The Gospel of John

The Death and Burial of Jesus Christ

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Conversations, Panels and Sermons

Lesson: 68- 70

Genre:

Track: 066

Dictation Name: RR197AK68

Location/Venue:

Year:

 

Let us worship God. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises unto Thy name oh Most High, to show forth Thy loving kindness in the morning and Thy faithfulness every night. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God we give thanks unto Thee for Thy faithfulness. Thou art mindful of us when we too often are not mindful of Thee. Thou art ever gracious unto us when we have forsaken Thy grace and mercy. And so our God we come into Thy presence grateful for Thee and for Thy mercies, rejoicing in Thy grace, happy in Thy presence. Bless us with knowledge, with understanding, and by Thy spirit. Enable us to understand and to walk in understanding and in faith and to know that our days here are numbered but our years with Thee are for all eternity. How great Thou art and we thank Thee. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Our scripture lesson is John 19:31-42. Our subject: The Death and Burial of Jesus Christ. John 19:31-42.

“ The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.

32 Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him.

33 But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:

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

35 And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.

36 For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.

37 And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.

38 And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.

39 And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.

40 Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.

41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.

42 There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.”

It was the Roman custom to allow men to die on the cross and their bodies to decay there. Crucifixions were normally held by a major thoroughfare, here entering into Jerusalem. The sight of this would be a grim warning to all who passed by of Roman justice.

On this occasion however there was a problem. The next day being a Sabbath it was not permitted the dead or dying men remain on a cross. Some men lasted as long as three days before dying, dying in great agony. The footrest was so placed for every man that if he rested his feet on it it would start to pull on his hands so he would have to push himself up on his tip toes in order to be able to breath because when he sagged down the pulling would so pull on his diaphragm that he could not breath. So it would be a fearful time, strong men would last three days but in screaming agony. Crucifixion was a death normally reserved for slaves as was the breaking of bones to bring on death. Because the next day was to be a Sabbath the bodies had to come down. Jesus died early because the all night beating and punishment He endured was such that normally the bones in the back were exposed. The two malefactors crucified with Jesus were still alive when Jesus ‘ side was pierced, pierced with a spear to see if he were truly dead, blood and water both came out. The screaming agony of the two malefactors when their leg bones were broken must have been intense. It gives us an idea of how brutalized Roman soldiers were because they were used to this kind of horror and they performed their duties routinely.

It is noteworthy that while the three men were dying on their crosses the Jewish religious leaders went to Pilate to ask that the condemned men’s legs be broken so that they would not be on the crosses on the Sabbath. As far as they knew this would apply to Jesus also. Jesus had twice declared to these religious leaders that God had plainly said I will have mercy and not sacrifice but they were more interested in exercising vengeance against Jesus. To my knowledge this kind of cruelty, breaking with hammers the bones of condemned men was still used as recently as World War One by Turks on Arminian prisoners as a means of torture and execution. At this point in verses twenty five through twenty seven, or thirty five through thirty seven, John interjects a passionate statement. He tells us that he was there and witnessed what he describes. He insists on the total accuracy of what he reports and he calls upon us to believe him. Plumber commented on this and I quote:

“Why does John attest thus earnestly the trustworthiness of his narrative at this particular point? Four reasons may be assigned. This incident proved first the reality of Christ’s humanity against esthetic views. All these verses therefore are conclusive evidence against the theory that the fourth gospel is the work of a dosetic gnostic. Second, the reality of Christ’s divinity against [unknown] views. While his human form was no phantom but flesh and blood yet He was not therefore a mere man but the Son of God. Third, the reality of Christ’s death and therefore of His resurrection against Jewish insinuations of trickery and fourth, the clear and unexpected fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies.” Unquote.

John cites two prophecies as here fulfilled, first there is Psalm 34:20: “He keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken”, this echoes also Exodus 12:46 concerning the Passover lamb and Numbers 9:12. Jesus says John is our true Passover lamb and not one of his bones are broken. Second the citation about the piercing is from Psalm 22:16 and Zechariah 12:10. John refers to this verse again in Revelation 1:7. The origin of both citations is from David and they tell us that David’s experiences and concerns prefigured those of the Messiah. In verses thirty eight through forty two we have the burial of Jesus described.

Joseph of [unknown] was a secret disciple. We are told in verse thirty eight that he was afraid of the leaders. We are told about him in Matthew 27:53 and Mark 15:43 and also in Luke 23:50. He was rich, he was a member of the Sanhedrin, but we are also told that he was a good and just man. His fearfulness does not disbar him from his rightful place as a secondary level disciple. The same was true of Nicodemus. These two men are named because we are to respect them, and it is very, very wrong for people to condemn Nicodemus and Joseph of [unknown], God does not. Joseph of [unknown] had ownership of a new grave and this was close by. He made it at once available for Jesus’ body, moreover he went to Pilate to gain permission for the burial. Nicodemus assisted him by providing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds, or twelve hundred ounces, to be packed around the body for its burial. This was in terms of Jewish practice although here a very generous amount is in evidence. As quickly as they could before sunset the body was wrapped and hastily buried. Apparently the final burial work was left for the women to take care of on the first day of the week. The tomb was not far from Golgotha, we are told specifically that the tomb was a new and unused one and not one designed for multiple bodies. This was to stress the total holiness of the Lord’s body and the undefiled nature of His grave.

