thousand years ago. People who believe are mocked and ridiculed. People who believe are sometimes shut out of jobs and work opportunities. People who believe are even thrown in prison if they dare to voice their opinion. The altar where babies are sacrificed to the god of convenience and sexual freedom comes to mind.

Application: It is easy to relate to Joseph of Arimathea because we all face the same reaction from those who are hostile to the gospel of Jesus. Like Joseph, we are constantly confronted with the choice of acknowledging our Lord in public. True freedom is not being a slave to fear.

Food for Thought: What did Jesus teach his disciples to do in hostile situations?

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Continue reading “On Being Afraid – John 19: 38b”

Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus…

John does not tell us much about Joseph of Arimathea. For more information on him, we have to go to the other gospels*. Mathew tells us that Joseph was a rich man. Mark mentions that he was a member of high standing in the Council. Luke adds that he was a “good and upright man.’ He also notes that Joseph had not consented to the Council’s decision. John tells us that along with all these other things, Joseph of Arimathea was also a disciple of Jesus.

What does a disciple do when the one you call the Teacher is put to death?

It is hard for me to imagine what that day must have been like. Joseph must have considered Jesus a very important man. Perhaps he even understood that Jesus was the Son of God. Did he also understand that Jesus’ death was necessary?

Regardless of how he felt, when he learned that Jesus was dead he acted. Throwing caution to the wind, he presented himself to Pilate and asked for the body. Pilate may have been sympathetic. He had tried to free Jesus but failed. At least he could see that Jesus got a decent burial. He grants permission for Joseph to claim the body.

Application: Joseph demonstrates both courage and faith. It required both to ask Pilate for the body. It was God’s will that Jesus should be buried and so his request was granted. It is a good example for us. Both to stay in God’s will and to exercise courage and faith.

Food of Thought: Why was what Joseph did important?

*Matthew 27: 57, Mark 15: 4, Luke 23: 50-51

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Continue reading “What To Do – John 19: 38a”

The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”

The details of prophecy are important. The meaning is only revealed if you look at it the right way. Prophecies are a lot like a mystery novel.

In a mystery, the facts are presented one at a time. Usually, there are a fair number of “red herrings.” Red herrings are those false clues that lead only to dead ends. Then there are the lies and obfuscations of the guilty. Oh yes, and everyone is guilty of something.

Solving the mystery usually involves sorting out what is not true from what is true. While we, the reader, find ourselves led down one false trail after another, The Sleuth doggedly sticks to the trail of Truth. Finally, in the end, the Truth is revealed, and The Sleuth explains everything.

Some things are only obvious in retrospect. Before the arrival of Jesus, the prophetic clues seemed unclear. With Jesus here on earth, the clues start to fall into place. Today’s clues, that “Not one of his bones will be broken,” and, “They will look on the one they have pierced,” take on special significance as we see Jesus hanging from the cross.

Application: Perhaps the most common mistake a human can make is to assume that our perspective is Truth. When we do that, we judge everything we run across by a false standard. Compared to the breadth of the universe and the span of all eternity our perspective is very tiny. So small that we are effectively looking at all mankind’s existence through a keyhole. God proves over and over again that His perspective is one hundred percent reliable.

Food for Thought: What does it tell us about God that He can provide specific details about Jesus’ death hundreds of years before Jesus is born?

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Continue reading “Revealed – John 19: 32-37”

Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.

As we read through this final part of John’s gospel, he shows us glimpses of what Jesus’ last day was like. He also shows us who the people are there and what they are like. We see Peter deny Jesus in the courtyard of the high priest. We listen in as the high priest interrogates Jesus and condemns him. We get to know Pilate as he deals with the unruly Jewish crowd. Today, we gain a glimpse into the relationship between the Jewish leaders and Pilate.

One thing that is very clear from the stories of this day is that the Jews have almost unlimited access to Pilate. The governor is not able to hide behind bureaucrats. Instead, the Jewish leaders seem to be able to walk in on Pilate whenever they want.

In today’s passage, the Jews return to Pilate to ask that he finish killing the men on the crosses before sundown.

This entire situation starts to reek of confusion.

Just before dawn, after Jesus had been up all night praying, Judas and his small army find Jesus and take him prisoner. They walk him to the home of Annas, then to Caiaphas. After that, they lead him over to the palace of Pilate. At some point, the sun rises and Jesus is tried before Pilate. Eventually, he is flogged and then finally handed over to the soldiers. The soldiers force Jesus to carry his cross to Golgotha where he is stripped and hung on the cross to die.

Death on a cross was not intended to be quick. It was more important for the condemned to suffer. Yet after only a few hours, the Jewish leaders are asking Pilate to hasten death by breaking their legs.

Continue reading “Out of Sorts – John 19: 31”

When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

In verse 28 John writes that Jesus knew “everything had now been finished.” In fact, there was still one more thing to do. John then writes that Jesus said, “I am thirsty” to fulfill scripture. When that is done, and Jesus has received the bitter wine, he then says, “It is finished.”

That “one more thing” was important to prove that God refuses to leave an opening for someone to cast doubt on Jesus’ divinity. No one is going to find a scripture about Jesus that was not fulfilled during his time on earth. (Not counting the prophecies related to the Second Coming, of course.)

This is another example of the exquisite detail God lavishes on His creation. He missed nothing. No detail is too small. God is aware of everything all the time.

Application: If Jesus is mindful of God’s plan even in the last seconds of his life on earth, shouldn’t we be as well?

