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The Man Who Buried Jesus _ Then Vanished From History · truthunedited

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Speaker 1: It is Friday afternoon in Jerusalem, and the sky has
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Speaker 1: gone dark in the middle of the day. On a
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Speaker 1: hill just outside the city walls, three Roman crosses stand
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Speaker 1: against that blackened sky. The middle cross holds the body
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Speaker 1: of a man who, just hours ago was dragged through
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Speaker 1: the streets, beaten beyond recognition, and nailed to rough timber
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Speaker 1: in front of a screaming crowd. His name is Jesus
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Speaker 1: of Nazareth, and he is dead. The disciples who followed
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Speaker 1: him for three years gone scattered. Peter, the one who
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Speaker 1: swore he would die before abandoning Jesus, has already denied
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Speaker 1: knowing him three times. The others are hiding behind locked
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Speaker 1: doors somewhere in the city, terrified that the same authorities
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Speaker 1: who killed their teacher are coming for them next. The
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Speaker 1: Roman soldiers are still there, dividing up the dead man's
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Speaker 1: clothing like it is a yard sale. The religious leaders
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Speaker 1: are still there, too, satisfied they got what they wanted.
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Speaker 1: The Pharisees and Sadducees, who spent months plotting this execution,
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Speaker 1: are watching the final breath leave his body. It is finished.
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Speaker 1: Their problem is solved, And in this moment, when everyone
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Speaker 1: who loved. Jesus is running away, and everyone who hated
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Speaker 1: him is celebrating. One man does something that nobody expected.
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Speaker 1: He walks straight to the Roman governor's palace. He requests
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Speaker 1: a private audience with Pontius Pilot, the most powerful political
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Speaker 1: figure in the region, and he asks for the body.
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Speaker 1: Not a disciple, not a family member, not one of
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Speaker 1: the twelve who had traveled with Jesus across Galilee. A
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Speaker 1: member of the Sanhedrin, a member of the very court
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Speaker 1: that just sentenced Jesus to death. His name is Joseph.
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Speaker 1: He is from a town called Arimathea, and his story
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Speaker 1: might be the most underrated act of courage in the
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Speaker 1: entire Bible. Here is what gets lost in most English translations.
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Speaker 1: When the Gospel of John introduces this man. The original
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Speaker 1: Greek uses a specific word to describe him. The word
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Speaker 1: is kekrimenos. It means hidden, concealed, kept secret on purpose.
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Speaker 1: John chapter nineteen, verse thirty eight says Joseph was a
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Speaker 1: disciple of Jesus, but kekriminos secretly because he feared the
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Speaker 1: Jewish authorities, not because he was unsure, not because he
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Speaker 1: was halfway committed. He was afraid and given what he
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Speaker 1: knew about the men he sat with every day in
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Speaker 1: the Sanhedrin, he had every reason to be Think about
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Speaker 1: what that means for a second. This man sat in
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Speaker 1: the highest religious court in Israel, seventy one members, the
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Speaker 1: supreme authority on Jewish law, theology, and community governance. These
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Speaker 1: were the same men who had been tracking Jesus for months,
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Speaker 1: sending spies to his sermons, trying to trap him with
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Speaker 1: trick questions, and Joseph was in the room for all
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Speaker 1: of it. Imagine going to work every day and sitting
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Speaker 1: across the table from people who despise the one person
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Speaker 1: who has changed your life. Imagine hearing the mock what
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Speaker 1: you believe, plot against someone you love, and you cannot
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Speaker 1: say a word because if they find out, you lose everything,
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Speaker 1: your seat on the council, your reputation, your livelihood, may
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Speaker 1: be your life. That is what Cakriminos looks like in practice.
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Speaker 1: And he was not alone. The Gospel of John tells
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Speaker 1: us there was another man hiding in plain sight, nik Kademus,
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Speaker 1: you might remember him. He is the Pharisee who came
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Speaker 1: to Jesus at night in John chapter three because he
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Speaker 1: could not risk being seen during the day, and notice
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Speaker 1: that detail at night. John does not include that by accident,
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Speaker 1: the streets of Jerusalem were dark and empty. Nobody would
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Speaker 1: see a Pharisee knocking on the door of a Galileean rabbi.
