Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight.
Nicodemus appears here for the third and last time in John's Gospel, and every mention recalls how he began — as a man who came in the dark. Now he comes in the open, in daylight, carrying an enormous weight of burial spices.
Three Stages in One Man
Writers trace his story across the Gospel as a slow sunrise.
W. T. P. WolstonThere are three stages in his history. I call John 3 midnight, John 7 twilight, and John 19 daylight. It was darkest midnight in that man's soul when he crept quietly to Jesus, hoping that nobody saw him. He was starting to get a glimmer of light when he slipped in a word for the Lord in chapter 7. But the death of Christ produced in Nicodemus what His life had never done.
Danger Brings Hidden Ones Out
A dangerous hour brings hidden disciples into the open. What frightened others made these men bold.
William KellyGod uses a dangerous time to call out His own hidden ones... The death of Jesus, which made others afraid, made Joseph bold... And he was not alone. Nicodemus had been known longer, but at first he had no good name for moral courage. Now he joins in the last acts of love, with a large offering of myrrh and aloes. The cross of Christ, which unbelief stumbles over, puts his faith to work and shows it. The two, made brave by grace, make up for the missing service of the twelve.
Writers differ here. One warns that a bold act in a crisis is not the same as following Jesus day after day under reproach.
J. N. DarbyTo follow Jesus all the time under reproach, and to commit yourself for ever on His account, is very different from acting only when some great occasion comes. By then there is no room left for that steady following, and the sheer scale of the evil forces us to separate from it.
The Cross Answered His Question
Nicodemus had once come at night with a question he could not answer. Now he comes to bury the One he questioned.
H. Forbes WitherbyIf we ask humbly and in His presence, "How can these things be?" He Himself will give the answer. Yes, the cross of His Son will explain the question. As it was with Nicodemus, so we too will learn to value the death of Jesus... Jesus died so that we might live. His death not only opens our dull hearts to divine love; it also answers our questions about God and His kingdom.
What the Spices Say
People used myrrh and aloes to prepare a body for burial. Aloes have a strange double quality.
An Outline of Sound WordsIn the aloes there is that which is bitter to the taste but sweet in fragrance. Death was bitter for the Lord Jesus as He endured the cross... There was all the shame. Man's proud and wicked heart invented everything it could to insult the holy One in the hours of His sufferings... But how rich is the fragrance of His perfect obedience and submission to God's will. And how rich is the fragrance of the love shown in all He bore for God's glory and our blessing.
One writer measures the offering against the One it honoured.
Samuel RidoutNicodemus brings a mixture of myrrh and aloes, fragrant spices used for the dead, and a large quantity of them. This fits this Gospel. No amount of precious spices could fully show the fragrance of the death of the Son of God.
A King's Burial
The quantity is the point. This was not a normal burial. It was a royal send-off for a man the nation had just executed as a criminal.
J. G. BellettThese two Israelites are true children of Abraham. They claim the body of the Lord and set it apart, with the same faith Abraham had. They are also true subjects of the King of Israel, so they honour that body with the honours of a son of David. They spend large and expensive perfumes on it. They lay it in the garden, in a new, untouched tomb, where the smell of death had never yet passed.
Weighed and Remembered
The Gospel records not just the act but the amount.
C. E. StuartThey had done what they could. That service done to Christ has never been forgotten. The inspired Word keeps the names of these two, and it records the weight of the spices Nicodemus brought as well. God never forgets service done to Christ, or in His name... They could look for no glory from men at that time for doing such a service.
Summary
- Midnight. Every mention of Nicodemus recalls his first, fearful, night-time visit. God never edits that starting point out of his record.
- Daylight. The cross finished what the teaching started: what Christ's life had not drawn out of him, Christ's death did.
- Boldness. Danger draws hidden disciples into the open. Two men made up for the missing service of the twelve — though writers differ over how much credit courage in a crisis deserves.
- Fragrance. The spices are bitter and sweet at once: bitter like what He bore, sweet like His obedience. No amount of them could fully express it.
- Remembered. Scripture records the exact weight. God never forgets service done to Christ, even when men give no glory for it.