Friday 10.00 - 11.00 AM

John 19:38-42                                     

The Burial of Jesus

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.^{[a] 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.

Additional readings:

Mark 15:43-47    Matthew 27: 57-61    Luke 23: 50-56

PRAY

A Naked Death         by John van de Laar                  © 2006 Sacredise

Yours was a naked death, Jesus:

Not for you the fine linen of a rich bed

surrounded by wealth accumulated over a comfortable lifetime.

Not for you a well prepared service of farewell

with time for proper grieving and departures.

Not for you a carefully chosen shroud,

or a tenderly nurtured grave.

When you kept your rendezvous with death

All was stripped away except your determined love

and the life that lay dormant for a moment

waiting for the morning

When your naked glory would break free again.          Amen.

Click here for A Meditation on the Pieta