Do you know what can sometimes help you to make a right decision? Just to stop and think of what your friends, or your parents would say about it. But did you know that there are times when thinking about your friends and family could lead you to make a wrong decision! It did for two men in this true story; and maybe you are wanting to please your friends just as much as they were.
“Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple of Jesus”. That means he had come to believe the things Jesus claimed about Himself. Joseph now trusted in Jesus as his Priest and Saviour: “but secretly because he feared the Jews." (verse 38.)
You see, Joseph realized that all his friends, being Jewish, still believed in the priests of their own religion.
Perhaps all your friends think that it is their priests, or their sacraments or their religion, that can make them pleasing to God. You might be afraid of what they might say or do if you were to really believe God when He says that your only Priest must be Jesus. To trust in Jesus instead of trusting in all the other priests and teachers of religion would be a very unpopular thing to do!
Joseph didn’t want to fall out with his Jewish friends, so he though he could just be a secret disciple of Jesus – a secret love for Jesus and His teachings. But some of the things his “friends” were happy to keep on saying and doing were clearly so sinful! Especially the way they spoke about Jesus, and rejected Him.
Joseph may not have realized it, but at that time a man named Nicodemus also secretly felt the same way as he did. Nicodemus had once “visited Jesus at night” and had found out from Him that no one could get to Heaven without being “born again”! (John 3:1-21.)
Being “born again” is the new start that takes place in a person’s life and soul when he or she truly believes God’s Gospel. Instead of going on trusting in religion, or priests, or sacraments, the person now trusts in Jesus Christ alone to be the Saviour. Nicodemus must have believed in Jesus, but in order to keep in with his friends had kept very quiet about his new faith and new birth.
Those “friends” that both Joseph and Nicodemus had tried not to offend, often offended and disgusted them by their behaviour! They ridiculed and rejected Jesus for no reason other than to satisfy their priests. And the priests succeeded in doing to Jesus what they wanted - they had Him mocked and beaten and crucified!
Neither Joseph nor Nicodemus could continue to have a secret love for Jesus their Saviour any longer! They asked permission to bury the mangled body of Jesus. “Taking Jesus’ dead body, the two of them wrapped it, with spices, in strips of linen,” and placed it in a new tomb nearby. (verses 40-42.)
I wonder did they realize that three days later their Saviour would be alive again? Alive, to be able to save all who would come to God through Him, because He died for our sins. Have you trusted in Him yet? If you have, don't try to have a secret love for Jesus like these two men tried for a while. There is no need to be ashamed of loving and trusting Jesus! (Romans 1:16.)
Read John’s Gospel chapter 19, verses 38-42. Don't be ashamed of such a wonderful Saviour.
John Nixon, Cork, Ireland. P31HD98. Contact: jnixonj@gmail.com
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