To his followers this was important. They were bewildered by the course of events; they did find it difficult to understand our Lord’s predictions of His resurrection, why did He have to die? But they were still totally convinced of His perfect holiness. The crucifixion, burial and resurrection were for centuries especially common subjects of church art. A far more jaded area and age finds it a less shattering fact to imagine the death of God, God the Son, in His incarnation. Somehow like the Gnostics we have trouble seeing it as an actuality. Similarly the resurrection is a problem for people now because in the modern age death is seen as final rather than as a prelude to heaven and hell and to judgment. Modern man has a warped vision. Before World War Two a scientist wrote a book on experiment with time. In passing he called attention to the fact that agnostics and atheists had predicted that with the loss of Christian faith and a loss of belief in life after death men would prize their brief life more and would behave more humanely so that it was anticipated that as Christianity receded people would be more loving and thoughtful of each other, but instead he saw a growing callousness to life with the loss of faith in God and life after death. Life became very cheap and man he saw was becoming progressively more brutal.

This he wrote about 1940, how much more brutal life has become since then. We should not wonder at this, if life has no meaning what value has it? What then is morality but misguided behavior? In recent years the importance socially of Good Friday and Resurrection Day has faded. Family funerals are less and less marked by family reunions and dinners. There are fewer tears at funerals and fewer family celebrations and some treat funerals as a bad relic of a previous era. On television now there is a group that advertises cremations and non-funeral dispositions of the dead. Towards the very end of the 1950’s one writer saw death as the coming pornography. He predicted that in a very short time what had been called pornography would become every day fair and the new pornography would be death. No one would want to deal with it or confront it, they would want the dead out of sight and the sick and dying out of sight, put away in homes where you hastily visited them and left. The unspeakable and the forbidden would become, he predicted, death. But John requires us to fix our attention on Christ’s death, on its grim nature, because he saw it as central to the meaning of life and of history. Believe on this above all, he says, because here is life and redemption. Here is death in its absolute horror, crucifixion and out of this comes salvation and resurrection. Let us pray.

Our Father we give thanks unto Thee that Thy word tells us clearly and plainly what the life of our Lord was. How He was despised and forsaken of men, how even His own turned and fled from Him. Make us ever mindful our Father that this can never happen to us but though those near and far turn from us Thou wilt never leave us nor forsake us, so that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper I shall not fear what man may do unto me. Open our lives that we may see and understand what the life of our Lord was, what it involved and what He did for us. Give us grateful hearts, make us mindful that though He was at that point indeed forsaken we are never forsaken because He is ever with us and near us, and He that so much for us did do will do yet more and care for us. Our God we thank Thee, in Christ’s name, Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Question unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] What?

[Question unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] No, because there are some things by punishable by death and others aren’t. And there really is more freedom given under God’s law then is given in our society because it isn’t things that lead us astray, it’s our heart.

[Question unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] What?

[[Question] That wouldn’t fall under Deuteronomy thirteen?

[Rushdoony] In what sense?

[Question unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] I don’t see how it would, maybe I don’t grasp the point, but when men have no faith in God and do not see an eternal hope in Him death is going to be something they are afraid of. Yes?

[Question unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] The diminished emphasis on Christ’s death and atonement and the resurrection have led to a kind of sentimentalization of Christianity. The emphasis has shifted from the redemptive aspect into Jesus wants us to be nice people and to love each other. It has had a very bad effect so that while there are countless churches that proclaim they believe the bible from cover to cover they really don’t bother with a great deal of it. I was a student when I read a book by a prominent evangelical theologian. It was his textbook for theology and in the course of it dealing with the atonement and the cross he said we really don’t understand what this means but we simply believe that somehow Jesus saves us. Now I was really upset, fearfully upset when I read that, knowing how highly regarded the man was in evangelical quarters, but I began to understand increasingly that a good deal of teaching is some vague thing about the cross and Jesus saving us, but how? Nothing on that.

