So that was the custom of the folded napkin; so when they go into Jesus' tomb, and it says that they find His burial clothes here, the strips of linen; but it says that the burial cloth that was around His head, His facecloth - they call it the shroud now - that the facecloth was folded neatly, and placed to the side. It was specific imagery that all of them would know. What was Jesus saying? Jesus is saying: My business with the grave is done, I'm never coming back here again. I don't have any more business with this at all.
A later writer uses this to make fun of the grave. He says: oh grave, where's your victory? Oh death, where's your sting? Don't you know that Jesus has no more business with you? He has conquered and taken away all of your power, all of your power. One of the messages of the cross and resurrection is this: that death has no sting, grave has no victory. Any place in your life that looks dead, any place in your life that looks dead, it either: should be dead; or a resurrection's guaranteed - either one. Either it's something you need to release; but if it's something that God wants in your life, nothing in your life that God wants in your life can die, because Jesus has done business with the grave. It has no power over you at all.
That has obvious implications for, if you're here today, and you've lost a loved one, and you're grieving. If you've done that, I would simply say to you that one of the stories of the cross is this. It's not just about: that your loved one is in heaven one day; no, no, no. It's about: that you can take hold of the fact, that the joy and the peace that comes with Jesus conquering any power of the grave, is the folded napkin.
The last imagery I want to talk to you about this morning is this: the dirty Roman sponge. There's this one place, one time, in the crucifixion that just doesn't make any sense; like it truly doesn't make any sense, when Jesus says: it is finished. Now in the movies, like in The Passion of the Christ, it looks like the cross was six foot in the air. They weren't. Crosses were roughly one foot in the air. Why would they be this high off the ground? Well a couple of reasons: 1) less work for the Romans; 2) less work to get them down; but 3) they were now close enough to the ground, where the people they hurt could come by and spit, and ridicule, and taunt, and do all that sort of stuff. They could strip them naked, throw dice for their clothes, things like this okay. So they would have been about one foot off the ground.
Well there's this one part in there, and it doesn't make any sense. It says: Jesus said "I'm thirsty"; and someone at the foot of the cross said "I'll go get You something to drink". Now why doesn't that make any sense? What have they been trying to do all day? Kill Him, the worst way humanly possible. So they've spent all day trying to kill Him, and yet at the end of it He goes: I'm thirsty; and they go: we'll try to find You something. That doesn't make any sense.
Then it says: someone went, and they found a sponge on the end of a stick, and soaked it in sour wine and vinegar, and they placed it up to Jesus' mouth for Him to drink. Jesus turns it away; and then that is the moment He says: It is finished. It doesn't make any sense, and it's the only place in the whole crucifixion story - have you guys seen The Passion of the Christ? Yes. Did you see it twice? No, why, you don't handle that right? Like there's just beatings and beatings and beatings and beatings. But for some reason, when someone went and got the sponge filled with sour wine and vinegar - for some reason, that is when finally the people at the foot of the cross, the Romans, they go: no! Stop that! He's had enough. Leave Him alone. That makes no sense. They're trying to kill Him all day; someone goes to get Him a drink, which makes no sense; then they offer Him a drink; and someone stops them and says: you've crossed the line there, don't do that. Don't do that. What's going on there?