Episode 490

TODAY’S READING

Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body.

Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth, and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid.

It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it.

Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

Luke 23:52-56

 

We are just moments after Jesus was crucified, and we see a man by the name of Joseph. He asks Pilate for Jesus’s body, and he goes ahead, and he prepares his body, and he lays him to rest. And what is beautiful about the story is that Joseph was not a disciple. He was just an ordinary man that recognize the significance of this person of our Savior. And in doing so, he offered up his tomb that he was already prepared for. He had already purchased this tomb. This was his. I guess his tumor, his family’s tomb, and instead of saving it for him when his time would eventually come, he offered that up and gave it to Jesus. And I love the Bible so much because it speaks in so many different ways. And so, on the one hand, we are reading the story of what is happening step by step. We are recording what happened on that day. What happened that weekend. And then, on the other hand, it shows us in detail what we need. It kind of foreshadows in great detail. What makes the resurrection so important. The first thing that we notice is that the tomb was cut in the rock, so that’s a big part because the stone is eventually going to be rolled away. And it’s a huge piece of rock had to have been extremely heavy, and it needed people to roll, and in our case, when we read the story of Easter morning, there was nobody around to roll the rock. So that’s one of the significant parts. And the second is that it highlights that the woman who had come with Jesus from Galilee had followed Joseph into the tomb, and so she saw the body saw Jesus being laid down to rest, and she’s also the one that was gonna discover him on Sunday. And so, it is powerful on all fronts. But then the third part that I love that the Bible speaks and breathes life is that we see a person who was preparing for his life, and then God used that and pivoted his story. And he used it in another place. And so that happens all the time. I always maybe cook a lot for dinner, and I put half away, and I’m planning on eating it tomorrow for lunch, but my sister comes over, and she’s hungry, and so I’m able to bless her with a meal. And God had already seen that for what it was going to be, and so he uses our preparation to bless others. Whenever God asks you to move, I say move. You know, it’s something that I have learned to be beneficial in my life and in the lives of others. And in this case in Joseph’s case, he was prepared; he had a tomb for his family and for himself, and in this case, he gave it to Jesus, and so it is a monumental part of the resurrection story, and it was all because someone prepared and he prepared thinking one thing, but God used it in another way. And so that’s just a testament to all of us. May we continue to prepare in our lives, and may we continue to see God open doors that we never saw coming.

 

Prayer

Father God, we love you so much. We thank you for this beautiful and blessed day; Good Friday. We recognize everything that your son did for us on that cross. He died for our sins. He died for me and for the person on the other side of this mic, or do we take the opportunity today to continue to grow deeper in our faith to continue to recognize and honor the man that Jesus was? We love him, and we love you so much, and we thank you for this beautiful Friday. We are excited to celebrate Easter this weekend. We are excited for the resurrection story. This is what our faith is built on. So, Lord, this is the greatest weekend of the year. We love you, and we thank you; we asked you to bless the day ahead of us, and it is in your son’s holy name that we pray. Amen.