The Faith Of Joesph And Nicodemus

Sermons – Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN

John 19:38-42 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was 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 away his body. ³⁹ Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. ⁴⁰ So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. ⁴¹ 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. ⁴² So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

INTRODUCTION

For all kinds of reasons, we (which might just be a charitable way of saying “I”) tend to struggle with reading the Bible, and the Gospels in particular, through a kind of detached, hypothetical lens. What I mean is, we often fail to really put ourselves in the place of those in the biblical stories; to work hard to understand their context, culture, struggles, joys, perspective, etc. I heard a pastor this past weekend refer to this idea as “getting into the skin of” the people at the center of whatever passage we’re reading. Doing so is important if we are to really understand and apply the Bible to our lives as God intends.

Doing so in our passage would mean “getting into the skin of” Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. I’m going to try to help with that. And as I do, you’ll see an example of what faithfulness looks like in times of confusing hardship.

The big idea of this passage is that faithfulness to Jesus in times of suffering and mystery is often a matter of simple devotion. And the main takeaway is to consistently make use of the ordinary means of grace so that when times of suffering and mystery come, simple devotion flows freely out of us.

GETTING “INTO THE SKIN” OF JOSEPH AND NICODEMUS

Once again, to get the most out of this passage we need to get ourselves into the passage. And to do that, first we need to imagine being a follower of Jesus at the time of John 19:38-42. That is, we need to imagine what it would mean to have come to believe that Jesus is truly the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, and to have His dead body in front of you. How do you make sense of that? What do you do about it?

To answer that question, we need to back up a bit. We need to back up to the time before Jesus was crucified.

It was quickly easy see that there was something absolutely unique about Jesus. His power, His claims, His miracles all pointed to the truthfulness of His teaching. Over time you became increasingly convinced that Jesus was the Christ God promised to send. You’d been taught a great deal of what that meant from the Scriptures; of what the Christ would be like and what He would accomplish. You were filled with thoughts about how that would most likely play out; not sure of the details, but confident in a spectacularly victorious outcome. Jesus said a few things to make you question your assumptions, things that didn’t quite fit with your ideas, but you had no concept of a defeated Christ.

The sentiment around Jesus was a mixed bag at best. Most people were either indifferent to Jesus or outwardly hostile to Him. After three years, there was very little remaining sympathy for Jesus or His cause. Indeed, the threats had only increased in boldness and severity.

And yet, you believed. But far from endearing you to others, aside from a few other faithful men and women, the hostility that had primarily been directed mostly at Jesus was starting to extend to His sympathizers, including you, in increasing measure.

The tension built and built until the two main powers of the day, the Jews and the Romans, in cahoots with one of Jesus’ twelve closest followers, had successfully conspired to arrest, beat, and crucify Jesus just a few hours earlier.

Again, you weren’t sure what to expect, Jesus was always anything but predictable, but this wasn’t even on your radar. Of all the possible outcomes that ran through your brain, Jesus handing Himself over to a betrayer, to the Jewish leaders, and the Roman authorities to be murdered was not among them.

So, again, now that Jesus is dead, what do you do? Where do you go? Does it even make sense to continue to believing in Jesus? If so, what does it look like to believe in a dead guy; a guy whose corpse is literally right in front of you?

That’s the situation that all of Jesus’ followers faced in the immediate wake of His crucifixion.

Again, this passage will never hit the way it’s supposed to hit if you don’t put yourself “in the skin” of Jesus’ followers at this time. This passage will never land the way it’s meant to land if you don’t seriously ask yourself what you would do, how you would respond, and what you think faithfulness would look like in that moment.

Should you “storm the castle?” Should you yell of the hypocrisy and tyranny afoot? Should you hide, pray, and wait for the dust to settle? Should you go back and reexamine the Scriptures to see if there’s something you missed? Should you call the remaining followers of Jesus together for a worship service? Seriously, what do you imagine faithfulness looking like in this situation?