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Speaker 1: Nobody would report back to the council. Nicodemus needed the
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Speaker 1: cover of darkness to have a conversation that could ruin
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Speaker 1: his career. And what did he say when he got there, Rabbi,
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Speaker 1: we know that you are a teacher who has come
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Speaker 1: from God. We know plural. Nicodemus was not speaking only
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Speaker 1: for himself. He was telling Jesus that there were others
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Speaker 1: on the council, others among the elite, who recognized who
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Speaker 1: he was. They just could not say it publicly. Then
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Speaker 1: Nicodemus asked one of the most famous questions in all
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Speaker 1: of Scripture, how can a man be born again? And
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Speaker 1: Jesus answered with words that have echoed through two thousand
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Speaker 1: years of history. For God so loved the world that
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Speaker 1: he gave his only begotten son. That conversation happened at night,
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Speaker 1: in secret, between a terrified religious leader and the man
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Speaker 1: he believed was sent by God, and the whole time
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Speaker 1: Nicodemus knew that if anyone found out, it was over
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Speaker 1: for him. Two men, both members of the ruling religious elite,
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Speaker 1: both secretly following a Galilean carpenter they believed was the Messiah,
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Speaker 1: both terrified of what would happen if any one found out,
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Speaker 1: both living double lives inside the most dangerous institution in
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Speaker 1: the country for someone who believed what they believed. Now,
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Speaker 1: before we go further into what Joseph did that Friday afternoon,
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Speaker 1: we need to understand who he actually was, because the
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Speaker 1: details the gospel writers include are not random. Every word
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Speaker 1: was chosen for a reason. Mark's Gospel calls Joseph a
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Speaker 1: prominent member of the council. The Greek word there is euskemon.
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Speaker 1: It literally means of good form, but in first century
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Speaker 1: usage it described someone of high social standing, wealth and
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Speaker 1: public respect. This was not some fringe member who sat
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Speaker 1: in the back row. Joseph was prominent. People knew his name,
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Speaker 1: his opinion carried weight. Luke adds another layer. He calls
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Speaker 1: Joseph good and righteous, using the Greek words agathos and dichios.
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Speaker 1: In Jewish culture, being called diachios was not casual praise.
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Speaker 1: It meant someone who lived in alignment with the Torah,
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Speaker 1: someone whose life reflected genuine devas devotion to God. Luke
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Speaker 1: is telling us that this was not a politician playing
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Speaker 1: both sides. Joseph's faith was real, deep, and known to God,
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Speaker 1: even if it was hidden from the council. And then
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Speaker 1: Luke drops one more detail that might be the most
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Speaker 1: important clue of all. He says Joseph was waiting for
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Speaker 1: the kingdom of God. The Greek phrase is pros dikomenos
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Speaker 1: ten basileyan two tho. That word prosdkomenos means to eagerly expect,
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Speaker 1: to look forward to with anticipation. It is the posture
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Speaker 1: of someone who believes something is coming and has oriented
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Speaker 1: their entire inner life around it. This man was not
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Speaker 1: casually curious about Jesus. He was a devout, wealthy, respected
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Speaker 1: elder who had staked his private hope on the coming
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Speaker 1: of God's kingdom, and somehow in the teachings and miracles
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Speaker 1: of a cup from Nazareth he recognized it. So where
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Speaker 1: is Arimathea? This is one of those small Biblical mysteries
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Speaker 1: that scholars have debated for centuries. The name likely corresponds
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Speaker 1: to ramathimes of Fim, a town mentioned in First Samuel
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Speaker 1: as the birthplace of the prophet Samuel. It sat in
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Speaker 1: the hill country of Ephraim, roughly twenty miles northwest of Jerusalem.
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Speaker 1: Some scholars link it to the modern village of Renis
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Speaker 1: in the West Bank. Others place it closer to Ramalah.
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Speaker 1: What matters more than the exact GPS coordinates is what
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Speaker 1: the identification tells us. Joseph was not from Jerusalem. He
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Speaker 1: was from a smaller town, probably from an established family
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Speaker 1: with land and influence. He had risen to a position
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Speaker 1: on the Sanhedrin, which meant he had earned the respect
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Speaker 1: of the religious establishment over many years. His entire social
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Speaker 1: wars the world was built on his reputation within that system,
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Speaker 1: and that system had just executed the man he believed
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Speaker 1: was the son of God. Think about that weight for
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Speaker 1: a moment. This is not abstract theology. This is a
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Speaker 1: man watching the people he works with every day murder
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Speaker 1: the person who gave his life meaning, and he is
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Speaker 1: sitting there silent because he is afraid of what they
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Speaker 1: will do if he speaks up. If you have ever
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Speaker 1: been in a room where everyone around you believed something,
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Speaker 1: you knew was wrong, and you stayed quiet because the
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Speaker 1: cost of speaking felt too high. Then you already know
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Speaker 1: something about Joseph of Arimathea. Maybe it was not a
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Speaker 1: religious council, maybe it was a dinner table, or a
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Speaker 1: boardroom or a group chat. But the feeling is the same,
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Speaker 1: that not in your stomach when conviction and fear are
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Speaker 1: pulling in opposite directions. Joseph lived with that not for months,
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Speaker 1: maybe years, And we can actually trace when it got worse,
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Speaker 1: because the Gospels give us a timeline, and if you
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Speaker 1: follow it carefully, you can see the pressure building inside
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Speaker 1: Joseph like water behind a dam. A few weeks before
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Speaker 1: that Friday, something happened in a small village called Bethany,
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Speaker 1: about two miles east of Jerusalem. A man named Lazarus,
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Speaker 1: a close friend of Jesus, had been dead and buried
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Speaker 1: for four days. His body was already decomposing. His sisters
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Speaker 1: Martha and Mary, were in mourning, and Jesus walked up
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Speaker 1: to the sealed tomb and said two words, Lazarus, come out.
