Easter Meditation

Joseph of Arimathea is mentioned in all four gospels, but we hardly ever mention him in our churches.

Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man. He was a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling Council. In fact the Bible tells us that he was a prominent member of the Council. He was one of the wealthiest and most influential men in Judea.

He was a good man, a righteous man. He made sure that all his business dealings were straightforward and above board. He paid his workers fairly. If he gave his word, you could rely on it. If he shook hands on a business deal, you knew he wouldn’t go back on it, you could rely on it as if it was a written contract.

And he was waiting for the kingdom of God. He was looking forward to the coming of the Messiah: the one sent from God who would put everything right; the one who would establish truth and righteousness; the one who would put the worship of Yahweh, the one true God, back at the heart of the life of Israel; the one who rid of the country of the hated Romans and establish Israel again as an independent nation, answerable to no-one but God alone.

So when Jesus appeared and started proclaiming: “The kingdom of God is at hand!” and teaching and healing people, Joseph was immediately curious. He started going to listen to Jesus when he was teaching in the Temple grounds. But so he wouldn’t draw attention to himself, Joseph took off his fine linen robes, and put on the rough woollen cloak of a worker. He ruffled up his hair and beard, and did his best to look like an ordinary working man. And he hung around at the back of the crowd.

Joseph soon became convinced that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, that he was the Son of God. That, in fact, Jesus was something even more: that in some way, that Joseph couldn’t quite fathom, Jesus was actually God. That although God ruled and reigned from heaven, that although God’s presence filled the earth, in some strange way God’s presence was concentrated in this teacher and miracle worker from Galilee. So that when Jesus said something, or did something, it was as if God in heaven was doing it or saying it.

So Joseph became a follower of Jesus. But he kept it quiet from the other members of the Council. It wasn’t that he was afraid of telling them. It was just, well, it was just that he didn’t want them to think that he was a fanatic, that he was mixing with the rabble that were supporting Jesus, that he was becoming an extremist. So he didn’t tell them.

And every time the Council discussed what to do with this trouble-maker Jesus, Joseph bit his lip. If pushed, he would agree with the wise old Gamaliel and say, “Do nothing. If this man is truly from God, then we can’t stop him. If he’s not from God, then it will all fizzle out.”

Somehow he discovered that Nicodemus was secretly following Jesus too. Nicodemus was the teacher who had gone to Jesus at night-time because he was afraid of what the other leading Jews would think. He was the one who Jesus had told, “You must be born again!” Now there two of them on the Council who were disciples of Jesus.

Nicodemus never thought that it would come to the Council plotting to kill Jesus. Of course, they had spoken about getting rid of Jesus, but Nicodemus had thought it was all hot air. That none of them would ever really follow through. But a lot of these men really hated Jesus. They hated his popularity with the people. They hated the way he showed up their hypocrisy and wickedness. They thought that if Jesus rocked the boat with the Romans, and if the Romans clamped down on them, they would lose their positions of power and influence.

And so the plot to kill Jesus began. Joseph couldn’t agree with it. But he kept quiet about being a disciple of Jesus. And so the plan was hatched to pay Judas to betray Jesus, to have Jesus arrested and brought before the Council for trial. And for the death penalty to be decreed. Jesus was dragged before the Council on trumped up charges and dodgy witnesses were paid to give false evidence that Jesus had blasphemed against God. And when it came to voting about what to do with Jesus, Joseph didn’t agree to the death penalty. But he still kept quiet about being a disciple of Jesus. Even then, he didn’t really think that Jesus would be killed. After all, they needed the Roman governor to give approval to an execution, and surely he wouldn’t approve of a non-violent religious leader being put to death. And after all, Jesus was the Messiah: surely he couldn’t die before he had finished his work of liberating God’s people.

But Pilate, the governor, did agree to Jesus being executed. Jesus was dragged off by the Roman soldiers, beaten and humiliated, mocked and insulted, and forced to carry the cross beam to the execution place. Then Jesus was nailed to the cross and suffered the torment and agony of a Roman crucifixion. By then, almost all of Jesus’ disciples had made themselves scarce. Only the women remained; they were looked upon by the soldiers as posing no threat and were allowed to stand near the cross. So they waited and watched the cruel agony of Jesus’ death.

Finally, Jesus gave up his spirit and died. News reached Joseph in his house in the city. He was surprised. No he was shocked. First of all he hadn’t really expected Jesus to be executed. And secondly, he was surprised at how quickly Jesus had died. Usually crucifixion was long drawn out exceedingly painful death.

