Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Friday, April 18, 2014 Read John 19:31-42 Today is Good Friday – a day when we gather to contemplate the meaning of the death of Jesus on the cross. We are invited to ponder our response to the crucifixion of Jesus and to linger at the foot of the cross. In John’s gospel we arrive now at the story of the immediate response to the death of Jesus. We discover once again that the story is significantly different from the story we read in the synoptic gospels. Mark and Matthew tell us that at the moment Jesus dies the curtain of the Temple is torn in two from top to bottom. This is the curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the structure. No one could enter this place except the high priest and he would enter only once a year on the Day of Atonement – an event that happened in the fall of the year. Luke also tells us about the tearing of the curtain but he places the event just prior to the death of Jesus. The rending of the curtain is crucially important to Mark, Matthew, and Luke. It likely symbolizes for them the “letting loose of God into the world!” Especially for Mark the tearing of the curtain is the counterpart of the rending of the heavens in the baptism of Jesus. Both are meant by Mark to symbolize the coming of God to save his people! It is significant to notice that John does not mention any of this. John has already told his readers that Jesus is the Temple – that came in his moving of the story of the cleansing of the Temple to the beginning of his gospel. Mark, Matthew, and Luke also tell of a Roman centurion who observed Jesus death and makes the first human remark about it. In Mark and Matthew this centurion correctly identifies Jesus as the Son of God – the very first human being to realize and name Jesus as Son of God. Luke changes this slightly and tells us the centurion said that Jesus was innocent. Especially for Mark the words of this centurion are crucial for understanding his gospel – it is only when the Messiah has been crucified and is dead that anyone can truly know who he is! Once again it is significant to notice that John mentions none of this. There are soldiers at the foot of the cross when Jesus dies but they say nothing. It is at this point in Mark’s gospel that Mark identifies some women who are watching from a distance. He tells us that Mary Magdalene is there. He also speaks of a Mary who was the mother of James the Younger and Joses, and a woman named Salome (Mark 15:40). These same women will go to the tomb early on Sunday morning hoping to anoint the body of the dead Jesus with spices. Earlier in the ministry of Jesus, Mark had told of Jesus returning to his hometown of Nazareth where he was eventually rejected. In that passage Mark tells of the family of Jesus who lived at Nazareth and identifies Jesus as the son of Mary and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon (Mark 6:3). Is it only coincidence that Mary is identified in both places as the mother of Jesus and the mother of sons named James and Joses? Could it be that the Mary who Mark tells us was observing the crucifixion from a distance was in fact the mother of Jesus? We have heard John identify some women at the foot of the cross. Mary, the mother of Jesus is there. So is Mary Magdalene. Perhaps Mark and John are reflecting a similar tradition that places Mary Magdalene at the cross and also Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mark will make no more use of this reference and one could argue that Mark is not referring to Mary, the mother of Jesus. But it is tempting to make this connection. While Mark and John are significantly different in their approaches they do merge with one another in the telling of the story. Underlying both gospels are the actual events of the powerful action of God in the death of Jesus. Those actual events are at least one step removed from our ability to fully know. Like every event in all of our lives, they have slipped into an unknowable “space in time” where we cannot fully retrieve them. Of course, that does not make them any less true and less powerful. They are no less real. We have noticed that the immediate response to the death of Jesus is quite different in Mark and John. As we listen to John’s story we hear once again a reference to the Day of Preparation. As we have noticed before this puts the crucifixion of Jesus during the day before the Passover was to be observed that evening. That evening would also be the beginning of the Sabbath Day. In this way, John agrees fully with Mark and the others. Jesus died during the day before the Sabbath began. The difference, however, is that Mark and the others view the celebration of Passover to have happened on the previous evening with Jesus dying during the day following Passover. For John the Passover and the Sabbath happened on the same day. John tells his readers that this Sabbath was especially holy because it was a great day of solemnity – it was Passover. And for that reason it was important that the bodies of those who were crucified be removed from the cross. To have them hanging on the cross would have defiled the Passover. Mark will also tell of a Day of Preparation but he adds the caveat that is the Day of Preparation for the Sabbath (Mark 15:42). Mark also tells of the importance of removing the bodies of those who were crucified but this time it is so that the Sabbath not be defiled. In Mark it is Joseph of Arimathea who comes to Pilate to ask permission to remove Jesus’ body from the cross. This same Joseph of Arimathea will show up a bit later in John’s gospel. Mark does not mention the fate of the other two who were crucified with Jesus. Likely we can surmise that they also would have been removed by Joseph of Arimathea, but Mark places the focus on Jesus. John tells his readers that “they” asked Pilate to have the legs of those who were crucified broken. Just who “they” are is ambiguous. Was it the religious leaders? Was it the soldier? Likely John understood it to be the religious leaders. So John tells us that the soldiers go about their duty to