Text: Luke 23:50-54
For the last several weeks, we have been exploring some bold and untold stories from the Bible… mostly from the Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures.
These next two weeks, we’ll look at two lesser known figures from the gospels.
We start with a man who shows up in all four gospels.
Matthew describes Joseph of Arimathea as a rich man and a disciple of Jesus. (27:57)
John describes him as a secret disciple, who was afraid of what his fellow Jews might think. (19:38)
Mark adds that he was a respected member of the Sanhedrin, or Jewish Council, who was looking for the Kingdom of God. (15:43)
And Luke adds a bit more detail to his life story. He was good and righteous, and he did not agree to the decisions and actions of the Council. (23:50-51)
In all four of these gospels, Joseph is the man who shows up after death of Jesus and asks Pilate for the body of Jesus.
He shows up to bring dignity to the body of Christ and places the body into his own tomb.
As we think about what it means to be disciples in our own lives today, let’s dive deeper into the life of Joseph and his bold actions.
First, let’s talk about his background.
Biblical scholars aren’t exactly sure where ancient Arimathea might be, but usually identify it as Ramah… the town where the prophet Samuel was born and eventually buried.
His home would have been less than 10 miles from Jerusalem and so he would have lived near to this seat of power in the land.
What he did for a living… we are not sure… except that either his family or his work brought him wealth.
And two of our gospels identify Joseph of Arimathea as a member of the Council… or the Sanhedrin.
The Sanhedrin acted as a kind of tribunal for the Jewish people and the Great Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. It was kind of like our Supreme Court and would take appeals from cases of lower regional courts.
There would have been seventy-one elders who sat on the council… including, apparently, Joseph of Arimathea.
Together, they were the ones to whom all questions of Jewish law ultimately were decided under the leadership of the High Priest.
They would have declared fast days and regulated the Jewish calendar and represented the Jewish people to the Roman authorities.
They would have released judgments or decrees about tithing and property and divorces and taxes.
So when Jesus is accused of a number of violations of Jewish law… like healing on the Sabbath, threatening to destroy the Temple, and claiming to be the Messiah… those accusations would have been made known to the Sanhedrin where he would have been brought up on trial.
The gospel accounts of this trial vary a lot. In some cases, he was taken to the court… and in others to the home of the high priest, Caiaphas… and in others, to the home of the former high priest, Annas for a sort of “pre-trial conversation.”
Some accounts include false testimony given by witnesses.
But in all, Jesus tends to not directly answer the accusations – either remaining silent, or replying “You say that I am.”
The end result of the trial in all cases is that the Council, the Sanhedrin, turns Jesus over to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. Rather than simply breaking Jewish law, they accuse him of treason towards the Roman empire itself, a crime resulting in execution.
So… where is Joseph of Arimathea in all of this?
Like many other people of the Jewish faith in this time, he has heard the message of Jesus and believes in the good news he has to offer.
Under the rule of Roman oppression, the people were hungry for freedom.
They were looking for the Messiah.
They wanted God’s reign to come.
Well… most people.
Some of our gospels describe how a few of these religious leaders had become comfortable in their arrangements with the Roman authorities.
They were free to practice their faith and were granted a lot of power even in the midst of the rule of the Empire.
So for a man like Jospeh with considerable wealth and power… well, it wouldn’t have been surprising if he had decided to cling to his own power or if he were wary of an uprising among the people.
What the scriptures tell us is that he wasn’t comfortable with these accusations against Jesus.
He believed Jesus was the Messiah… even if he didn’t want his peers to know about it.
And Luke’s Gospel tells us that when the Council was trying Jesus and decided to hand him over to the Romans, Joseph was not in agreement.
But, he was also out voted.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the situation that Joseph found himself in.
He was a good and righteous man who loved God, followed the law, and yearned for the Kingdom of Heaven to be known on earth.
But he also existed with a system that had rules and authority.
He wasn’t just a cog in the system… he had a seat at the tables of power.
He was a man of privilege, just as much as he was a man of faith.
John’s gospel tells us that most of the time, that privilege probably took priority over his faith.
He followed Jesus secretly.
