29th March 2024

Catch that bus!

Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.  John 19:38-39 (NIV)

Have you ever had the dilemma of deciding whether or not to run for a bus? You see it at the bus stop and think, can I make it or am I going to miss it? But you run anyway, as fast as you can, only to reach the stop seconds late, just as the bus pulls away and you are left panting and waiting for the next one, which takes even longer than usual to arrive. 

Why didn’t you decide right at the start, ‘There’s no way I’m going to catch that!’ and keep on walking at a sedate pace? Then you could have reassured yourself you would never have made it, as you watched said bus drive off into the distance, and comforted yourself with the thought, ‘At least I didn’t run, and I didn’t lose face.’

None of us likes to fail, and we especially don’t like to fail in front of others. Maybe others noticed that we missed the bus. How humiliating! But neither do we like to miss out. We think, ‘If only I had caught it, I would be halfway home by now and my life would be so much better.’ Often there are times when we just can’t decide on the best course of action especially if we have to decide quickly. Our fear of losing something precious, or what others think of us, makes it difficult to act, yet we don’t want to miss out. We are in a quandary.

I don’t suppose for one minute that trying to decide whether to stand up for Jesus is anything like deciding whether to run to catch a bus, but both situations have in common strong feelings of indecisiveness. We can be so torn that we do not act at all or by the time we do decide, it is too late. The bus has gone, the opportunity lost, the person dead.

I wonder what was going through the minds of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus as they prepared Jesus’ body for burial. Had they both missed out on something so amazing, or were they right not to risk publicly standing up for Jesus and becoming his disciple? He was dead after all. How could that have happened?

The Bible doesn’t tell us explicitly what they were thinking, but it must have taken courage for Joseph to ask Pilate for Jesus’ body. In Luke 23:50-51, we are told he was ‘…a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action.’ He hadn’t consented but neither had he stood against. Maybe it took the death of Jesus to help him see clearly what he believed and what he wanted to commit himself to. 

And what about Nicodemus? He first visited Jesus at night so others wouldn’t see. The next time we read about him he wants his peers to treat Jesus fairly according to the Law of Moses.¹ In the third instance, he provides for a very expensive proper burial for Jesus, the amount of spices used implying a royal status. It would seem Nicodemus had made his decision, but was it now too late? We know of course that it wasn’t. The Easter story tells of the resurrection of Jesus, and just as Joseph of Arimathea ‘adopted’ Jesus into his family by burying him in his family’s tomb, we are all adopted into God’s family, including Nicodemus, when we become followers of Jesus, and accept him as our Lord.

Now to get back to the bus scenario, my advice? Always run for it! Who knows, you might even catch it! And remember the spiritual lesson – Jesus is the bus driver, and he won’t drive away and leave us behind.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, please give us the faith to stand up for Jesus and commit our lives to you. Give us the courage to speak out and run toward you. In his name we pray, Amen.

Study by Jackie Mill

¹ John 7:51-52: ‘ “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.” ’

About the writer:
Jackie Mill is a minister in Grace Communion International and Co-Regional Pastor for Scotland, Ireland, and Northern England.

Local congregation:
Grace Communion International Central Glasgow
Garnethill Room
Conference Suite
St Andrews West
260 Bath Street
Glasgow
G2 4JP

Meeting time:
Sunday 11:15 am                                             

Local congregational contact:   
Peter Mill
Email: edinburgh@gracecom.church 

Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church