Issue 421
Everybody wants something. There is no one alive who lives, not holding in their hearts, a deep desire or a hidden longing. After a loved one has passed away this desire can be stirred in the souls of the left behind and brought to the surface. Pain does that to people. It brings up a memory or a yearning. Bereavement catalyses an emotion which may have lain dormant, but remained unexpressed, until now.
So a colleague leaves and you appreciate what they brought to the team. It makes you want to honour them or respect their legacy. A company goes bankrupt and, for the first time, you realise you enjoyed working there.
Most profoundly, of course, someone you know dies and you discover the things you wish you’d said or done when you had a chance – but the chance has now gone.
As John and Mary bring their lovingly crafted account of his friend and her son to a close, they focus on seven characters whose hearts were opened, just after Jesus breathed his last.
First, Joseph and Nicodemus, both members of the ruling elite, want to give the Nazarene a decent burial. They want the body. They want to give it dignity. They want to give it a resting place, clean it up and give it a sweet fragrance.
Pilate, still ambivalent, wants to give the King of the Jews release and so he releases the body to Joseph and Nicodemus, both of whom sat through the show trials, unable to make their voices heard.
The first visitor to Jesus’ tomb was Mary Magdalene (other women are not mentioned in this account), so Mary is made the representative who wants to further honour her beloved Jesus.
As the shock of the missing body sets in, Peter and John went to the tomb wanting to find answers to their questions.
Last on our list of seven is Thomas – patron saint of doubters, who wants evidence, proof, concrete confirmation of an unbelievable story. He wants to see.
So seven characters display a sample of their ‘wants’, their desires in the aftermath of the tragic loss of theNazarene, a life of so much promise cut short by a conspiracy of folly.
But they did not understand what had happened, nor what was happening. They thought they were the proactive ones, the alive ones, the decision makers. They thought they were in a position of influence and control, but nothing was what it seemed.
Joseph and Nicodemus wanted to give honour by saving his body. Jesus was going to give them dignity and honour and save them. He was going to give them a resting place, clean them up and give them a sweet fragrance.
Pilate finally wanted to release Jesus but Jesus is the one who releases.
Mary wanted to give her love but love was already given.
Peter and John wanted answers but the answer was already prepared.
Thomas wanted to see but he had already been seen.
Everything they wanted was already there and already theirs to have.
Mary, his mother, knew this. She knew that his name was called Jesus because he would save his people. The hopes and fears of all the years were resolved in this one individual, her son.
The point is beginning to clarify twenty chapters after we first heard the question from Jesus ‘what do you want?’
The answer is beginning to emerge. What you want is me. Everything you desire – honour, release, dignity, rest, cleanliness, a sweet fragrance, answers, love, evidence – in fact everything you could ever want stands before you – put your fingers in the wounds if you want.
Thomas, from doubting, makes the highest profession recorded in any gospel ‘my Lord and my God’. If you find your Lord and your God and realise he has just walked through death for you, what more could anyone want?
BIBLE SECTION
John 19:38-20:31
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 Jewish leaders. 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.
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 came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, 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.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). 17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her. 19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” 24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” 28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” 30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
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Geoff Shattock
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