Graciously, the Spirit inspired John to give us a glimpse of what it looked like in the lives of two men, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Once again, to truly appreciate their faithfulness, in order to best apply it to our lives, we need to get into their skin as well. To that end, let’s consider what we know about each of these men.

Joseph of Arimathea

Jospeh of Arimathea is mentioned in all four Gospels, and each in the same context as our passage. He is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible outside of this one scene whereby he seeks and is granted stewardship of Jesus’ dead body.

From John’s account (v.38 in our passage) we see that Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple of Jesus, but also afraid of the other Jewish leaders on account of being a disciple of Jesus.

In addition, from Matthew (27:57-60) we learn that Joesph was rich and that the tomb in which Jesus was buried was new (never used) and belonged to Joesph himself. Mark (15:43-46) adds that he was a “respected member of the [Jewish] council” (probably the Sanhedrin) and was a man “looking for the kingdom of God”. And Luke (23:50-53) describes Joseph as “a good and righteous man, who had not consented to [the Jewish council’s] decision and action” regarding Jesus’ guilt and crucifixion.

The basic picture we have of Joseph of Arimathea is that he was a wealthy, God-fearing Jew; one of importance and influence among his people; but also as one who waivered back and forth between fear and courage. He did not consent to the Jews’ treatment of Jesus, but it doesn’t seem like he fought against it either.

Nicodemus

Unlike Joseph of Arimathea, the second man mentioned in our passage, Nicodemus, is only mentioned in John’s Gospel. Also unlike Joseph of Arimathea, instead of appearing in just one scene, Nicodemus comes on the scene three separate times.

The first time we encountered him was way back in chapter three (3:1-15), in the famous “born again” passage. There we see that Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a teacher and ruler among the Jews (probably also a member of the Sanhedrin). He went to Jesus, acknowledging that Jesus had unique power and authority that could only have come from God. At the same time, however, we also see that Nicodemus went to Jesus at night, where he was least likely to be spotted and thereby associated with Jesus. In that encounter he was utterly confused by the things Jesus said to him. He is initially portrayed as curious and, perhaps, as a budding unbelieving believer.

We don’t hear anything more about Nicodemus until chapter seven (7:37-52). There he simply reappears in the midst of a commotion Jesus was causing during the Feast of Booths. Publicly claiming to know the Father, to be of the Father, to teach only on the Father’s authority, and to offer living water to all who would come to Him, Jesus enticed the crowds and angered the Pharisees to the point that they sought to arrest Him.

As a Pharisee among the accusing Pharisees, Nicodemus spoke up and asked, “⁵¹ “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” John doesn’t tell us if Nicodemus said this as someone concerned with the faithful interpretation of the Jewish law, in an attempt to protect Jesus, or both. Regardless, the end result was that he was mocked and dismissed by the rest of his fellow Pharisees (7:52).

Again, it’s unclear at this point exactly what Nicodemus believed about Jesus, but it is clear that he stood out among the Pharisees in his response to Jesus.

And, of course, we see him a third time in our passage. In John 19, Nicodemus functions in a way that is public and extravagant. In order to prepare Jesus’ body for burial, he brough seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloes. That was enough (one commentator notes, Kruse, TNTC, 368) for a royal, a kingly, burial. John explicitly notes that Nicodemus was the one who had previously come at night. This was, certainly, to highlight the fact that he had now come in the light of day. It is clear that by this point Nicodemus had truly come to believe in Jesus and was willing to pay the cost of being associated with Him.

The basic picture of Nicodemus that we’re given is that he was a faithful Jewish leader, a man of power, who gradually moved from curiosity to unbelieving belief to belief.

In orchestrating Jesus’ crucifixion, the rest of the Jewish people and leaders made it clear that they were done tolerating Jesus. Certainly, both Joseph and Nicodemus had witnessed the continual fear, hostility, and persecution heaped on Jesus and (increasingly) His followers. They’d sat in on the council meetings where Jesus was cursed and His execution planned. They’d felt the rage of those who believed Jesus to be a demon-possessed blasphemer.

