Mark 15 vv 42 47
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Joseph of Arimathea boldly went to Pilate and requested Jesus' body after crucifixion. As a prominent member of the Council who was waiting for the kingdom of God, Joseph bought a shroud and buried Jesus safely in a tomb, fulfilling the Jewish customs before the Sabbath. Nicodemus assisted Joseph in preparing Jesus' body for burial.
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Mark 15 vv 42 47
- 1. Welcome to Grace! May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14
- 2. Mark 15:42-47 … going boldly to Pilate • Introduction
- 3. Mark 15:42-47 … going boldly to Pilate • Introduction • Who is Pilate? Vv.43-45 “Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. 44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. 45 When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph.”
- 4. Mark 15:42-47 … going boldly to Pilate • Introduction • Who is Pilate? Vv.43-45 “Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. 44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. 45 When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph.” • Powerful • Hostile • The ONE who can grant what God’s honour deserves • Who very much lacks the natural inclination to do it • Who could mess you up badly in the process
- 5. Mark 15:42-47 … going boldly to Pilate • Introduction • Who is Pilate? • Who is J. A.? Vv. 42-43a “It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, i) 43 Joseph of Arimathea, ii) a prominent member of the Council, who was iii) himself waiting for the kingdom of God …”
- 6. Mark 15:42-47 … going boldly to Pilate • Introduction • Who is Pilate? • Who is J. A.? • What does he do and why? Vv. 43b-46
- 7. Mark 15:42-47 … going boldly to Pilate • Introduction • Who is Pilate? • Who is J. A.? • What does he do and why? Vv. 43b-46 • Goes boldly to Pilate τολμήσας εἰσῆλθεν πρὸς τὸν Πιλᾶτον
- 8. Mark 15:42-47 … going boldly to Pilate • Introduction • Who is Pilate? • Who is J. A.? • What does he do and why? Vv. 43b-46 • Goes boldly to Pilate • Asks for Jesus’ body
- 9. Mark 15:42-47 … going boldly to Pilate • Introduction • Who is Pilate? • Who is J. A.? • What does he do and why? Vv. 43b-46 • Goes boldly to Pilate • Asks for Jesus’ body • Bought a shroud
- 10. Mark 15:42-47 … going boldly to Pilate • Introduction • Who is Pilate? • Who is J. A.? • What does he do and why? Vv. 43b-46 • Goes boldly to Pilate • Asks for Jesus’ body • Bought a shroud • Buried Jesus safely “Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.”
- 11. Mark 15:42-47 … going boldly to Pilate • Introduction • Who is Pilate? • Who is J. A.? • What does he do and why? • Who’s in this with him? Mark 15:47 & John 19:39-40
- 12. Mark 15:42-47 … going boldly to Pilate • Introduction • Who is Pilate? • Who is J. A.? • What does he do and why? • Who’s in this with him? • What is the outcome?
- 13. Mark 15:42-47 … going boldly to Pilate • Introduction • Who is Pilate? • Who is J. A.? • What does he do and why? • Who’s in this with him? • What is the outcome? • Conclusion
Editor's Notes
- What words? What meditation? Vv. 1-6 meditation on what the things you see in this world can tell you about their Creator vv. 7-11 meditation on what the Law of the Lord can tell you about it’s Author vv. 12-14 resulting concern for personal holiness … ending with the words of this verse.
- Sometimes in this life, you need to go to the godless. Sometimes you need to screw up your courage, cross your fingers or bite on your tongue and humble yourself to go along to people whose stance you find utterly unacceptable … and just ASK. Sometimes you WANT something from them – you need bad people to do good things. Sometimes you need to RISK IT with them – because, before God, you have to do the right thing and it might well not go down well with them. You are here in a spiritually foreign country as an ambassador of Christ, sometimes you have to deal with the enemy. The enemy, Pilate CERTAINLY was. He has only just committed complete OUTRAGE. He has crucified the Lord of Glory on a pretext of a charge that was nowhere near ever warranted, and he has done so with nothing like the courage of conviction. But somebody had to clear up the mess the godless had made and rescue SOME propriety from the impropriety they’d committed. And ‘somebody’ was about to risk their significant standing both in Jewish and in Roman Civil Society to do the RIGHT thing. Someone’s about to put their head on what was KNOWN to be a very well-worn and recently-bloodied block. Pilate’s block was one that wore out before there was any threat it would rust out.
