Biblion Bible Commentary
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A Hundred Pounds of Spices
John 19:38-42
38 After these things, Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked of Pilate that he might take away Jesus’ body. Pilate gave him permission. He came therefore and took away his body. · WEB
Two frightened men come out into the open on the one day it could only cost them.
Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked of Pilate that he might take away Jesus' body John 19:38.
The description is unsparing and it is not a sneer. He was a disciple; he was secret; the reason was fear, and the fear was reasonable — this book has just recorded the policy of expulsion John 9:22 and the rulers who believed and would not say so John 12:42.
And then he goes to Pilate.
The timing is what makes it remarkable. He declares himself on the one day when there is nothing to gain — the movement is finished, the leader is dead, and the only conceivable result of asking a governor for the body of a man executed for sedition is to be identified with him.
Secret discipleship ends, in this account, at the moment it becomes pointless and costly.
Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred Roman pounds John 19:39.
The writer will not let him be introduced without the night, and this is the third time John 3:2 John 7:50. It is not mockery; it is a measurement. The man who came in the dark is here in daylight with his arms full.
And the quantity is absurd. A hundred pounds of spices is a royal burial — the amount used at the funeral of a king — and it would have cost a fortune and taken more than one man to carry.
He had asked, three years earlier, how a man could be born when he is old John 3:4. Whatever answer he arrived at, this is what it produced.
So they took Jesus' body, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury John 19:40.
Two members of the council handle a corpse on the eve of a Sabbath, which made them ceremonially unclean for the feast. The men who would not enter the Praetorium that morning in case it defiled them John 18:28 are keeping the Passover; these two are in a garden with a body.
Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden. In the garden was a new tomb in which no man had ever yet been laid John 19:41.
The details matter for what follows. A garden — this book began with a Word who made all things, and Scripture began in a garden and a man of dust. A new tomb, never used, so there can be no confusion about whose body was missing.
Then, because of the Jews' Preparation Day (for the tomb was near at hand), they laid Jesus there John 19:42.
The last clause is practical and a little sad. The tomb is chosen because it was close and the light was going. Two frightened men, working fast against sundown, do the best they can — and it turns out to be exactly enough.
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