THE THIRTEENTH STATION: JESUS IS TAKEN DOWN FROM THE CROSS

Joseph of Arimathea asked for Christ’s crucified body and then laid it in a tomb. Such faith. Such resolve.

As a member of the Sanhedrin, Joseph risked his reputation — his life, even — with his request. St. Mark calls the act courageous. Once granted, Joseph had to face an unthinkable reality.

Luke tells us that Joseph wrapped the body in a linen cloth, “after he had taken the body down.” A different kind of courage had to be summoned for that moment.

Only John writes that Nicodemus accompanied Joseph, bringing myrrh and aloe weighing about a hundred pounds. This was no small undertaking. Perhaps together, perhaps with others, they worked out how to remove Christ’s lifeless body from the cross. And then they had to do it. To wrap their arms around the man they believed to be the Messiah, letting go of fear and grief, forgetting themselves and doing what they could to treat his battered body with dignity and tenderness.

Where were they going to put it? Matthew says Joseph laid the body “in his new tomb that he had hewn in the rock.” Joseph would have had no idea he had been preparing the space for the reality shattering glory that would occur there.

Faith. Resolve. Courage. Undertakings large and small. Dignity. Tenderness. Plans. Faithfulness to our daily tasks.

We pray for these graces, as we too, create spaces for the reality shattering glory of the Lord in our world.