These are the final words of the Passion that is read on Good Friday. This section is taken from John 19:31. 42. Now, since it was preparation day, in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the Sabbath. For the Sabbath day of the week was a solemn one. The Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken, that they be taken down.

So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out. An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true. He knows that he is speaking the truth. So that you also may come to believe.

For this happened so that the Scripture passage might be fulfilled. Not a bone of it will be broken. And again, another passage says, they will look upon him whom they have pierced. After this, Joseph of Arimathea, secretly a disciple of Jesus, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus. And Pilate permitted it. So he came and took his body.

Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about 100 pounds. They took the body of Jesus and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom. Now, in the place where he had been crucified, there was a garden. In the garden, a new tomb in which no one yet had been buried. So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day for the tomb was close by. One of the great challenges is to move from the Old Testament, understanding his wisdom and its teaching, and then receive from the New Testament the fullness of the message of who God is.

And we see here a situation wherein John himself is saying, this is the way it had to happen, because this is the way it was written in the Old Testament, that it would happen. Interesting. And how clearly it seems now to look at the disciples and see how they didn’t understand all this because they were never taught these things from the temple. The temple didn’t seem to even pay attention to those kinds of predictions that would come. And they didn’t recognize Jesus. But if you listen to the Old Testament, you know who Jesus is.

And it’s so affirming that it’s really the revelation of who God really is. Closing prayer. Father, give us wisdom. We cannot see you or understand your message without this gift of your presence within us enlightening our minds. Help us to see all of this as it was intended to be seen and be transformed by it as God intended us to be. And we ask this in Jesus name, amen.