The Sanctuary Downtown / Relentless Love

Breathe in (inspire). Breathe out (expire). We did breathing exercises at the start of the sermon this week. “The Spirit [Pneuma: wind, breath] is life...” (Romans 8:10). So... we then held our breath, afraid to lose it, and ran into problems. If you don’t breathe, you will die. But maybe it’s not your breath that you’re holding? “When you [Yahweh] take away their breath [Ruach: Spirit] they die and return to dust. When you send forth your Spirit [Ruach: Breath (same word)], they are created, and you renew the face of the ground [Adamah]” (Psalm 105). Of course, Scripture is talking about more than just oxygen. God created Oxygen. You didn’t always “breathe” oxygen. At one time, it came to you through an umbilical cord in your mother’s womb. You breathed amniotic fluid until labor and delivery caused you to “expire” the womb world and inspire this world. The last thing I said to my father, just before he died of interstitial lung disease, was “This is his body broken for you. This is the covenant in his blood. Dad, you don’t have to breathe this air anymore; you’re going to breathe God.” And the last thing he said to me (in this world) was, “Thank you.” John 4:24, Jesus said, “God is Breath [Pneuma].” The Greek word, pneuma, translates the Hebrew word, ruach. And they both mean “spirit, wind, or breath.” An individual breath is often called a nashamah in Hebrew (also hebel), or pnoe in Greek (like pneuma). In Genesis 2:7, God (Ruach) breathed the breath (nashamah) of life into dust from the ground (adamah), and Adam (Mankind) became a living soul. Each one of us is the Breath of God in an earthen vessel that God has made, in an earthen vessel that we think we have made, surrounded by God — who is Breath and Life — wondering, “Where is God, and what is life?” Ironically, little children will sometimes hold their breath in response to pain or a loss of control... and lose consciousness. Maybe we all do. Maybe we’re so afraid of losing our breath that we hold it. Have you ever had the wind knocked out of you? You won’t get the wind knocked out of you if you “tighten up,” if you’re always prepared for an unexpected blow. And yet if you’re always “tightened up,” you can’t breathe and you’ll pass out. Well, in our text for this week, John 20:19-23, the disciples must’ve felt like they had the wind knocked out of them. But first, I need to remind us of something we read in John 19:30: “Jesus said ‘It is finished,’ bowed his head and gave up [paradidomai: to betray, hand over] his Spirit [ho pneuma: the Spirit].” All four gospels make a big deal of this. Mark records that Jesus “ekneusen” [literally, “expired” — that is, “out-spirited”]. And when the Centurion saw how He “out-spirited,” he exclaimed, “This is the Son of God.” The dying body naturally inspires upon a cross, for the rib cage is extended by the weight of the body. To expire, Jesus had to push himself up on the nails. Luke also points this out. Matthew records that he gave a loud cry and “apheken” (from ‘aphiemi’)” the Spirit; He literally “forgave” the Spirit. Perhaps betrayal and forgiveness can be the same event but from two different perspectives? As far as I can tell, Jesus (the last Adam) is the first adam in Scripture to have ever done this: He intentionally expired the Spirit. Suicides “take” their “own” life. Jesus gave “the Life.” So, it appears that God breathed His breath into Adam, and adam (us) held his breath, until the Last Adam (who is the firstborn from the dead, firstborn of many brethren, and firstborn of all creation) expired, on the tree in the garden on the Holy Mountain, the tree that we call the cross. We took “the Life” and He gave “the Life.” He is the Good (“God alone is good”) in the dust of the adamah. Then at the tree, Eve did what Adam had been doing since he was created; we all hold our breath, the Breath. Paul writes, “The first adam became a living soul [an individual self-conscious self]; the last adam became a life-giving Spirit [pneuma].” In Roman 8:10, he writes, “If Christ is in you [It appears that he is, according to Jesus in John 14:20] although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit [pneuma] is life because of righteousness.” Sin is trying to retain the breath of God (“hebel” striving after “ruach”). Righteousness is breathing the Breath of God, which is the judgment of God in us, that is Christ Jesus in us, the Logic of Love in us. Or better: Righteousness is being breathed by God in Christ Jesus... Like I was saying, the disciples must’ve felt like they just had the wind knocked out of them in John 19. John 20:19-22, “On the evening of [the first of the Sabbaths], the doors being locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.’ And when he said this, he breathed on [emphusao: to blow into] them....” The disciples had the wind knocked out of them at the cross; they were expired as Jesus expired. And now, Jesus is inspiring them with something like a kiss, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. This is the only place “emphusao” is used in the New Testament. It’s the word used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament to describe how God created Adam. Next Verse: John 20:23, “If you forgive [aphiemi: let go] the sins of any, they are forgiven [aphiemi] them...” Amazing! If these guys forgive everyone, then everyone is forgiven, even though everyone didn’t sin against “these guys.” And yet... every sinner did sin against Jesus. “Against you, you only, have I sinned,” wrote David (Psalm 51:4). David is saying, “You [God] were the Life in Uriah that I took; you were the Good in Bathsheba that I raped.” If Jesus is “the Life,” and “the Good” in human flesh, then against Him and Him only do we sin; we only sin against Him... but in eight or nine billion temples of flesh (adamah). John 20:23, Jesus appears to the disciples who are locked down in fear, unable to breathe, and He says, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them.” Then the ESV reads as follows, “If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” It reads that way, for it’s been understood that way ever since the Church was conscripted by the empire. In the 16th century, the Roman Catholic Church codified the idea at the Council of Trent; unless a Roman Catholic priest announced forgiveness, one is not forgiven. The Protestants argued that we’re all priests, which implies that we all have the power to send people to hell with unforgiveness. It may be a convenient idea for establishing ecclesiastical authority, but there are some problems with it. Suppose a priest refuses to forgive someone. Does that mean that the Lamb of God did not “take away the sin of the world”? Does it mean that although Jesus prayed, “Father forgive them,” the Father could not, because one of us did not, two thousand years later? Doesn’t it utterly undo what Jesus just said, “If you forgive... they are forgiven”? Jesus literally said, “If you forgive [aphiemi] the sins of any, they are forgiven [aphiemi] them; if you retain [krateo: hold on to] (“the sins of any”), they are retained [krateo].” They (the sins) are retained. Retained by whom? The Sinner? There is a sense in which refusing to proclaim “the Forgiveness of sins” traps sinners in the cycle of still committing those same sins... But that’s not really what Jesus said. He must mean, “The sins are retained by the one who refuses to forgive.” Jesus told a story about a king who forgave a servant a huge sum of money, who then refused to forgive another servant a small amount of money. When the king found out, he had that servant thrown into prison “until he should pay all his debt.” Of course, the servant could never pay what he considered to be his debt, and so, he could never get out until he believed that the king had actually forgiven his debt, just as the king had already said. It’s the same for you and for me. When someone sins against you, you think they took some of your life; yet, your life is actually Christ’s life (He is “the Life”) that you obviously took from Him. His life was breathed into you in a garden. And even as you take it from Him on a tree in the sanctuary of your soul, He gives it to you, saying, “Father, forgive. They know not what they do.” God consigned us to disobedience that we might see what is obviously true, but we each refuse to believe. And that is that absolutely everything is Grace, including the knowledge that everything is Grace. So, we must be known by Grace. And that’s eternal life, for Heaven is absolute non-stop glorious Grace. It’s constant aphiemi, paradidomai, ekpneo (expiration), and empneo (inspiration). Salvation is constant respiration in one glorious body, the Body of Christ, the New Jerusalem (City of Peace) coming down. This is the Seventh Sign that is the Substance. In a body, every member constantly forgives every other member a literal river of Life. The life is in the blood, for the breath is in the blood. The Breath is Life because of Righteousness, which is the decision to bleed the Life even as you receive the Life. It’s also called Love. Isn’t it obvious? Unforgiveness is “the unforgiveable sin.” It is literally “blaspheming the Spirit (the Breath that’s in the blood).” You may think you’re damning your neighbor, but you’re damming yourself — no longer a vessel of mercy but a vessel of wrath, holding “the Breath.” Dammed, until you come to believe that all is forgiven... And you will! For it’s the Spirit of Jesus that you have dammed. He whispers to you from behind a curtain in your soul; He whispers, “Let’s forgive; Let’s live; Let’s, you and me, go home.” Father O’Malley sat by a dying man’s bed all night long. As the sun came up, about to breathe his last, Tom confessed, “Father, I never told anyone about it, and I haven’t spent a single day since, without reliving the horror. Thirty-two years, two months, and eleven