- Pilate was a member of the lower rank of governors, the equestrian order, of the Pontii family. He succeeded Valerius Gratus as prefect of Judaea in AD 26 answering to the Emperor Tiberius. Once in his post he offended the religious sensibilities of his subjects, leading to harsh criticism from Philo, and many decades later, Josephus. According to Josephus c. AD 93, Pilate was ordered back to Rome after harshly suppressing a Samaritan uprising, arriving just after the death of Tiberius which occurred on 16 March in AD 37. Normally, Pilate resided in Caesarea but travelled throughout the province, especially to Jerusalem, in the course of performing his duties. During the Passover, a festival of deep national as well as religious significance for the Jews, Pilate, as governor or prefect, would have been expected to be in Jerusalem to keep order. He would not ordinarily be visible to the throngs of worshippers because of the Jewish people's deep sensitivity to their status as a Roman province.[citation needed] Equestrians such as Pilate could command legionary forces but only small ones, and so in military situations, he would have to yield to his superior, the legate of Syria, who would descend into Palestine with his legions as necessary. As governor of Judaea, Pilate would have small auxiliary forces of locally recruited soldiers stationed regularly in Caesarea and Jerusalem, such as the Antonia Fortress, and temporarily anywhere else that might require a military presence. The total number of soldiers at his disposal would have numbered about 3,000. He was pretty ‘tin-pot’ as rulers went, but nasty to the Jews, which is why he was recalled to Rome after 10 years by the Emperor Tiberius. So Pilate is a nasty piece of work in small time authority but able to do serious harm in the moderate insecurity of his position, and definitely inclined to do so to Jewish people … the people over whom he ruled on behalf of the Emperor in Rome. He has – on behalf of the Emperor – the ‘ownership’ of any condemned man. He also has this centurion at his beck and call – the centurion serves him as the representative of Roman government … of Caesar Centurion A centurion was a non-commissioned officer in the Roman army or one of the auxiliary territorial armies, commanding a centuria of (nominally) 100 men. The responsibilities of centurions were broadly similar to modern junior officers, but there was a wide gap in social status between them and officers, and relatively few were promoted beyond the rank of senior centurion. The Roman troops stationed in Judea were auxiliaries, who would normally be rewarded with Roman citizenship after 25 years of service. Some of the centurions may have served originally in the Roman legions (regular army) and thus gained their citizenship at enlistment. Others may have inherited it, like Paul. The Centurion has the responsibility NOT to release a capital prisoner until dead(on pain of his own life), and then only if the authorities granted it … so Pilate asks if he is yet legally ABLE to grant Joseph’s irregular request. And then he DOES it. Why he does this we don’t know. He may be enjoying having a leading Jew having to come to ask like this. He may be avoiding further confrontation with the Sanhedrin over the ritual contamination of the Land with decaying corpses … we know there’d been fuss about that before – but in this case it’s only Jesus’s body Joseph asks for. We don’t know. There is certainly NOTHING we know about Pilate that would suggest that he was going to behave with such decency. But he does. “Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. 45 When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph.” Incidentally – look – the centurion’s own neck was firmly on the line and he is SURE that the Lord’s really dead. If he weren’t, this could never have happened.
- Preparation Day – The day of preparation was the day before the Sabbath when everything had to be prepared for it, as no work could be done on the Sabbath. This timing necessitated a fairly speedy burial – Deut. 21:23 dictated that corpses should not remain unburied at nightfall – and this was the προσάββατον, and Sabbath laws prevented burial after sundown. This Sabbath was particularly solemn since it was Nisan 15,the day which began after sunset with the Passover meal (Jesus having been crucified on Passover Eve). Jesus had died remarkably quickly on that Cross … So Joseph of Arimathea surprises Pilate with his early request. Interestingly it looks as if this happens around three hours after the death of Jesus … ‘as evening approached’ but that point isn’t developed in Mark. We hear nothing else in the whole of the rest of Scripture about this man called Joseph of Arimathea. Arimathea seems to have been a town in Shephelah North West of Jerusalem. He appears in the Gospels ONLY HERE at the burial of Jesus A prominent member of the Council – Βουλευτής - “a councillor” (as a member of the Sanhedrin, see L&N 11.85). This indicates that some individuals among the leaders of the Jews did respond somehow even at this stage to Jesus. Joseph needed to be a person of some significant social standing in Jerusalem to be ABLE to approach Pilate in this way, and also to have a rock tomb available in this area! So Joseph is described as εὐσχήμων – ‘reputable’ … a term of social approval that implies that this man was well off. R.T. France: “Joseph is thus a leading figure in Jerusalem, and in the light of the events of the preceding week it is remarkable to find such a man taking a personal and risky initiative in favour of the Galilean prophet whom Joseph’s own Sanhedrin had condemned as a blasphemer.” But that’s not all, because look … Waiting – Joseph was “himself waiting for the kingdom of God …” Every pious Jew prayed regularly in the Synagogue for the coming of God’s Kingdom in the regular Kaddish prayer: ‘May He let His Kingdom rule in your lifetime and in the lifetime of the whole house of Israel, speedily and soon’ But in Mark’s Gospel in particular, the term ‘the Kingdom of God’ is so intimately bound up with the mission of Jesus that anyone who has a concern for the Kingdom of God must be at least basically on Jesus’s side. Yes, some dispute that Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple of Jesus, but this remark that he was looking forward to the kingdom of God and his actions regarding Jesus’ burial suggest otherwise.