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Speaker 1: And Lazarus came out, wrapped in burial cloth, stumbling into
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Speaker 1: the daylight alive. Word of this reached Jerusalem Fast and
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Speaker 1: John chapter eleven, verse forty seven tells us exactly what
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Speaker 1: happened next. The chief priests and the Pharisees called an
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Speaker 1: emergency meeting of the Sanhedrin. Joseph was in that room.
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Speaker 1: They were panicking, what are we accomplishing? They said, this
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Speaker 1: man is performing many signs. If we let him go
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Speaker 1: on like this, every one will believe in him, and
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Speaker 1: then the Romans will come and take away both our
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Speaker 1: temple and our nation. The political calculation was naked. This
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Speaker 1: was not about theology. This was about power. If too
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Speaker 1: many people followed Jesus, Rome would see it as an
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Speaker 1: insurrection and the Sanhedrin would lose its authority. And then Caiaphas,
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Speaker 1: the High Priest, stood up and said something that echoes
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Speaker 1: through history. You do not realize that it is better
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Speaker 1: for you that one man die for the people than
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Speaker 1: that the whole nation perish one man and die for
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Speaker 1: political convenience. And everyone in that room nodded. Joseph heard
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Speaker 1: that sentence, He heard the highest religious authority in his
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Speaker 1: nation calmly propose the murder of the man he believed
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Speaker 1: was the Messiah, and he could not say a word.
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Speaker 1: Have you ever sat in a room and heard someone
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Speaker 1: say something that made your blood go cold, and looked
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Speaker 1: around and realized you were the only one who felt it,
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Speaker 1: that everyone else was nodding. That is where Joseph was
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Speaker 1: the loneliest seat in Jerusalem. Then came Passover week. Jesus
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Speaker 1: entered Jerusalem riding a donkey while crowds waved palm branches
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Speaker 1: and shouted Hosanna. He walked into the temple and overturned
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Speaker 1: the tables of the money changers. He taught openly in
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Speaker 1: the temple courts, while the Sanhedrin sent agents to find
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Speaker 1: a way to arrest him. Quietly away from the crowd,
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Speaker 1: Joseph watched all of this unfold from inside the institution
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Speaker 1: that was plotting it. Every day that week he went
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Speaker 1: to the council, heard the latest strategy to trap Jesus,
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Speaker 1: and said nothing. Every night he went home carrying the
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Speaker 1: weight of what he knew was coming. By Thursday evening,
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Speaker 1: when Judas led the temple guards to the garden of
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Speaker 1: gethsemone and Jesus was arrested, Joseph already knew he had
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Speaker 1: been watching this train wreck approach for weeks, and when
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Speaker 1: they dragged Jesus into the High Priest's house for that
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Speaker 1: illegal midnight trial. Joseph was there, but something was about
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Speaker 1: to change because Luke tells us one more thing about
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Speaker 1: that Friday, and it changes everything we think we know
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Speaker 1: about what happened inside the Sanhedrin the night before. Luke
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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty three, verse fifty one five Greek words that
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Speaker 1: rewrite the entire trial narrative of hutos uk and sinhka
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Speaker 1: tata taimenos tabula. This man had not consented to their
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Speaker 1: decision and action. That word sinca tata taimenos is dense.
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Speaker 1: It is a compound verb meaning to vote together with
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Speaker 1: to place one's approval alongside, and Luke says Joseph did
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Speaker 1: not do it. He did not consent, He did not
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Speaker 1: add his vote to the pile. Now think about what
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Speaker 1: that implies. The Sanhedrin trial of Jesus described in Matthew
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Speaker 1: and Mark happened at night. This is critical Jewish legal tradition.
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Speaker 1: In the Mishnah specifically prohibited capital trials at night. The
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Speaker 1: law required that capital cases be heard during the daytime,
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Speaker 1: that the verdict be delivered the following day to allow
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Speaker 1: for reconsideration, and that witnesses be examined separately to prevent collusion.
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Speaker 1: There were also rules about when trials could not take
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Speaker 1: place at all, including the eve of a sabbath or
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Speaker 1: a festival day. The trial of Jesus violated nearly every
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Speaker 1: one of these safeguards. It was held at night in
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Speaker 1: the private residence of the High Priest caiaphas, not in
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Speaker 1: the official hall of hewn Stone, where the Sanhedrin normally convened.
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Speaker 1: The witnesses brought forward could not agree with each other.
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Speaker 1: Mark says, their testimonies did not match, and the verdict
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Speaker 1: was delivered immediately on the same night, with no waiting
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Speaker 1: period for reconsideration. Why does this matter because it means
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Speaker 1: Joseph was sitting in a room watching a rigged proceeding.
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Speaker 1: This was not justice. This was a predetermined outcome dressed
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Speaker 1: up in the appearance of a legal process. The powerful
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Speaker 1: men around him had already decided what the verdict would
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Speaker 1: be before the first witness opened his mouth, and Joseph
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Speaker 1: was there. He watched it happen. He saw the High
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Speaker 1: Priest tear his robes and declare Jesus guilty of blasphemy.