Food for Thought: Do you think some things happen on earth that God is not aware of? If so, what kind of things would they be?

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Continue reading “One More Thing… John 19: 30”

…and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.

John begins his narrative of Jesus’ ministry with a wedding at Cana. At the wedding Jesus makes wine. Not just some wine, but something on the order of 120 to 180 gallons of wine. And not just any wine, but “the best.” The wine is for a celebration of marriage, the beginning of a relationship where two become one.

Here, at the end of Jesus’ ministry on earth, John mentions wine again. This time it is not the best wine or even a lot of it. It is a mere dampness of cheap wine vinegar on a sponge.

Is this a metaphor for the relationship between God and man? God is abundantly generous with the very best. Man offers only a taste of bitterness. Maybe it is both a metaphor and at the same time the two references to wine are bookends for the story of Jesus that John tells us.

Application: It is probably best that we do not become too invested in our metaphors. After all, this life on earth might just be a metaphor for the abundant real life to come.

Food for Thought: How is the wine we use for communion related to the wine at Cana and the wine-vinegar at the cross?

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Continue reading “Bookends – John 19: 28b – 29”

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished…

Have you ever done a remodel project at home? TV shows make it look easy. You know the ones. They show you the happy couple hiring the happy contractor. The contractor then redoes their entire house in thirty minutes. When they walk in at the end of the show everything looks perfect! What you don’t see is what happens after the contractor and the camera crew leaves. That is when the little whoopsies start to show up.

In real life, almost nothing is ever done in thirty minutes. Sometimes projects last thirty years! Typically the closer I get to the finish line, the more things there seems to be to do. Eventually, we reach the point of “good enough” and we call it “finished.” For Jesus, “good enough” wasn’t good enough. It had to be perfect.

Think about the plan.

It wasn’t good enough that our Lord lived on earth and was slain for our sins. That was amazing, and a truly mind-boggling gift. But the Father wanted him to do more. Scripture records hundreds of prophecies about the Messiah that were fulfilled during Jesus’ life on earth. It wasn’t enough that he shows up. He had to complete a list of tasks that is almost beyond comprehension.

When he hung from the cross he knew that everything had been completed according to His Father’s will. Everything. He had no doubts. He did not wonder, “Now did I forget something?” At this point, there was no going back. No redoing anything. There could be no punch list of details he would attend to later.

What we see on Jesus’ face as he is dying is total confidence that “…everything had now been finished.”

Application: In the human world, perfection does not exist. If we do complete “everything,” it is because our plan was scaled to human abilities. God’s plan goes far beyond anything the human mind can comprehend. Knowing that He was able to fully and completely provide for our salvation, we can trust that he puts the same attention to detail into His plans for our lives.

Food for Thought: Of the things that Jesus had to complete while he was here on earth, outside of his death on the cross, what comes to mind as special?

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Continue reading “Punch List – John 19: 28a”

When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

After Joseph, Mary’s husband died, Jesus became the head of the household. After all, he was the eldest of all Mary’s children. When Jesus turned to his ministry, we have the sense that he had to leave behind some of his responsibility for his family.

John’s gospel gives us a very unique glimpse into his family life in the beginning, when Jesus does the miracle with the wine at Cana. At that point, the family was still traveling with Jesus. Later, in chapter 7, we see Jesus at home with his brothers. But much of the time he appears to have been traveling between Jerusalem and Galilee, preaching wherever he went.

Now, we are not only at the last day of Jesus’ life but actually reading about the last few minutes of his life on earth. Minutes before Jesus gives up his life, he arranges for John to take care of his mother. In this simple exchange of a few words, he provides for her for the rest of her life.

It is hard to know what Mary was thinking as she watched her son being crucified. We can imagine that she was heartbroken and grief-stricken. Perhaps shock best describes where her thoughts were. Maybe the question of who would take care of her crossed her mind. Maybe not. We will never know. We do know that if Jesus had not provided for her the question would eventually have come up. Who will take care of her?

Jesus asks John to do this thing. Not only is he to care for her, but he is to care for her as if she were his own mother. Jesus provides for her physical needs and her emotional support as well.

Application: God is not one to provide what is needed before it is needed. This can be frustrating. Most of us like to know where our next meal is coming from before we sit down to eat. We also like to know where we will be spending the night before nightfall comes. God knows our needs before we do. He also knows how to provide for our needs. And one more thing: He gets to choose when he provides.

Food for Thought: How does God’s tendency to wait until the last minute to provide for our needs affect us? What does it force us to do? Is this a good thing?

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Continue reading “Provision – John 19: 26-27”

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

Jesus knows what he is doing. He understands everything that is happening to him and why it has to happen. He has known what was going to happen and told his disciples many times what would happen.

Jesus also understood that regardless of how often he told them what would happen, they still would not understand.

Neither would his mother.

Jesus was deeply loved by the women in his life. His mother was chosen by God to be the one who gave birth to the Son of God. That is amazingly special.

Then there is Mary, the one who had been possessed by seven demons before she met Jesus.

Jesus knows what he is doing and why, but no one else does. What God sees as a victory, the women in Jesus’ life see as defeat.

Application: The same thing is true today. God knows why each thing happens, and he knows what the end of the story is. Sometimes we cannot understand why things go wrong, but like Jesus, we need to trust God.

Food for Thought: What would Jesus have said to his mother if he could have taken her aside and talked with her before they nailed him to the cross?

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Continue reading “Loved Ones – John 19: 25”