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JOSEPH
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JOSEPH OF ARIMATHAEA.
The following story is presented, not so much as fact, than as
a possible explanation of those times when, to our Lord's great
disappointment, all the prophecies of His Coming had seemingly been
misunderstood.
The story is for your interest and meditation and all the
references to the characters and the events are from the King James
or the Authorised Version of the Scriptures.
**************************
It begins with the words of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
'Ye hypocrites! Ye can discern the face of the sky. But can
ye not discern the signs of the times?' Matthew 16:3.
'How oft would I have gathered thee but ye would not?'
Matthew 23:37.
And are followed by John, in prison, declaring.
'The time is fulfilled. The Kingdom of God is at hand.'
Mark 1:15.
These words seem to imply that not only had the coming of the
Messiah been imminent, as Isaiah and Micah had prophesied, and
should have been recognised but also that 'the time of its
fulfillment' should have been seen in the Presence of Jesus Christ
Himself and His ministry amongst them.
Especially after the message John had preached.
'The Kingdom of God is at hand repent ye and believe the gospel.'
Mark 1:15
But, even as today as the signs of our Lord's return are
ignored by many, so the signs of those times were also ignored by
the many who left the interpretation of the Scriptures, and the
administration of the Law and the Commandments, to their leaders.
Indeed, except for the fervent wish they might be soon
delivered from the oppression of Rome by the Messiah, a personal
search of the Scriptures to seek and know that time of His coming
was forgotten.
No wonder our Lord said to those who questioned Him later.
'Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have
eternal life: and they are which testify of me.'
John 5:39.
***************
So this is the story of Joseph of Arimathaea.
****************
I am known as Joseph of Arimathaea and I wish to tell my story
as simply as possible and, as it happened, because I want it to be
understood.
I suppose the first thing I should explain is how and why I, a
business man, became aware of 'The Christ' and at the same time
reveal to you the names of the two people who led me to Him,
They were Nicodemus and Matthew.
Nicodemus first because it was the insistence of my lifelong
friend, who told me that he believed with all his heart that Jesus
of Nazareth was indeed 'The Christ' we all waited for, that made me
read and think over again the promise that one day the Messiah
would come and be our King.
Matthew next because this man, who had been 'a thorn in my
side' in his occupation as a tax collector, Matthew 9:9, was also
my friend, and I had seen him give up 'all' to follow the 'man from
Galilee'. It was he who had, in his own careful and precise way,
written down his reasons why he believed that Jesus of Nazareth was
the Messiah, and it was he who later added the happenings in Judea
in the three years which followed.
However although the whole story of my conversion is too
tangled to tell fully, I was in an excellent position to judge the
truth of all the events leading up to the Cross, for I had, (as had
my father before me), the unique position of being one of the chief
traders at Rhama, (Arimathaea), where Samuel had once dwelt, north
of Jerusalem on the way to Joppa by the sea.
It was an exceptional and valuable situation!
Valuable because we were in a position to help our own people
in their business dealings with our conquerors, and exceptional
because we were able in turn to help the Romans and others to
better understand and deal with us. And here I must admit that
although we were only 'tolerated' by the Romans, we were tolerated
because it would have been a lengthy and expensive business for
them to re-establish those contacts they needed at Rhama and Joppa
had they scattered us.
Yes! We were there under sufferance but left alone, and
because of our fathers reputation before us, (which we all tried to
live up to), we were respected and trusted alike by both peoples.
It was into this atmosphere of oppression that Jesus came!
A time when our own people were fervently hoping for a
'deliverer' to come and deliver them from the burden of Rome, and
as I listened to Him speak I could feel the burning intensity of
this longing in His listeners, all of them hoping against hope that
this indeed was He who was promised.
But we all still doubted because there had been others before
Him!
Theudas who, in days gone by had drawn many after him.
Acts 5:36
Judas of Galilee, in the days when we were first taxed, who
had done the same. Acts 5:37.
They had all perished but even now it was thought that one
called Barabbas hidden in the hills, although he was little more
than a thief, had attracted many to his supposed cause and had
called them to rebellion against the Romans! John 18:40.
So I listened to Him as he spoke in the porch at Solomon's
Temple, or by the shore of Galilee, for He seemed to draw me to Him
wherever He spoke, and it was His insistence that we should have
been prepared for His appearance that made an impression upon me
and made me listen the more closely to Him.
Of course Matthew had reminded me of Micah's prophecy, Micah
5:2, but although that satisfied me, the prophecy of Isaiah which
told of the coming of the Messiah 'one day', had to mean the time
should have been more exact than that, for I had heard Him say,
with a longing in His voice which tore at the heart strings.
'How often would I have gathered thee.....but ye would not!'
Matthew 23:37.
I heard Him declare once, when He had come into Galilee after
John the Baptist had been put in prison.
'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand,
repent ye and believe the Gospel.' Mark 1:15.
And when we would not listen he had later gone on to say.
'I am come to send fire upon the earth! Ye hypocrites!
Ye can discern the face of the sky. How is it ye do not discern
this time?' Luke 12:49-56
It was this last saying that intrigued me most of all.
Luke like Matthew, was absolutely certain that Jesus was the
'child' of Isaiah's prophecy, Isaiah 7:14-16, and when I remembered
the words which he said Simeon had spoken to Mary and Joseph at the
Temple when they presented the babe, Luke 2:25-35, I looked more
carefully at the prophecy, 'that a virgin would conceive and bring
forth a child and His name shall be called Immanuel.' Isaiah 7:14.
