When we think about uncompromising devotion to Jesus, many of us will automatically remember Mary and her broken alabaster jar. Indeed, she has been remembered and honored for centuries; her act of devotion and love to Jesus in the days prior to His terrifying ordeal on the cross has been the subject of many sermons and worship songs. Heck, I myself, marked and wrecked by her extravagant worship and love for Jesus, wrote a spoken word referencing her (which you can see here — yes, shameless plug…but it really will bless you lol).

The other day though, while reading John 19, two other figures leapt from the page and struck me so deeply in my soul; in my spirit; in my body. I physically felt a gut-punch; it knocked the wind out of me…and then the tears started flowing. Tears because something so obvious, so healing, that had been waiting patiently for me to find, had finally been discovered. And it changed me. True revelation will always bring transformation and a greater capacity to love truly and well.

John writes, And after these things Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one, for fear of the Jews, asked PIlate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate granted permission. He came therefore, and took away His body. And Nicodemus came also, who had first come to Him by night; bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. And so they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore on account of the Jewish day of preparation, because the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there (John 19:38-42, NASB).

At first glance, this scene is filled with technical—almost administrative—information. I remember my younger more hurried, more self-satisfied self glossing over these details and names. These two men never signified to me what a truly devoted disciple would be—they could never compare to Mary or John the Beloved—so I didn’t think there was much I could discover in this seemingly mundane inclusion of their actions (ah, praise the Lord that He deals with all sides of our spiritual pride and blindness). At best I considered their actions to carry only practical significance to the resurrection of Christ. Obviously, you would need an intact body for resurrection in a glorified form, so…problem solved!

In more recent years, as the Lord’s has slowed me down and taken me through some very deep healing of childhood and adolescent trauma and anxiety, I’ve grown to understand and appreciate the infinite nuances, avenues and dimensions to life and people…and understand that all can carry the mark of being marked by my Beloved.

Maybe because of this, these two men’s acts of secret devotion totally wrecked me. I saw them anew—they climbed the ranks of my “heroes of the faith” list and set themselves firmly alongside Mary and John; Moses and Paul.

This Joseph of Arimathea…he was a wealthy and influential man. He was a prominent member of the Sanhedrin, the official Jewish council that managed political, religious and judicial aspects of Jewish life under Empire. He disagreed with the council’s decision to crucify Jesus, and though John states that he was a secret follower for fear of the Jews, at this moment—at the moment when nearly all of Jesus’ friends and devoted disciples have scattered, fled, and denied him—Joseph acts.

He boldly and alone goes to Pilate to ask for his Messiah’s body. Pilate grants permission. It is also worth noting that Roman law did allow the body of those condemned to death to be buried by relatives or by any who would request. Yet I wonder…did Pilate also perhaps recognize in Joseph the noble passion and conviction of a man who will not be deterred from mission, no matter what the cost? Or perhaps Pilate himself is also fully convinced that Jesus is innocent.

Joseph, joined by Nicodemus, lovingly takes His body down from the cross so the precious body of Jesus doesn’t hang there, abandoned and exposed, through the Sabbath weekend, a day that’s been holy since creation began.

Nicodemus, “who had first come to Him by night,” is also a Pharisee and a well-known, respected ruler of the Jews. He too, took a slow route toward publicly confessing his belief in Jesus as Messiah—but rather than the narration focusing on their “slowness” to publicly follow Jesus, it rather seems to exclaim joyfully, tearfully, that it was at the moment when the risk was the greatest, when even Peter who had so passionately declared that he was ready to even die for Jesus but then denied Him, it was at this moment, when Jesus needed a body for His body, that these two devoted men walk into God’s eternal story.

And it was not a last minute coincidental, on the whim decision for these men. Joseph had a tomb prepared—sure, it was probably his own—but the timing of this tomb being ready, brand new, unused—-is not coincidence. How happy Joseph must’ve been to be able to surrender something as significant and important as his own burial site to Messiah.

And let’s not forget Nicodemus—he brought with him a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75-100 pounds. That is a significant amount and weight; as extravagant as an alabaster jar of nard being poured out on Jesus before His burial.

If Mary had prepared Jesus’ body for burial before He went to the cross, these two men took charge of His body for burial after the cross. Caring for the dead was considered a special command by God—it was a “true kindness” (Chesed Shel Emet), because the deceased could not return the kindness. How thankful and happy these men must have been to render an honest kindness to their Master, to keep His body from being ravaged by beasts or further humiliated by continuing to hang on that tree. In John’s gospel narrative, Mary, Joseph, Nicodemus rise like gold in the furnace as faithful, ministering lovers, made bold because of love.

Imagine it—two men in the middle of a chaotic, sovereign moment…the 4-inch thick veil in their holy temple, the center of their daily lives, has just torn in half. Graves of their revered ancestors all around Jerusalem have opened and these formerly dead saints are walking around, alive and well. How confusing, chaotic, terrible and exciting this moment must have been. And yet these two men have only one thing on their mind: their Messiah, their Master. Two men carefully and intentionally un-crucifying the bruised, beaten, unmoving body of Jesus from the cross, the most humiliating symbol of crushing Empire.