Likewise, they’d undoubtedly watched the Romans grow increasingly tired of the bickering and in-fighting of the Jews concerning Jesus. They understood that Pilate couldn’t allow Jesus to undercut his authority or Jesus’ angry followers to revolt in light of His execution.

It should be clear that both Joesph and Nicodemus had a lot to lose by associating in any sympathetic way with Jesus, even in His death. Their faith, their family, their livelihood, and their reputations were all tied being teachers of teachers and leaders of leaders among the Jews. To publicly identify as followers of Jesus immediately after He was crucified would certainly have put all of that in jeopardy.

In other words, getting into the skin of Joseph and Nicodemus means feeling the immense pressure they were under as they contemplated what to do with Jesus’ body. They had every earthly thing to lose and no earthly thing to gain.

What would they do? What should they do? What would it look like to respond in faith?

THE FAITH OF JOSEPH AND NICODEMUS

What the two men did was to act in simple devotion. What they did was to properly honor and care for Jesus’ body after His death. And they did so in a way that required courage before Pilate and before the Jews.

They Were Bold Before Pilate

When someone was sentenced to crucifixion, once they died, the Romans would take their bodies down and leave them on the ground to be eaten by birds and animals. That was an intentional way to further highlight their guilt, further shame them, and further dissuade others from even contemplating similar crimes.

Because Joseph and Nicodemus loved Jesus, and because they knew He was innocent, they could not stand the thought of that.

The problem, however, was that Pilate was in charge and doing anything out of the ordinary with Jesus’ body would require his permission.

Remember, Jesus was crucified as a seditionist, one of the highest crimes in Rome and one of the most serious forms of treason. This was no small ask.

What’s more, very few Jews would even have access to Pilate. It would have taken someone as prominent, wealthy, and powerful as Joseph to even have the opportunity to ask. At the same time, once again, someone with that kind of prominence, wealth, and power had much to lose. Nevertheless, Joseph went to Pilate.

³⁸ After these things Joseph of Arimathea… asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus.

Mark (15:43) tells us explicitly that it took courage for Joesph to go to Pilate and seek Jesus’ body, “Joseph of Arimathea…took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.”

John describes Nicodemus as coming on the scene after Joseph had gone to Pilate, but it’s clear that the two were in league. John portrays Nicodemus as being there to help as soon as Pilate granted permission to Joseph. Additionally, it would have taken a good deal of planning for him to gather and transport 75 pounds of burial materials. And what’s more, this really was the light of day and Nicodemus’s participation would have been immediately visible to all. In other words, even though it was Joseph who went to Pilate, Nicodemus was on the hook with Pilate every bit as much.

What does faithfulness look like in the midst of suffering and mystery? It looks like two men who were more concerned with honoring Jesus, even in His death, than they were in holding on to their earthly blessings. It looks like a simple act of devotion.

Perhaps surprisingly, at the end of v.38 we’re told that “Pilate gave [Joseph] permission.” Quite probably this was because he didn’t believe Jesus was actually guilty and because he wanted to take one more shot at the Jews. Regardless of his motivation, the end result was that Pilate let Joseph and Nicodemus have Jesus’ body and allowed Him to avoid the extra indignity ordinarily reserved for the crucified.

They Were Bold Before the Jews

Again, we read in Mark 15 that going before Pilate required courage for Joseph. But it also required courage to do so on the Jewish side as well. Do you remember John 12?

