John 19:28-42

40 Days of John

Day 36: John 19:28-42

John talks about Jesus' death on the cross, and His burial in today's reading.  The Son of God, our Savior has just died for us, and even as He is taken down from the cross, God is giving us signs of His power and His plan in the middle of it all...

"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.'"

John 19:36-37

Our Savior, Jesus, is pierced for us, and his burial is so simple, so uneventful, so lacking in the grandeur we'd expect for God's Son, for God in the flesh, for our Messiah.

It's so NOT what we'd expect.

You'd think I'd know that by now if I know anything about God.

It's never what we'd expect.  It's better if we shift our prospective from our own to trusting in God's perspective that we can't always see from where we are in life.

Two Jesus loving men, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, take care of Jesus' body and prepare it for burial.  Two ordinary guys do something really extraordinary.

Love is 75 heavy pounds of myrrh and aloes to lay Jesus' body to rest in a nearby tomb while no one is watching.

Remember who Nicodemus is from John 3?  He's the bigwig Pharisee from the Jewish ruling council who goes to learn more about Jesus very late at night.  He's the guy Jesus tells about being "born again."  Jesus tells Nicodemus (and us),

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son...

21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

John 3:16-21

Nicodemus and Joseph clearly believe in the one whom God sent to save them.  And what they do as they take care of Jesus' mangled body is done in the sight of God.  There's nothing ordinary about it.  That is the grandeur of our faith at it's finest.

A prayer for today-

Dear God,

I thank You for Your love for me and for the world.  I thank You for the greatest gift I will ever receive, Jesus.

Forgive me for thinking too much about what I'd expect instead of praying for Your perspective and Your light in all circumstances.

I pray that I may dwell in Your house, Lord, all the days of my life, including my days in this world.  Help me, Lord, to gaze on Your beauty and to remember to seek You and find You everywhere as You are (from Psalm 27:4).

I pray for all those who desperately need to see Your beauty in the world, Lord.  I pray for those who need Your light and Your perspective.  Come to them, Lord.  May they feel Your healing and inspiring presence.

You are the light of the world.
Hallelujah!

In Jesus' name I pray,

Amen

In Christ's love,

*This post is part of A Mind-Maker-Upper's Everyday Reading Project.  Click here to read more.