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Speaker 1: He heard the crowd around the council chambers screaming for blood.
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Speaker 1: And when the vote came, Joseph did something that most
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Speaker 1: of us would never have the courage to do. He
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Speaker 1: said no, or, more precisely, he refused to say yes.
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Speaker 1: In a room full of the most powerful religious authorities
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Speaker 1: in the nation, when the political pressure was suffocating and
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Speaker 1: the mob outside was demanding execution, Joseph of Arimathea withheld
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Speaker 1: his consent. We do not know if he spoke up openly.
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Speaker 1: We do not know if he argued against the verdict
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Speaker 1: or simply sat in silence while others raised their hands.
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Speaker 1: Luke does not tell us those details, but he does
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Speaker 1: tell us the result. Joseph's hands were clean of that vote.
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Speaker 1: When every other voice in that chamber said guilty, his
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Speaker 1: was not among them. And Nicodemus we know from John
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Speaker 1: chapter seven that he had already tried once to defend
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Speaker 1: Jesus in front of the Pharisees, asking does our Lord
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Speaker 1: judge a man without first hearing him? They shut him down. Immediately.
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Speaker 1: Are you from Galilee two? They sneered. The implication was clear,
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Speaker 1: defend this man and you become the enemy too. So
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Speaker 1: here are two men sitting in that chamber during the
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Speaker 1: most corrupt trial in history, knowing it is wrong, knowing
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Speaker 1: the verdict is predetermined, and unable to stop it. Have
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Speaker 1: you been there, Not at a trial, obviously, but at
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Speaker 1: the moment where you see something happening that you know
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Speaker 1: is wrong, and the power structure around you has already decided,
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Speaker 1: and your voice feels so small against the machinery that
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Speaker 1: you convince yourself staying quiet is the only option. Joseph
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Speaker 1: was there, and for one night he stayed quiet. But
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Speaker 1: then Friday came, and Friday changed everything. Because there is
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Speaker 1: a moment in every person's life when the cost of
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Speaker 1: silence becomes greater than the cost of speaking, when what
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Speaker 1: you are watching happen is so wrong, so final, so devastating,
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Speaker 1: that the fear that kept you hidden just breaks. For
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Speaker 1: Joseph of Arimathea, that moment was watching Jesus die, and
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Speaker 1: look at who else was there? Mark, Chapter fifteen, Verses
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Speaker 1: forty and forty one. While the twelve Apostles the Inner Circle,
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Speaker 1: the men who had eaten with Jesus and walked with
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Speaker 1: him and promised to follow him to death. While all
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Speaker 1: of them had vanished, a group of women stood watching
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Speaker 1: Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, is
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Speaker 1: Salomi and others. Mark says they had followed Jesus from
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Speaker 1: Galilee and cared for his needs. They were there. They
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Speaker 1: did not run. They stood on that hill and watched
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Speaker 1: the man they loved suffocate on a Roman cross. But
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Speaker 1: notice what Mark says about their position. They were watching
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Speaker 1: from a distance upp Omacrathen, from far off, close enough
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Speaker 1: to see, but far enough to be safe. They were present,
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Speaker 1: but they were not intervening. They could not intervene. They
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Speaker 1: were women in a world controlled by Roman soldiers and
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Speaker 1: Jewish elders. They had no political standing, They had no
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Speaker 1: legal authority. All they could do was watch and grieve.
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Speaker 1: Now hold that image in your mind. The apostles have fled,
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Speaker 1: The women are watching from a distance, The soldiers are
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Speaker 1: dividing up the clothing. Religious leaders are satisfied, And into
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Speaker 1: that scene walks Joseph, not from a distance, not hiding,
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Speaker 1: not watching, walking directly into the center of Roman power
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Speaker 1: to claim the body of a condemned man. The contrast
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Speaker 1: is staggering. The people who had the least to lose,
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Speaker 1: the twelve disciples, who were nobodies from Galilee, they ran
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Speaker 1: the people who had the most to lose, a wealthy
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Speaker 1: Sanhedrin member whose entire reputation and career were on the line,
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Speaker 1: he stepped forward. That is what makes this moment so extraordinary.
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Speaker 1: And it starts with one Greek word Mark, Chapter fifteen,
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Speaker 1: verse forty three. And here is where the Greek text
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Speaker 1: reveals something extraordinary. Mark uses a word to describe what
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Speaker 1: Joseph did next, and this single word tells you everything
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Speaker 1: about the transformation that happened inside this man between on
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Speaker 1: Thursday night and Friday afternoon. The word is tolmesas it
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Speaker 1: comes from the verb tolmao, which means to dare, to
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Speaker 1: have courage, to be bold enough to do something that
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Speaker 1: involves serious risk. This is not the bravery of someone
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Speaker 1: with nothing to lose. Tol Maao is the courage of
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Speaker 1: someone who knows exactly what they are risking and does
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Speaker 1: it anyway. Mark says, Joseph Tolmesus, having dared, went to
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Speaker 1: Pilot and asked for the body of Jesus. Read that again.