Here in Denver, at our local amusement park, we used to have a “Haunted House.” It was fully mechanized. One would ride through in a cart on rails. No monsters, just darkness, swirling things, and automated mannequins. It was really spooky as a child, but pretty boring for adults who had gained the knowledge of mechanical automation. One day in high school, a friend and I, trying to impress girls, got out. It was amazing. To the children, I was just one more semi-real dummy in an already enchanted world. But the adults would look, look again, and freak out. Just as we were about to get caught, I jumped into a cart with a mother and daughter saying, “Excuse me, but my cart broke down. Do you mind if I ride out with you?” I don’t think this woman heard me; she wouldn’t stop screaming. I wanted to say, “I’m just a teenager trying to impress girls at youth group. It’s me. Fear not.” But instead, I said, “Thank you,” and left rather quickly. I felt terrible. But at least for that woman, that day the ride wasn’t boring, predictable, and lifeless. What type of ride do you prefer? One that is mechanical, predictable, and lifeless or one that is haunted with life? Do you prefer mechanized dummies or real ones? A universe with spirits or one without? In John 19:30, Jesus “gave up the ghost” (King James Version). In 1611, “Spirit” and “Ghost” meant the same thing. During the Enlightenment, however, people started saying, “There are no ghosts. And you may think that you have a spirit, but we call it a brain.” John 19:41, “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.” John is not casually referring to a garden; he’s screaming, “This is the End in the Beginning; this is the Revelation of the Plot — the Plot to every story that’s any story — the story of everything and you.” Long before our modern addiction to materialism, early church fathers, in line with the Judaism of Jesus’ day, taught that the garden wasn’t simply situated in space and time. The garden shows up in the beginning in Genesis, at the end in The Revelation, on the Holy Mountain in Ezekiel, and in the heart of the Bride in The Song of Solomon: “Let my beloved come to his garden” (4:16). The Garden is that place where eternity touches time. And the garden was in the heart of the temple, which wasn’t only a place and not even a time, but the very presence of the age to come — eternity. In that inner Sanctuary, behind the curtain and under the Wings of the Cherubim, which guard the way to the tree of life in the garden, was “the coffin” or “the Ark (same word)... of the Covenant,” containing the law written in stone. The top of the box was called the Mercy Seat, Judgment Seat, and Throne of God. When God would speak to Moses, the Glory of God would appear on top of the box (I bet He looked like a Lamb.) Not dead knowledge of the Good, but the living Good — the Good and the Life. He told us in John 2:19, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” He was crucified on the sixth day, everything stopped on the seventh, and He is raised on the eighth day (Shemini Atzeret, the endless seventh day, the Sabbath of God),which in Hebrew, reckoning is the third day from his death, as well as the first day of the new week. John 20:1, “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early...” As we preached last week, we are all Mary: Mary the mother of Christ, Mary the bride of Christ, and Mary the harlot who abused the Christ. Humanity is the harlot. Eve listened to the lie and took the fruit as though the Good and the Life were a commodity, and that first Adam who was with her, did as well—that’s harlotry. Last week I said, “The Bible never claims that Mary had been a prostitute, but only that she had had seven demons. But I’d like to think she was a prostitute because Jesus seems to have this great affection for prostitutes, and all humanity is a prostitute, and that includes me.” But I had one other reason for saying this. I have a friend who was horrifically and ritually abused as a child, then sold and trafficked for a time in the sex industry. Over 14 years, I watched Jesus deliver her from numerous