At last, Joseph was spurred into action. He was hugely deflated that the man he thought was the Messiah should end his mission in humiliation and failure. But he was angry – angry that his fellow Jews should so easily despatch an innocent man to his death, angry that the Romans with their reputation for justice could so easily collude with the Jewish leaders. And angry with himself for giving in to his fear and not speaking out for Jesus. So he determined to do something. The least he could do was to make sure that the man had a decent burial. He was done with secrecy: he didn’t care now  who knew that he was a follower of Jesus. So he boldly marched up to the governor’s palace and demanded to speak with Pilate. “I want to take away Jesus’ body and bury it.” “What? Is he dead already?” Pilate checked with his commander that Jesus was indeed dead and then gave permission for Joseph to take away Jesus’ body and bury it.

So Joseph found his friend Nicodemus and the two of them went and took Jesus’ body and carried it and put it in Joseph’s tomb. Joseph was a rich man and he had had a tomb made ready for when he died. It was cut out of the rock in a garden on the edge of Jerusalem city. The tomb had never been used before and so they laid Jesus’ body in it, wrapped in a linen cloth. Then the two of them rolled the large round entrance stone in front of the entrance, so the body would be secure. It was Friday evening, just before the start of the Sabbath. Two of the women, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus, followed Joseph and Nicodemus to the tomb. They saw exactly where the tomb was and then went away to prepare spices. The next day was the Sabbath, when they would rest as the Law of Moses said, and they would come back early on the Sunday morning to embalm Jesus body.

And now it was Sunday morning. And news reached Joseph’s home that the tomb was empty! Jesus’ body was gone! And what’s more the women – Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus – were insisting that Jesus had come to life gain, that they had seen him alive!

What was he to think? Could it be true that Jesus really had come back to life? Could it be true that Jesus really was the Messiah? That he really was God, and that death could not rule over him? Could it be true that Joseph still had the opportunity to follow Jesus, to be known as his disciple, that he had not after all blown everything through his fear and stupidity.

And it did indeed turn out to be true. Jesus was raised to life. He was seen by the woman in the garden. He passed through locked doors to visit most of the eleven disciples in Jerusalem (I say, eleven because Judas was no longer with them) and made himself known to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. In fact Jesus appeared to many of the disciples over a period of forty days before he ascended into heaven. It may be that Joseph himself encountered the risen Lord Jesus. Whether he did or not, one thing was for sure. Joseph had got it right when he put his trust in Jesus. And he was able to live the rest of his days unashamed about being a disciple of Jesus, confident that when he died he too, like Jesus, would be raised to life again and would spend eternity worshipping and serving his Saviour.

Bible passages

• Matthew 27:57-61
• Mark 15:42-47
• Luke 23:50-56
• John 19:38-42

The Father turned his face away . . . or did he?

Psalm 22 is a powerful "messianic" psalm. In vivid detail it describes what happened to Jesus on the cross. Its opening words were cried out by Jesus as he was dying: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It seems that Jesus was aware, even as he was facing death, that he was fulfilling this psalm and that his death was significant because he was giving his life in fulfilment of the Scriptures. The psalm goes on to describe, hundreds of years before the event, exactly what happened to Jesus as he suffered the agony of the cross . .
'All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: "He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue him . .'" (v.8)
'I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.' (v.14)
'They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.'  (v.18)

And in verse 24 we read the surprising words
'For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one;
      he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.'

This seems to fly in the face of 'traditional' evangelical teaching which says that as Jesus suffered on the cross there was a period of time when God the Father 'turned his face away' from Jesus the Son as he suffered because at that moment Jesus was carrying all the sin of humankind and God cannot look upon sin. This is what it means for Jesus to endure 'hell' - he experienced complete isolation from God as he became sin for us. He endured the penalty due to us for our sin so that we can go free and escape God's judgement. Hence the cry that Jesus uttered: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Which is true? Did God the Father turn away from Jesus as he bore our sins? Was he really forsaken by God at that moment as he cried out? Or can we believe the psalm when it says, "he has not hidden his face from him"?

There are several ways that we can seek to reconcile this apparent contradiction. We can say that Jesus really was separated from God the Father as he carried our sins. This means that the words of the psalm are to be taken figuratively, looking back on the whole sequence of events surrounding the cross. God the Father was pleased with the obedience of Jesus and when Jesus was dead, the Father raised him to live again and, about 40 days later, lifted him up to heaven and gave him authority and power. God the Father was not ashamed of Jesus, but was pleased with him. He did not ignore his obedience and suffering, but rather honoured him, and in that sense he did not "hide his face from him."

Alternatively, we can take the words of the psalm literally. The Father did not hide his face from his Son, but continued to look upon him and remained with him throughout his ordeal on the cross. In which case, what did Jesus mean when he cried out: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Was Jesus forsaken by God or not? There are two possible solutions. It could be that this was Jesus' experience, but not the reality: he could not feel the presence of God as he suffered, he felt forsaken by God, but nevertheless God the Father was with him right through the ordeal. Or it could be that Jesus was deliberately invoking this psalm, so that people could see the parallels between the psalm and the events unfolding so that they would realise that his suffering was in accordance with scripture and that he was truly the Messiah. (Or possibly both of these are true - it was Jesus' experience and he was invoking Psalm 22.)