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Speaker 1: Having dared, Mark wants you to understand that what Joseph
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Speaker 1: did next was not normal. It was not expected, it
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Speaker 1: was not safe. It was an act of defiance that
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Speaker 1: could have cost him his career, his standing, his freedom,
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Speaker 1: and possibly his life, and he did it any way.
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Speaker 1: Here is why it mattered so much. Under Roman law,
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Speaker 1: when someone was executed by crucifixion, the body typically belonged
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Speaker 1: to Rome. Crucifixion was not just a death sentence, it
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Speaker 1: was a statement. The body was often left on the
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Speaker 1: cross for days as a public warning birds and animals
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Speaker 1: would consume it. The family was denied a proper burial.
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Speaker 1: That was the point. Rome wanted you to see what
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Speaker 1: happens when you challenge the empire. For a Jewish man
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Speaker 1: to walk into the Roman governor's palace and request the
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Speaker 1: body of a man who was just executed for claiming
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Speaker 1: to be a king, a direct challenge to Roman authority,
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Speaker 1: was extraordinary. Joseph was essentially walking up to Pilot and saying,
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Speaker 1: I am publicly associating myself with this condemned criminal. I
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Speaker 1: am claiming his body. I am giving him the burial
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Speaker 1: that Rome deliberately denied. Pilot was surprised, and the Greek
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Speaker 1: word mark uses here is worth pausing on ethelmisen. He marveled,
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Speaker 1: He was astonished. This is not mild curiosity. This is
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Speaker 1: a Roman governor, a man who had overseen dozens of crucifixions,
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Speaker 1: genuinely taken aback that a victim had died this quickly.
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Speaker 1: Crucifixion was designed to be slow. It was Rome's masterpiece
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Speaker 1: of cruelty. The victim's weight would slowly compress the lungs,
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Speaker 1: making each breath a conscious battle against gravity. Most victims
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Speaker 1: lasted two or three days. Some survived even longer. The
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Speaker 1: soldiers at the base of the cross were trained to wait.
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Speaker 1: They knew the timeline six hours was almost unheard of.
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Speaker 1: So Pilot did something that reveals how seriously he took
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Speaker 1: this request. He summoned the centurion, the officer who had
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Speaker 1: been standing at the foot of the cross all afternoon.
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Speaker 1: This is the same centurion who, according to Mark, chapter fifteen,
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Speaker 1: verse thirty nine, had watched the way Jesus died and said, truly,
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Speaker 1: this man was the son of God. That centurion Pilot
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Speaker 1: called him in and asked directly whether Jesus was already dead.
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Speaker 1: The centurion confirmed it, and only then did Pilot release
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Speaker 1: the body. Think about this scene for a moment. Joseph
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Speaker 1: is standing in the praetorium. The Roman governor's official residence, waiting.
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Speaker 1: He has just asked for the body of a man
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Speaker 1: executed for sedition against Rome. Pilot is across from him,
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Speaker 1: studying this well dressed Jewish elder, probably wondering what his
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Speaker 1: angle is. A centurion is called in to testify. Official
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Speaker 1: Roman confirmation of death is given, and then Pilot, for
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Speaker 1: reasons the text does not fully explain, says yes. Some
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Speaker 1: scholars believe that Pilot may have felt guilt over the execution.
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Speaker 1: He had already told the crowd, I find no fault
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Speaker 1: in this man. He had washed his hands publicly. Granting
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Speaker 1: the body to a respected elder may have been his
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Speaker 1: way of distancing himself from the ugliness of what the
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Speaker 1: Sanhedrin had pressured him into. Whatever his reasons, the body
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Speaker 1: was released, and Joseph walked out of that palace carrying
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Speaker 1: a burden that no one else in Jerusalem was willing
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Speaker 1: to touch. And now the clock was ticking. In Jewish practice,
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Speaker 1: the Sabbath began at sunset on Friday. Once the Sabbath started,
25:43
Speaker 1: everything stopped work, travel, handling, the dead, burial rights, all
25:49
Speaker 1: of it was forbidden until the following evening. And this
25:53
Speaker 1: was not just any Sabbath. The next day was also
25:56
Speaker 1: the first day of Passover, the holiest festival in the
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Speaker 1: Jewish calendar. The urgency was extreme. To leave a body
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Speaker 1: unburied overnight was considered a violation of Deuteronomy chapter twenty one,
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Speaker 1: which commands that a dead body must not remain hanging
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Speaker 1: on a tree overnight, but must be buried that same day.
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Speaker 1: For a man like Joseph, who Luke describes as Dikaios righteous,
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Speaker 1: fulfilling this command was not optional. It was a matter
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Speaker 1: of obedience to the Torah itself. So picture the scene.
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Speaker 1: Joseph has just left Pilot's palace with permission to take
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Speaker 1: the body. The sun is already dropping toward the horizon.
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Speaker 1: He has to get to Golgatha, take a crucified body
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Speaker 1: down from a cross transport it, prepare it for burial,
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Speaker 1: and seal the tomb before sunset. All of this with
26:51
Speaker 1: a body that has been scourged, pierced, and hanging for hours.
