Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward

Christ Carrying the Cross, modern icon by Alexandra Kaouki of Alexandra Icons Workshop, Rethymnon, Crete, Greece

 Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, where are You going?"  Jesus answered him, "Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward."  Peter said to Him, "Lord, why can I not follow You now?  I will lay down My life for Your sake."  Jesus answered him, "Will you lay down your life for My sake?  Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times."

* * * 

After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being 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 the body of Jesus.  And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds.  Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury.  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 there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews' Preparation Day, for the tomb was nearby.

- John 13:36-38, John 19:38-42

Yesterday we read that on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, His disciples said to Him, "Where do You want us to go and prepare, that You may eat the Passover?"  And He sent out two of His disciples and said to them, "Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him.  Wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says, "Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?"'  Then he will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared; there make ready for us."   So His disciples went out, and came into the city, and found it just as He had said to them; and they prepared the Passover.  In the evening He came with the twelve.  Now as they sat and ate, Jesus said, "Assuredly, I say to you, one of you who eats with Me will betray Me."  And they began to be sorrowful, and to say to Him one by one, "Is it I?"  And another said, "Is it I?"  He answered and said to them, "It is one of the twelve, who dips with Me in the dish.  The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!  It would have been good for that man if he had never been born."  And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, "Take, eat; this is My body."  Then He took the cup, and when He had given  thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it.  And He said to them, "This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.  Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."  And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.  (Mark 14:12-25)

 Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, where are You going?"  Jesus answered him, "Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward."  Peter said to Him, "Lord, why can I not follow You now?  I will lay down My life for Your sake."  Jesus answered him, "Will you lay down your life for My sake?  Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times."  While this passage documents Peter's three-time denial of Christ while Jesus was being questioned by the high priest Annas (John 18:15-27), there is contained here in John's Gospel a prophecy by Christ of Simon Peter's own martyrdom.  My study bible says that Peter would suffer martyrdom for the sake of Christ by being crucified upside down in Rome in about AD 67 (see also John 21:18-19).  

* * * 

After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being 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 the body of Jesus.  And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds.  Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury.  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 there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews' Preparation Day, for the tomb was nearby.  My study bible calls Joseph of Arimathea a hidden disciple.  That is, one who believed in Jesus but had made no public acknowledgement of faith.  Nicodemus is one who had come to Jesus by night (John 3:2) and later defended Him before the Pharisees (John 7:50-52).   As they both participate in Christ's burial, they are publicly showing their devotion to Christ, in stark contrast to the fearful disciples, who had scattered.  My study bible also notes that had the apostles buried Christ, then doubters could claim His body was simply hidden.  Luke tells us that Joseph of Arimathea was both a council member and a good and just man.   This refutes any possibility that Christ's body was deceptively hidden by the apostles.  Also, the tomb in which He was laid -- owned by Joseph of Arimathea -- was one in which no one had ever lain before.  The spiritual significance of this, according to my study bible, is that Christ died a death unlike any other person had died:  a death without corruption, one leading to victory over the grave itself  (see Luke 23:50-53).

At times of great crisis, we find heroism and cowardice.  The disciples fail and stumble, even the one who is their nominal leader and spokesman, Peter.  But there are other things that come to light, also.  Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus are both prominent council members, Joseph being extremely wealthy.  (An unused tomb hewn of rock was a very expensive and exclusive possession.)  For these men to step forward to claim and to respectfully bury a man crucified as a high criminal is to risk their own reputations, social status, and possibly their lives.  According to Orthodox tradition, Joseph of Arimathea was imprisoned, and the resurrected Christ appeared to him in prison, convincing him of the Resurrection.  He was later released from prison and banished from Jerusalem.  He then traveled throughout the known world preaching the Gospel, eventually remaining in Britain as an early missionary.  In the Church, he is called a holy and righteous saint.  Nicodemus, according to tradition, is known as St. Nicodemus the Righteous.  Nicodemus was a Pharisee, whom John's Gospel tells us came to Christ by night for teaching (John 3:1-21), and who also defended Jesus before his fellow Council Members (John 7:45-51).  Although he plays a conspicuous role in John's Gospel, there is not much known about him after the Resurrection.  Church tradition holds that he was possibly martyred sometime during the first century.  Simon Peter, on the other hand, fails in his own eyes and by his own sworn willingness to die for Christ, when he denies Jesus three times, being first cowed by the question of a servant girl, and questioned by a relative of the man whose ear he had cut off when they had come to seize Jesus in the garden  (John 18:15-27).  Far from dying for Christ, Peter denies being a disciple, to his own bitter regret with tears (Matthew 26:75, Luke 22:62).  All of these astonishing revelations of people within their relationship to Christ teach us importantly how false our judgment can be when based on only a nominal knowledge of a person.  We can neither make Peter be a person of sheer heroism nor make these Council members, Joseph and Nicodemus, "enemies" of Christ because they are part of the religious ruling authority of the Jews which condemned Jesus to death for blasphemy, and gave Him to Pilate for crucifixion.  These are very important elements of the Gospel we all too frequently overlook.  They are lessons for us about just and righteous judgment.  Unless we fully and thoroughly know a person, we are incapable of real judgment.  Jesus tells us so Himself, in John's Gospel:  "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment" (John 7:24).  Unfortunately we seem to live in a time when people are extremely polarized by nominal affiliations, such as political party, or which politician one of us may support, or not, as the case may be.  There are all kinds of reasons for liking a particular politician or party, for there is no such thing as a uni-dimensional governing policy, nor a uni-dimensional voter, nor a uni-dimensional politician.  We may choose to hate another for the political party, the sports team, the causes they support or do not support.  At this juncture, when the entire world is in the midst of a pandemic for which none of us has been fully prepared, and no country has a magic bullet to vanquish, we still see division through nominal political affiliation, and even hatred spread through such self-identification.  Even the use of a particular drug with promising effects against the coronavirus illness has become entirely politicized through our news media and deliberate political maneuvering  On this day, much of the world is commemorating Good Friday, the day on which our Savior died on the Cross (for the Eastern Orthodox, that is one week away).   Let us remember the vituperative treatment offered to our Savior, the crowds so easily stirred up and manipulated against Him.  And let us contrast that with what the Gospels teach us, that to judge with righteous judgment is not to judge by appearance.  It is not to judge by one thing or another, nor even a moralistic code which identifies particular behaviors as out of bounds, for even perfect obedience to the commandments of the law did not guarantee the eternal life promised by Christ (see this reading).  Let us remember that in our communion is the fullness of what it means to be a person, and to meet person-to-person -- and person-to-Person -- within the Eucharistic cup.  For this is what it means to truly save and to heal.  St. Peter will return to the fold of the disciples and be forgiven.  Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, important members of the ruling Council which plotted and determined to have Christ killed, are called saints by the Church.   We cannot judge by appearances, as we are forbidden to do so by the words of Christ Himself.  Our faith depends for its communion upon dialogue, and we cannot have dialogue where varying opinions, for one reason and another, work only to vilify individuals based solely on appearances and not on hearing one another out and coming together as best we can.  On this day, let us remember our Lord and His sacrifice for us, for the life of the world -- and think about what good health in body, soul, and spirit really means.  He offers us life; in hatred and judgment by appearance there is only death.  In our salvation and wholeness, we are all on a road.  Let us follow Him as we can, even as our examples in today's reading show us.  We are meant to be carrying our cross with Him, and righteous judgment is part of the way that we do it.