demons and transform the meaning of her story — His-story. His love for her wrecked me, for I realized that I am her, and she is us, and this is the way that Jesus loves each of us for, in fact, all of us are Mary. We are Eve, and He, “the Last Adam,” is our Helper, our Husband. Mary sees that the tomb is empty and tells Peter and John. They see. John “believes.” John 20:10, “Then the disciples returned to themselves (their own psyches).” Our psyche is the self that we think we control, the self that reduces others to objects and traps us all alone within ourselves. Next verse: John 20:11-17: “But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels [cherubim are a type of angel] in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned and said to him in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” After thousands of years, patriarchs, prophets, priests, and kings, the resurrected Christ appears first to Mary... Why Mary? I don’t know but I have a few ideas. 1.) Mary wanted Jesus... Jesus asked Mary, “Whom do you seek?” He once said, “Seek and you will find.” In our shame, we seek to be alone. And, “It’s not Good (that’s bad) that the Adam is alone,” said God on the Sixth Day of Creation before “the fall,” when we did not know Good or evil. We seek to be alone, and then we find ourselves alone with other people who are also seeking to be alone yet cannot survive alone. And so, instead of loving each other as people, we bite and devour each other as things. And to me, that sounds like hell. And there are evil spirits that will help us do such things, so instead of being alone in ourselves, we find ourselves alone and yet haunted with evil. I suspect that God allows it, in order to scare the hell out of us or us out of hell, crying, “God, help!” that is “Yeshua”: Jesus. I don’t know if I said that correctly, but having known the evil, Mary seeks the Good, even if He’s good for nothing — just Good. I don’t think there can be a better choice than choosing the Good when he seems to be good for nothing, just Good. I think that’s called Love. It’s actually the Judgment of God, that is God, having taken root in the soul like a seed, a seed that grows from an idea into an entire cosmos — a Kingdom. Last week the sermon was titled “If God Is Dead?” And the point was, “If God is dead, then place His body in your tomb.” This week the sermon is titled, “If God Is Alive?” And the point is, “If God is alive, let Him out. Let Him out of your box.” Mary thought Jesus was the Gardener and said, “Sir, tell me where you have taken him and I will take him.” Then, Jesus said, “Mary.” She ran to Him, and He said, “Don’t cling to me.” God alone is Good. And Jesus is the Good in flesh. I’m so desperate for the Good that if I see the good, I’ll try to take the good, control the good, and keep Him in a box. Isn’t that what “the Sin” is? Trying to possess the Good like a commodity? A lie is Truth that I keep to myself. A murder is Life that I take. Fornication is a Love that I treat like a whore. And isn’t that what the Law is? Knowledge of the Good that I keep in a book, or maybe written on stone to be kept in a box, which I then try to use to make myself good because I don’t trust that the Good will make me Himself? And isn’t that what death is? To be trapped in that box all alone. So Why Mary? 1.) She wanted Jesus. 2.) She surrendered control of Jesus; she let Him out of the box. “Tell my brothers that I am ascending to your Father and my Father,” said Jesus. Jesus just spent four chapters (John 14-17) telling us where the Father is. “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me... In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” We are currently in Jesus, in the Father; and the Father is in Jesus, in us. How does that make any sense unless the Father is everywhere and nowhere, governed by our perception of space and time? As if space and time were a womb — or perhaps a bad dream that’s become a nightmare in the mind of a child asleep on her father’s lap, about to awaken to his presence, for a Word has been whispered in her ear: “Mary, now that you know who I am, don’t think I’m only small. I’m bigger than big. Don’t keep me in your box.” Jesus is “the only way to the Father.” But He’s going to the Father, and there is nowhere that the Father is not. Is He not the Breath trapped in the lungs of children too afraid to breathe until they hear the Word of Truth that descends into every nightmare, making all things new? So, why Mary? 1.) She wanted Jesus. 2.) She surrendered control of Jesus. 3.) She didn’t despise gardeners. 4.) Mary wants to be His garden. Jesus is the Gardener; the eschatos Adam. Jesus used to hold a mirror before the face of our friend. And she would see herself in a beautiful white wedding gown. In scores of vision and prophetic words, He would reveal that she had participated in His sufferings, and now He had dressed her in His righteous