Imagine the weight of that moment. Not just the literal, physical weight of a corpse—a body without breath—but the emotional, psychological, and spiritual torment of touching, seeing so up close, the unspirited body of their Savior.

Imagine the smell of blood and broken flesh, of stale sweat and tears, and maybe a lingering hint of Mary’s nard, all the fragrances of death and hope and torment and love engulfing them as they gently and efficiently bind Jesus’ body in clean linen and the myrrh and aloes.

How the paradoxical irony of the moment must have hit them. Even as they bury Him, a body without breath, they are proclaiming He is their Messiah, He is the Son of God. Even as they are so close to death, touching it, they are proclaiming faith not only in the resurrection, but in the power and authority of Jesus to cleanse us all from unrighteousness. His power and authority to make us pure and holy.

Remember that touching and handling a corpse automatically would have made both Joseph and Nicodemus ritually impure, thus disqualifying them from entering the Temple during one of the most holy festivals of the Jewish people. According to Mosaic law, it was considered sin to come before the presence of God while ritually impure.

Yet here…we can see that Joseph and Nicodemus were integral to God’s plan for the Messiah to finally and definitively defeat the forces of death that cause ritual impurity and unholiness, which prevents us from oneness with the God who is holy. Which Jesus did when He resurrected.

I believe Joseph and Nicodemus understood the risk—all the risk—of what they were doing when they were publicly declaring their love and faith in Jesus as Messiah. As the one who would, finally, do away with all impurity and death once and for all.

The other part of this that hit me like lightning is that in my NASB study version, this whole portion is subtitled, “Care for the Body of Jesus.”

The body of Jesus, here, is a body that has been hellishly traumatized. Abused in the most brutal, violent, and dehumanizing of ways. It’s a body whose flesh has been pierced, torn apart, beaten, bruised…laughed at, mocked, bullied, exposed, humiliated.

For any of us who have ever survived physical, emotional, sexual and/or spiritual abuse…this…this body of Jesus in this moment, bloodied and without breath…we understand this body in this terrible moment. We feel what had to happen for this body to bleed, for this body to lose life and breath.

Oh, but Beloved.

Here, two devotees come. In the moment when all the other lovers have fled, abandoned, betrayed and denied this body and the One to whom it belongs, two men come with chesed and devotion. They appear with boldness and influence in front of Pontius Pilate, the representative of the empire that is oppressing their faith and ethnic identity, their very essence, to retrieve the vulnerable body of their Lord and King.

The Father had prepared a people, a small remnant of two, for this moment—even here, in death and terror and chaos and brokenness without breath, the Father did not forget. He did not forget about the vulnerable body—He sent people and prepared a place so that this naked body hanging on a cross could be tenderly cared for, protected, sealed…so that it could rest while He continued in secret His work of devoted, resurrecting love.

There is the very important correlation of the Body of Jesus as the Church. And of the care of the church—specifically the persecuted church, our brothers and sisters in nations where they, too, know about the Broken Body that bleeds. There is a company of Arimathean Josephs and Nicodemii, men of bold faith and influence and wealth who will rise to defend this most broken, beaten, and vulnerable body of Christ. This is such an important and necessary discussion that will have to be further explored in another post to give it the attention and prayer it richly deserves.

For this post, the lens is our physical bodies. If there was ever any doubt that God also cares so very much and tenderly about our physical well-being, our literal physical bodies, no matter how much shame and trauma has been beaten into them—these verses dispel that doubt.

As a woman who has had my fair share of body-shaming and body-abuse trauma, yes some at the hands of not-so-kind others/men, but also from my own behaviors fueled by toxic insecurities, fears, generational sins, and self-rejecting hatred, this simple phrase “Care of the Body of Jesus” was a gut-wrenching revelation.

I spent my late 20s and most of my 30s cultivating a heart of extravagant worship like Mary. And, I hope to continue to do so. But, what I’m learning now from these two unexpected men is that this heart of bridal devotion that both they and Mary carried, was also devotion to the whole Jesus. They ministered to His heart, mind, soul, spirit and body in life and in death.

Something about anointing His body in preparation for His glorified form hit at the roots of decades of shame, self-rejection and self-judgment/criticism aimed at my body and body parts. This body that is a temple for the Spirit of God.

This changes how I exist in this physical form—as the hatred and rejection disappears, as the trauma deeply heals, my body feels less like an unknowable stranger. It’s desires, dislikes, likes, appetites, signals of emotion in changing heart pace and breathing…they become less of a danger and threat that I must anxiously control, and more of a dance.

As I yield to and partner with Holy Spirit to choreograph this dance, my body and all its movements, its rhythms of needs and holy fulfillment, are a reminder that I’m mercifully and fully alive in Christ.

The care of the holy yet broken body of Jesus required anointing oils and spices, and clean linen robes. These were to prepare for His resurrection and glorification.

Just as Hadassah spent six months of a beauty regimen in preparation to win the favor of the Persian King—which then paved the way for her to save her people from genocide—there is something that is wholly redemptive and wholly holy in caring for our physical bodies. It only becomes vanity when we lose sight of why we need the oil, the treatments, the clean garments. The purpose is redemptive, not just for yourself, but for nations and generations.