break the legs of the crucified. Breaking their legs would have speeded up death since a victim with broken legs could not raise themselves up to breathe. What the soldiers discover is that Jesus has already died. By the way, Mark agrees with this and remarks that Pilate and the soldiers are all surprised to find that Jesus was already dead (Mark 15:44-45). John has far more invested in the fact that Jesus is already dead and that his legs do not need to be broken. First of all John sees this as one more fulfillment of scripture and points his readers to Psalm 69. But even more dramatically is the fact that the bones of the Passover lamb were not to be broken either! Jesus is the Passover Lamb who takes away the sin the world! At this point John adds something that is not mentioned in any of the synoptic gospels. John tells us that one of the soldiers takes his spear and pierces the side of Jesus. On one level the piercing is, of course, to check if Jesus is really dead. I live man would flinch. Jesus is truly dead. But on another level there is something far more dramatic going on. It is clear that John has the book of Zechariah on his mind. Zechariah had spoken of a time when they would look upon the one that they had pierced (Zechariah 12:10). Once again this fulfills the OT. John also tells his readers that when Jesus side is pierced blood and water flow forth. Exactly what this means is at least somewhat ambiguous in John’s gospel. Likely we should connect this with Zechariah 13:1 where we hear of a “fountain open for the house of David.” And from there we should make the connection to Ezekiel and others who speak of a river of God flowing in the new Jerusalem. Likely John also wants his readers to think of the woman at the well who learns that Jesus is the Living Water which rises up to eternal life. And likely John wants his readers to remember Jesus in the Temple at the Feast of Booths transforming the water ceremony and once again claiming that he is the Living Water. John does not make any of this specific. Perhaps he is depending on his readers to do some work of putting things together. At any rate there is symbolic value in the event of the piercing of Jesus and the flowing forth of blood and water. This event of the piercing of Jesus’ side is important to John’s gospel. It is so important that John tells his readers that he received this information from an eye-witness who saw this and whose witness is true and can be believed. Though John does not specifically mention that this eye-witness is the “beloved disciple” we have met along the way we can surmise that this is the case. This witness is the very one who is at the foundation of John’s gospel! We will encounter the validity of his witness again in chapter 21. All of this makes the event of the piercing of Jesus more important. And eye-witness known to John and his community makes the claim. We need to take it that much more seriously. Before we move forward we should note that Matthew adds a story not found in any of the other gospels. Matthew’s story is of a dramatic event in which the bodies of saints of old that have died are raised and they enter the city appearing to many (Matthew 27:52). What happens to them after that is left hanging. The whole story in Matthew is difficult to deal with. And we have also noticed that Luke tells his readers that those who witnessed the death of Jesus leave beating their breasts in despair wondering what they have done. Only Luke provides this information. As we move forward, like Mark and the others John now moves on to the burial of Jesus. There is much in common between John and the synoptic writers. But there are also significant differences. Mark had introduced his readers to Joseph of Arimathea a little earlier by telling his readers that it is Joseph who wants to be sure that the victims of the crucifixion have died and that their bodies can be removed from the cross. All four gospel writers agree that Joseph of Arimathea is a righteous man. Mark, Matthew, and Luke tell us that he was a member of the council and that he had not agreed with the decision to put Jesus to death. John essentially agrees with this appraisal of Joseph. He tells his readers that Joseph was a follower of Jesus, though a secret one because he was afraid of the Jews. John does not mention that Joseph was a member of the council. We have met this idea of followers of Jesus attempting to remain secret followers for fear of the Jews a number of times in John’s gospel. We have also noticed that at times John seems to be speaking more to the community at the time when this gospel was completed than to the actual time of Jesus. That likely is also the case here to some extent. The final editor of John’s gospel is aware of a deadly and painful split between the followers of Jesus and the Jews of the synagogue. He is also apparently aware of some who want to have it both ways – to be followers of Jesus, but secretly, so they can also be members of the Jewish synagogue. John is critical of them – yet there seems to be at least some place for them. After all John describes this Joseph as one of them. And in John’s story Joseph of Arimathea has a partner – Nicodemus who we have met on two previous occasions. Only John tells us that Nicodemus joined Joseph in burying Jesus – in fact only John mentions a character named Nicodemus. Nicodemus has at least been open to Jesus and wants to defend Jesus before the council. We are left wondering about Nicodemus in each of the two previous encounters we have with him. Here, Nicodemus brings an enormous amount of spices to wrap with the body of Jesus. And together with Joseph he arranges for a proper burial of Jesus. Are we to understand this as the final redemption of Nicodemus? Has Nicodemus finally come to firm and adequate belief in Jesus? We would like to say yes, but John leaves us once again with an ambiguous outcome. Perhaps this has more to do with the time of the final editing of this gospel too. The outcome of “secret disciples” is perhaps still unknown – and Joseph and Nicodemus represent these “secret disciples.”