Most Sincerely Dead

John 19:31-42

Cash Going to Camp

I have been inviting people to camp… and it is kind of strange thing. Please send your kid to this place in the mountains you have never heard of in the care of people you mostly don’t know to do things you have never done. And yes there are bears and mountain lions. And yes, you do have to walk to the bathroom at night. Sign up today!

Cash is going to camp. It is his first time. He knows almost no one who will be there. It is in a new place, in the mountains he has never been to. He is not afraid.

Our neighbor Charis is going to camp. It is her first time. She knows almost no one who will be there. It is in a new place in the mountains… she has never been there and has no idea what to expect. She is not afraid.

Off they are headed to the strange new country. A place unseen and unknown.

Why aren’t they afraid?

What about Death and Dying

It has me thinking about death and dying. Because death is like camp. (this is a great promo for camp)

Death has been a part of our world, a part of human life stretching back all the way to the beginning. It is a human universal. It has been the subject of philosophers and artists throughout time.

Because it’s this terrifying end, this cliff beyond which we can’t see. Is it an end of self, is there more beyond? There have been theories and mythologies, misunderstandings, attempts to manipulate death and to reach beyond it, again, as long as human beings have been around.

Philosopher Ernest Becker believes that the “Denial of Death” is the primary answer to the “why” of human existence.

How much of human endeavor is motivated by fear of death?

How much of your behavior is motivated by fear of death and dying?

How afraid are you of death and dying?

How much of your time is spent worrying about it, wondering about it, nervous about it, fighting to prevent and avoid it?

For many, and maybe you are one, this is the primary motivator in life. Don’t die and do whatever is necessary to not die as long as possible.

It’s like camp… a total unknown, a dark horizon beyond which we know so little.

Why are so many of us so afraid of death…

And these two kids aren’t afraid of going to camp?

The Challenge to Jesus’ Resurrection

In our passage in John, Jesus said “It is finished” and released his Spirit. He entered into death.

Now John goes to great lengths to show evidence that Jesus is, in fact, really, truly and most sincerely dead.

Why so much focus on this?

If, for political or religious or any other reason, you are committed to the idea that Jesus DID NOT resurrect from the dead, you have two major options. You can claim, in the face of all the witnesses, that Jesus was still dead and someone just stole his body. This is difficult when Jesus keeps showing up in front of hundreds of witnesses.

The other strategy is to claim that Jesus never actually died, but just had a near-death experience. A mistake was made, he woke up from a coma or something, and made his way out of the tomb. John refutes that by citing all kinds of evidence and testimony that Jesus was, in fact, most truly and sincerely and all-the-way dead.

Proof of Jesus’ death

John 19:31-42

31 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.

This is the testimony of the soldiers, they are expert witnesses and they know death when they see it. They testify to his death. But just in case…

34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.

I read that Jesus was likely experiencing a gathering of fluid around heart and lungs called pericardial effusion and pleural effusion, and the spear piercing both the lungs and the heart caused both blood and this gathered fluid, water, to come out. But again, the point is that Jesus is truly, physically dead.

35 He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. 36 For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” 37 And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”

This is the testimony of eye witnesses and the testimony of soldiers. It goes on:

38 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. 39 Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight.

That isn’t a typo, this is like a Costco bag of expensive spices!

40 So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. 41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. 42 So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

Now two Pharisees, members of an influential sect of religious leaders, one of the groups that called for Jesus’ death. Two among them, secret followers of Jesus. They couldn’t or didn’t fight for Jesus while he was alive… but they risk much to see that his body is treated respectfully.

They spend much. Nicodemus brings valuable spices to prepare the body.

Joseph gives his family tomb. Now you can’t re-use a tomb, so by giving this for Jesus he gives it up for himself and all his descendants. This was a brand-new tomb, likely hewn, quarrying into a rock face. There would be an entrance, a stone bench inside to lay a body while it decomposes for a year, than several niches to hold the bones collected after, a whole family could be laid to rest. Joseph gives that up, which means he would have to buy another for him and his family.

Two leaders of the opposition, Pharisees, leaders in the community, and their sacrifice and care for the body of Jesus testify that he was truly, most sincerely, all-the-way dead.

What Happened to Jesus in Death?

Where did he go?

There is a theology that Jesus went to “hell” while he was dead. There isn’t really Scriptural support for that. There is talk about preaching salvation to those disobedient in the time before Jesus, even the time before the Flood, but nothing says it was while Jesus was dead.

What did he experience?

Jesus doesn’t talk about it… so we don’t know. And if God isn’t telling us… it would seem to not be important that we know. The important thing is that he declared “It is finished” and then he died… all the way.

We really don’t know. We don’t know the details. Indeed, when the Bible speaks about death, it almost always does so metaphorically, and quite often grabbing onto the mythology of the surrounding people. Jesus speaks of Gehenna, the burning trash pile in the valley by Jerusalem. This is a metaphor to something they understand. Jesus speaks of Hades, which is the place of the dead in Greek Mythology. He isn’t saying that is the way that it works and the God Hades is ruling over the underworld, he is simply making a reference to dead using terminology that would be immediately understood by his listeners.

So the state of the dead is mostly a mystery with tantalizing hints. What Jesus did during his time in the grave, again a mystery with maybe some small clues.

Jesus entered into everything that is human death. He experienced death in its totality. Yes, he was fully God, but the Scripture is clear that whatever “death” encompasses, Jesus entered into all of it.

Death and Camp

And death… well death is like camp. It is like going to camp for the first time.

Death is like camp. Unknown… but not scary.

Untraveled by us… but well-traveled by Jesus and the saints before us.

Why are Cash and Charis not afraid to go this strange and mysterious place? Arabelle is going to camp.

They don’t know what to expect… except that she has been there before, she made it through, and she will be there with them.

Death is like camp.

We have the brochure. There are a few pictures and descriptions. But mostly it is an unknown location. We know we are going there for a time, but we haven’t been there before.

We don’t know what to expect… except that he has been there before, he made it through, and he will be there with us.

What will do there before physical resurrection? Is there a “there” to do things in? Do we experience consciousness without flesh or do we wake up in resurrected bodies? I don’t know.

But I know Jesus has been there. I know he will be with me. And I trust him with all the details. He bought my tickets, he arranged for my Uber, he prepaid my bag fee, he upgraded my seat to first class… and he is flying with me.

Know Him, No Fear

It means that I can consider death and dying with absolutely no fear. I am fearless in the face of death. I can have questions… but not worries. I can be curious without being nervous. Cause I know a guy who has been there and I’m with him.

This is incredibly freeing.

Hebrews 2:9

9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Then it continues in verse 14:

14-15

14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

Jesus has delivered you, not only from death itself, but forever from the fear of death. The fear of death and dying is a form of lifelong slavery, and it is the fate of most of mankind. How much stress and turmoil, work and striving, trying to avoid that journey.

But the disciple of Jesus can say, with confidence, I’m going to camp. I am going to die… but I am going with Jesus and he has been there before.

And oh, by the way, I am not staying there. I may go visit camp, but I am going on with Jesus, Jesus has the rest of the trip planned, and he shows us what that looks like too as we continue on in John to Resurrection.

But this changes everything. This is the Christian trump card. Paul played it this way “to live is Christ, to die is gain.” I win if I get to stay here and be used by God to do amazing things. I win if I die and follow in Jesus’ footsteps that way.

I literally cannot lose! And you cannot lose. And so we are a fearless people. Willing to go anywhere, do anything, risk everything. Because Jesus has entered the grave, and conquered the grave, already victorious.

We face death and dying without fear.

Jesus has been there. He made it through. He is going with you.