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Speaker 1: He bought fine linen the Greek word is sinndon, a
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Speaker 1: clean white cloth of high quality. This was not cheap
27:04
Speaker 1: burial fabric. This was the linen of a wealthy man,
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Speaker 1: purchased for a specific purpose. In Jewish burial practice, the
27:13
Speaker 1: body would be washed with warm water in a ritual
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Speaker 1: called rachitza, a final act of dignity and purification. Then
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Speaker 1: it would be wrapped tightly in the linen, with the
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Speaker 1: spices packed between the folds to slow decomposition and to
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Speaker 1: honor the dead. Joseph took the body down from the
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Speaker 1: cross himself or with the help of servants, wrapped it
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Speaker 1: in the sindon, and carried it to a tomb, his tomb,
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Speaker 1: his personal, never before used tomb, carved into solid rock
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Speaker 1: in a garden near the crucifixion site. Matthew's Gospel emphasizes
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Speaker 1: that it was Joseph's own new tomb, one he had
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Speaker 1: hewn out of the rock. He gave away his own
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Speaker 1: burial place in a culture where your tomb was your
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Speaker 1: final statement of status and legacy. Joseph handed his over
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Speaker 1: to a dead carpenter from Nazareth, and then John tells
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Speaker 1: us something that makes this scene even more profound. Joseph
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Speaker 1: was not alone. Nicodemus came too, the same Nicodemus who
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Speaker 1: had come to Jesus by night, who had tried to
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Speaker 1: defend him in the council and been ridiculed for it.
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Speaker 1: Nicodemus showed up with seventy five pounds of myrrh and aloes.
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Speaker 1: Seventy five pounds. That is not a modest gesture. That
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Speaker 1: is a burial fit for royalty. Two secret disciples, side
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Speaker 1: by side, performing the most intimate act of devotion imaginable,
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Speaker 1: washing the blood from a broken body, wrapping torn flesh
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Speaker 1: in clean linen, packing burial spices into the folds, placing
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Speaker 1: the body gently into the cold stone shell for a tomb,
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Speaker 1: and doing all of it knowing that by morning every
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Speaker 1: member of the Sanhedrin would know what they had done.
29:08
Speaker 1: There was no going back. The secret was over. But
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Speaker 1: the story of that tomb was not finished yet, because
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Speaker 1: the next morning, Saturday, while the whole city rested for
29:21
Speaker 1: the Sabbath, the chief priests and the pharisees did something
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Speaker 1: unexpected Matthew, chapter twenty seven, verse sixty two. They went
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Speaker 1: back to Pilot. The same men who had pressured Pilot
29:34
Speaker 1: to crucify Jesus were now standing in his palace again,
29:39
Speaker 1: and this time they were nervous. Sir, They said, we
29:43
Speaker 1: remember that while he was still alive, that deceiver said,
29:48
Speaker 1: after three days, I will rise again. So give the
29:53
Speaker 1: order for the tomb to be made secure until the
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Speaker 1: third day. Otherwise his disciples made come and steal the
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Speaker 1: body and tell the people that he has been raised
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Speaker 1: from the dead. Read that carefully. The men who engineered
30:09
Speaker 1: the execution of Jesus were afraid of a dead man.
30:13
Speaker 1: They remembered his predictions. They took his words seriously enough
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Speaker 1: to go back to the governor and request military protection
30:21
Speaker 1: for a sealed grave. Pilot granted the request. Roman soldiers
30:27
Speaker 1: were dispatched to the garden tomb. The stone was sealed
30:31
Speaker 1: with an official Roman seal, which meant that breaking it
30:34
Speaker 1: was a crime against the Empire. Armed guards stood watch
30:38
Speaker 1: over the entrance Joseph's tomb. The tomb he had given
30:43
Speaker 1: away in an act of courage and grief, was now
30:46
Speaker 1: under military lockdown. The same institutional power that Joseph had
30:51
Speaker 1: defied by claiming the body was now trying to keep
30:54
Speaker 1: that body permanently contained. The irony is almost unbarable. They
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Speaker 1: sealed the tomb with the authority of Rome. They posted
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Speaker 1: soldiers with swords. They placed an imperial seal on the stone.
31:10
Speaker 1: Every tool of political and military power was deployed to
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Speaker 1: make sure that what was inside that tomb stayed inside
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Speaker 1: that tomb. It did not work, but we will get
31:22
Speaker 1: to that. There is something worth noticing here, though. The
31:27
Speaker 1: same system that punished Joseph for standing up was now
31:30
Speaker 1: scrambling to contain the consequences of what he had done.
31:35
Speaker 1: Every institution that tried to silence the truth ended up
31:39
Speaker 1: proving how terrified they were of it. If you have
31:43
Speaker 1: ever taken a stand and watched the backlash come and
31:47
Speaker 1: wondered whether it was worth it, hold that thought, because
31:51
Speaker 1: what happened next at Joseph's tomb answers that question. Now
31:56
Speaker 1: Here is something that Bible readers often pass over too quickly,
32:01
Speaker 1: but it is staggering when you stop and see it.
