The Way of the Cross 6
April 4, 2009
Jesus is taken down from the Cross
Time passed by and a soldier came to check on the crucified ones. He looked at them and realized that the two thieves were still alive while Jesus seemed dead. He asked for instructions from his superiors. He had to come and break the legs of the living and with a spear pierced open Jesus’ side.
Cruelty building upon cruelty. All this for the sanctity of the feast. The soldiers had received orders to get rid of the dead bodies before sunset because “the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath and they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down” (Jn 19,31).
Everyone started to leave. They had to hurry to get back to their homes before the beginning of the Sabbath, otherwise they were not allowed to celebrate it.
But sitting under the cross in complete silence stood Mary with those accompanying her.
Two men were seen coming up to Calvary. They went to the soldiers and presented them with a written permission. The soldiers did not hesitate. It was Pilate’s order. They had to bring down the body of Jesus and hand him over to these two persons.
One was “Joseph of Arimathea …a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews…” the other “Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus 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” (Jn 19,38-40). They took Jesus from the cross and laid him on the bare ground.
His mother could see again her son. She could hug him for the last time. She could cry aloud and pray. She whispered softly “Why did they do this to you? Why had they taken you away from me?” She saw the bloodstained body and could not believe this was the same infant to whom she gave birth in the grotto and laid in a manger. She wanted to hear him scream again the scream of life, she wanted to understand fully the Mystery she had carried in her womb and who now laid there lifeless in her arms . Tears were streaming down her cheeks.
Those standing by looked over to the horizon and realized they had to hurry to bury him before the sun sets in the west. They took away the lifeless body from his mother and wrapping him in white linen cloth carried him to the tomb.
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