The Burial of Jesus and the Courage of Joseph
By the Holy Hieromartyr Chrysostomos, Metropolitan of Smyrna
By the Holy Hieromartyr Chrysostomos, Metropolitan of Smyrna
The death and burial of the Lord are very important events in Christianity; and they are so because they are the basis and foundation of the Resurrection of the Lord, which in turn is the basis and foundation of our entire Faith, for if Christ did not die, our faith is futile and vain (1 Corinthians 15:17).
The hopes of all Christians depend on the event of the Death and the event of the Resurrection of the Lord, both in the present and in eternity.
This is the rock on which Christianity, the foundation of the whole world, rests. The Resurrection and the events that took place on that beautiful morning and after it have been spoken of eloquently, and the discourse today deals with those fearful events that occurred at the burial, from which the reality of the Lord's death is believed, and this is placed above all discussion, truly causing astonishment in our fearful soul.
The terrible tragedy of Golgotha had ended; the sinless one now hung on the Cross, where as the ultimate political and religious criminal He had been raised by His nation, which He had come to bless and save and sanctify.
Horror and terror reigned over the dead body of Jesus hanging on the Cross. The fate awaiting the dead body of Jesus was either to be left hanging there on the Cross until putrefaction and decomposition began, and then, "where the corpse is, there the vultures will also be," thus Jesus would become prey and food for vultures, beasts, and worms, as usually happened for crucified criminals; or if the Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, pretending to be more charitable, ordered the dead body to be taken down from the Cross, the immaculate body of the Son of the Virgin would be thrown into the first pit that the Roman soldiers came across.
But the Heavenly Father of our Lord predestined for His only-begotten Son a royal and magnificent burial, enlightening the mind and giving fire and boldness to the heart of the timid and fearful disciple until that moment, who also “was awaiting the Kingdom of God” (Mark 15:43), which he also considered to be brought by Jesus of Nazareth, and He himself performed the prescribed rites for the dead.
This Joseph from the city of Arimathea was a rich, righteous, blameless, "noble" man and held a great political and religious office, being a member of the Great Sanhedrin, which was composed of 72 persons taken from the offshoots of the Jewish people, which appointed a) from the Scribes, also called the lawyers, namely the wise men of Israel, because the law was the center of all wisdom; b) from the Priests and Levites, who were in a direct line from the family of Aaron, the first and Chief High Priest among the Jews; and c) from the Presbyters or Elders, who formed the first Council of Elders under the great Moses and were selected from the most respected men for virtue, age, social rank, and honor within the Jewish world, so that this Great Sanhedrin gathered as its members all that excelled in the priesthood, in the state, in the science of the laws, and in the social aristocracy that the Jewish Nation had to demonstrate. It was the Senate of the present-day States or the Areopagus of the Ancients, which discussed and resolved the great legal, religious, political, social and national issues of the Jews.
The power of this Sanhedrin was vast and unlimited; it had the power to declare war or to conclude peace, and was the master of life and death over every sinner, whether King, High Priest, Prophet or any other Jew. Although most of these rights were taken away by the Roman conquerors, nevertheless religious matters were still resolved by them; therefore, even against blasphemers, or those who introduced some heresy, or idolatry or error, or any other false prophets, for which they were merciless; and for this reason they said, “We have a law, and according to our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.”
Joseph, considered a chosen member of such a venerable Sanhedrin, “dared” to enter before Pilate and ask for the body of Jesus.
It required great boldness and audacity for such a council member to appear before the Governor and ask for something like the corpse of one who was condemned as a religious heretic and a political apostate and a criminal.
Those who held great positions were very cautious, as was Joseph himself and his colleague Nicodemos, also very wealthy, and for this reason, as long as Jesus lived, they were hidden, and they were disciples in secret, or only at night. Avoiding the indiscernible glares, they came in the darkness, in order to listen to the lofty teachings of Jesus.
Suddenly, these timid and cowardly ones, while Jesus lived, now, since the Lord suffered so much, was crucified and died, receive courage, and now, when all His other obvious disciples have abandoned Him, betrayed Him and denied Him, they come to confess Him, those who until yesterday, out of fear of being put out of the synagogues, not daring to present themselves as His disciples! What a transformation!
Their weak faith was strengthened, their feeble sentiment was empowered; the sight of so many unjust sufferings, to which their Great Sanhedrin unjustly condemned the sinless, stirred their timid conscience and soul, and they were armed with that beautiful and noble courage, which a conscience hungering and thirsting for justice provides. And not only did they raise their voice in their Sanhedrin for that Righteous One, but they did not show consent to the unjust will and the unholy decision and act of the Great Sanhedrin, instead Joseph is the first to roll the dice, casts away all fear, leaves all partial reserve, and, boldly contemplating all the dangers of his action, "daring", he goes before Pilate, asking for the body of the condemned Jesus.
The justness of the request that prompted him to stand before the Governor, the boldness with which that step was taken, and the determination with which he was armed to persist in his audacious action, conveyed to Pilate an understanding that he ought to yield immediately to such a legitimate and just demand.
He yielded, for lawlessness is weakness. Only upon hearing from Joseph did Pilate realize that Jesus had died on the Cross within such a short span of time, while he, from a long and bloody experience, knew that many countless Jews and Galileans, unjustly crucified, had endured the death on the cross amidst the most severe pains for many hours, often for entire days, and even sometimes for a whole week, those very strong having significant blood in their veins, until the agony, thirst, sleeplessness, and subsequent complete exhaustion of all bodily powers inevitably brought about the painful and agonizing death. And, astonished and desiring to confirm this from the one who had executed the crucifixion, the Centurion, upon learning from him that 'Jesus had been dead for some time,' he granted the body to Joseph for burial.
But until all these things took place, until Pilate was convinced by Joseph’s interview, until he, having summoned the Centurion, was certified by him that the Crucified One had expired, that Friday was drawing to a close. For which reason Joseph, having previously purchased a shroud and taken the body of the Lord down from the Cross, and assisted on the one hand by the Myrrhbearing women, for no other disciple was to be seen in the streets and squares of the crowded city of Jerusalem, and on the other by Nicodemos, who came carrying a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about a hundred liters, a tremendous amount of perfume, spent only on the dead and the tombs of kings and the wealthiest. And these, having filled the shroud with spices, and fragrancing the new tomb carved in the rock, which was situated in the garden of Joseph, having washed the bloodied body of the Lord and wrapped it in linen cloths, after having carried it, they laid it in the tomb, rolling for safety a large hemispherical stone to the door of the tomb.
Thus was the burial of the Lord, a burial truly royal and most magnificent for Him who had nowhere to lay His head while He was alive; a burial, for which glory and honor and an emerald crown surround the honored name of the noble councilor Joseph, who performed the most sacred of duties towards the dead body of the Lord, and his holy and pure hands were worthy to perform a reverent and sacred burial of Jesus, and he became a true hero for his holy and magnanimous courage, which, it is prayed by us at “Agios Polykarpos” will adorn the souls of all our fellow brethren everywhere, wherever our Nation is crucified, and may it be the inseparable part of the hearts of especially those who, in difficult and bleak days, have been called to managing authorities and positions, and have assumed great responsibilities before God and men.
Source: “Agios Polykarpos” Year 1, Smyrna, no. 3, April 23rd 1911, pp. 34-37. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.