Saturday, April 15, 2017

Joseph of Arimathea (Holy Week Devotional)


“Now there was a good and righteous man named Joseph, who, though a member of the council, had not agreed to their plan and action. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea, and he was waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb where no one had ever been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning.”

- Luke 23:50-54

The crowd had dispersed. The Roman soldiers had been assigned to new posts. The religious leaders had returned to the temple. For the first time all morning, the air was still at Golgotha. Three bloodstained crosses lay flat on the hillside, stripped of the bodies they had once held aloft. Those discarded crosses testified to the same truth as the silence: the crucifixion was over. Jesus of Nazareth was dead.

For a follower of Jesus, Friday afternoon was surely a day of soul searching. Some had lost faith the moment they heard Jesus had been arrested. Others had been holding out hope that even from the cross there would be some miraculous escape, some angelic intervention, that at the last second Jesus would come down from the cross in glory and claim his kingdom. But by Friday afternoon, all hope was gone. Jesus was dead, and with him so were all their expectations of God’s kingdom coming to earth. Friday was a day for mourning—mourning not only the death of their Lord, but of their hope.

But for one man, Joseph of Arimathea, there was still work to do. Like many others, he had seen something in Jesus that inspired him, something that made him think the arrival of God’s kingdom was imminent. Despite his position on the council, he had not backed the religious leaders’ scheme to have Jesus killed, believing that far from being a blasphemer, Jesus might actually be the anointed one the prophets had foretold. Like the rest of Jesus’s followers, the crucifixion had dashed his hopes. But even in his disappointment and grief, he felt he owed something to Jesus. This man, Messiah or not, deserved more dignity than he had been given. Maybe he had not brought the kingdom like he’d promised, but he at least deserved a decent burial.

So, mustering up his courage, Joseph had the gall to approach Pilate, who’d had more than enough of the Jews and their demands for one day, to request the body of Jesus. Sabbath was about to begin, he explained, and the body would need to be tended to immediately. Could Pilate grant this last accommodation and give him custody of it? Pilate, whether from a place of graciousness or simple convenience, acquiesced.

Accompanied only by Nicodemus and the women who had witnessed the crucifixion, Joseph placed the body of Jesus in an unused rock tomb, wrapped it in linen cloth, and sealed the tomb shut. With this last act, perhaps he could finally move on from the Jesus who had so captivated him. With the stone rolled in front of the tomb door, with Friday turning to Saturday and the Sabbath now in full effect, perhaps he could use the day to reflect, for the last time, on all he had seen Jesus do and heard him say. With the body now out of sight and his memory of the crucifixion already beginning to fade in the cool light of a new morning, maybe now he could transition from disappointment back to expectantly waiting on God. After all, the crucifixion had been a piercing blow, but he still had faith—someday God’s kingdom would come.

“Who knows?” he thought. “It could even come tomorrow.”

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