🌿Breathe Truth🌿
“As evening approached, Joseph of Arimethea took a risk and went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body.
Joseph was an honored member of the high council, and he was waiting for the Kingdom if God to come.” —Mark 15:43
🌿Believe Truth🌿
Joseph of Arimethea was an important man with an important job and an important standing. But he was willing to risk his position in the community, his career in the Council, and his ties with his family to go and request Jesus’ body.
Jesus had supposedly already passed away. Did any benefits arise in retrieving Jesus’ corpse? Any tangible advantages at all? None.
If anything, all things considered…….the Pharisees and Jewish leaders had vehemently fought for Jesus arrest and crucifixion. No one in their right mind would want to have any known association with “that criminal” Jesus.
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What Joseph of Arimethea did was a suicidal act of standing in his community.
What Joseph of Arimethea did was an act of love for His Savior.
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Joseph of Arimethea risked his job in the Council, his finances if he was thrown out, his reputation in his hometown, and his friendships and relationships around him. All for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ His Lord, for whom, he considered all other earthly things but a loss.
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Joseph of Arimethea also risked something else. The Pharisees and Jewish leaders hated Jesus. Very likely, very possible, they would extend that hatred to Joseph for taking Jesus’ body.
The remaining eleven disciples close to Jesus were currently in hiding. They feared for their life because if the Pharisees killed Jesus, by association, they reasoned they could be next. Threat of death kept them away from the eye of the public after Jesus’ death. Trepidation of being targeted and arrested next.
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If the eleven disciples were afraid, how about Joseph of Arimethea? Was he scared as well the Pharisees would know he was a follower? The Pharisees hated Jesus. Would they hate him too?
Indeed, Joseph of Arimethea risked his life in asking for Jesus’ body.
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What are you willing to risk for your faith? Are you willing to risk what other people think of you if they knew you were a believer? Is there an area in your life that you can make a difference, a stand for Jesus?
Most of us won’t have to risk our physical life for Jesus. But we can risk the opinions of what others think and see of us as a committed Christian who is sold out for Christ.
Risk how people around you perceive you, and the acceptance of the world, and make a stand for the Real Truth.
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