The Funeral of Jesus. (Mark 15: 40-47)

You can learn a lot by going to a funeral. Maybe you’ve been to a funeral and learned something about the person who has died that you didn’t know before? That has happened to me, many times in fact. However, when attending a funeral, you can not only learn a lot about the person who has deceased, but also sometimes get added insight into their life by who chooses to attend. 

What I want to do today is tell you about one particular funeral, and we are not only going to talk about the person who died. We are also going to talk about the people who attended the burial of Jesus. At this burial service, the was no eulogy there wasn’t really even a service in fact. There was just a simple burial, with a few people attending. However, I believe there is something we can learn if we look at the people who attended this particular event.

There were two groups of people at the burial of Jesus, or at least one group and another individual. You will particularly notice that the small group of people were made up of woman. Then there was also someone called Joseph of Arimathea who was the one who had become responsible for the actual burial. 

So, I want us to look firstly at the woman, then at Joseph. The text will begin by telling us that there were several of women there and ends by showing us that some of those same women were there at the end actually attending as Jesus’s body was laid to rest. So, who were these women and what is their significance, and what we can learn from them? Well, the opening verse of today’s passage will tell us.

Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome. In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.

(Mark 15: 40-41)

Now, we are told elsewhere in the scripture that Mary Magdalene was a woman that Jesus had delivered from a demonic possession. We can perhaps understand having been delivered from this awful affliction why she might want to follow the Lord and be part of the group of devoted women who cared for his needs. There are a number of places in the New Testament where this small group of women are mentioned but it is interesting to note that on each occasion, they are mentioned Mary Magdalene is always mentioned first. Many bible scholars say this indicates that she was probably their leader.

Another woman mentioned is also called Mary, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph.  Describing her this way indicates that this was a woman whose children were well known in the community. Then there is Salome, and we are told elsewhere she ministered to the Lord with her worldly goods and please note the text actually also says, many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem and followed Him there. So, here is a group of women who were taught by the Lord, who supported the Lords work financially (We know this from Luke chapter 8, by the way, and these women had followed the Lord to Jerusalem, and they remained with him to the bitter end.

Let’s just pause for a moment and remind you where this passage belongs in the overall narrative of the gospel of Mark. At this point in the story there has been great hostility shown towards the Lord which has climaxed with Him being crucified only the day before. The Sanhedrin were hostile towards him. The Roman soldiers were hostile towards him. The religious leaders were now hostile towards him, even the ordinary people in the street were now hostile towards him. Now, even the disciple had now fled. That suggest to me that these women should have been fearful after all the disciples fled because they were followers of Jesus and they probably thought they were next. But the women had overcome that fear and remained faithful until the end. Their devotion to the Lord had meant that they had put him above their own personal welfare. They were faithful to the very end, more so than even than the disciples. There is a lesson for us all in that, I am sure.

Now we come to the second person in this passage, namely Joseph of Arimathea . Joseph is an interesting character, verse 43 tells us this about him.

Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council.

(Mark 15: 43a)

Now that interesting because saying he was a member of the council means he was a member of the Sanhedrin. Not just an ordinary member but a prominent member of the Council. The text also tells us that he was. 

Who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body.  Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died.

(Mark 15: 43b-44)

Johns account actual tells us that he was in fact a disciple of the Lord, but keep it secret, for as he puts it, “fear of the Jews”. It is critical that you understand what is really going on here. Here is a man who was a prominent respectable member of the ruling council of the Sanhedrin who had come to believe that Jesus was the Christ. However, he is understandably frightened of how his fellow members of the Sanhedrin might react if they knew this. But what is really amazing is that after the death of Jesus he took courage and boldly went to Pilate and asked for the body. The key statement, as it says in some translations that “he took courage” and “boldly” went before the council and requested that he might have the body of Christ. Now, we see in this passage that Joseph stood up and spoke up for the Lord. However, he did more than just that. He stood up, he spoke up, and then he sacrificially served the Lord. How so?

 When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. So, Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.

(Mark 15: 45-46)

He served the Lord by taking down his body wrapping it in linen and placing it in a tomb. Now it worth noting that on a practical level Joseph could not have removed Christ’s body from the cross all by himself. As a matter of fact, we are told in the gospel of John that Nicodemus helped him. Nicodemus was also a member of the ruling council, the one who secretly came to meet with Jesus in the middle of the night. So here at the burial of Christ, are two members of the Sanhedrin, both with a lot to be worried about. Two men who took courage and stood up for the Lord and having seen him crucified were still now willing to be seen to serve him. But it wasn’t just an act of service for a dead man, there is a really significant sacrifice being made here. What is really significant in this is that they handled the body.

