Learning From the Life of Joseph of Arimathea

Often, God will ask us to give up something. And, more than often, He gives it back. Many a musician has laid down a musical instrument from his pre-conversion days because, like four-days-dead Lazarus, he considered it odious. It was dead. But in time, it was resurrected and used to the glory of God.

Maybe today you are reminded of a God-given talent you once had—some gift that you laid on the altar of sacrifice. Perhaps now that you’ve grown in your faith, God may give it back, sanctified and ready for His use. This was the case with something a rich man named Joseph gave to God:

Now when evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be given to him. When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb, and departed. (Matthew 27:57-60)

Prior to this scene, a tornado of terrifying events had scattered the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth. In the usual quiet refuge of the Garden of Gethsemane, His disciples had witnessed an unusually depressed Jesus. Then suddenly, a whirlwind of confusing occurrences unfolded. Jesus was arrested and taken away as if He was a devious criminal. He was then mocked, whipped, and beaten. Instead of being freed, a murderer was released in His place. The presiding governor washed his hands of the matter, and Jesus was led to Golgotha as a sheep to the slaughter. After six long and brutal hours, it was over. It was finished. Hope had been swallowed by hatred, leaving nothing but darkness and depression. Jesus of Nazareth was dead.

“Often, God will ask us to give up something. And, more than often, He gives it back.”

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Joseph took the battered body, wrapped it in a clean linen sheet, and then put it in his own tomb. It was his personal tomb, but he gave it up for the cause of Jesus. And, wonder of wonders, three days later God gave it back—because it wouldn’t be needed. It had been vacated. And that empty tomb has become a symbol of glorious hope. Death has lost its sting. Joseph gave God what was his, and God gave it back.

Today, give what you have for the cause of the gospel:

So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.” (Mark 10:29-30)

Lay it on the altar of sacrifice. Lose your life, and you’ll save it (Matthew 16:25).