Joseph of Arimathea

“After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took the body of Jesus. And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. Then they took the body of Jesus and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. 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. So there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews’ Preparation Day, for the tomb was nearby.”

(John 19:38–42)

Joseph of Arimathea is an interesting figure in the gospel. He does not appear until after Christ has been crucified, but each of the gospel accounts mention him with some detail. He is called “a rich man,” “a prominent council member,” “a good and just man,” one “who was waiting himself for the kingdom of God,” and we are assured that “he had not consented to [the council’s] decision and deed,” i.e., to crucify Jesus. The text here in John emphasizes that he was indeed a follower of Jesus, a disciple. But he was one of the “secret disciples,” a group of men, which included Nicodemus as well, who did not own Jesus outright “for fear of the Jews.” They “feared men more than God,” the Bible says.

But, interestingly, the death of Christ changed things for Joseph. Although he believed in Jesus to some degree, he had been too ashamed to be identified with Jesus when He was living. But now, after Jesus has been formally accused, found guilty by the Jewish courts, condemned, and then executed in a fashion reserved for the worst of criminals—now Joseph of Arimathea is bold enough to want to honor Christ, approaching the highest Roman official in the land for “rights” to the body.

Add to this that the law of God itself proclaimed any body that hung upon a tree was “accursed,” and that to touch any dead body was defiling, here right before the High Sabbath, and it is quite apparent that Joseph’s actions are nothing short of amazing. He, almost alone, as it were, honors Christ at His death.

Honored by the wealthy at His death as He had been at His birth with “myrrh” and other spices, Jesus, although “despised and rejected by men,” receives the burial of one who is loved greatly. Joseph himself is now honored by the voice of the Holy Spirit as one of the few who honored our Lord at His death.

How much more, then, should we be bold enough to honor a living and risen Lord who, banishing through His resurrection any doubts as to His claims to be the Son of God, reigns on high as victorious King over all the earth. Jesus leaves no room for “secret disciples”: “Whoever is ashamed of Me . . . of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed.” (Mark 8:38) Let us embrace Him in His shameful death, knowing especially what glory His death purchased for us; let us stand beside Joseph and Nicodemus and honor Him at His burial; and let us without shame or hesitation spend every breath honoring and serving and loving our risen Lord and Savior.

“Heavenly Father, we give thanks again for our dear Savior’s death upon the cross for our sakes, to purchase our salvation. We give You thanks for those who, suffering dishonor themselves, honored Christ at His death and burial. Grant that we would be willing to honor Christ openly with our lives, bearing His name, obeying His voice, following in His steps, and embracing wholeheartedly His service, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

New Passover

“Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed. And He sent Peter and John, saying, ‘Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.’”

(Luke 22:7, 8)

Fifteen hundred years old by the time of Christ, the observance of Passover was wrapped deeply into the corporate psyche of all Israel and, due to the Dispersion, was present to some degree in the soul of every other civilized nation as well. Each year Jews from all over the world made the pilgrimage back to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast that marked the birth of their nation out of the dark womb of slavery in Egypt.

Indeed Jesus, Peter, John, and the other disciples had participated in or performed this same function every year of their own lives: “Go and prepare the Passover.” In the minds of Christ’s disciples, as in the minds of all other Jews at the time, this was a special time of the year, yes, but nothing new—the same Festival they had always known: the same giving of thanks, the same unleavened bread, the same wine blessings, the same lamb, the same psalm-hymns sung at the close of the meal, the same stories told.

Jesus alone knew this Passover was different. Jesus knew this Passover corresponded with a new and truer Passover that marked the new beginning of a renewed nation of God, a nation of God that would include all nations. From this Passover on, the giving of thanks would be for one Lamb of God, the Passover who takes away the sins of the world. This Passover and all future “pascha” celebrations would center on the bread of His own Body and the wine of His Blood. This night the psalm would hardly pass from their lips and the lips of every Jew before its fulfillment was set into motion: “The stone which the builders rejected/Has become the chief cornerstone. . . This is the day! . . . O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!/His mercy endures forever.”