John 12:42-43 …many even of the authorities believed in him [maybe Joseph and Nicodemus], but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; ⁴³ for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

The threat to Joseph and Nicodemus was about as serious as it gets from Rome (who had the power to imprison and put to death as these men had just witnessed). The threat to these men from Israel was just as serious, and in some ways more serious still. Rome could crush these men physically, but Israel could crush them financially (by taking away their livelihood), relationally (by making them pariahs among their people), familially (by pitting their own parents, siblings, even wives and kids—against them), and spiritually (by not allowing them to worship in the synagogue).

Ordinarily, unlike the Romans, Jews would burry criminals who had died. But they would do it in a criminals grave so as not to defile the innocent dead by forcing them to share a tomb with a sinner. It required a great deal of courage for Joseph and Nicodemus to show love and allegiance to Jesus in any form and especially by not burying him in a criminal’s grave.

Most of all, though, it took courage before the Jews to burry Jesus consistent with what Jesus claimed about Himself and these two men believed about Him.

³⁹ Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. ⁴⁰ So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. ⁴¹ 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.

There were no explicit commands that Joseph and Nicodemus were following. They loved Jesus and His death grieved them. They didn’t want Him to experience the normal Roman response (leave His dead body for the animals) or Jewish response (burry Him in a criminal tomb). They knew that he was anything but a common criminal. They knew He was the innocent Son of God. Therefore, they acted in simple, courageous, devotional faith and buried Him like the King He is.

And Joseph (Matthew 27:60) rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away.

SIMPLE DEVOTION FLOWING FROM REGULAR PRACTICE OF SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES

All of this brings us back to the questions I asked earlier. What does it look like to act faithfully in moments of suffering or mystery? What should you do when life is hard and there are no specific commands to follow in response?

Or, more specifically, if you were in Joseph and Nicodemus’s shoes, what would you have done? How would you have responded? What do you think it would have looked like for you to be faithful in that moment?

Would you, should you take care of His burial? Would you, should you “storm the castle?” Would you, should you yell of the hypocrisy and tyranny afoot? Would you, should you hide, pray, and wait for the dust to settle? Would you, should you give yourself to studying the Scriptures concerning the Christ? Would you, should you call the remaining followers of Jesus together for a worship service?

Joseph and Nicodemus responded by courageously and affectionately caring for the body of Jesus. They seemed uniquely positioned for this simple act of devotion. And yet, there were probably many different things they could have done in the immediate wake of Jesus’ death that would have been equally honoring to God.

You may have noticed that Joseph and Nicodemus were the only followers of Jesus who responded in this way. This act of faith wasn’t so obvious that all the other disciples showed up as well. Instead, each sought to honor God in their own ways.

There’s an important lesson in that for us, Grace. Rarely, is there a single way to honor God in any given situation; especially one like this where there were no explicit commands to follow. What Joseph and Nicodemus did was one way to act in faith, not the way.

Often God will burden His people to honor Him in different ways even in the same situation. We are to judge one another, not by our own consciences/convictions (as Paul tells us in passages like Romans 14). We are, rather to make room for God’s people to use their God-given gifts and act according to their God given-convictions, not try to compel them to use and share ours.

In other words, practically, some of Jesus’ followers probably should have sounded the alarm on the hypocrisy of the Jews and the tyranny of the Romans. Some should have laid low and prayed. Some should have studied. Some should have tried to gather the saints to sing and praise God. And some should have done other things.

Faithfulness to Jesus in times of suffering or mystery is often a matter of simple devotion and that simple devotion often looks different in different people.

But there’s another key to keep in mind. While simple devotion often looks different in different people, it doesn’t mean doing whatever we feel like in the moment. For our simple devotion to be pleasing to God, it must flow from the Sprit working through the Word. That is, it must flow out of a heart that has been sanctified by God. If we want living water to flow out of our cups when our cups are shaken, we need to take great care to make sure our cups have living water in them to begin with.

That’s why the main takeaway for us is to consistently make use of the ordinary means of grace, for they are God’s primary means of delivering living water to us. Far more often than not, our cups are filled with the living water of Jesus by the steady, grace-infused practice of the spiritual disciplines.

