Waiting and the Way of Light

Mark 15:42-47

And when evening had already come, because it was Preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent Council member, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God, and he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus… [Pilate] granted the body to Joseph. And when Joseph had bought a linen cloth and took Him down, he wrapped Him in the linen cloth and laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out in the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.

Mark goes to some length to describe the situation after Jesus’ death.

The Romans usually left a body to decay on the cross after crucifixion as a gruesome warning to those who would defy imperial authority. However, John records that the Jewish leaders asked that the bodies not be left on the cross on that Sabbath because of Passover. So, the executioners hastened the death of the two men crucified with Jesus. As Jesus had already died, there was no need for Him to suffer additional torture and indignity (John 19:31-37). 

Pilate summoned the Centurion who supervised the execution for confirmation, as it didn’t seem to him that Jesus could have died after only six hours. To be a centurion, the Roman soldier had to have been older than 30, literate and had a track record of leading others in battle. The man was familiar with death. 

Pilate was satisfied. Jesus was dead. 

In unusual cases, the bodies of individuals of higher social standing could be claimed by their families for burial. Joseph of Arimathea overcame his fear of being ostracized by the Jewish Ruling Council of which he was a member and the risk of being identified as a follower of Jesus by the Roman ruler. He asked Pilate for permission to bury Jesus’ body. Pilate, who might have still felt regret for the moral compromised of his decision, granted the request. 

Those who had the terrible task of burial preparation worked quickly but didn’t finish because of the Sabbath sunset and fading light. According to John’s gospel, a group that included Joseph and Nicodemus managed to bind Jesus’ body in linen wrappings with about 75 lbs. of myrrh and aloes before laying Him in a tomb near the place where Jesus was crucified (John 19:39-42). They planned to return and complete their work after the Sabbath ended at dawn on Sunday morning.

The others of His followers who were not at the tomb shared grief beyond imagination. They had lost the One they had come to know and in whom they had hoped. Their grief was all they could see. 

We know that we’d feel the same way.

As they waited and mourned that Saturday, how could they have known that the way of the cross was not the end for Jesus? Within a day it became clear. 

“Via crucis via lucis” “The Way of the Cross is the Way of Light.”

In the gathering light of the next day’s dawn, it began to become clear.

The light is gathering still. 

And so we walk, we wait, and we believe.