John 19:38-42 and Matthew 2:1-12
I wonder….what’s your biggest secret?
Secrets, I think, are like pants! We’ve all got them, but we’d really rather not expose ours in public!
And yet, it’s more complicated than that. Not all secrets are bad, are they? I mean, I secretly quite like Brussels Sprouts despite spending much of my time claiming that they are the work of evil in our world.
And then there are some secrets which haunt us, and have control over us. The things we keep in the shadows as it were, so that nobody can see that’s how we really are. It’s important to note at this point that sometimes secrets can ‘happen’ to us. By that I mean circumstances occur which force us into a position in which we feel as though we have no earthly place to turn. Please do not hear any victim shaming or such like in what I am saying. But hopefully we can all agree that keeping secrets is a sliding scale, from the Brussels Spouts at on end to the darker parts of humanity at the other.
Tonight we’re going to jump back just a tiny bit to last week. I know we’ve all rejoiced at the wonder and excitement that is Easter Sunday. We’ve all eaten too much chocolate and probably over indulged on whatever it was that we gave up for Lent. But if you’ll allow me, we’re just going to spend 5 more minutes with the sadness of Good Friday because, in the hurry of Holy Week, we can overlook some wonderfully complex and interesting characters who won’t really get a look in for another 12 months.
So, let’s have a think about Joseph of Arimathea. All we really know of Joseph is contained in these 4 verses, and yet they paint a wonderfully complicated and rich picture of a man who’s just trying to do what’s right. We only have four verses but I love him and I hope you’ll love him too.
Joseph was a member of the Jewish council. No, not the kind of council that organises the bin collections every Monday; but the religious council. One which decides on theological matters and would definitely, definitely know if the Messiah had come. This same council which only a few days ago was in the crowd shouting ‘Crucify Him, Crucify Him.’
But not Joseph apparently. Luke’s gospel tells us that Joseph had not consented to the majority decision to hand Jesus over to Pilate. Joseph was, we are told by John, a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one. For he feared how others might treat him and, presumably, that he might suffer the same fate as the One he followed.
We also know that Joseph was rich. We know that because Matthew tells us (which is helpful of him) but we also know that because he had a tomb in which he and Nicodemus (another member of the council by the way) could place Jesus after his death. Tombs are not 10 a penny. They are a sign of a certain position in life which meant you were somewhat in control of what happened to you after you died. And Joseph gives up his tomb for the One he followed.
The last thing we know about Joseph is that He performed certain burial rights upon Jesus’s body before placing Him in the tomb. John writes: Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about thirty-five kilograms. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.
Does that sound somewhat familiar? There are two readings for us this evening, the first of which said this:
On coming to the house, The Magi saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Right from the very beginning, this tiny precious little Jesus was presented with something which would point to His death. From a group of wandering wise men who kept a big secret for fear of the tyrant King, to the lonely and confused Jewish councillor, who kept a big secret for fear of following the same fate as His Lord.
Our secrets say a lot about us. Sometimes they tell us how we really feel. The opinion we do not share with others, the source of pain which we cannot, dare not, share with others. But they also can be a source for good. The Magi’s secret keeping almost certainly helped to save Jesus’s life; rescued from the brutal slaughter of the innocents which swept through the town as Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt.
And what about our Joseph this evening? What of his secret...well perhaps we might say that Joseph was able to do his bit.
To play his part in the great big story of God’s redeeming love. We might only have four verses, but we can see from this short passage that Joseph was a man of honour, a person who knew the right thing and, in the end, wasn’t afraid to do his bit, irrespective of the consequences.
We don’t really know what happened to Joseph next. He doesn’t appear in the rest of the bible. He doesn’t lead churches like James or travel the world like Paul. He is not ‘The Rock’ on which the church is built, but to me Joseph is like so many people we know and love in churches throughout the country. Dedicated, kind, thoughtful, broken, complicated, flawed and frightened people who sometimes keep their faith a secret for fear of what others might say.
Some legends say Joseph was imprisoned by the Jewish leaders for his final act on Jesus’s final day, only to be allowed to escape back to his home town. Other legends place the ‘Holy Grail’ in Joseph’s possession and some even have it that Joseph was the one who brought Christianity to Britain (a fairly naïve and misguided idea, however nice it might be).
Joseph was a man who, in the end, didn’t let the deepest parts of his heart get in the way of following Christ. Whatever it might be that you cannot and will not share with anyone else, perhaps tonight share it with God. For the Lord loves you and cares for you, and eases the burdens that we carry, whether they are secret or not.
Amen
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