Dark Night of Death
Matthew 27:57-66
When it was evening, there came a rich man…and asked for the body of Jesus…and laid it in his own new tomb…. vs. 57, 60
The followers of Jesus weren’t just “the least of these,” the riff-raff of society, the forgotten ones. Joseph of Arimathea also considered himself a follower of Jesus. Joseph was rich, which probably meant he had power and position. Yet he comes into the shadow of the cross to claim the body of someone treated like the least of these. It’s evening when Joseph claims the body of Jesus. Dark shadows cover their actions. It’s the dark night of death.
The body needs a tomb. Joseph has one that he has prepared for himself for he knows that he’ll need a tomb one day. For now, though, he places Jesus in it. Inside it’s cool, and when the stone is rolled across it, the inside is inky black. The shadow of death has arrived.
Even with Jesus death and burial, the authorities are afraid. They want a guard placed before the tomb. Guards usually are stationed at prisons or palaces. Is the tomb a prison or a palace?
The grave is sealed and as Pilate says, “…make it as secure as you can!” Don’t let any light get into that dark place. Don’t let there be talk of resurrection. Don’t let the power and presence and promise of God break out.
Some of us already have made plans for when we die. We do so because we know death is inevitable. Like Joseph we may have a grave plot or a niche where we will be buried. That day will come and death will bring on a dark night. Death snuffs out life and light. Loved ones and strangers will carry us to our resting place.
On this day we do well to remember that on Ash Wednesday someone traced an ashen cross on our foreheads and we heard the words, “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
The dark night of death comes…and yet this one was placed in the tomb makes holy all tombs, even ours.
Pray: God of life and death, we pray today for all who grieve, all who face imminent death, all who struggle against dying that God would enter into their dark nights. As we remember our own mortality, help us to remember that Christ has died with us so that we might have new life. Amen.
Fast: From the illusion that we will live forever.
Act: Remember with thanksgiving those who have lived before us and especially those who nurtured in us the gift of faith.
...the least of these... 