Readings for Lent and Easter

³⁸ Afterwards Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a secret disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jewish leaders, boldly asked Pilate for permission to take Jesus’ body down; and Pilate told him to go ahead. So he came and took it away. ³⁹ Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night,^[a] came too, bringing a hundred pounds of embalming ointment made from myrrh and aloes. ⁴⁰ Together they wrapped Jesus’ body in a long linen cloth saturated with the spices, as is the Jewish custom of burial. ⁴¹ The place of crucifixion was near a grove of trees,^[b] where there was a new tomb, never used before. ⁴² And so, because of the need for haste before the Sabbath, and because the tomb was close at hand, they laid him there.