Today’s verses do not address occasional and responsible alcohol use. They address its misuse and the consequences. The description of binge drinking here is humorous. Barroom brawls, cuts, bruises, reddened eyes, imagined sights, dizziness, passing out, only to start again next morning bring a momentary smile, but their consequences are serious indeed.

We often get the impression that Jesus had nothing to say after he was arrested. While it’s true that some of the Scriptures emphasize his silence before those who interrogated him it’s also true that other Scriptures bear record to the times he did speak, whether to Caiaphas or Pilate or someone else. And in this passage Jesus had a lot to say to Pilate.

This is a passage many of us know well. Too well, perhaps, because unless we are careful the power of what John portrays here can be lost to us. We have heard this story so many times. It can become so familiar and “ordinary” that we lose sight of the extraordinary it lays before us.

There were no fireworks when Jesus saved the world.

Jesus addresses both his mother Mary and the beloved disciple who is most likely John. John may have been a cousin of Jesus but the family pictured here is a new family, brought about through the death and resurrection of Christ. As a member of this new family, Jesus makes provision for the care of Mary. This is not a momentary thing to help Mary through her grief and time of loss with the death of her son.

After all the suffering and after his death they take Jesus down from the cross. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, and perhaps some others who aren’t mentioned, wrap the body in long sheets of linen along with 75 pounds of ointment principally consisting of a mixture of myrrh and aloes. Then they place Jesus in a new tomb that has never been used before. It is in a garden.

The scene before us pictures three people coming to the empty tomb and seeing the evidence but each one coming to a different conclusion. There is a progression here from an erroneous conclusion in the first case to genuine belief in the third. Mary comes first to the scene and notices that the stone has been rolled away but does not enter the tomb.

There is a musical cadence to this psalm, evoking a picture of the psalmist as a conductor cueing each part of the natural world to join in a great celestial chorus. With a sweep of his baton he commands the stormy winds to hold the bass line. With a gentle gesture he calls upon the birds to add soprano trills. Hail adds percussive rhythm.