EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES
John 19:31. The Jews therefore, etc.… for great was that Sabbath day.—There was a twofold sanctity about the coming day, for it was not only the day at the beginning of which in the evening the passover lamb was eaten—it was at the same time the weekly Sabbath, and therefore a day of peculiar sanctity, a high day. Hence the anxiety of the Jews to hasten the death of the crucified, and have the bodies removed before the first star appeared announcing the beginning of the evening of a new (Jewish) day.
John 19:31-37. The Jews … that their legs might be broken (crurifragium).—Probably this was done to hasten death, as John 19:33 seems to indicate here. Pierced.—To satisfy themselves that He was really dead. Blood and water.—There have been various explanations of this fact, physiological and other. None of them, however, are entirely satisfactory. The chief physiological explanation is that given by Dr. Stroud (Physical Cause of the Death of Christ), who argues with much learning that our Lord’s death was caused by rupture of the heart following on the intense agony He suffered, physical and spiritual. The result of this would be (he continues) to fill the surrounding tissues with blood, which would rapidly separate into its constituent parts, solid and fluid, which flowed out when the body was pierced by the soldier’s lance. Such explanations may be taken for what they are worth. Dr. Reynolds well says of this incident that we see in it “a token of the twofold power of Christ’s redemptive life and work:
(1) renovation, refreshment, rivers of living water issuing from the κοιλία of Christ, the first great rush of spiritual power which was to regenerate humanity; and
(2) the expression of that redemptive process which was effected in the positive shedding of His precious blood.” In all these events divinely ordered facts corresponded with divinely inspired type and prophecy (Exodus 12:46; Zechariah 12:10). As the promised Messiah He fulfilled law and prophecy (Revelation 1:7).
John 19:38. Secretly.—This is a fact given only by St. John.
John 19:39. Myrrh.—A fragrant gum. Aloes.—A scented wood which was much esteemed for embalming purposes. A mixture.—Some MSS. read a roll, but the authority is of no great weight. An hundred pound.—I.e. Roman pounds of about twelve ounces each (see Psalms 45; Matthew 2:11).
John 19:40. In linen clothes (ὀθονίοις).—Probably long strips used for enswathing the body. There seems also to have been a larger cloth for covering the body, or wrapping it round. It is this that is mentioned by St. Matthew (Matthew 27:59: it was called σινδών), etc. As the manner … to bury.—They did not remove the viscera, as in the Egyptian custom of embalming. Cremation was the rule among the Romans.
John 19:41. A garden (see John 18:1).—As in a garden it was said to man, “In the day that thou eatest,” etc. (Genesis 2:17), so in a garden Christ was, by His rising from the dead, to say to men, “In Me ye have eternal life.” A new sepulcher.—Jesus was in no way to come in contact with corruption (Psalms 16:10). The sepulchre belonged to Joseph.
John 19:42. They laid.—But it was virtually the Jews delivering Him to death that made it necessary that He should also be laid in the grave. Consequently St. Paul was justified in saying (Acts 13:29), “They (the Jews) that dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers … laid Him in a sepulchre.” The Jews’ preparation.—I.e. the preparation for the great feast of the Jews (John 11:55). This incidentally confirms the idea that the day about to commence was that on which the passover was eaten.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— John 19:31-42
The rest of the Redeemer in the grave.—After the storm comes the calm; after sore labour, rest. And as at the beginning of material things the divine activity was followed by a period of rest, so the travail of the Saviour in working out man’s redemption was followed by the rest in Joseph’s tomb. When Jesus uttered the cry “It is finished,” His pain and travail ceased. And although His descent into the state of the dead may be regarded as the deepest depth of His humiliation, yet it may be also regarded as the beginning of His glory. It is not mentioned by the apostle as a part of that obedience for which Christ was highly exalted. For in that period when His physical frame was at rest it was in the Father’s care, who would not suffer His Holy One to see corruption. It was therefore for the Son of man’s material frame a calm repose, with the certainty of a glorious reawakening. Nature is practically inactive in the winter season, when the icing winds blow, when bitter sleet falls and feathery snow enwraps the landscape; but in all this there is the hope and even the promise of spring with its glad new life and opening verdure. So in Christ’s rest in the tomb there was the promise of a new glad season of hope for humanity. Just as spring breaks the bonds of winter, so Christ broke asunder the icy fetters of death’s prison-house, and brings to those who are spiritually crucified with Him the hope and promise of heaven’s eternal spring.
I. The preparation for the interment of the body of Jesus.—
1. The afternoon of the crucifixion began to wane toward evening, the lengthening shadows told that the Sabbath would soon begin. The executioners prepared to take the body of Jesus from the cross, to bury it most likely in a common grave with the two malefactors.
