Luke 23:50 Now there was a man named Joseph, from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, a good and righteous man, 51 who had not consented to their decision and action; and he was looking for the kingdom of God. 52 This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 53 Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid. 54 It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. 55 The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid.56 Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments.
On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
We live in a world where everyone is worried about protecting their identity. We are afraid of what people will do to our credit and our credibility. If there was ever a man with reason to do so in the Passion event, it was Joseph. By stepping forward he exposed himself to both the religious and political authorities as an associate of this rebel who was just killed as a criminal. Now, everything he did would be viewed with suspicion. It was not just his grave that he gave, it was the sanctity of his grave, now "infected" by the body of the "criminal", and the social purity of his character - he had made himself ceremonially unclean by taking down the body and tending to it. Thus he had drawn for himself a whole new identity - one not popular, but definitely superior - that of a follower of Jesus Christ. May we have such boldness and character.
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