The story of Nick and Joe

I have heard a number of Easter sermons but the most interesting one belongs to one that I heard recently regarding how Nick and Joe saved Easter, telling the story of Easter from the perspective of these two jokers. Below is a snippet of their story (emphasis mine)

Later, [Joe] of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now [Joe] was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by [Nick], the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. [Nick] brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. - John 19:38-42 (NIV 2010)

Yes, you guess it, the folks are Joseph are Arimathea and Nicodemus, who are familiar and yet normally forgotten characters of the whole story. From an apologetic perspective, these two chaps did a great service to the whole resurrection story because they made sure that the body of Jesus, after He died from crucifixion, was properly buried. In case you are thinking what's the big deal over a proper burial, it is because a crucified person is normally not buried after he's dead. The act of Joe and Nick was a peculiar one but not unique. I did a research online and have not yet verified it through other studies but it seems that there were some accounts of people bribing officials to get the bodies for proper burial. Some accounts also stated that crucified bodies were normally left to rot for a few days before being disposed in some mass graves. The crux of the whole Easter resurrection story historically hinges on the fact that Jesus did indeed died on the cross before He was seen alive again three days later. The act of Nick and Joe ensured that He was dead and He was properly buried. The Romans have already done their job by piercing Jesus after He's dead. The flow of water and blood was a result of the medical condition that resulted from the stress that Jesus experienced. But Joe and Nick made sure it's certain.

Now, here's the fascinating thing about the story. They wrapped around 35kg worth of myrrh and aloes on a dead body which had been scarred by Roman whipping (if you are not convinced, the Passion of Christ was a historically accurate depiction of that torture) and crucifixion (the piercing severed a nerve on our hands that amplified pain similar to that when we hit our funny bone). Try telling a sane person that a man who is not dead after all those torture can still be alive after being wrapped in 35kg of spices (that probably will serve to crash him and made him die of suffocation).

But my interest in Nick and Joe is not in the fact that they did a service to the apologetic work for the case for resurrection. The interesting fact to note for these two jokers is that they are closet disciples of Jesus right from the beginning and had not dared to come out straight with their faith even though they believed in Jesus, although I believe through this, God has elegantly paved the way for the historical events that followed. This fact intrigued me because this perhaps describes some of the people around who secretly believed in Jesus and felt that He made a lot of sense. Reflecting on my own experience, I realised that Jesus was beginning to make a lot of sense to me during the days that led up to my conversion. In fact, I clearly recall one afternoon in the toilet when I was struggling with myself if Jesus was indeed the one whom I had wanted to follow. I decided against that cos I did not want to give the others the pleasure of knowing that they are right (pride). Even after I said the sinner's prayer, it took me quite a while to come out to the open.

The reasons why we want to remain in the closet are numerous, some common ones include 'I dun want to prove my friends right', 'I'm afraid of what my other friends will say' and 'it's personal and not public'. Yet if we think about it, it clearly contradicts what Jesus said, 'a town built on a hill cannot be hidden' or it cannot remain unseen for long. If we are truly a disciple of Christ, someone one day will know (although I would think Nick and Joe could hide it well because by following what Jesus taught, it wasn't really that different from the teachings of the Pharisee).

But that's why I found the story of these two chaps interesting, cos at the end of the day, it was not the disciples who did the burial, but it was two secret disciples who decided to come out to the open.

Before I end, here's a little joke.

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. - Mark 16:1

Have anyone wondered why the Marys and gang had wanted to bring spices to anoint the body even though the body was already treated with spice before burial? The answer: because it was done by man...