As it had already
become late, since it was the day of Preparation (before the Sabbath),
Joseph of Arimathea, an
honored member of the council who was also waiting for the kingdom of God,
Dared to go to Pilate
and ask for the body of Jesus.
Pilate was amazed that
he was already dead and called to the centurion and asked him if Jesus had
already died.
When he had found that
out from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph.
~~
How do you have hope,
when all you have is a dead body? When
you see suffering, when you see the marks of thorns, nails, whips, and you feel
their effect in the graying stiffening smelling corpse that’s all you have left,
how can you have hope? When you know
that on a deeper level than physical causes of death, that the real cause was
human hands, the hands of sinners, created in the image and likeness of God but
fallen… just like you, how do you have hope?