“The mere idea of you, the longing here for you. You'll never know how slow the moments go till I'm near to you. I see your face in every flower, your eyes in stars above. It's just the thought of you, the very thought of you, my love.” My wife and I have spent a lot of time on romantic vacations listening to those words sung by Billie Holiday or Nat King Cole. If you were a first century Greek philosopher on a romantic vacation, you might sing, “The very thought of you, the mere logos of you... and foolish though it may seem, to me, that’s everything.” The Greek word, “logos,” is normally translated into English as the word, “Word.” “In the beginning was the Word [logos: thought, idea, meaning, logic] and the Word was with God and the Word was God... All things were made through him. That which has been made is life in him... The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” That’s how John begins his Gospel in Chapter one. In Chapter nineteen, the Word in flesh hangs on a tree in a garden on the Holy Mountain. A beast from the sea (that looks like Rome) in league with a beast from the land (that looks like Israel) nailed Him to this tree because Jerusalem who had just recently chanted “hosanna” was now chanting “crucify, crucify.” Just as the prophets foretold, Jerusalem was, in fact, a whore. According to Irenaeus around 150 A.D., John wrote his gospel after returning from Patmos where he had received the Revelation. The Revelation is The Gospel According to Jesus, and you can see it all over the Gospel According to John. The Revelation is a call to conquer, and no one can conquer except a slaughtered lamb and those with him. “To Conquer” is the Greek verb “nikao.” It’s where we get names like Nick or Nicodemus, which means “conqueror.” In Revelation 10:6-7, we read that “Chronos (time) will be no more. And in the days of the seventh trumpet call, the mystery of God will be fulfilled.” Then we see a woman give birth and a dragon who hates the baby. The Baby is caught up to God and His throne (which might very well be in you) and the dragon battles the little brothers and sisters of the Baby. It calls up a “beast from the sea” and a “beast from the land.” And there is a “Great Harlot” who rides the beast (She’s Babylon, Rome, and Jerusalem). A voice from heaven cries, “Come out of her, my people.” Then the Word of God, who is the Lamb riding a white horse, conquers them, cuts the flesh from all people, and the New Jerusalem descends from heaven on the very spot that the Word is now hanging on this tree in this garden — The New Jerusalem is a temple, a bride, and the body of the Lamb — the “last Adam.” John 19:24, “So the soldiers did these things, but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene... When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished [tetelestai],’ and he bowed his head and gave up the spirit.” Does it ever feel to you like... God is dead? Maybe a loved one died, a marriage died, a ministry died. Jesus said, “I am the light,” but now everything seems so dark. He’s the logic (logos) of Love, but now you wonder if Love is nothing more than an idea or thought in your head. You wonder if God is dead. The Good and the Life is hanging on that tree... and He’s dead. What are Mary, Mary, Mary, and John thinking? And why — at great risk to themselves — are they still standing there? He’s dead. Have you noticed how all the women in the Gospel of John are either unnamed or named “Mary” except for Martha, the sister of Mary of Bethany? There’s Mary the mother, Mary the wife (bride) of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. John seems to be implying that all these women are one woman, and we are that woman. . . Mary. Some associate Mary Magdelene with Mary of Bethany who anointed Jesus just a few days earlier. Many associate her with the “sinful woman” (most likely a prostitute) in Luke 7 who anointed Jesus with perfume and tears. She “loved much,” for she was forgiven much. Jesus delivered Mary Magdalene of seven demons, but Scripture doesn’t say that she was a prostitute — although I’d like to think she was a prostitute because Jesus seems to have a special affection for prostitutes, and humanity is a prostitute and that includes me. We learned that in Revelation 18 and in Genesis 2 and 3. Remember? Adam cannot find his Helper (ezer), who is God. God makes Eve from Adam’s side. “This refers to Christ and his