Holy Week Special - Easter People Part 3: Joseph of Arimathea

Holy Week Special - Easter People Part 3: Joseph of Arimathea

Holy Week is a time when we can reflect on the events that led to Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection from the dead. In this short series of sermons that were originally delivered in 2025, we are drawn into these events through the eyes and the experiences of five people. Some were very close to Jesus throughout his ministry whilst others appear momentarily. But all can say the same thing: that they met Jesus.

In this third talk, we have the opportunity to reflect on events through the eyes of Joseph of Arimathea. He has a small mention in the narrative, but a significant experience to share with us.

You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at  Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.

Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:09

This is the first sermon on Easter people's story. It's a small mention of the Gospel, but a profoundly significant part of the story of Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Today we are going to be continuing our series looking at Easter people. We spent the last few weeks in the little up to Easter, we'll be looking at different people in the Easter story and how the events of Easter change everything. Because Christians, for those who don't know, or perhaps those who've forgotten, are Easter people. We're not so much Christmas people, although Christmas is a huge deal. We are primarily Easter people. It is Easter that defines and shapes and gives form to our faith and our belief and what we do and how we live. Without that, it says in scripture, without that, the resurrection, we are to be pitied among most. We are wasting our breath, we are wasting our time, we are wasting our energy. But if this story is true, the Son of God come to live as one of us, died on a cross, laid in a tomb, risen from the dead and alive today, if that is true, then it changes absolutely everything. Not just our life, and I know we often make it personal that he saved me and redeemed me, but it does, it changes the entire world. And everything that we think that we know and everything that we thought we know is undone, and we're going to see a bit of that today. So we've looked at Mary, we looked at her, the front row seat she had to the resurrection. We looked at Peter and the way Jesus dealt with him so wonderfully in bringing him back from his failures and his mistakes and redeeming him. And today we're going to look at a fairly obscure character. I don't know much about him, and I imagine you don't either because of the little we have in scripture, but we're going to look at Joseph of Arimathea and his role in the Easter story and what it has to teach us. So I'm just going to read the passage. There are three passages, they're all very similar. We're just going to read one of them together to get a feel for who this person was. It says, later, Jesus died on the cross and his life is left, and there he is. Now it says, Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. If you know the story, John 3, the man comes to visit Jesus and asks him questions. It's where the famous born-again phrase comes from. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds. Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it with the spices in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden. And in the garden a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of preparation, and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. And that's it. You got the other accounts that we said last week there are four Gospels, each emphasize slightly different things and bring out. So if you go to Mark, you get the idea that as evening approached, Joseph, a prominent member of the council. So we learned that this man was a member of a council. This was like a court sort of making rulings and decisions on behalf of the people, and he was waiting for the kingdom of God. He had this desire for God's kingdom. So he wasn't just a disciple, but he had this longing. He went to ask for the body. We read in Matthew that as evening approached, a rich man from Arimathea. So we know Joseph was well off. He had himself been a disciple of Jesus. He says he took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. So we learned there that it was his tomb, his family tomb that was used to bury him. And there we go. That's Joseph. Let's end the lesson for today. Because there isn't apart from being involved in this little moment, this brief moment, I mean it's a significant moment, but it's so brief. And then we don't know what happens. There are rumors, there are stories, there are things passed on. I'm sure there's probably a holy day somewhere that honors Joseph of Arimathea in some way, but we know very little about this man apart from that he was involved in the burial of Jesus. What's interesting is if you've grown up in church, or even if you've heard the story elsewhere, when we talk about Easter, we focus on the cross. We focus on Jesus dying on the cross and all that surrounded that, all that took place there. And then we focus on the Sunday, where Jesus resurrects from the dead and then comes alive and meets the people and proclaims the good news and frees and delivers and saves and is King of kings and Lord of Lords, conquering over death. But nearly every time we talk about the story, we miss out the burial. We miss out the bit where he is laid in a tomb, and for a whole day he is in the tomb, buried. When Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 he gives a summary of the gospel and he says Jesus Christ, who was crucified, was buried, and then three days later rose from the dead. And his summary was he was buried, is a crucial part of the story, and yet it's the part that I think modern Christianity has left out or overlooked more than any other. We love that Good Friday, we call it good, we know what it does, we know it's accomplished and finished, Easter Sunday, but that moment, that day, that day of pain, that day of silence, that day of confusion, that day where the tomb is sealed, where death has won, where there is no hope, that day is the one that we skip over. And even describing it that way, you can kind of get a sense of why we might do that. Because we know that there's good news coming. Don't dwell on the bad, but we know there's something wonderful on the horizon. But today I just want to pause and look at Joseph and what he does and the significance of it and how it changes so much about how we live and how we understand what took place on that Easter weekend, uh, Friday, straight through Saturday, and on to Sunday. Perhaps it's helpful just to put some flesh on the bones of what takes place on this day, because like I said, it's so brief. Um, Jesus has died on the cross, and then there's a there's a ticking clock. Um, the Romans have had a difficult day crucifying people and dealing with crowds, and the law, the Jewish law, dictates that no one can remain on a tree during the Sabbath. And we're told in the passage we just read the next day is a Sabbath day. And so the body has to come down. Um the usual practice was that they would take down a body and they'd throw it into a shallow um pit, a shallow grave filled with other bodies that had been crucified, and there they would be left. If they were lucky, they might be wrapped up in a carpet or some sort of cloth and then hurled into there. Um just be, a shallow grave would be dug and they'd be placed in there, and probably later wild animals would dig it up and eat the body. That was the usual practice. And so this is very different to what would normally happen. Joseph, in intervening here, is changing the course of what would normally happen to a body that was crucified at this moment. And so he and Nicodemus that they go to Pilate and they ask for the body. They're breaking cover. It says that in that passage that he was afraid of the Jews. He didn't want to be known as a follower of Jesus, but he finally, in this moment, feels he has to do something. And so he steps out, he goes to Pilate and asks him. Pilate, I imagine, thinks just deal with it, do what you want, it's done with now. This guy's dead, he's out of the wall. I've washed my hands of it, whatever you want to do, go and do it. And so he does. He goes and he takes the body off. Just got to pause for a moment there because we pass over it. You have to climb up to this cross, you have to remove the body, you have to take the full weight of it on yourself, you have to lower it down. This is not a simple process, this is cumbersome and difficult. He's a member of the council, which means that by touching of their body, he is now contaminated, he is now unclean. And with the Sabbath and celebrations coming, it means for an entire week he will not be able to participate in the celebrations. This is around the time of Passover, he will not be allowed to eat the Passover meal because of what he is doing now for Jesus. He has taken an awful lot on himself. He will be cut off at the most important time of the Jewish year, at the most important celebration where they remember what God did to save them. He will be outside and unable to participate. And yet he does it anyway. They lower down this body and they they they get it down to the ground. And then they take the spices we're told. It says 75 pounds, which Nicodemus provided. One scholar points out that this is enough spice for a royal burial. This is something extravagant that they are doing. This is something over the top, and they take it and they they know something about this man. He's not just a rabbi or a teacher, they are burying a king. The banner across his cross as king of the Jews, and they wrap him tightly in linen, making sure that they wrap it slightly less tightly around the face. That was part of the Jewish customs that they talked about, and then they take him away. Do you notice that when Jesus is born, he has a man called Joseph who wraps him in swaddling cloths? When he dies, he has a man called Joseph who wraps him in linen before he's laid in a tomb. They take him and they find that the garden nearby, close by, and Joseph, his own family tomb, it's there ready, carved into the rock. It says it carved it with his own hands. He put time and efforts. This has been a family tomb for a sister, a mother, a father, the first to die, would be laid there, and then the others would be added to over time. And now he takes this body of Jesus and he places him in the tomb. At this point, Jesus is sentenced to death as a criminal. And so, in putting a criminal in his family's tomb, that tomb is now desecrated and can no longer be used for anyone else. And yet he still does it. He lays him in the tomb. The Jewish tradition dictates that the body will be there, the stone will be rolled across, and three days later they will come back to examine and make sure the body is truly dead. Although there's no need for this, that's already been done with the spear that's been put through Jesus' side, probably piercing his heart to ensure that he's already dead. The Romans were experts at death. And Pilate gets the confirmation from the Centurion that yes, he is already dead, but they lay him there according to the customs. Yep, later, what would normally happen is the bones would be removed after the body had decomposed, and they'd be put into a smaller jar and then put into a little knuckle. Um it's carved in the wall where it would remain for the rest of its days. So this is what's happened on that Friday. This is what Joseph has done. And already you can see there is something about this man who once, in secret, wanted to follow, but stood at a distance, compelled him to go through all of this. And then the sun sets, and the Sabbath day begins. That's what Joseph did. The question is when Jesus is put in the tomb, what is he doing? Because we know what we know Sunday's coming, so there's not it's not a spoiler, I don't think. Jesus does does come back, but there's a whole day where he's laid there. What is going on? There's all sorts of traditions and ideas that have arisen from verses that's some taken out of context and read into things. Some say that he went to hell to finish his suffering. I don't think that that quite chimes with what the story says. On the cross, Jesus says it is finished. He doesn't say, No, I've got to go a bit more after I've gone into gone to the tomb. It is already finished. Some say that he went to hell to preach. There's a verse in 1 Peter that says that the dead are proclaimed to, but that's not clear whether it's the dead who are gone or the dead who are the living dead, those who are spiritually dead. And so it's a lot to read into a single verse. I wonder if what happened on Saturday for Jesus. What happened for all of them on Saturday was nothing. I wonder if Saturday was a day when nothing took place. For it was a Sabbath, it says, a day of rest. One verse says, on the Sabbath they rested. They, the woman, they Joseph and Nicodemus. I wonder if it also includes Jesus, who rests on that day, having finished the work that he came to do. See that there are there are lots of bits in the Bible where there are unresolved questions. There are patterns that aren't complete. Now, for those who don't know, before I came to be a pastor, I was applying and on course to become an air traffic controller, and I'd gone through a series of tests, and I was going to the boards, the five or stages of the interviews. But one of the first stages is I had to go to London to set a sort of an exam that you do. And what they do is they give you a series of patterns, and you've got to look at the patterns and then work out what comes next, what's missing in the sequence. So I've got some of them. See if you could do the job. Um you've got two hundreds of these to do in 20 minutes, so it's about six seconds a question that you have to do. So that's the first one. You see the sequence, the up, down, and the dots. So which one comes next? Is it A, B, C, or D or E?

unknown 12:32

E.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Oh, we've got some. So you notice the dot goes dot, no dot, dot, no, dot, dot. And then they've got the up and the down, the up and the down, the up and the down. So I think it would be a no dot down would be my my answer. There you go. So that's that one. So you see the sequence, you've got to follow it. They get a bit trickier. Got this one. Six seconds, remember? Five, four, three, two, one. I think it's D on that one. The dot moves round the outside, and the two keeps swapping on each one. On that one, you can do one more. I think that one's D as well. I think the circle one moves around the hexagon, is it? And the other one goes on opposite sides. There's one more at the triangle. I think that one's B, if I'm correct. I think a little triangle. Anyway, so there's the sequence. So there's these sequences, and then something missing, and you've got to fill it, and that there's a gap. That's the idea, that there's a gap that you've got to solve. Now the Bible has lots of things like that if you read it carefully. Things that are meant to leave a gap where you go, wait a minute, something's missing or something comes next, and you've got to work out what comes next. It's a bit like if I go. But even say if I just did that and we left it, there'd be a bit of a fidgeting, like, you've got to complete it. Come on, something's missing. And then the Bible does this. The first time it does this is in Genesis chapter one. God creates heavens and earth and forms it by his word and brings the life and everything to being. And it says on the first day, there is morning and evening, the first day, on the second, there is more evening and morning, the second day, there is evening, morning, third, evening, morning, fourth. And it goes through, and on the last day, God has created on the sixth. On the seventh, he rests. And then there's a gap. There is no evening and morning on that last day. And you think, well, what's going on? Well, perhaps you don't notice it, but if you go back and read it, you'll notice that this is missing. There's a gap left there. The gap on that seventh day where something, the work's been finished, but the day doesn't seem to be finished. It's incomplete. It needs, it needs it, it needs to have. And then there's nothing, and then they go, Well, where is it? What happens on that day of rest when God's finished his work? Most scholars think that the symbolism of Jesus being buried, the fact that it happens on the Friday, and then after that there is a Sabbath day. Saturday is the Sabbath. I know we've traditionally perhaps thought that Sunday is the Sabbath. Sunday was never meant to be the Sabbath. Sunday was the Lord's day, the day he rose from the dead. But Sabbath was always the Saturday. What happened was they gradually merged together, and we brought some of the Sabbath practices into Sunday. So many of you would have grown up, Sunday's a day where you don't work and you don't do anything, but that was always Saturday. But we brought it together and ended up with a weekend where we get two days. That's how that came about. But Sabbath was always Saturday. That day, the end of the week. And on the end of the week, Jesus he lays in the tomb and he rests. And on Sunday, there is evening and there is a morning. And it's not an eighth day, it's not just another day. It's the start of a brand new creation. It's the start of a brand new week. It's the start of something that hadn't happened right back from Genesis 1. It hadn't been complete. There was a fall, it messed up. The first creation went wrong. It fell apart. Death came in. It was everything was destroyed. Sin invaded, and grief and suffering, and bleakness, and hurt and sorrow all entered in. And for years that continued until this day, where Jesus is laid in the tomb, and there's evening and there is morning, a new day. The old creation dies with him, and the new creation rises with him. One verse puts it like that. He is the first fruits of the new creation. That old one that didn't quite get finished, Jesus on the cross when he says, It is finished. It's not just my personal sin and my forgiveness, it is the old way. It is all gone, and a new way has started. Death has been defeated. Our God, as he lies in the tomb, goes there for the joy set before him. His labor of love is done. He enters into that Sabbath rest, swaddled in mortality. He is written into death, the author of life written into death, and in so doing so, he fills the gap in that creation account. There is evening and there is morning. A new day comes. The first Sabbath is finally complete. When Jesus rests on his Sabbath, having done his work and ushers in a new day. It's the final Sabbath of God, the rest of God, finally complete. That's what's going on on this day. This is not a trivial matter. This is the day where God rests from his work. Do you remember in the creation account, God looks back and says, It is all good? When Jesus lies in the tomb, he looks back over his work. And we call it Good Friday. It is good. What I've done is good. What I've accomplished is good. And now I can rest because the new creation will come. This is what's taking place. And Joseph gets to be a part of this unwittingly, unknowingly. And it changes so much of what we experience here on earth. We are saying, don't we, silence is golden? Many parents say Amen. But the truth is, many of us know that the silence of heaven is not golden. The silence from God is not golden. Silence when we cry out to Him and hear nothing. Silence when we pour out our prayers and our pleas and we we get nothing back. That silence is perhaps the most painful and most difficult silence to endure. That's the silence of this Saturday. That's the silence that's going on where people are going, what just happened? What have we just experienced? How can we come to terms with this? His body buried beneath the earth, sealed behind the tomb. How can we carry on? And all they receive is silence. This coffin, this tomb that now holds him. Many of us, these this silence, we we want to drown out, which always is a funny way of thinking about. We want to drown out the silence. It's too, it's too loud the silence. It's too oppressive the silence. We just fill it with noise and busyness. But silence is so important. I've learnt and I'm continuing to learn in ministry and in life that words can offer hope and comfort. But in the midst of a holy Saturday, which is what this day gets called, in the midst of those moments where the tomb isn't yet empty, where there's there's what's been done and still the promise of what's to come in those moments, silence is actually what was required. The ability to rest, the ability to be still, the ability to not try and fix or solve, not offer platitudes or cliches to fix something, but to just rest in that day and in the hope of what's to come. That's perhaps the hardest thing you can do to be present in that day, to not try and rush it or fill it with noise, but to be still and rest because our Saviour rested. But he rests that tomb and gives us a day to pause and say, I'm able to rest in the silence and in my questions, in the bleakness and in the darkness, I can rest. Because he rested. Perhaps rather let him hold me on to me in it until the promise comes. Saturday is the day between the struggle and the solution. Perhaps it's the day you find yourself in right now, where there's the struggle, the problem, the suffering, the pain. And you can say, Well, I know one day it won't be here, and I know one day it will be solved, and one day it won't be like this, and one day I'll be with God, and I'll be in his presence, and I'll see clearly, but we are in the Saturday. That day in between where the silence torments us, where we ask, is God angry? Did I disappoint him? God knows that Jesus is in the tomb. He knows what's to come. He knows where we are. What will Jesus do? He knows. He stayed silent. Died with the conviction you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your holy one see decay. Even when it didn't seem clear, you still retrusted. That's what we can do on those days. We rest, we rest, we're silent, we rest it in it because the grave is now not what it once was. It is now transformed. It's interesting. We have the word cemetery, it's where we bury our dead, we call it a cemetery. It comes from the Greek word koymeteria, which means sleeping place. I think that's a beautiful idea. The cemeteries, the very term we use is sleeping place, a place of rest. We set it with the famous saying, rest in peace. In fact, if you notice in the New Testament, the word death disappears after this moment. It becomes sleep. Our brothers and sisters have fallen asleep because they think that that is more true than what we've experienced so far. Death death is not no longer what it once was. Jesus has dehorned it, He's defanged it, He's debarked it. It can't do anything anymore. It's lost its thing. It's lost its victory. And the grave now is the tomb is no longer the final place for us. I see Joseph in this moment, he turned every future funeral parlor into a rent a coffin business. Because coffins are no longer meant to be the final place. They're just a place that you loan for a while and then you give it back. Just as Jesus did with Joseph. He puts him in his tomb, but it was only on loan. It wasn't permanent. And what Jesus did to when they put him in the tomb, they thought a criminal would contaminate the tomb and make it unfit. But Jesus is more powerful than that. His holiness contaminates the place of the dead. His goodness, his life contaminates. We saw it through his ministry. Throughout all of history, people with sickness and disease, they would touch you and you'd be contaminated. Joseph, if he touches the body, he's contaminated. If a leper touches you, you're contaminated. If you bleed or if you if you have an infection or anything, you're contaminated. And Jesus goes around touching people and healing them because he contaminates them. His life contaminates the people around him. He is stronger than death. He's greater than sickness. He's mightier than our sorrow and our pain. And when he touches us, when he meets us, he contaminates us. His holiness infects us. His love contaminates us. His glory, his goodness contaminates us. And people couldn't get their heads around it. Why do you eat with sinners? Why do you sit with the unclean? Why do you share? Why do you touch? Why do you embrace? Because I am stronger. And in this moment he is stronger even than the tomb. He doesn't contaminate, it's not contaminated in the bad way, it's contaminated in the most wonderful way. And now every single tomb from that moment on is also contaminated with life. And I don't want to diminish that moment because I've done it with many of you where we've stood at the graveside and we've lowered a loved one into the ground. We've said our goodbyes and we've placed flowers and we've put the dirt on, and then we've had to walk away. And the pain of that and the hurt of that, I don't diminish that for a moment. But how much greater would it be if we didn't have the assurance that this is not permanent. This is not the last time. This is not the last moment. There is hope to come. We are simply remembering Saturday. But Sunday is on the horizon. There will be an evening and a morning and a new day. Jesus has transformed death. And in doing that, has transformed the fear of death. See, many of us would say actually, death, we know Jesus has conquered it, but we still live with the fear of death. And as Jesus falls asleep, it seems Joseph comes awake and suddenly he is able to live in a way that's that he never lived before. He breaks his cover, he declares who he's really for. In that moment, the fear of death loses its grip on Joseph. See, the fear of death is not simply the fear of dying, it's living as if death is the end. It's living as if there is a moment coming where everything will stop. And we see the effects of it all around us. Greed and selfishness, and me first, and no consideration for others, and I'll do what's good and I'll do what's right for me, and I don't care the consequences, and I'm my own person and I'm in charge. All of that has the idea, the underlying idea that there is an end to all this. So I better get out of life while I can. There is an end point, so I better cling and grab and claw and fight and get it for myself. Because if I don't, then this little time that I got will be incredibly miserable. So I'm going to make the most of it. So the fear of death infects everything. But when we realise death isn't the end, suddenly our grip loosens. The worries that we have are lighter. Because even if the worst thing happens, it is not the end. I wonder how much of your habits, your days, your way that you live are actually infected by the fear of death. The worries that you carry, the grievances that you nurse, the arguments that you entertain. I wonder if you realize that there is a moment where we leave this world and step into another would transform your approach to them. Would just loosen you, would lighten you, would relieve you of the pressure of trying to fit it all into your 80-something years that you might have here on earth. That's why one of the psalmists, or Hebrews, puts it first, he says, Since the children have flesh and blood, he too, Jesus, shared in our humanity, so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. Jesus came to save us from the fear of death. To realize that we have a time on earth where we live for God and then we have an eternity where we live with him. And so the psalmist says, Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. See, let me just inform you, today is my 13th, 453rd day here on earth. So I've numbered my days. You numbered yours? Average lifespan is uh 29,972 days. So let me happy up it. If you're 20 years old, you've lived 7,305. 30, you're on 10,095. 40, 14,610. If you're 50, you've had 18,262. If you're 60, 21,915. 70, 25,567. We're getting close to that number now. 80, 29,220. 90, you'll notice that you've got a bit over. 32,872. That's the average lifespan. Obviously, we know tragically that is not guaranteed to all Jesus dies at age 33. He doesn't have anywhere near that number. Many live much longer. But the reality of numbering our days and saying this is my time here. And I don't want this time here to be controlled by the fear of death. I don't want my life and my legacy to be controlled by the fear of death. And you can work out and do your own sums to work out how many days you might have left. But it does do something to you. To realize you may 10,000, 5,000, 2,000. It does do something to go. I don't want to live those days controlled by fear. I don't want to live those days trying to cram everything into them because I think that they're all that matter. Because the truth is, even if that's my days here on earth, I have eternity to enjoy the rest. So I live with wisdom. And wisdom is not live to cram everything in and fit everything in that I can in this brief, the Bible calls it a breath, a mist, a vapor, something that's here in the morning, this brief moment here on earth. I live with eternity in mind. I live free and open. I live light and joyful. I live with the grace and the goodness and the strength of God. And I don't cling and I don't force and I don't hold on and I don't try and make it all about me because I'm so brief. I get to release all that weighs so much. I get to let go of all that hurts me. I get to set myself free from everything that strains, all that feels permanent, everything that feels like this is the way it is, to realize it is in fact all temporary. And that is no less true than when we stand at a graveside of a loved one. Even then, although it's sorrowful and painful and dark and hard, and you have to spend the rest of your days without that person, it is not permanent. Because he went into the tomb, it was sealed and he rested so that it wouldn't be permanent. And every time we lay our brother or sister to rest, we are saying goodbye to the body that they wore. And they have already stepped into the presence of the one who broke free from the grave. See, the danger is we rush past this Saturday, sprint onto Sunday because of all that that it entails. But I just invite us just to stop and wait and reflect for those 24 hours just to be still because I think that that 24 hours really summarizes what life is like. The struggle and the promise. That's where we are, in the middle of that. That the kingdom has come, yet it hasn't fully come. That death has been defeated and yet it's still it still tries to rob and steal and destroy. That the enemy is silenced and yet his lies still surround. We're in that middle bit. And as we recognize that, we realize that yes, there will be sorrow, and yes, there will be pain, and yes, there will be the temptation to live in the fear of that. But because of what Jesus did, because he was given a tomb to rest in for one day, and because on the next day he walked free, he rolled the stone away, he stepped back into life. Because of that, I can I can face tomorrow. I can face what's to come, I can face my days here, not clinging and grabbing, but free. Lighter in my spirit, lighter in my heart. It changes everything. He was buried. Such a simple phrase that we we gloss over. Yet it turns out to not be so small after all. Rather than a shrug, what does that