"Buried"

Introduction: It is important for you to know that by the

time this Gospel of John is written and circulated there were Docetists who questioned the reality of Jesus and His death. They held to the idea that Jesus Christ only appeared to be Himself, that he only appeared to die-that He was really just spirit. So from all the way through this great Gospel, John provides vivid eyewitness testimony of Jesus’ life and ministry, as well as, life and death showing that Jesus was very much very God, of very God and very man, of very man. John says we beheld Him, we touched Him, we heard Him, and we watched Him die.

1. Jesus spirit given up, .

With His head bowed, Jesus gave up the spirit. Since Jesus was spirit and body, when His spirit was given up, His body remained hanging on the cross.

2. Jesus side pierced, 31-37.

The tradition was to expedite the death of a crucified criminal by breaking his legs making it difficult to impossible for the crucified criminal to to breathe, since arm strength was not enough to continue to pull up in order to breathe. The Jews wanted the process of dying sped up because of the Sabbath, which began Friday at sundown. According to , a dead body of an executed man left hanging on a tree overnight desecrated the land. Realizing that time was of the essence they asked Pilate to send soldiers that the legs of the crucified be broken and the bodies taken down. Ironically, the Jews did not want to desecrate the land, yet they had desecrated themselves by pursuing the death of an innocent man and crucifying the Son of God.

The Bible tells us that the soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves on either side and that upon coming to Jesus that there was no reason to break His legs since He was already dead. Instead, one of the soldiers thrust a spear through His side. At that moment blood and water gushed out of the body of Jesus.

The purpose for which John describes this scene is to depict the fact that Jesus, who had been alive was now very much dead. Others, from Chrysostom on, have seen a reference to baptism or to the blood and the water as the cleansing agent in salvation and sanctification.

The flow of the water and the blood from the pierced side of Jesus has been portrayed in modern hymns as that cleansing agent of salvation.

Rock of ages cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee,

Let me hide myself in Thee,

Let the water and the blood, From Thy wounded side which flowed,

From Thy wounded side which flowed,

Be of sin the double cure, Save from wrath and make me pure.

and

Jesus keep me near the cross, there a precious fountain,

Free to all a healing stream, flows from Calvry’s mountain.

In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever,

Til my ransomed soul shall find Rest beyond the river.

Psalm 34:20 NASB95

He keeps all his bones, Not one of them is broken.

Psalm 34:20

Zechariah 12:10 NASB95

“I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

The Jews, Jesus death, and prophecy fulfilled, 31-37.

Zechariah 12:10

3. Jesus body taken away and prepared for burial, .

A Request granted, , ; .

Joseph of Arimathea, “a rich man and member of the Council”, “waiting for the kingdom of God”, (, Mk. 15:43) emerges from the shadows presenting himself before Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus. The Roman custom following the crucifixion of a criminal was to leave the body on the cross to be devoured by vultures. The Jewish custom was to bury the bodies of those executed in common graves provided by the Sanhedrin. Remarkably, Pilate granted Joseph’s request.

Royal burial, 19:40. Nicodemus also came bringing about a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes, enough for a royal burial. Nicodemus first came to Jesus by night in . Later on in , Nicodemus offers tentative support for Jesus. Here we have in front of us Nicodemus public confession of Jesus as he joins Joseph of Arimathea to take the body of Jesus.

Inquiry, Jn. 3:1-15

Interest,

Involved

Involved, Jn. 19

4. Jesus body buried, .

Buried since He was dead.

Buried in a temporary tomb.

Nicodemus,

Buried by men of a strong and public faith.

Inquiry,

Buried in a new, yet temporary tomb, .

Tentative support,

Public confession,

Conclusion