2. But that sacred body, which was not to see corruption, was to be otherwise cared for. The disciples had fled; not even John seems to have thought of the next step. But God had His instruments for this holy duty. Two secret disciples of the Saviour now step forth, men whom we should not have expected to do so, for they were members of the Sanhedrin.
3. The one was Joseph, who had come originally from Arimathæa in the mountains of Ephraim, and had risen to honour and consideration in Jerusalem. Like Simeon, he “waited for the kingdom of God,” and had thought that Jesus was its king. He had not consented to the counsel and deed of the hypocritical leaders of his people. And now, when the great crime was past, he came to pay that homage which he had denied to Jesus whilst He was alive. Proceeding to the governor’s palace, he demanded the body of Jesus. From the Synoptic narrative we learn that Pilate was apparently still exercised in mind regarding the innocent One, whom he had so unjustly permitted to be led to death (Mark 15:44-45). Evidently Joseph’s request accorded with Pilate’s own feelings, and the wish that He who had been so unjustly condemned should be honoured in His death.
4. As Joseph drew near the garden he was aware of the presence of another Jewish ruler—his friend and fellow-counsellor, Nicodemus. He too had cast aside all servile fear, and had come laden with spices for embalming the sacred body of Him from whom he had learned so much of the deeper truth concerning the kingdom of God.
II. The place of interment and the manner of the burial.—
1. Near the place where the Lord was crucified was a garden enclosure belonging to Joseph, in which, in accordance with a prevalent custom of those times, he had prepared a sepulchre. In it no man had yet been laid. Toward this garden, after they had taken down Christ’s body from the cross, and wound it reverently in linen cloths with the aromatic spices, they conveyed it.
2. It was then borne reverently to the empty tomb, and laid there in the stillness of the gathering evening shadows. No execrating shouts now rend the air; no body of weeping disciples follow the Saviour’s body to the grave. Only those two honourable men perform their sacred duty in reverent silence, not unmoved, it may be, by hope in mysterious words of promise spoken by their now silent Master; whilst afar off a little knot of women beheld where the body was laid.
3. And now, as the first star on the brow of night announced that the Sabbath had come, the two friends departed from the tomb; whilst the women had already gone to prepare spices for embalming and to wait till the Sabbath was past ere they visited the grave.
4. How calm and peaceful and majestic it all is! No mournful dirges sound, no funeral torches flare. Yet it was a glorious burial. The tender love and sympathy of succeeding ages are represented in those disciples, till now not openly and constantly attached to Jesus. How far otherwise was all this from what those who hated Him anticipated. They imagined perhaps that even now His body had been flung into a common grave with the bodies of the two malefactors; whilst what occurred was really the prelude of His glory.
III. The resting of Jesus in Joseph’s tomb was a sweet repose.—
1. It was rest after conflict; and what a conflict in both body and soul! David the shepherdking once in his shepherd days had vanquished the savage beasts that threatened his flock. But this King of David’s line had vanquished a more cruel foe, though in the conflict His sweat had been like great drops of blood, and on the cross nameless fears had tortured His soul—His body was rent, His heart broken.
2. But now the agony and conflict were all past. The revenge of His foes and the blood-thirstiness of the unbelieving throng were stilled. The waves of the storm-tossed sea of human passion had ceased to rage. It is as when the last storms of winter begin to die away, and earth and air are filled with undefined yet real promises of the coming spring.
3. It is he who has laboured most faithfully and diligently during the day whose sleep at eventide is soundest, sweetest, and most refreshing. And it is he who has done his duty most unselfishly and in conformity with the divine will, during life’s working day, who sees with no dread the day of labour ending and the time of rest approaching.
4. And as our Redeemer was truly human as well as divine, we may think a somewhat analogous feeling occupied His breast. He had laboured. He had toiled in the midst of unbelief and contumely, and at last active and deadly opposition from those He had come to save. But now He had finished the work given Him to do on earth (John 17:4), and there was a pause of rest between the close of His work in His state of humiliation and the beginning of His work and reign in glory.
ILLUSTRATIONS
John 19:34. The pierced side.—It has been supposed that John laid so much stress upon this circumstance because he believed it might serve to refute certain erroneous spirits of his day who assigned to Christ an imaginary and not a real body. It is certainly possible that, in giving his account of the matter, he was partly induced by such a motive. But it is the miraculous nature of the event that chiefly excited his interest in it. In dead bodies the blood always coagulates, whilst from the wound above mentioned, on the contrary, it flowed clearly and abundantly, unmixed with the water which burst forth from the pierced pericardium of His heart, and ran down from the cross. It was as if the great High Priest intended to say, even in His death, “Behold, I shed My blood voluntarily, and offer it up in entire fulness for your sins.” But that which most deeply affected the soul of the beloved disciple was the divine symbol he perceived beneath the wondrous event. In the water and the blood he sees represented the most essential blessings of salvation for which the world is indebted to Christ. We know that in his first Epistle he points out the fact of His coming with water and blood, as well as with the Holy Spirit, as the most peculiar characteristic of the Redeemer of the world; and who does not perceive in these words that the wondrous event on Calvary must have been present to his mind?—F. W. Krummacher, “Suffering Saviour.”