IF this second explanation is correct, if it is true that God the Father did not turn his face away from Jesus but was with him through the ordeal on the cross, then there are some truly amazing consequences for us. Firstly, if it is true that God the Father did not turn away from Jesus as he carried our sin, then it means that God does not turn away from us when we sin. Even when we are disobedient and do things that offend God's holiness, he sticks with us. He is offended, even disgusted, by the sin but he sticks with us because we are his children and his heart is for us. Secondly, it means that as people did disgusting, degrading and downright evil things to Jesus, God the Father was still with him, even though Jesus did not feel it. That means that if people have done disgusting, degrading and downright evil things to you, God did not abandon you: he was still with you, even though you did not feel it. And if at times you feel utterly abandoned by God, you can take some comfort from knowing that Jesus felt just the same, and that God neither abandoned Jesus nor you. That is amazing!

Take up your cross and follow me

First of all, in the Bible, the word ‘Christian’ is hardly ever used as a label for the people who belong to Jesus. The word is only found two or three times in the New Testament. In the Gospels, the word that is used most is ‘disciple’ which means a follower or apprentice. In the New Testament letters, we find the word ‘saints’ used to describe those who belong to Jesus, or the brief phrase ‘in Christ’, meaning those whose lives are bound up with Jesus.

Having said that, I want to ask you a question: is the Christian life hard or easy? Is it hard or easy to live the life of a Christian, to be a follower of Jesus?

Let’s look at what Jesus said about it. On one occasion he said, “Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”  (Matthew 10:38-39) These words talk about taking up our cross and losing our lives. That suggests that it is hard to follow Jesus.

On another occasion (recorded just one chapter later in Matthew’s Gospel), Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)  These words talk about Jesus’ yoke being easy and his burden light. That suggests that it is easy to follow Jesus.

Which is it? Hard or easy? Or does, as our critics suggest, the Bible contradict itself?  Or can it be that Jesus contradicted himself? What is the answer to this conundrum? In brief the answer is this: it’s easy to be a Christian if we embrace God’s ways, forsake the world’s ways, and submit to God’s will. It’s hard to be a Christian if we try to hang on to our own ambitions, our own way of doing things, and at the same time try to live for God’s kingdom.

I am going to look at these two passages in a little detail, and then try to apply them to our lives and then try to reconcile them.

“Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”  (Matthew 10:38-39)

First let’s be clear that a cross is a method of execution. It was a horrific means of a cruel and lingering death that the Romans reserved for the worst criminals and enemies of the state, in order to make an example of them. If anyone was seen carrying a cross in the first century, it was clear that he was heading for his death. We no longer have the death penalty in the United Kingdom, but it is still used in many countries around the world. The means used are various – hanging, shooting by firing squad, in earlier days in some states in the USA: the electric chair, in some states today a lethal cocktail of drugs. So, putting it into a modern setting, Jesus could have said, “Whoever does not take up their gallows/electric chair/ lethal injection and follow me is not worthy of me . .”

There is a sense in which we take up the cross of Jesus – we embrace his death and make it our own, we receive the benefits that come from his sacrifice – forgiveness, reconciliation with God, justification before God, adoption as sons.

But this is referring not to the cross of Jesus but to our cross: whoever would be a follower of Jesus must take up his own cross and follow him. Following Jesus requires us to die. And in case that’s not clear, Jesus goes on to say that we need to lose our lives for his sake, if we are to follow him.

In what sense must we lose our lives? In what sense must we die? We must be willing to die to, to let go of –

·         our reputation, our good name

·         our rights, especially our right to retaliate

·         being master of our own destiny

·         our ambitions, career plan

·         finding our security in money and things

·         finding our reputation in our social status, or our education

·         looking down on other people.

But we do have a choice: we can hold on to all these things, but if we do the soul within us will shrivel and die, we will become as nothing and lose our life. But if we are prepared to lose our life, to let go of all these things, then we will truly live before God.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”   (Matthew 11:2-30)

The picture here is of two oxen yoked together to pull a plough. The younger ox yoked together with the older, more experienced ox to learn how to plough. Jesus is the more experienced ox. If we submit to his leadership and keep in step with him, if we walk the way that he leads, we will find our burden easy, we will find that the yoke fits well, and that the burden is light. We will find that the way of discipleship is the path of true joy. But if we fight against his leadership, if we hang on to the ways of world, if we are not ready to die to our self and the ways of this world, then we will find that we are pulling against him, that the yoke chafes, that the burden is heavy.

