There is a Biblical recipe for a dead man. It has several ingredients.
Consider what happened to Jesus right after he had raised Lazarus from the dead:
John 12:1-7
1 Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.
2 There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.
3 Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.
4 Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's [son], which should betray him,
5 Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?
6 This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.
7 Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.
Spikenard comes from India. It is an extract made from the root of a plant that grows there. An Indian ritual to prepare abride to meet her husband includes the application of Spikenard to the woman's hair.
The word ``spikenard'' in the Hebrew (and the Greek, which borrows the Hebrew word) means ``to be committed to''.
Spikenard is applied to a king as part of the annointing, as in when Samuel annointed Saul and David to be kings.
A pound of spikenard goes for about $4,000.00 in today's dollars.
So we see that Mary's annointing Jesus with Spikenard was like annointing Him to become king. This is what upset Judas so much. He saw this as insurrection against the present rulers, so he got scared for his own life being associated with such a group of people.
Mary's wiping Jesus' feet with her hair caused her hair to become saturated with the Spikenard also -- an act that those present would understand as her preparation to meet her husband. It was apparent who she loved. She had given all that she had - her life savings - her dowry -- to this man Jesus. But he was not to be her earthly husband, but her heavenly and eternal bridegroom, as she was to become a member of his church -- his holy bride.
Jesus rebuuked Judas, saying, ``against the day of my burying hath she kept this.''
So we have one ingredient of the recipe for a dead man: spikenard.
A little later on, Jesus was having the feast of the Passover with his disciples.
Mark 14:22-25
22 And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake [it], and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.
23 And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave [it] to them: and they all drank of it.
24 And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.
25 Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God.
Jesus said the bread was his body, and the ``fruit of the vine'' was his blood. He said to eat his body and to drink his blood.
In the Old Testament, the priests were to eat the sacrifice after it had been offered up to the Lord, but they were not to drink the blood. They were to pour it out onto the ground.
Again, we are to eat the sacrifice, in the form of the bread that represents the body of Jesus, but now Jesus says to drink his blood. What is different here? This is not the blood of an animal, but the blood of a man, yet a man who is without sin -- a man who is able to pay the price for our sins. The blood is to be applied to our lives to cleanse us and purify us from sin.
Hebrews 9
13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
But there is another aspect to that blood, as we see here:
John 19:29
29 Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put [it] upon hyssop, and put [it] to his mouth.
Matthew 27:34
34 They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted [thereof], he would not drink.
Vinegar is just old wine -- fruit of the vine. It was applied to Jesus with a hyssop. Jesus said:
John 10:9
9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
So the blood was applied to the door with a hyssop, just like in Egypt:
Exodus 12:22
22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip [it] in the blood that [is] in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that [is] in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.
23 For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite [you].
At that time, the death angel was coming to kill every first born son. The children of Israel could escape this only if they applied the blood of the passover lamb to the door with the hyssop.
Jesus was the sacrificial lamb of God -- the passover lamb. He shed his blood for many, for everyone, for whosoever will. Jesus was the first born son of God, the only begotten son. The fruit of the vine acted as his blood. The blood of the lamb was applied to the door with a hyssop so that the first born son would not suffer death and corruption.
John 19:39-40
39 And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound [weight].
40 Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
Nicodemus must have been a very wealthy man to give Jesus such a burial. This was the burial of a priest, such as Nicodemus himself would have received. The body of Jesus was wrapped in a great deal of linen thoroughly impregnated with the mixture of myrrh and aloes. One hundred pounds of this stuff was wrapped around his body. It would have formed a veritable body cast.
Psalms 16:10
10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
After the crucifixion, Jesus was placed in the tomb. But after 3 days, he rose from the dead:
Revelation 1:18
18 I [am] he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
When the disciples went to see the empty tomb, what did they see?
John 20:3
3 Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre.
4 So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre.
5 And he stooping down, [and looking in], saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.
6 Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie,
7 And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
8 Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed.
``That other disciple'' was John. When John saw the linen clothes lying, and the napkin neatly folded and set aside, he was looking at all that linen permeated with one hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes. That body cast was still there, but it was empty. Jesus had passed right through it just like he later came through a shut door:
John 20:19
19 Then the same day at evening, being the first [day] of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace [be] unto you.