What do I mean by that? Different people have articulated the disciplines differently, but the gist is this—there are certain practices that God has determined to use to bring grace to His people. And when we consistently practice these disciplines, our hearts are filled with God’s grace such that when suffering and mystery come and shake us, simple devotion will come out. What are these means of Grace? I’d like to close by naming a handful.

1. Bible reading and study. God’s Word alone is able to equip us for every good work (2 Timothy 3:17). God’s Word alone is sufficient to make us wise (2 Timothy 3:15). God’s Word alone is the means by which our minds are renewed and our lives are transformed (Romans 12:1-2). For these reasons, we need to take in the Word of God both quantitatively and qualitatively. We need to take it in often and deeply. We need to read and read and read it (grab a reading plan from the back if you don’t know where to start). And we need to study and study and study it. This happens every week when you come to Berea and sit under the preaching of the Word. It also happens whenever you take the time to work through the basic Bible study questions on your own or with others.
   
2. Private and public prayer. A second means of God’s grace is prayer. Prayer is mysterious. It’s not obvious how prayer works. Prayer rarely works the same way twice from our perspective. It is wrong to think of prayer like the rubbing of a lamp to get a genie to come out and grant us wishes. It is wrong to think of prayer as a coin to God’s cosmic vending machine.
   In spite of all of these things, it is right to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:16) and God is pleased to hear us and work through our prayers (Luke 18:1). As we learn to pray God’s Word back to Him, He is pleased to work in and through our prayers and fill us with His grace for times of need.
   
3. Public and private worship. Active participation in the weekly rhythm of corporate worship has been a primary means of God’s grace for His people from the very beginning of creation. Within this is baptism and the Lord’s Table as well. God has put special grace in the gathering of His people.
   What’s more, our days ought to be spent looking for and celebrating evidences of God’s grace in all that we do. That is, private worship is a significant means of God’s grace as well as public worship. The more our hearts are overflowingly satisfied in God and the more that’s the case among those with whom we gather, the more we will respond to any situation with simple devotion.
   
4. Fellowship. Gathering together in the joy of the Lord, around a common faith in Jesus, and with a shared hope in the gospel—fellowship—is often one of the sweetest means of God’s grace. Anyone who has tasted true Christian friendship and encouragement understands how powerful this can be for a life of faithful obedience, and simple devotion.
   
5. Evangelism/ministry. For me personally, evangelism is almost always the means by which I most clearly, consistently, and satisfyingly experience the grace of God. For reasons I may never understand, God has been pleased from the beginning of my Christian life to fill me with a special experience of His pleasure every time I share the gospel with an unbeliever. There is something so simple and right about it that it fills me, every time, with a sense of God’s presence and grace. Profound, not simple, devotion inevitably follows.
   
6. Fasting. Fasting is voluntarily denying ourselves of some good thing (usually food) in order to turn the felt need back to God in acknowledgement that He is truly the give of all good things (James 1:17). When we fast from food, and we feel hungry, we are reminded of our need for God. Jesus made it clear that His followers will fast (Matthew 6:16-17). And as many of us experienced last week, God is often pleased to fill us with grace when we do.
   

God has determined to use these things (along with others like scripture memory and meditation, acts of service, and generosity) to fill us with faithful devotion. Most often He does so imperceptibly, one drop at a time rather than through large doses all at once. In this way, the change in our hearts is often seen over the course of months and years, not days and weeks. Nevertheless, God is faithful to give His grace through these means.

Therefore, when they are a consistent part of our lives, when suffering or mystery comes and shakes us, simple, faithful devotion is what will come out of us. It will take different forms at different times among different people according to the Spirit’s work, but when we fill ourselves with God’s grace according to His means, God’s pleasure will flow out of us even when we aren’t sure what form it should take.

What a simple passage. What a profound gift.

We turn now to one such simple means of ordinary grace in the Lord’s Table.