However it was the two verses that followed that convinced me!
'Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the
evil, and choose the good. For before the child shall know to
refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest
shall be forsaken of both her kings.' Isaiah 7:15-16.
For years our own teachers had insisted that the prophecy in
these two verses was fulfilled when Syria invaded Israel and Judah
in the days of Ahaz, (but it seemed to me that the child of that
time was Mahershalalhashbaz the son of the prophetess), not the
child of the virgin Isaiah spoke of here!
This child, who was to be known as, 'God with us,' and born of
a virgin, was to be the one who was to grow up during the reign of
two kings who would both be gone from the land of Judah whilst he
was still a child and when I looked back at the situation when
Jesus was born, all these elements, which were not present back in
the time of Ahaz, were there.
The answer was clear!
I was living in the time of the fulfillment of Isaiah's
prophecy, and had been living within the framework of it all of my
life without seeing it!
I was 70, and it was 70 years ago, almost to the day that
Herod, (that man from Idumea), had been crowned king of Judah, and
I had grown up within this time taking the kingship of Herod very
much for granted although, looking back, surely we all should have
wondered at the significance of Judah having a king again after
more than 500 years!
How it had been missed by us all I shall never know.
Matthew recorded the fact, and circumstances of Herod's rule,
Matthew 2:1, together with the short reign later of Archelaus his
son who followed him, Matthew 2:22, but apparently no one ever saw
the significance of two kings reigning again in Judah at that time.
Our Lord never appealed to the fact as proof that 'this was the
time spoken of' either, and because He did not, neither do I.
I believe He meant us to accept Him as the Christ, and the Son
of God by faith, as Matthew did and although I felt our Lord's
disappointment because we had not 'known the time of His
visitation,' Luke 19:44, I saw His reaction as just that,
'disappointment,' for surely all these words, and others such as,
'A greater than Solomon is here,' Matthew 12:42, should have been
more than enough for us.
Yes! History itself confirms the Sacred record and for those
of you who have found Him by faith this must give you quiet
satisfaction and great confidence!
I suppose we had lost the desire to 'search the Scripture' for
ourselves and had depended on the Scribes, and the Priests, to look
after our way. However, in doing so we had, 'surrendered to vanity,
' as our Lord said.
Matthew records it well, telling how Jesus had declared the
Scribes and Pharisees had made the commandments of God of no effect
by traditions.
'Ye hypocrites!' He said. 'Well did Isaiah prophesy of you
saying, this people draweth near unto me with their mouths, and
honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But
in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrine the commandments
of men.' Matthew 15:7-9.
Of course I cannot separate myself from the same condemnation
for it was comfortable to believe what we were told!
I could have searched Scripture for myself but I did not.
As I looked back, I could see that it had begun with the crowning
of Herod, that cruel ambitious man who was to let nothing stand in
his pathway to power, and my belief began to take substance when I
remembered how he ordered the slaughter of those innocent children
during the infancy of Jesus.
Matthew had told me of the coming of the 'men from the East'
and how they first met with Herod and then found the family. He
had told of their following flight into Egypt with the young child,
and the return of Mary and Joseph to Nazareth at the death of
Herod. And, as he wrote, when they discovered Archelaus was on the
throne in place of Herod, it was to Nazareth not Bethlehem they
went because of their distrust of him although he was soon deposed.
Now it was easy to see, as Isaiah had foretold, that Judah was
'forsaken of both her kings,' while the Babe, born of a virgin, was
still a child!
I often wondered what happened in those unrecorded years before
He came preaching 'the time is fulfilled.'
Mark records Him as the 'carpenter, the son of Mary, the
brother of James,' Mark 6:3, which leads us to believe that for
some time at least, after the death of Joseph, He was actually
recognised as the carpenter of Nazareth as was Joseph. Not that it
concerns us who have found Him as Saviour and Lord, for we know Him
as the Son of God indeed.
Those days will never be known fully.
It is enough that we know He was subject to His parents and
that, 'He grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God, and
man.' Luke 2:52.
I came to know Him as my Saviour and my Lord, to love Him as
my friend, and to trust Him as he taught us. A wonderful time and
then, just as it seemed many of our people were believing in Him,
the chief priests and the Scribes and Pharisees turned them against
Him!
Jew against Jew in the turmoil.
Our teachers adamant that He was a false Messiah.
Led by the High Priest himself who, anxious to avoid any
public outcry that might cause the Romans to think we were
rebellious, and ambitious to hold onto his own high position, was
ready to sacrifice 'one man rather than the whole nation perish!'
John 11:45-52, and when Judas betrayed Him into their hands on the
night of the Passover there was chaos!
We were at a loss but could do nothing although Nicodemus,
John 3:1, Jairus, Luke 8:41, and I, Luke 23:51, stood against both
their 'counsel and the deed.'
Nicodemus was called 'a Galilean', John 7:52 and I was
ignored, and although there were many who believed amongst the
Council, 'because of the Pharisees, they did not confess Him, lest
they should be put out of the synagogue: for they loved the praise
of men more than the praise of God.' John 12:42-43.
The die was cast and after it was all over I went boldly to
Pilate and asked that I might have the body of Jesus. He willingly
gave permission amazed that death had come so quickly, and I then
went to the cross with the centurion and took down the body of our
Lord, Nicodemus helping me and, with tears, we laid Him in my own
sepulchre not far from Golgotha. Mark 15:43-46.
We shall never forget!
May those who come after us though be more diligent than we
were in 'searching the Scriptures' as they await His return as He
promised.
Continued.
