John 19:40-41, “They took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the *spices*…in the place where He was crucified, there was a *garden,* and in the *garden* a new tomb…they laid Jesus there.”
John knows Scripture well, such that, when he combines the words *spices* and *garden* here in his account of Jesus’ burial he is well aware that these two words appear together in only one other place in the Scriptures of Israel, namely, Song of Songs 6:1-3 ->
“‘Where has your Beloved gone?’ ‘My Beloved has gone down to his *garden* to the beds of *spices*…I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine.”
John evokes THIS passage in his account of Jesus’ burial, and—more than evoking it—he intends us to read Jesus’ burial in light of this passage from the Song. So, what happens when we do that?
Well, in the Song, the Beloved’s descent to His “garden” and the beds of “spices” is euphemistic language for the consummation of the marital union. It speaks of the Bridegroom’s nuptial embrace of the Bride whereby the two become one flesh. And— staggering, shocking, scandalous as it may seem—it is THIS moment that John tells us is achieved with Jesus’ burial.
This is a tectonic transfiguration of vision—the Spirit here calls us to see Jesus’ burial as nothing less than the descent of the Divine Bridegroom into the wedding chamber of His Bride.
See—as the crucified body of our Lord is laid in the tomb—see the unquenchable love of God! A love that seeks out His Beloved even in the grave of her sin, a love that bores through the bones of the earth to clasp His wayward people to Himself, a love that descends into the tomb of our exile and turns the barren halls of Sheol into the paradisal House of Wine, a love that does not disdain to bind a corpse bride to Himself in one-flesh covenant union, breathing His life as fire into her lungs, pouring His spirit as water into her heart, giving His Flesh and Blood as banquet for her soul, and so raising her up with Him into the eternal joy of His own life.
Because of Christ’s nuptial descent to our grave, we can now say in the midst of every “grave” we endure in this life—“I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine.”