32:05
Speaker 1: Seven hundred years before Joseph of Arimathea walked into Pilot's palace,
32:10
Speaker 1: the prophet Isaiah wrote a passage about a suffering servant
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Speaker 1: Isaiah chapter fifty three. It is one of the most
32:18
Speaker 1: debated and analyzed prophecies in all of Scripture, and verse
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Speaker 1: nine says this he was assigned a grave with the
32:27
Speaker 1: wicked and with a rich man. In his death, with
32:31
Speaker 1: the wicked and with a rich man, Jesus was crucified
32:36
Speaker 1: between two criminals, that is, the grave with the wicked,
32:41
Speaker 1: and then a rich man, a wealthy member of the Sanhedrin,
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Speaker 1: came and placed the body in his own expensive tomb,
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Speaker 1: that is, with a rich man. In his death. Joseph
32:54
Speaker 1: of Arimathea probably had no idea he was fulfilling a
32:58
Speaker 1: seven hundred year old prophecy. He was not checking boxes
33:02
Speaker 1: on a theological checklist. He was acting out of grief,
33:06
Speaker 1: out of love, out of a courage that had finally
33:09
Speaker 1: broken through years of silence, And in doing so, he
33:14
Speaker 1: stepped into a roll that had been written for him
33:16
Speaker 1: centuries before he was born. That should stop you for
33:20
Speaker 1: a second, because it raises a question that goes way
33:24
Speaker 1: beyond ancient history. What if the thing you have been
33:27
Speaker 1: afraid to do, the conviction you have been hiding, the
33:31
Speaker 1: truth you have been sitting on, is not just about you.
33:36
Speaker 1: What if your moment of courage is connected to something
33:39
Speaker 1: bigger than you can see right now? Joseph could not
33:43
Speaker 1: see the full picture on Friday afternoon. All he could
33:47
Speaker 1: see was a dead man who deserved a proper burial.
33:51
Speaker 1: He could not see Sunday morning. He could not see
33:53
Speaker 1: the empty tomb. He could not see that the place
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Speaker 1: he was laying that body would become the most signal,
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Speaker 1: unificant location in human history. He just did the next
34:04
Speaker 1: right thing, at enormous personal cost, with no guarantee of
34:09
Speaker 1: how it would turn out. And that brings us to Sunday.
34:13
Speaker 1: Because the tomb where the resurrection happened it was not
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Speaker 1: a random cave, It was not a donated space from
34:20
Speaker 1: some anonymous benefactor. It was Joseph's tomb. The stone that
34:26
Speaker 1: the women found rolled away on Sunday morning was the
34:29
Speaker 1: stone that sealed Joseph's personal burial chamber. The linen cloths
34:34
Speaker 1: that Peter found folded inside were the sindom that Joseph
34:38
Speaker 1: had purchased and wrapped around the body with his own hands.
34:42
Speaker 1: The garden where Mary Magdalen stood weeping, where she turned
34:46
Speaker 1: and saw someone she thought was the gardener, that was
34:49
Speaker 1: the garden where Joseph's family tomb was carved into the hillside.
34:54
Speaker 1: Every detail of the resurrection story is physically connected to
34:59
Speaker 1: the sacrifice of a man who spent most of his
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Speaker 1: life hiding. And consider the practical cost. In first century Jerusalem,
35:09
Speaker 1: a rock hewn tomb was one of the most expensive
35:12
Speaker 1: things a family could own. It took stonecutters months to
35:16
Speaker 1: carve a burial chamber out of solid limestone. Wealthy families
35:21
Speaker 1: used these tombs for generations, placing each family member on
35:24
Speaker 1: a stone shelf as they died. For Joseph to give
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Speaker 1: his new, unused tomb to someone else meant his own
35:32
Speaker 1: family would need to find another burial place. It meant
35:36
Speaker 1: he was surrendering one of his most valuable assets, and
35:40
Speaker 1: he did it for a man the government had just
35:42
Speaker 1: labeled a criminal mark. Chapter fifteen, verse forty seven tells
35:48
Speaker 1: us something else that is easy to miss. Mary Magdalene
35:51
Speaker 1: and Mary, the mother of Jose's, were watching. They saw
35:55
Speaker 1: where the body was laid. These women tracked the exact
35:59
Speaker 1: location of the two whom they memorized the spot because
36:03
Speaker 1: they planned to come back after the sabbath to finish
36:06
Speaker 1: the anointing that the rush of Friday afternoon had left incomplete.
36:11
Speaker 1: So when they arrived on Sunday morning and found the
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Speaker 1: stone rolled away, they knew they were at the right place.
36:18
Speaker 1: There was no confusion, There was no mistaken tomb. They
36:23
Speaker 1: had watched Joseph place the body there with their own eyes.
36:27
Speaker 1: There is something almost poetic about that the man who
36:30
Speaker 1: kept his faith secret for years became the one whose
36:34
Speaker 1: personal property became the stage for the most public event
36:38
Speaker 1: in the history of faith. His private tomb became the
36:42
Speaker 1: world's most famous empty grave. And here is one more
36:47
Speaker 1: thing that deserves attention. All four Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke,
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Speaker 1: and John named Joseph of Varimathea by name that is significant.
