74 of the 613 mitzvot are found in this week’s parsha
Parasha: Ki tetze when you go forth
Torah: Devarim 21:10 – 25:19
This week’s Parsha devotes two verses to describe how we are to treat the dead body of someone who has been executed for committing a capital crime.
22 And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and you hang him on a tree: 23 His body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of Elohim;) that your land be not defiled, which Avinu Elohekah gives you for an inheritance. (Devarim 21:22-23)
These two verses were the reason that the following incident happened:
31 Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. 32 Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. 33 But when they came to Yeshua and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. 35 And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. 36 For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, “Not one of His bones shall be broken.” 37 And again another Scripture says, “They shall look on Him whom they pierced.” 38 After this, Yosef of Arimathea, being a disciple of Yeshua, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Yeshua; and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took the body of Yeshua. 39 And Nicodemus, who at first came to Yeshua by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. 40 Then they took the body of Yeshua, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. 41 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. 42 So there they laid Yeshua, because of the Jews’ Preparation Day, for the tomb was nearby. (Joh 19:31-42 )
The emphasis in John seems to use the oncoming Shabbat as the reason that the bodies had to be removed from the cross and placed in a tomb. However the original text in Devarim doesn’t mention the Shabbat as a primary reason for removing the body. The main reason for removing the body is to remove the “cursed” body from “polluting” the land and putting it in the ground where the “pollution” can be contained. Shaul finds another reason that Yeshua hung on the cross:
13 Meshiach has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Meshiach Yeshua, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Ga 3:13-14 )
Shaul’s understanding that Yeshua’s dying on a stake redeemed us from the “curse of the law” might be viewed as a “stretch”. Yeshua’s death, regardless of how it happened, redeemed us from the curse of the law – the death penalty for transgressing the law.
Yeshua’s body did carry the “curse” that death brings and He took that curse and removed it forever for those that “believe”. Yeshua could have died in many other ways. He chose to die in a very public way, with plenty of witnesses that those who hear of his death may read the writings of those witnesses and have their faith strengthened.
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