The Death Of Jesus
Afterwards, knowing that everything was now finished, Jesus said, in fulfilment of the words of Scripture:
“I am thirsty.”
There was a bowl standing there full of common wine; so they put a sponge soaked in the wine on the end of a hyssop-stalk, and held it up to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he exclaimed:
“All is finished!”
Then, bowing his head, he resigned his spirit to God.
It was the Preparation Day, and so, to prevent the bodies from remaining on the crosses during the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a great day), the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies removed. Accordingly the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man, and then those of the other who had been crucified with Jesus; but, on coming to him, when they saw that be was already dead, they did not break his legs. One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and blood and water immediately flowed from it. This is the statement of one who actually saw it—and his statement may be relied upon, and he knows that he is speaking the truth—and it is given in order that you also may be convinced. For all this took place in fulfilment of the words of Scripture—
“Not one of its bones shall be broken.”
And there is another passage which says—
“They will look upon him whom they pierced.”
The Burial Of Jesus
After this, Joseph of Ramah, a disciple of Jesus—but a secret one, owing to his fear of the Jews—begged Pilate’s permission to remove the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him leave; so Joseph went and removed the body. Nicodemus, too—the man who had formerly visited Jesus by night—came with a roll of myrrh and aloes, weighing nearly a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen with the spices, according to the Jewish mode of burial. At the place where Jesus had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a newly-made tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And so, because of its being the Preparation Day, and as the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.
—John.
The Recompense Of Death
When I was laid in my coffin
Quite done with Time and its fears,
My son came and stood beside me—
He hadn’t been home for years;
And right on my face came dripping
The scald of his salty tears;
And I was so glad to know his breast
Had turned at last to the old home nest,
That I said to myself (in an underbreath):
“This is the recompense of Death!”
—Susie M. Bates.