So the church has gotten eggshell thin in its knowledge of the meaning of the gospel. It is all important that we return to that. In the early middle ages there was a great deal of mysticism that took over, the church grew weak as a result. Then Saint [unknown] came out with his [unknown], why did God become man. His treatise on the atonement, and it created a tremendous revolution intellectually. It revived the church; it revived Christian faith, because it fixed attention on the meaning of the cross, on atonement. Well, although that emphasis did wane with time in the late medieval church it was revived in Calvin and Luther and it has been the hallmark of sound Christian faith ever since. This is why we need a return without qualifications to the full orbed faith in Christ’s death and its meaning. I do believe that is coming, one of the things, if I may continue a little longer, that tells me that is that we have seen in the past twenty five years approximately a tremendous reprinting of Christian classic writings and that in itself has been a major power in the post-world-war world. If Calvin’s commentaries were on the best seller list and the best seller list excludes all religious works except maybe occasionally somebody like [unknown] and Billy Graham, as a token thing, Calvin would be one of the best sellers since World War Two.

Other things like [unknown] and other theological works, well these are important indications of what is beginning to take place. There is truly a major theological revival building up. It is still rejected by the seminaries, the seminaries both Catholic and Protestant are better at teaching church management than anything else and their emphasis is on a professional clergy when it should be on a called clergy. But all around the ages of the church there is this revival of solid thinking pushing in on the church and it is going to create a major change. Yes?

[Question] Could you comment on the term ‘Christian burial’?

[Rushdoony] Yes. We need to realize that in most of the world death and burial are things that are regarded with fear. A few cultures have not, the most notable was ancient Egypt, they did believe in some way, in some kind of resurrection. That is because Egyptian culture was so old it still had remnants of the primitive revelation given to the Patriarchs and those who preceded them going back to Shem, Ham and Japhif. But in most the dead are to be placated and feared. When I went to the Indian reservation I realized this afresh, how real this was, because prior to the coming of Christianity which was responsible for creating Indian cemeteries they would bury them someplace and put branches of rosebushes over the body immediately on death, they’d be cut and ready, so the ghost wouldn’t crawl out and haunt them.

Bury it and move on to some other place far from where the person was buried. So the burials were usually out in some isolated spot in the hills with unmarked graves. The idea of sacred burying grounds among the Indians is nonsense. They sometimes would bury several at a time if there were some kind of sickness that killed them. Out in the hills or someplace far from them. They were afraid of the dead. Other peoples would put them in [unknown] that would be made of stones that would gradually eat up the remains including the bones. This would be to eliminate them, they did not like the thought of death. Well, very early the Christians began to show respect for the dead, their dead, and the catacombs were built so they could bury them someplace secretly, deep underground, where remains of the Christian martyrs in particular would not be subjected to abuse. Then they would very commonly in these underground tombs, the catacombs, gather periodically around the grave or coffin of a loved one or a prominent believer who had been martyred and eat there and give thanks, a little thanksgiving service. So the Christian cemetery and the Christian service little by little caught on around the world wherever there were converts there was some kind of change at once affected and instead of a fear of the dead there was a respect for the dead.

Are there any other questions or comments, yes?

[Question unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] It was done then because they were waiting to arrest Him, it would have to be done when He came from wherever He was unknown to them into Jerusalem for the Passover. So that was their one chance to arrest Him, late at night to avoid inflaming the crowds because there were great crowds that followed Him everywhere and would have rioted if He had been openly and publicly arrested. He was arrested late at night, the first trial took place at night, right before Annas then before Caiaphas, before dawn or about dawn and then with Pilate at dawn sharp. So that before most people would be stirring it was all an accomplished fact. They were afraid of the public reaction and the only way they could arrest Him would be when everybody would be inside celebrating the Passover. Yes?

[Question] Is cremation not the way to handle a Christian death, then?

[Rushdoony] The Bible doesn’t speak about cremation except it does refer to it as being done by some pagans. The basic Christian objection has been that while we cannot say this is wrong the Bible nowhere condemns it, on the other hand our respect for the dead is a mark of our faith and it is a witness that we, even the dead we don’t know, we take care of their cemeteries. For example, on liberty road as you go towards Highway 99 there is what is called pioneer cemetery and as far as I know none of their families are any longer in the area but various people, sometimes organized groups, come in and take care of them out of respect from those who first settle in the area and for the faith and character they represented. So the care for cemeteries has been a mark of respect for the passed and those who labored and helped us inherit the kind of society we have. I’m sorry to say that in some major cities without notifications to families they are actually paving over graveyards without notice and building buildings on them. One person recently attempted to file a lawsuit on it but I don’t believe they got anywhere. But we are showing a progressive contempt for the past and for the dead. In an ideal plan for New York City there was no place given to it in the planning for graveyards or mortuaries. So one critic commented ‘are you assuming that everybody is going to live forever when you build your new city?’

Well our time is almost up, let us close with prayer.

Our Father we give thanks unto Thee that Thou hast made us members of Christ’s new humanity, heirs of the new creation. Give us faith and confidence day by day so that we may not be dispirited or disheartened by the world around us but empowered by the new creation of which we are members. And now go in peace, God the Fat her, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen.