Tidings for Tuesday
And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus… and there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came unto Jesus by night, and brought… John 19:38-39
The stern old border guard glared out at the two young Christians who were driving a small truck. Their hearts sank; this was the very thing they had feared. After much prayer, they had decided to take a shipment of Bibles to a friend in a former Communist country. But they had been warned to avoid the times when the nasty old guard was on duty at the border crossing. He demanded to know their destination, and what they were carrying. ‘Books’, they told him, not daring to say what type of books. ‘I’ll check this out,’ the old guard growled, and opened up the box on the back of the truck. After peering about for awhile, he returned to his guard kiosk and rummaged about for a moment, coming up with a sheet of paper. ‘Books!’ he snorted. ‘You know you are not supposed to bring this kind of material across here.’ He passed the sheet of paper to the young men and spoke more gently, ‘This is my duty schedule, in case you have more shipments of books. Godspeed.’ To their amazement and joy, he motioned for the young men to drive on, and closed the door to the kiosk. The crusty old guard became a valuable conduit for the Word of God to enter that country for several years. We never know when and where God has His people.
If the Roman soldiers, and the Jewish leaders, had their way, the body of Jesus would have been thrown with those of the malefactors into the nearby garbage dump. For certain, the disciples had no courage to request the body, nor had the faithful women who were there. But this was the body of the Son of God, and God was not going to allow that body to suffer further indignities. From unlikely positions, two of His people appeared and took a stand. How could Pilate refuse a request by these two respected community leaders? Nobody knew beforehand that these men were disciples. But now, everybody knows. As Christians, we are so thankful that these two wonderful men arrived at the point in their lives when their identity with Jesus Christ would be evident to all.
It took a great event to bring these two disciples forth. They had remained out of sight in terms of their devotion to Jesus. But that secrecy could no longer be maintained. Something happened that was too important for them to remain silent, too important for them to prize their seats on the council higher than their affiliation with Christ.
We also have opportunities that call for us to identify ourselves with our Lord. Do we take them? -Jim MacIntosh