When Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He needed a colt to ride on in order to fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9. “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” The Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell how Jesus arranged with unnamed persons for the colt to be available for Him. (Mt 21:1-5, Mk 11:1-6, Lk 19:29-34)

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While the Lord knew He was to be crucified, He also knew that He would rise. However, He needed to prepare for the Resurrection by making sure that He was buried immediately in a tomb so that His Sacred Body was not desecrated. He must have arranged with Joseph of Arimathea to provide a new tomb for Him and Nicodemus to provide the burial spices. Even though it is probable that neither one of these men really understood exactly what was going to happen, they were rich and able to provide what the Lord wanted and simply obeyed His commands. One can find many people who are briefly mentioned in sacred Scripture, and then they are no longer mentioned. These are people whom God had a task for them to do, which could be quite large, such as St. Joseph, or quite small, such as Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea. They did their task and we hear no more of them. That does not mean that they are not important in the eyes of God. Of course, this is what all of us should do. 

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Pope Benedict, in Jesus of Nazareth, tells us of women who also ministered to the burial of Jesus. The Synoptic Gospels tell us that some women observed the burial (Mt 27:61; Mk 15:47), and Luke reports that they were the ones "who had come with him from Galilee" (23:55). He adds: "then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments" (23:56). After the Sabbath rest, on the morning of the first day of the week, they would come to anoint the body of Jesus and thus to carry out the definitive burial. Anointing is an attempt to hold death at bay, to preserve the corpse from decomposition. And yet it is a vain effort: anointing can only maintain the dead person in death; it cannot restore him to life.

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On the morning of the first day, the women will see that their concern for the dead body and its preservation was all too human a concern. They will see that Jesus is not to be held captive by death, but lives anew-now he is truly alive for the first time. They will see that God has preserved him from decomposition in a definitive way, possible only to God, and has thereby preserved him from the power of death. Nevertheless, in the loving care of these women, Easter morning-The Resurrection-is already proclaimed.

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Earlier, Nicodemus had come to Jesus at night. Like Joseph, he was a council member, but he needed to come to Jesus secretly since Jesus was out of favor with the Jewish rulers since He had already overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple. (Jn 2:13-16) When He was asked what sign (miracle) He would show to validate His authority, He said He would “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (Jn 2:19) John tells us “But he spoke of the temple of his body.” (Jn 2:21) After the Resurrection, His disciples recognized this saying as a prediction of His Resurrection. (Jn 2:22)

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When Nicodemus came to Jesus, he told the Lord, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.” (Jn 3:2) Nicodemus recognized that the teachings and claims of Jesus are validated by the Lord’s signs

(miracles). However, Jesus recognized that marveling at His miracles is not enough. One must understand why He came and what He was doing. Jesus then tells Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (Jn 3:3) Naturally, Nicodemus does not understand what Jesus is telling him. “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (Jn 3:4) Jesus then answers, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘you must be born anew.’ The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit.” (Jn 3:5-8) Nicodemus still does not understand and asks, “How can this be? (Jn 3:9) The Church teaches that Jesus is referring to the Sacrament of Baptism which uses water but also is effected by the Holy Spirit. In other words, water alone is not enough. The Holy Spirit is needed for Christian Baptism.

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When we are baptized with water and the Holy Spirit, we “die” and then are reborn in the Holy Spirit. However, our Baptism in water and the Holy Spirit could not happen until Jesus underwent His own Baptism. “I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished!” (Lk 12:50) Jesus had already been baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. (Mt 3:13-17, Mk 1:9-11, Lk 3:21-22) When Jesus was speaking with Nicodemus, He was speaking of the “baptism” of His Passion and Death. He told Nicodeˊmus, “No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” (Jn 3:13-15) Jesus is referring to His own Crucifixion, “lifted up”, and an episode in the book of Numbers where Israelites who were bitten by serpents could look at a bronze serpent, which had been lifted up, and not die of the bites. Jesus is telling us that we need to come to him and believe in Him. Jesus then says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his  

only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16)

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However, this does not mean “faith alone” where the sins we commit do not matter as long as we believe in Jesus. “For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God.” (Jn 3:20-21) We need to believe in the Lord, but we also need to use the graces which come to us from the Lord.

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After Jesus had been “lifted up” on the Cross, He then went down to the “womb” of the earth, His Tomb. He was then “born anew” at His Resurrection on Easter Sunday. The Lord is telling us that we have to follow Him in His Death and Burial leading up to His Resurrection. The first step in this life long process is our own Baptism. During our entire life, we must use the graces the Lord gives us. We are not to be nailed to a Cross and undergo the Passion like Jesus. However, using His Graces, we must continually “die” to our own self-centered needs and wants. This does not mean that life is all pain, sorrow and suffering. Like Jesus, we know what comes next. –Jim Nugent, CfP