He didn’t let his convictions interfere with the other roles that he played in his life.
It was something that he kept to himself in his own private time.
And you know what, I think that probably describes how a lot of us live out our faith.
We follow Jesus, but we do so in our own private time.
We don’t make a big deal about it and maybe the people that we work with or go to school with or hang out with as friends don’t know that it is a part of our lives.
We can be hesitant to be more outspoken, not wanting to upset anyone or to offend.
But also, let’s be honest… it is way more convenient to let Jesus be something we worry about on Sundays rather than an every day part of our lives.
And then… there are those big moments that really test us.
Someone does something that we find questionable or immoral.
There is a large, public, national discussion about something controversial and you DO have a faith position on it.
You encounter a situation where you are challenged to stand up, to speak out, to express out loud something that maybe you really haven’t figured out.
What do you do then?
Jospeh found himself in that situation as he took his seat among the Sanhedrin that day.
And to be honest, we don’t know how he chose to respond.
Did he sit back, silently, watching it happen?
Was he afraid to speak up?
Or did he take a stand and argue on behalf of Jesus?
Did he whisper quietly to those around him, encouraging them to let Jesus go?
Was he complicit in the sentence… or did he try as hard as he could to change the outcome?
We don’t really know.
But what we do know is that we face those moments in our lives where we are invited to take a stand.
Where we are invited to take up our cross and follow Jesus.
And the truth is, we don’t always do it.
Sometimes we are complicit.
We cling to our power and our position.
We get comfortable and complacent and pretend like its not our responsibility.
And there are other times that we try as hard as we can to do the right thing and it still goes the wrong way.
We get outvoted or ignored.
Our actions don’t make the impact that we would like.
We find ourselves in the minority, or without the power to affect real change.
And holy cow, that can be discouraging.
We don’t know what Joseph did in the Sanhedrin that night, but we know the outcome of that meeting.
Jesus is handed over, found guilty, and crucified.
And I can imagine that Joseph was devastated.
He yearned for the Kingdom of God and the man he believed to be the Messiah had been executed.
I’m sure he wrestled in his own spirit that day… wondering what more he could have done, feeling shame that he didn’t act sooner, filled with grief and guilt and uncertainty.
And I think when we find ourselves in that place… when everything feels like it has gone wrong and is off track and falling apart, it is easy to retreat.
It is easy to hide.
It is easy to wallow in our shame and guilt.
But I want us to think about Joseph of Arimathea in those moments.
He was a good and righteous man.
He yearned for the Kingdom of Heaven.
And instead of letting all that had gone wrong, all the ways the system had failed, all the shame get to him…
He did the next right thing.
He kept his eyes on the Kingdom of Heaven.
He continued to act as a follower of Christ.
He took his power and his privilege and did what he could to bring love and life and mercy into a moment of terror and death.
As a member of the Sanhedrin, he had the authority to approach Pilate and he did.
He asked the Roman authorities for the body of Jesus.
Often, criminals who were executed would have been left on display after their death as an act of humiliation intended to deter other crimes.
Experts talk about how burial of these criminals was usually forbidden and corpses often were left to decompose or were eaten by animals.
But Joseph of Arimathea steps out into public and takes actions that will bring dignity to the body of his Lord.
Joseph… and in some accounts, his fellow council member Nicodemus… went and took that lifeless body down off the cross.
They brought fresh linen and spices and carefully prepared his body for burial.
And Joseph carried Jesus to his own family tomb and placed him there, sealing it shut with a stone.
He risked his reputation, his wealth, his status, his seat on the Council…
And yet, he knew it was the right thing to do.
It was something he could do.
We all will face difficult moments in our lives where we are challenged to take up our cross, to risk our own reputation, status, or power, in order to follow Jesus.
And, friends, we won’t always get it right.
And even in moments when we do get it right, we won’t always change the outcome.
But every new moment gives us the opportunity to do the next right thing for the Kingdom of God.
May we find the courage and the strength to respond with the love of Christ.
May we find the grace to move past our failures and to keep our eyes on Jesus.
And may we act to further the reign of God wherever we go.
Amen.
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