Now for two thousand years, not only once a year but every first day of each new week, those over whom the death angel has “passed,” those whose doorposts have been marked with the blood of the Lamb, those whose feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, have celebrated this Feast given to us new by Jesus Himself. Only now no new Passover must be killed—one Sacrifice has been slain once for all! Let us go with joy to the Table set before us, that we may eat once again in celebration of the freedom that has been won for us by our Lord.

“Lord God, Heavenly Father, we give You thanks for our Lord Jesus Christ and His gift to us in the Supper handed down to us from the eve of His sacrifice on the cross for our sins. Look upon His blood that marks our ‘doorposts and lintel,’ and grant to us eternal life through Him, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Love Stoops

“Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

“And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded.

. . .

“So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.’”

(John 13:1–5, 12–17)

Jesus is the perfect host. The night before He lay down His life for His friends, He prepared a place, he prepared a meal, and he planned for the entire evening. He broke bread with them, gave them wine to drink, and led them in the richest conversation imaginable. He did far more than this, however. The thing that makes Jesus the perfect host is that He gave Himself entirely to His guests. He gave Himself in the wine and the bread. He gave Himself as He gave them His Word and the promises of His Word. He gave Himself as He humbled Himself to perform the most menial of all tasks for them, to wash their feet. The following day, of course, He will give them—and us—the greatest example of this love and service and sacrifice and humility as He gives Himself away to us and for us as He hangs upon a cross paying for all of the sins and misery of the world.

Jesus gave Himself in all of these ways because it is in the character of the Trinity to do so. All that He is and has and has done has always been in the form of a gift to His Father, just as His Father has always loved and served and given to Him. He is a servant to His disciples because He is a servant to His Father and because this is what He has seen His Father do for Him.

And so now He teaches His disciples explicitly that this is what it will always be to be a disciple of Christ: not simply a “washer of feet”—that, yes—but rather a “giver-away-of-oneself.” No place left for pride here. No place left for self-serving or self-preservation. There is no thing too low to which love will not stoop. No reservations, no holding back in the service of Christ. If Christ who created all things and rules over all things and owns all the glory in the universe can stoop to clean out the gunk between my toes, how much more willing should I be to do that and anything else to which love calls me.

“Dear heavenly Father, thank You for giving Yourself away for us, for inviting us to be Your guests at Your great banqueting table, for feeding and nurturing us and serving us with the hand of God in Christ. Thank You again for Christ’s sacrifice for us. Make us like Him—make us His disciples indeed—and teach us to wash feet and serve and sacrifice and give ourselves away with the same joy that leads You to do all of this for us. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Greater Love Has No Man

“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for His friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.” (John 15:11–14)

These are the words of Jesus to His most intimate disciples on the eve of His death. What was His desire for them in these “final” words? Their joy—that His joy would become their joy, and that their joy would be full to overflowing.

What then is the joy of Christ? Loving His disciples; loving His friends. And not with just any love, but with the greatest love there is, a love that takes a man to the cross for the sake of those he loves.

And this then is our joy too: To love as He has loved. Such a love will take us to the cross as well—and if to the cross, then to every other suffering short of the cross.

Are we willing to die for others? Then we will be willing to learn patience with them as God in Christ has been patient with us. Are we willing to sacrifice our own lives for the sake of the life of others? Then we will be willing to live for others as well, learning what it is to be a servant to all just as our Lord Jesus is a servant to us His friends. Have we taken up our own cross as a disciple of Christ? Then we will give a cup of cool water in His name; we will bless even those who curse us; we will overcome evil with the good we do to others—even when they have done evil to us.

Indeed we serve God best as we learn to love and to serve one another. This is what it is to be the friend of God: to do whatever He commands you. His command? Love sacrificially in everything you do, everything you think, everything you say, everything you feel.

And what again is the outcome of such love? Nothing less than the joy of God—a divine joy we not only can know but that we can have to the full—only as we learn this great love that our loving Savior and Lord has shown to us.

“O Lord, please teach us to love one another. Make Your joy our joy, and make our joy full. We give You thanks for Your taking on the form of a bondservant and for humbling Yourself to the point of death for our sakes. Plant and grow and cause to flourish this great love in our hearts and in every facet of our lives, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”