John 19:39. Nicodemus at the cross and tomb of Jesus.—We come to a still later time. The fatal hour is passed; Jesus Christ has been crucified. The sorrowing disciples are scattered and discomfited. The women and the few faithful ones come with their last offering of love to the tomb; and among the faithful comes Nicodemus, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes a hundred pounds weight. It is an act of homage and devotion. It is the time when the ear has sprung up. We can easily believe that the full corn came up at the last; and we can accept the tradition that afterwards he avowed himself as a believer in Christ, and received baptism from Peter and John. The further tradition that his acknowledgment of our Lord led to his persecution and exile from office and reputation would almost naturally follow the former. But it is enough that we have seen again Christ’s power and influence over men. We have seen Him in patient converse with Nicodemus; and we have seen also that slowly the spirit of devotion grew, prompting Nicodemus to courageous remonstrance, and at last to an act of devotion at the tomb of the crucified Christ. It cost Nicodemus much to do those things. With his temperament, timid and cultivated, the effort to stand alone needed no small resolution, and evinced a courageous victory over self. To this the influence of Christ nerved him. Christ gave manhood to the courage of a nervous and timid man. Under His influence he is able to take his place with growing force and dignity. The man who sought Him by night is at last enabled to rebuke unrighteousness, and to join himself with the despised and lonely followers of Christ. Christ can give courage to the weak and fearful. This may seem a small thing; but nothing is small which enables a man to enter into the full possession of his manhood. In one way or another this defect of life clings to us—we do not possess our own lives. Passion, greed, ambition, may rob us of this heritage; but we are none the less deprived of it when we are the slaves of weakness and fear. To tame passion and to curb desire is a victory; but that also is a victorious power which can banish fear, and transform weakness into resolution and timidity into courage. For the fears which haunt timid souls are real and mighty powers. In their way they are not less powerful than covetousness and lust. They touch and wither up the lives of a vast number of men. Christ, if He is to be the Saviour of all men, must have a message of hope and redemption for the fearful. The story of Nicodemus assures us that He is the Saviour of the doubtful. To those that have no might He increaseth strength. His hand, His pierced hand, can grasp ours and encourage us against our weakness. Over natural timidity and social fears we can be made more than conquerors through Him who loved us.—Dr. W. Boyd Carpenter, in “Good Words,” December 1893.
John 19:42. The quiet sepulchre the abode of hope.—We leave them (Joseph and Nicodemus), and linger a few moments longer at the sepulchre, from whence a vital atmosphere proceeds, and the peace of God is breathed upon us. There He rests, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. How grateful is the feeling to us, after all the ignominy and suffering He has endured, to see Him at least once again honourably reposing, and that too upon a couch which love, fidelity, and tenderness have prepared for Him! Who does not perceive that, even in the circumstances of His interment, the overruling hand of God has interwoven for our consolation a gentle testimony that His only-begotten Son had well accomplished the great task which He was commissioned to perform? How clearly the taking down from the cross and the interment of the Redeemer before the setting in of night and the Sabbath shows the fulfilment of the ancient ordinance of Israel respecting those who were hanged on a tree! and how distinctly are we convinced to a demonstration that the curse is now removed from a sinful world, and that the eye of God again looks graciously and well-pleased down upon the earth! There He slumbers. Well for us that He was willing to pass through even this dark passage on our behalf! Nothing hindered Him from taking up His life again on the cross, and returning from thence immediately to His Father. But had He done so our bodies would have been left in the grave; and you know how much more we are wont to fear the grave than even death itself. There, where corruption reigns, it seems as if the curse of sin still hung over us, and as if no redemption had been accomplished. In order to dispel this terror, and to convince us, by means of His own precedent, that even with the interment of our bodies in the gloomy cell there is no longer anything to fear, but that a passage into life is opened for us out of this dark dungeon, He paternally took into consideration all our necessities, and suffered Himself to be laid in the grave before our eyes. He did not, indeed, see corruption, because He was only imputatively and not substantially a sinner. “Thou wilt not suffer Thine holy One to see corruption,” said David in Psalms 16:10, impelled by the spirit of prophecy. Our flesh, on the contrary, which is poisoned by sin, must necessarily pass through the process of the germinating seed-corn, and be dissolved into its original element before its glorification. But the difference between our lot and that of our divine Head is not an essential one. The chief thing continues to be this, that we know that even our bodies are not lost in the grave, but that they rest in hope. This is confirmed and guaranteed to us by Christ. The way we have seen Him go we shall also take. That which His obedience merited for Him as the Son of man it merited and acquired for us because Christ yielded it in our stead.—F. W. Krummacher, “Suffering Saviour.”