You probably know the story of the apostle Paul. When we first read about him in the Bible, he is known by his Hebrew name Saul, and we read that in his fanatical devotion to his faith, he persecutes and imprisons Christian disciples because he believes that that are perverting the truth about God. Famously, on the road to Damascus, Paul meets the risen Lord Jesus and the whole direction is turned around. When Paul was recounting the story of his conversion many years later, he says this: “We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’”  (Acts 24:16)

‘Goads’ are poles, usually with pointed tips, that are used to ‘encourage’ animals to keep moving in a certain direction. If an animal ‘kicks against the goads’ it makes life even more uncomfortable for itself. That’s what Paul was doing. He was trying to kick against the truth revealed in Jesus, and he was making his own life difficult.

That’s the choice that faces us. We can accept the yoke of Jesus, lay down our lives, submit to his ways, discover true life, and experience the joy of walking with Jesus. Then, we will know, through our own experience, the truth that his burden is light.

Or we can ‘kick against the goads’, refuse to surrender our lives to him, and in so doing we will ‘lose our lives’. We will find life hard because we are constantly resisting his ways and trying to follow our own way, and the way of the world, while at the same time trying to be a follower of Jesus. This is a hard way, and ultimately a way that brings no joy or satisfaction.

You are not your own; you were bought at a price

I’ve been a Christian now for more than forty years. The danger of getting old is that you can become nostalgic; you can think that things were better in “the old days” - when you were young.

There are so many things that have changed in the Christian world since I was a young Christian in the 1970’s. And I am pleased about most of them. However, there is one thing which we have lost which I think is a mistake.

When I was a young Christian, there was a big stress on being totally committed to God, on self-sacrifice, on putting aside one’s own interests and ambitions for the sake of the gospel, of “dying to self.” Along with it there was a whole load of ‘legalism’. For the first seven years of my Christian life, I spent most of the time feeling guilty. Feeling guilty that I wasn’t praying enough. Feeling guilty that I wasn’t reading my Bible enough. Feeling guilty that I wasn’t getting up early enough. Feeling guilty that I wasn’t telling people about Jesus.

I was hugely relieved when I discovered the truth of God’s grace. When I realised that all my sin – past, present and future – is forgiven by God and covered by the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. When I realised that I am adopted by God as his son, that I am accepted totally by him, and that it doesn’t depend on my behaviour. It was truly liberating to realise that my standing with God comes from what he has done for me, and not what I can do for him. It’s great to live as a Christian without guilt. It’s good to know that my walk with God depends on relationship with him and not on keeping rules and regulations. It’s good to know that God’s Holy Spirit is working within me to change me from the inside out, and that being a Christian is not trying in my own strength to conform to an outward standard of behaviour. I’m not trying to conform to someone’s idea of what a Christian life looks like – whether my own ideas or someone else’s. Instead I am drawing strength from God’s own Spirit and changing day by day into his likeness.

Nevertheless, I have a nagging feeling that I am missing something. I have abandoned all the guilt, and all the need to obey a set of rules and regulations.  But with it, I have also ditched a strand of truth which runs through the teaching of Jesus and the New Testament: the call to lay down our lives for the sake of Jesus and the gospel  –

‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.’     Mark 8:34-35

‘Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.’     John 12:24

‘For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.’      Philippians 1:21

‘For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.’       Colossians 3:3

I have been thinking recently about how to bring together two apparently contradictory strands that run through the Bible. The Bible makes it clear that God deals with me according to his amazing grace –  the death and resurrection of Jesus has dealt decisively with my sin and my standing with God depends on what he has done and not what I do. And the Bible also makes it clear that I am called to a life of self-sacrifice, to lay down my own life for the sake of Jesus and the gospel.

How do I bring these two strands together? It seems to me that the meeting point is found in the death of Jesus. On the one hand, the sacrifice of Jesus deals with our sin: Jesus in his death bore the pain and the penalty of my sin so that I can go free. Jesus became sin for me, so that I am forgiven and pronounced ‘not guilty’ in God’s sight. On the other hand, the sacrifice of Jesus was a price paid for me, or ransom, so that I no longer belong to myself: I belong to God.

‘In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace. .’     Ephesians 1:7

‘Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!’     Romans 5:9-10

‘For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.’     1 Peter 1:18-19

‘Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.’     1 Corinthians 6:19-20

‘For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.’     Romans 12:4-5

In fact, not only do I belong to God, but I also belong to my fellow-members of Christ’s body, the church. I can’t make any decision about my life in isolation – whether it’s about my career, my happiness, my finances – I have to consider the impact of my decisions on the gospel, my fellow church members, and on Jesus himself.