mean? It's really an hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus, for Holy Saturday. Thank you that now death is lost its sting. Is no longer has the venom it once had, is no longer the final enemy. It is laid down and now it is a servant, we're told. Is no longer something that defeats us, it is something that enables us to live with wisdom, knowing that our days here are not permanent. That all that we see is temporary. But there is something better. There is something greater. You see, what Joseph really epitomizes is someone who finally wakes up. All his life it says that he wanted to be a disciple, he was waiting for the kingdom, he did so in secret because he didn't want to be exposed. But in this moment, suddenly he woke up to the reality of Jesus. Many of you have been in church for a long time, none of this will be new to you. You know Jesus died, you know Jesus rose, you know that death is defeated, you know that sinners no more, you know that the Spirit is in you, you know he's seated on the throne, you know he's coming again. And imagine Joseph and his longing for the kingdom and what he saw would also know. But the difference is Joseph starts to live as if that is true. He starts to act, he starts to do things that are in sync with that. Because there's no point in declaring to you death is defeated, and you living the rest of your days in the fear of death. What a weird scenario to be in, and yet that's where we often find ourselves. To know that sin is no more and live the rest of your days under the condemnation of sin. To know that you are his child and yet to live the rest of your days not knowing who you are. Joseph is someone who in this moment no longer just hears it, but has received it and allows it to shape how he lives. Fear of death, gone. So he can go to Pilate. And if Pilate says, You're one of his disciples, get on the cross, he doesn't care. He's gonna do it anyway. He's gonna touch the body, and everyone's gonna say, You're contaminated, and he's gonna say, I don't care, because that's all done with. You're gonna lay it in my tomb. Well, your whole family are gonna be ruled out, but they're not gonna need it. They're gonna need it for a few days because one day they'll be resurrected too and they'll be with him. None of it, everything's changed now. Because I now see and I've embraced the truth of what I see. And so Joseph, as fleeting as he is, just invites us to wake up. To wake up. This is not fairy tale. This is not wishful thinking. If this didn't happen, then we are to be pitied among all else. But if it did, then wake up. Wake up because the way you live may not be the way that God has called you to live. Wake up because the days that you have are numbered and they're to be used for his glory and not your selfish gain. Wake up, because the things that you live under, the burdens that you carry, perhaps they've already been released. They've already been taken, you've already been freed from them, and yet you pick them back up. Wake up. Paul puts it like this in one of his letters. Wake up, sleepy sleeper, is simple how the translation goes. Wake up, sleepy sleeper, and let Christ shine on you. Yeah, let's pray and ask him to do that now, shall we? Heavenly Father, we we recognize that we are in so often that Saturday moment between the struggle and the solution, between the pain and the promise, between what we know to be true and yet what it seems to be so far away from us. We don't want to rush past that. We want to acknowledge this is where we are, Father. But we thank you for this day, this Saturday that we often glean over. That reminds us that that is not a place that Jesus is unfamiliar with. That as he associated with us, as he shared our body and our weakness, as he shared our frailty, our flesh and blood, as he shared in our death, he also shared in that day of silence, of questions, of what seems to be uncertain and what seems to have failed and fallen apart, of what we're not sure can be, he shares with us. He is present in that moment, which means he is present with us as we go through that. We thank you for that truth. We thank you that in doing that, Jesus is so near, and his power and his grace is so near. We thank you that not even the cemetery was off limits for the Savior who came to bring us back to the Father. As we realize that, Lord, would you help us to let go of all that weighs us down, all that we strain and strife for, all that feels so permanent and crushes us? Help us to realize how temporary it is, how temporary we are. Help us, Lord, wherever we're asleep, wherever we we've missed the promise. Wherever we haven't heard or haven't received, wake us up, Lord, that we might step out and live wisely and for you. When we lay a loved one in a grave, or we are still laying in the grave. Even there we are whispering of your promise in the day.

SPEAKER_00 37:28

This is not your final wrestling grave.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

With the grace and the strength, with the wonder and the beauty, and the presence of a Savior, who has done all that is needed, who finished the work, who laid in the tomb, and when he rose, brought a new creation with him, a new day. We thank you for that promise. May it hold us and keep us.