Standing by the cross

John 19:16-42

Last Friday I went to a funeral service in Linden. I was surprised about the amount of people who attended. There were so many that a large group of us were standing outside the doors of the funeral home. Because we were so far from the service area, several men were spending the time talking; sometimes they became very lively. An older lady was obviously upset and began to talk to me. I could sense that she was upset, but I have no idea what she was talking about since I do not speak a word of Haitian Creole. I nodded and let her expressed her disapproval.

Funeral services are different from any other gathering. There is a sense of solidarity, a special sense of community in a funeral service. It is usually a gathering of family and friends; it brings together people that otherwise would hardly see each other. Many people visited Jesus in his final hours, most of them where his enemies and people who just wanted to see the prophet form Nazareth. There were very few friends and family. According to John, near the cross stood Jesus’ mother, Jesus’ aunt from his mother’s side, Mary the wife of Clopas, Mary Magdalene, Salome wife of Zebedee and mother of John and James. Besides these women, there were three men that I want us to look closer for a few minutes.

There was John the son of Zebedee and Salome. He was a fisherman by profession. We are told that when Jesus called him he left the family business, his parents and followed Jesus with his brother James. He soon became one of the chosen twelve; he even became part of the inner circle among the twelve. It was John, his brother James and Peter the ones who were invited to go up the mountain where Jesus experienced the transfiguration. It was John who stopped and unnamed person from driving out demons because the person was not following Jesus.

He was the one who asked Jesus about bringing fire from heaven to destroy the Samaritans that refused Jesus passage through their town. It was John and Peter who were selected to prepare all the necessary things for the Passover diner. He was the one that sat next to Jesus and who asked Jesus quietly who was the one who was a traitor among them. It was his mother that asked Jesus for a special place in what they thought was going to be the next kingdom in Israel. It was to him that Jesus entrusted his mother during the final hours of his life. He was standing close to the cross.

What was John thinking while Jesus was dying on the cross? A couple of days before he was making plans; taking steps to become the second in command in Jesus kingdom; now he was looking at him dying in the company of two other criminals. All the other disciples were gone, including his brother James. He was close enough to hear the people who passed by make fun of Jesus. He also heard how the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.”Even one of the other prisoners began to insult Jesus.”

It must have been very painful to see his teacher, his friend, someone that in the last three years he had learned to love and respect; not only suffer the physical pain of dying on a cross but of suffering this kind of humiliation. Jesus was not only losing his life, but they were trying to take away his dignity also. He was there when one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side, and he saw what looked like a “sudden flow of blood and water.” What was he thinking for all those hours as he was standing by the cross? Did he have any regrets? Now that Mary was going to live in their house, would it make it more difficult to forget? John’s dreams of power, position and riches were dying with Jesus. He really believed that this was the hope of Israel, the long expected savior, the promised son of David. Now he was dying in front of him. What was he thinking?

Another man, standing by the cross was Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph was a good, righteous, and rich member of the Sanhedrin, who was expecting the kingdom of God. Luke tells us that he did not consent in the decisions made regarding Jesus. Joseph, as a leader of the Jews, and out of respect for Jewish law, felt compelled to request from Pilate the right to bury him. Joseph, with help from others, prepared and laid Jesus’ body in a tomb and rolled a stone across the opening. John states that the new tomb was in a garden near the place of crucifixion. Joseph, by handling Jesus body became ceremonially unclean. He was not going to be able to participate in the Sabbath services. He was risking his political and religious careers. It took a lot of courage to go to Pilate and ask for Jesus body, especially for condemned criminal like Jesus. John tells us that Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews.

Last Tuesday Barack Obama made a very important speech about race. All this time he had avoided making his race and issue, until somebody discovered some old sermons from Obama’s pastor the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. In some of those sermons Rev. Wright said some things that are offensive to many Americans. Senator Obama has tried very hard to condemn his pastor’s statements without condemning his pastor. That strategy does not seem to be working; he has already begun to lose points in the electoral surveys. Maybe Obama should had followed Joseph of Arimathea’s example and kept his pastor a secret. We have to remember that Jesus was not crucified because of something he did; he was crucified because of something he said.

I wonder if within the short time I been here I have already said something you wish to keep a secret. What is important to note is that after such a long time of hiding that he was a disciple of Jesus, he risk it all at the time that looks like there is no hope. When most people would have walked away that is the precise time when Joseph steps up, come out of hiding and risk it all for a dying man. Why was he a secret disciple of a man who raised Lazarus from the dead, who could perform so many miracles and declares himself a disciple at the feet f the cross?

Another man standing by the cross was Nicodemus. Nicodemus is portrayed as a Pharisee who was also part of the ruling class in Judea, presumably a member of the Sanhedrin. John implies that he was quite wealthy. Jesus addresses him in the third chapter of John as the preeminent teacher of Israel. The above, combined with the fact that “rulers” and “Pharisees” are distinguished elsewhere in the gospel, suggests that Nicodemus was a prominent figure within the governing group of Jerusalem. Nicodemus first appears in the third chapter John, where he visits Jesus by night and is confronted with the “born-again” discourse.

About six months before the crucifixion the “chief Priests and Pharisees” seek to have Jesus arrested as a deceiver; and Nicodemus protests, arguing that the law required them to give Jesus a fair hearing. As a response his colleagues accused him of having joined Jesus’ Galilean followers. That is all we know of this man who was bold enough to defend Jesus when it counted. John tells us that Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. And that Nicodemus joined Joseph of Arimathea, and taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.

There they are, a man that placed all his hopes for the future on Jesus and is now mourning the loss of all his dreams. And these two other men, powerful, rich and very influential; that when Jesus was alive they kept their discipleship a secret. Now in front of the cross they throw all caution to the wind and risk it all. They are moved not by the miracles in the life of a prophet, but the power in the death of an innocent man. Why does the cross, an instrument of death, give us so much hope for life? Only because of the one who died there.