Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 446
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IMMERSE
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MESSIAH
19:30–20:8
sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. When
Jesus had tasted it, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and
gave up his spirit.
It was the day of preparation, and the Jewish leaders didn’t want the bodies hanging there the next day, which was the Sabbath (and a very special
Sabbath, because it was Passover week). So they asked Pilate to hasten
their deaths by ordering that their legs be broken. Then their bodies could
be taken down. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men
crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was
already dead, so they didn’t break his legs. One of the soldiers, however,
pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed
out. (This report is from an eyewitness giving an accurate account. He
speaks the truth so that you also may continue to believe.) These things
happened in fulfillment of the Scriptures that say, “Not one of his bones
will be broken,” and “They will look on the one they pierced.”
Afterward Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a secret disciple of Jesus
(because he feared the Jewish leaders), asked Pilate for permission to take
down Jesus’ body. When Pilate gave permission, Joseph came and took
the body away. With him came Nicodemus, the man who had come to
Jesus at night. He brought about seventy-five pounds of perfumed ointment made from myrrh and aloes. Following Jewish burial custom, they
wrapped Jesus’ body with the spices in long sheets of linen cloth. The place
of crucifixion was near a garden, where there was a new tomb, never used
before. And so, because it was the day of preparation for the Jewish Passover and since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.
Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to
the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.
She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus
loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we
don’t know where they have put him!”
Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. They were both
running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but
he didn’t go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered
Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. Then
the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and