- Joseph’s request is irregular so it needs to be made directly to the man at the top. Sometimes, we have to be ready to go into the lion’s den. Joseph was. There was NO guarantee at all that the request would be granted. There was certainly NO guarantee that there would be no unfortunate consequences for Joseph. Pilate’s known character wouldn’t give hope to someone making this request, which might be taken to put a question mark against the verdict Pilate had handed down, administering Roman justice. Asking for the body of Jesus was indeed a bold move on the part of Joseph of Arimathea. This clearly and openly identified him with a man who had just been condemned and executed, namely, Jesus. His faith is exemplary, especially for someone who was a member of the council that handed Jesus over for crucifixion (cf. Luke 23:51). And he did this because he sought to give Jesus an honourable burial.
- Asking for the body of Jesus was indeed a bold move on the part of Joseph of Arimathea, for it clearly and openly identified him with a man who had just been condemned and executed, namely, Jesus. His faith is exemplary, especially for someone who was a member of the council that handed Jesus over for crucifixion (cf. Luke 23:51). He did this because he sought to give Jesus an honourable burial. The request The burial of a crucified man was by no means to be taken for granted. Tacitus tells us that it was forbidden in Roman Law at this time … though a local magistrate could give permission where it was warranted. Otherwise, the dead bodies of crucified men were often left to decompose on the cross or thrown in a pile on the ground with other corpses for scavengers to dispose of. (R.E. Brown CBQ 1988) Josephus tells us that the Jews tended to make a fuss about this so in Judea, exceptionally, crucified men could be buried … but honourable burial in a rock tomb was exceptional and in this case it depended on the intervention of an influential member of the Sanhedrin.
- The term σινδών (sindwn) can refer to a linen cloth used either for clothing or for burial. The day of preparation was the day before the Sabbath when everything had to be prepared for it, as no work could be done on the Sabbath. It was a Friday so the shops were still open … There was some provision for spices … although the necessary haste meant not everything was done as desirably as it could have been, what’s being described in this Jewish context is a hasty but a respectful burial.
- “a tomb cut out of rock” - that is, cut or carved into an outcropping of natural rock, resulting in a cave-like structure. You’d get a bit of a hole in the rock, then workmen would go in there and cut shelves, galleries, other body-sized holes into the cave wall … multiple bodies could be stored while they decomposed to just bones and those were then gathered up into a central pit hence the O.T. expression ‘and he was gathered to his ancestors’ But this tomb had NEVER been used. It was new. And Joseph would lend it to Jesus. Now it looks like that’s a great big job for Joseph. He could buy the linen cloth on his own, but from there on he’s going to need help! Getting an elderly dead relative out of a terraced house in the Valleys where I come from and into a waiting hearse was always a job for a group of strong men. Getting a 30 year old off a cross He’s been NAILED to, in a hurry but with decorum is a job that is utterly beyond Joseph alone. It looks as if Joseph has got his servants there to help, because he certainly wouldn’t have managed that big heavy stone on his own either! Who’s in this with him?
- Mark tells us about a group of women again that were with and around Jesus in His death. They just weren’t mentioned in this Gospel until now, but now they are all over the story. Here they are brought in again SPECIFICALLY as witnesses. But over and above them, we know from John’s Gospel that Nicodemus (and possibly his servants too because neither of these important members of the Sanhedrin would want to become ritually unclean by touching a dead body before the Sabbath, particularly this Passover Sabbath) … Nicodemus who went to Jesus by night in John 3 … is also with Joseph of Arimathea at Golgotha and at the graveside, helping to give the Lord a decent burial.
- The outcome is that Jesus is honoured. Those who are in His Kingdom have this as their highest priority … they’ll do all sorts for Jesus to be honoured. And sometimes you need to be the right person, at the right time, doing the bold thing, so that Jesus is honoured.
- We need to remember this lesson in particular from the Old Testament: Proverbs 21:1 “In the Lord’s hand the king’s heart is a stream of water that he channels toward all who please him.” Ezra 1:1” In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfil the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing … ” We also need from that and from this passage to put trust in God at those times when we need carefully and faithfully to go boldly to Pilate. I don’t know who your Pilate might be … But that person will be powerful He won’t be ‘on your side’ You may expect the worst from them and not really the best You may feel as if an awful lot’s being put on the line … in order that Christ will be honoured. At one level, Jesus could be seen to be pretty much past caring. Why take the risk, what good would it do? Let’s face it, without this the testimony to the resurrection would be NOWHERE so clear, but the reason it was done was to honour Jesus. An ordinary criminal might be left there. Jesus was being honoured in this story, He had sufficient following amongst this world’s influential people, who bravely and boldly saw to it that He was honoured, at least where they could – with a burial. They couldn’t spring Him from in front of the Sanhedrin, but there was one last thing they could do for His honour … and they’d take very big risks to do whatever it was they could do to promote it.