NEW TESTAMENT CHARACTERS.
NICODEMUS AND JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA.
Belated Friends.
Mary of Bethany was not the only person to anoint Jesus’ body with aromatic spices. Two rich men brought about seventy five pounds weight of myrrh and aloes to sweeten the bloodstained lacerated body before they wrapped it up for burial.
They had missed their chance of giving Him anything in His lifetime. These were secret followers until the shock of His execution brought them into the open. They were Jesus’ friends, but friends too late.
Nicodemus had come to Jesus at night during His first campaign in Judea. He was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin or ruling council who wanted to hear what Jesus had to say.
* * *
NICODEMUS.
Rabbi, we know you are a teacher from God or you could not do these miracles.
JESUS
If you want to see God’s kingdom, you will have to be born into it.
NICODEMUS.
Born - but I am old. If it means starting from the beginning, I would need to be really born again for that.
JESUS
Born of the water - born of the wind - to enter God’s kingdom you need birth from outside your experience. Flesh gives birth to flesh, spirit to spirit.
Don’t look so surprised. You really do need this new birth. Listen to the wind blowing. You don’t know where from or where to. Birth from the spirit comes from a power outside yourself, just like the wind.
NICODEMUS.
This is beyond me. How can such things happen?
JESUS
And you are a teacher of Israel - don’t you understand?
Remember when Moses put the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness and those who looked at it were healed. Well something like that will be done to the Son of Man.
God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that whoever trusts Him will not be destroyed but have eternal life.
God didn’t send His Son into the world to condemn it but to rescue it.
* * *
Nicodemus went away and we only hear of him once more before Jesus died. The Chief Priests were talking of Christ's followers as a cursed ignorant mob. Nicodemus put in just one word, “Our law does not condemn anyone without a fair hearing first.”
That was the limit of it. He did not add that he had given Jesus a hearing himself. He left the matter open, merely saying He should be heard. The answer he got was, “Are you from Galilee too. No true prophet comes from there,” a complete brush off, and Nicodemus said no more.
As for Joseph, he has not been mentioned, although some have a theory that he was the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and turned away because the cost was too great. He was not present at Jesus’ trial - or if he was his lone voice was ignored. At any rate he “had not consented” to their action; but it does not say he had opposed it.
Jesus died and two men who could not bring themselves to acknowledge Him publicly in His lifetime, realised that unless they did something about it, His body would be thrown into a pit. Joseph owned a tomb, or vault, as yet unused and very near to the place of execution outside the city.
Pilate was frequently asked for bodies so that relatives might give private burials. It was a normal routine, but meant an extra check to see that the prisoner was dead. This received, the two wealthy, respectable, upper class council members set to work, watched by Mary Magdalene, Mary Cleophas, and Joanna.
It was late in the day and they had to finish by sunset because of Sabbath regulations. They made a hurried purchase of a linen shroud and myrrh and aloes - a massive quantity. Then they came to the cross.
One had to dig round it, then hold the base steady while the other lowered the cross to the ground. After that came the unpleasant task of removing the nails, or taking the hands from them, untying any ropes and laying the body on the shroud. Then, inexpertly no doubt, they smothered the body in the spices, trying to make something decent out of the obscene mess of injuries from whips and nails and thorns. At last they wrapped it and carried it between them to the rock-hewn cave.
The usual image of crosses erected on top of a hill is extremely improbable. The rock “Place of a Skull” rose up from flat ground and the crosses were almost certainly at the base of the rocks. Even on flat ground, however, this heavy lifting and carrying was an unaccustomed effort. These were not manual workers. But they did it. Men can lift a lot if determined. They laid the wrapped body in the cave and rolled a disc of stone across the front.
Nobody complained that the gift of spices was wasteful now. Yet it was they, not Mary, who wasted their money. Two days later they were proprietors of an empty tomb, a linen shroud and seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloes.
References - Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea
Nicodemus visits Jesus John 3:1-21
Speaks in council John 7:50-52
Burial Matthew 27:57-61 Mark 15:42-47 Luke 23:50-56 John 19:38-42