36:58
Speaker 1: In the ancient world, written records named people who were
37:02
Speaker 1: known to the community. When Mark and the other writers
37:06
Speaker 1: included Joseph's name, they were pointing to a real person
37:09
Speaker 1: that their readers could verify. Early church historians understood this.
37:15
Speaker 1: Joseph was not a legend or a literary device. He
37:19
Speaker 1: was a man that first century Christians in Jerusalem remembered.
37:24
Speaker 1: His name survived because his courage survived one act on
37:29
Speaker 1: one afternoon, and two thousand years later we are still
37:33
Speaker 1: talking about him. What happened to Joseph after that Friday?
37:38
Speaker 1: The Bible does not tell us. He disappears from the
37:42
Speaker 1: narrative after the burial. Later traditions written centuries after the
37:47
Speaker 1: Gospels claimed that Joseph traveled to Britain and established the
37:51
Speaker 1: first Christian church, at Glastonbury. Some medieval legends connect him
37:56
Speaker 1: to the Holy Grail, but these are stories built on tradition,
38:01
Speaker 1: not scripture. The honest answer is that we do not
38:05
Speaker 1: know what Joseph did next, and maybe that is the point.
38:10
Speaker 1: Maybe his story is not about what came after. Maybe
38:14
Speaker 1: the entire weight of his legacy rests on a single
38:17
Speaker 1: afternoon when a frightened man stopped being frightened. Because here
38:23
Speaker 1: is what we do know. The early Church remembered him.
38:26
Speaker 1: When the gospel writers sat down to record the death
38:30
Speaker 1: and burial of Jesus, they could have simply written, a
38:33
Speaker 1: rich man took the body and buried it. They did
38:36
Speaker 1: not need to name him, but they did, all four
38:40
Speaker 1: of them, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They named his town,
38:47
Speaker 1: They described his character, They recorded his membership on the council.
38:52
Speaker 1: They wanted the world to know who this man was,
38:55
Speaker 1: because what he did mattered. So what does this mean
39:00
Speaker 1: for you right now? Today? Joseph's story is not a
39:05
Speaker 1: museum piece. It is a mirror, and the question it
39:09
Speaker 1: asks is uncomfortable. Is there something in your life right
39:13
Speaker 1: now that you believe but have not said out loud.
39:17
Speaker 1: Maybe it is your faith. Maybe it is a conviction
39:20
Speaker 1: about how things should be done at work, or in
39:23
Speaker 1: your family, or in your community. Maybe it is a
39:27
Speaker 1: creative calling that the people closest to you would not understand.
39:32
Speaker 1: Maybe it is a line you refuse to cross while
39:34
Speaker 1: everyone around you is crossing it, and you have been
39:37
Speaker 1: pretending that does not bother you. I am not asking
39:41
Speaker 1: because I know your answer. I am asking because Joseph's
39:45
Speaker 1: story forces the question. He sat in the Sanhedrin for years, watching, waiting, silent,
39:52
Speaker 1: and if the story had ended on Thursday night, we
39:55
Speaker 1: would never have heard his name. He would have been
39:58
Speaker 1: just another leader who chose comfort over conviction. But the
40:03
Speaker 1: story did not end on Thursday night. Friday came, and
40:07
Speaker 1: on Friday Joseph discovered something that changes everything. Once you
40:12
Speaker 1: see it. There comes a moment when the pain of
40:15
Speaker 1: hiding becomes greater than the pain of being seen. The
40:19
Speaker 1: Greek word is ptolemasus. He dared not because the fear
40:25
Speaker 1: went away, not because the risk suddenly disappeared, not because
40:29
Speaker 1: someone gave him permission or guaranteed the outcome. He dared
40:35
Speaker 1: because he reached the point where staying silent was no
40:38
Speaker 1: longer something he could live with. So the question is
40:41
Speaker 1: not whether your moment is coming, It is whether you
40:45
Speaker 1: will recognize it when it does, and what you will
40:48
Speaker 1: do when staying hidden starts to cost you more than
40:51
Speaker 1: stepping forward. Joseph stepped forward, and his empty tomb changed
40:57
Speaker 1: the world. If this story hit you the way it
41:00
Speaker 1: hit me the first time I dug into the Greek text,
41:03
Speaker 1: I need you to do me one thing. Subscribe to
41:07
Speaker 1: this channel, because we go this deep every single week.
41:11
Speaker 1: We pull apart the original Hebrew and Greek, we dig
41:15
Speaker 1: into the history that most people skip, and we connect
41:19
Speaker 1: it to the stuff you are actually going through right now.
41:23
Speaker 1: The video on screen right now goes into the full
41:26
Speaker 1: story of Nicodemus, the other secret disciple who showed up
41:31
Speaker 1: with Joseph that Friday afternoon. His story is just as wild.
41:36
Speaker 1: I will see you there.