church,” writes Paul. Or as God says through the Prophet Hosea, “I desired hesed [covenant love, unconditional love] but at Adam you (Israel) transgressed the covenant. Eve (and that first adam) see that the fruit is “good for food, a delight to the eyes and to be desired to make one wise,” so they take the Good and the Life, the Wisdom (logos) in flesh hanging on that tree, as if He were a commodity... and everything dies. Humanity, Israel, and Jerusalem, all harlots — and the worst harlotry is religious harlotry. Remember? In John 8, the Scribes and Pharisees throw a woman “caught in the act of adultery” at Jesus’s feet. Jesus says, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone,” then bends down and writes in the dust from which we were all made, and one by one the men drop their stones and leave. The message is clear: The rulers of the Jews, who justify themselves with their knowledge of Good and evil, are the real harlots. As this woman — as Mary Magdelene — looks up at Jesus, what is she thinking? Perhaps, “He knows me, what it’s like to be used.” Why is Mary standing there? Why does she come back to simply anoint a corpse? He’s good for nothing... “the mere idea of him, the longing here for him.” Mary gives herself to Him for nothing. So... she’s no longer a harlot; she’s a bride; and she will be his mother. She will love much, and God is love, so real love is God. “The Jerusalem above is our mother,” writes Paul. Sometimes people will say to me, “If everyone is saved in the End, why be good?” And I realize that they’ve only been using the Good like a whore. They’ve never really seen the Good and so don’t want to be Good, for in fact they hate the Good in order to obtain what’s not Good. Then I realize that we’ve all crucified the Good who is the Life that comes to us every day, but time and time again we just don’t see Him.... But Mary does. The name “Mary” means “her rebellion.” Through Mary, God rebels against the Principalities and Powers of this world and conquers the Dragon; it’s the Seed of the Woman that crushes the head of the Snake. And “the Woman is saved through childbearing,” writes Paul... He’s not saying that single women need to have babies; he’s saying that we’re all the harlot who becomes the Bride and gives birth to Jesus: We are Mary. We used to be a big and sexy church; now we’re a relatively small church without the bells and whistles and of very little benefit to the ego. So, why are you here? My wife says that Jesus says that I’m preaching to Mary, Mary, and John, and that you matter immensely to Him. You’re Mary. John 19:33, “But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water... these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken.’” [He’s the Passover lamb] And again, another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.” Eve was made from Adam’s side in the garden on the Holy Mountain. And Humanity (that’s all of Adam) is made from the eschatos Adam’s side in the garden on the Holy mountain. We are the Bride, the Body, and the Temple of the living God. He was in-carnate-ed (the Word became flesh) through the birth waters of a teenage girl named Mary. And He was out-carnate-ed (the Word left the flesh) through blood shed and breath surrendered on the holy mountain. And all who see Him — truly see Him — become Mary. “I, the Lord, will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one... weeps over a firstborn... On that day living waters will flow from Jerusalem... And the Lord will be king over all the earth.” – Zechariah 12-14, Revelation 1:7 John 19:38: “After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths 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. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.” Nicodemus had come to Jesus because of the signs (John 3:2). “An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign,” said Jesus. Joseph and Nicodemus were both rulers of the Jews and harlots. But now they’re anointing the body of Christ like a bride. They’re giving up everything to do this. They will be excluded from the council, judged as unclean, unwelcomed at the Passover, and yet they hold the Passover — body broken and blood shed — in their old trembling hands as they anoint his battered naked corpse with 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes. Why? “The very thought of you, the mere idea of you...” They had “fallen” in love. “I see your face in every flower, your eyes in stars above, the very thought of you... the mere idea of you, my love.” Pilate gave them the corpse... Jesus is already conquering the beasts. And this is how He conquers the Harlot. This is the seventh sign that is the substance. The