For a Jew to handle a dead body meant they would have been disqualified from taking or participating in the Passover. On the eve of the Passover, they did something that made them defiled in the eyes of their people and their faith group. So, they bury Jesus in a tomb cut out of rock and they roll a large stone against the door of the tomb. Many believe Isaiah 53 had prophesied this when it tells us; 

And they made His grave with the wicked—But with the rich at His death,

(Isa 53:9)

Let me sum all this up by simply saying, here were people who should have been afraid. We wouldn’t blame them if they had just kept their heads down, because be standing up they might well have been next up for crucifixion. Not just in the case of the women, but also, in the circumstance of Joseph or Arimathea who stood up before the whole Sanhedrin and identified his position as a follower of the Lord.

I think a lesson to be learned in all of this is that we too need to overcome our fears. We sometimes need to overcome our fears and stand up and do what is right. Fear of the crowd or  what people might think can stop us in our tracks, it certainly stopped the disciples, who in a matter of a days had all turned and fled. It had stopped Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus from standing up prior to this point.

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964. The most amazing and terrifying of men. He was an high-ranking officer among the  Russian troops during the siege of Stalingrad.  ( I recommend you read his biography if you have a chance). As Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers he was responsible for the de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union after the war and negation with the Americans. A superb strategist and no mean chess player he totally out manoeuvred the west in the east/west arms negotiations, post Word War 2. In 1960 he became famous for an incident that occurred at the annual UN General assembly meeting. When at a heated point in the debate he stood up and banged shoe on table. Repeatedly shouting  “We will bury you, we will bury you”

On another occasion, much earlier some years after the war he chaired a large public meeting where the atrocities of Stalin where being discussed. At one point someone from the crown once shouted from the back. “You were one of his closest ministers why didn’t you stand up against him and speak out about what he did”. Khruschev at the top of his voice thundered, “Who said that”. There was a long-prolonged silence as he prowled the stage glaring into the audience.

 No-one moved a muscle. Nikita Khruschev then said, “now you know why, no-one spoke up”. 

As a postscript to the shoe banging incident, 20 years later RAI the Italian broadcaster came up with photographs showing that Khrushchev still had both shoes on before and during the incident.

In fact, a former UN staffer from East Germany confirmed that Khrushchev took a single show from a gift of 1,000 pairs of shoes that had been gifted to the soviet people by German Federal Ministry of Economics that day and used it to bang the table.

So, what’s the solution when we feel challenged or afraid. Should we wait until the fear subsides before we take courage or is taking courage the solution to the fear. Perhaps friends we are called not to wait until the fear is gone, but to speak when we are afraid. 

Paul in his first letter to the church in Corinth wrote.

And so, it was with me, brothers, and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

(I Cor 2: 1-5)

Take heart, but please note this is not an arrogant attitude, haranguing people of their status before a holy God. This is a place of humility, coming in weakness, . I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling, he said.

Did you hear that, Paul himself says he came to them in weakness and in great fear and trembling. He didn’t wait till the fear subsided, he took courage and spoke authentically even whilst he was afraid. That I believe is an important part of the lesson of this passage.

Were these women afraid? Probably yes. Was Joseph afraid? Definitely because it says he was. But they didn’t let their fear control them, they did what was right in taking his body for burial and speaking up for him. Courage is only courage if you are doing what you are afraid to do, there can be no real courage unless you are afraid. Next time you are afraid, try taking courage, and do the right thing whilst you are afraid.

In the operating room of a large hospital, a young trainee theatre technician was completing her first full day of responsibilities. "You've only removed 11 sponges, doctor," she said to the surgeon she said nervously.  "We removed only 12, he snapped back at her."  "I removed them all," the doctor declared. "We'll close the incision now." 

"No," the nurse objected. "We used 12 sponges, and I have only eleven here, there is one missing."  "I'll take full responsibility," the surgeon said grimly. "Suture and close!" "You can't do that!" begged the trainee. "What about the patient." The surgeon smiled, lifted his foot, and showed the nurse the 12th sponge. "You'll do for me," he said, you can assist me anytime. 

Here is my suggestion, we need to look fear in the face and take courage in spite of being in great fear and trembling. Because you don’t need to rely on persuasive words. Because you just need to get out of the way and let God demonstrate it through His Spirit’s power Because regardless of any loss, we might experience today a day will come when because of that courageous step you will stand before the God who created this universe. Because one day you will one day stand before the king and be given your reward.