One way a director will often direct an action movie is to not expect the viewer to sustain the same speed throughout the entire film. In order for the viewer to hang with the plot, you have to relieve some tension that builds, that may even climax, followed by relief as things build once more. Action and tension have to be relieved, really, for the sake of the audience. But then it has to be recovered, the pace and the plot, for the sake of the story. It's necessary, though, that there be a kind of slowdown, what you might call a breather. And as we get to this point in Matthew 27, our passage this morning is like a break in the action. If Matthew is forming the director's lens here as the earthly author, he is slowing down, letting his foot off the pedal, if you will, and he's allowing us to catch our breath after what has just happened. There's been a sustained narrative up to this point with one scene after another. Jesus before various officials, both Jewish and Roman. The brutality of the crucifixion has occurred. The cry out from the cross. And now He has borne our sins and He has died. And the reader just needs to go. In verses 57-61, we shouldn't look at this as what would have been considered part of the deleted scenes that ends up making the final cut of the film. This is not an expendable scene. It's not a scene of fast-paced action, but we must know what takes place here. The writer has preserved it for us. The Spirit of God has given this story to us for the 2,000 years of the history of the church. And so we must learn from it. What is here for us? What should we know? What does it contribute to the story? I want you to consider first of all the words of Paul. in 1 Corinthians 15, where he tells the content of the Gospel, what he calls what he received of first importance that he's passing on to others. Listen to these words, 1 Corinthians 15, 3-4. For I delivered to you, he says, as of first importance what I also received. This is the news. That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. That he was buried. and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. Then he appears to the disciples. Part of what Paul received and that he is passing on and that has been preserved in the Gospel of Matthew and the other accounts is not only that Christ died and not only that Christ has been raised, but that he was buried. There are these few verses tucked into each of the Gospels that spend a moment doing explicitly what you might be able to say, well, isn't it implied? But they want to make explicit. What could have remained implicit? Jesus was buried. This is something the saints should know for a few reasons. I want to think about three of them for a moment before we look at the text. Why does a buried body matter? Consider first of all, the buried body reminds us of Christ's humanity. When the Father sent the Son, it was not the Spirit of the Son that came into the world, but a Word that became flesh. A Word that was from the foundation of the world. A Son who has always been and always will be, but who takes on flesh in addition so that He is a divine and human person. And this buried body reminds us that this person, Jesus Christ, walked, lived among them, with them, and died. The fact that he was buried implies that there was a body to entomb. There was a body that died. So it reminds us of his humanity. Secondly, a buried body confirms the death of Jesus. They knew what dead people looked like. And the Romans were skilled at crucifying people. It wasn't something they would ever leave up in the air if there was an off chance that somebody might have survived it. You didn't survive crucifixions. They would make sure of it. Especially given the brutal flogging that would precede crucifixions. There were some people who didn't even survive that. And yet Jesus, surviving the flogging, makes it to the cross where He dies. So a buried body confirms that Jesus has indeed died. Third, the buried body lays the foundation for why the empty tomb matters. There's a body put in the tomb, and then on the third day, the body is not there. The fact that he was buried, this story matters because he's not just sort of cast in the field with the other two criminals on the cross. We don't know what happened to their bodies. That doesn't matter for this story. But other people died with Jesus that day. We're told what happened to him because people are going to go to a specific place to add more ointments and aloes and other spices to the body. And his body is not there. The fact of his entombment then lays the foundation for the surprise of the first day of the week when people go to the tomb and the body that was there is no longer present. So we want to consider this story, which is just a few verses long. In verses 57 to 58, first the body of Jesus that's given to Joseph. Then in verses 59 and 60, the body of Jesus put in a tomb. So given to Joseph and then put in a tomb. And then in verse 61, the two Marys that are opposite the tomb. Joseph receives the body, the body of Jesus is put in the tomb, and two Marys are opposite the tomb after Joseph leaves. We're told in verse 57, when it was evening, the following thing is going to take place. This is all unfolding over a certain day. And this is Friday evening because of certain pieces of evidence like Luke 23 and other places. We know Jesus died on a Friday because of Luke 23 and some parallels. Listen to Luke 23, 53. He took it down, the body that is, and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid it in a tomb cut in stone where no one had ever been laid. It was the day of preparation and the Sabbath was beginning. Now, what day of the week is the Sabbath? It's the seventh day of the week. It's Saturday. The urgency of removing Jesus from the cross was the fact that the Sabbath was beginning. And of course, as they go to deal with the body, the body is already dead. He doesn't die earlier in the week. He dies on Friday as it ushers into Sabbath. In fact, we know that all of this unfolded over the period of one day, beginning around 9 a.m. when He was crucified. And then from noon to 3, there was darkness all over the land. For three hours until around 3 p.m. in the afternoon, Jesus cries out and dies. And so then, haste must be made because the Sabbath is coming. Listen to Mark's Gospel in Mark 15.42. Mark 15, 42, when evening had come, since it was the day of preparation, that is the day before the Sabbath, it can't get any clearer. Luke 23, Mark 15 are saying the same thing that's implied also in Matthew's gospel, and that is that it is a Friday when Jesus is crucified and the Sabbath is near. And since Sabbath was Saturday, his death could not be on any other day but Friday, around 3 p.m., as darkness had been there for three hours before his death. Notice in verse 57 that when it was evening, and it seems that Sabbath has not yet taken place because it would begin in the evening for the Jews. It would start in the evening and then go to the following evening. So the evening is here and the Sabbath is near and they must make plans. It tells us in verse 57 that there was a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. There are four things about this man that we're going to take in a bit of a different order, but let's observe what's said about this person. Number one, we know his name, Joseph. This was a common name. There is a Joseph mentioned at the beginning of Matthew's Gospel. He was the earthly adoptive father of Jesus, right? He's the husband of Mary. The angel said, go ahead and take Mary as your wife, because the child she has is from God. And so Joseph takes Mary as his wife. And now we have another Joseph at the end of the story of Matthew's gospel. Now, it's not Jesus's earthly father. This is Joseph of Arimathea. And this person, this Joseph appears here for the first time. We don't know of him earlier in Matthew's gospel, and we don't hear of him after this account. It's as if suddenly he's there in the story doing this wonderful, honorable thing. And then he's gone as quickly as he came. The second thing we know about him is that he's from Arimathea. This is a small Jewish town about 20 miles from Jerusalem. Now, because Joseph has a family tomb in Jerusalem, he's either relocated, and is originally from Arimathea, he's either relocated to Jerusalem, or he's put his family tomb in Jerusalem so that even when he may travel back to his hometown, he wants to be buried in Jerusalem. There's a couple different ways to take that from Arimathea idea. Number three, he's a rich man. He's a rich man. Only Matthew's gospel mentions that Joseph is rich. He would be prominent in society. He's a wealthy person and this idea of wealth and status would be significant in that society. And number four, he's a disciple of Jesus. He's a disciple of Jesus. His name is Joseph. He's from Arimathea. He's a rich man. He's a disciple. How did this prominent member of Jerusalem society come to be a disciple of Jesus? We don't know his story. We don't know his background. When he first heard of Jesus, when he was exposed to his teachings, it's possible that his conversion could have taken place as recently as that final week of Jesus in Jerusalem. We know, according to John's Gospel, though, that in John's Gospel, the first chapters report activity in Jerusalem that Jesus did. So it may not have been this final week. He could have been a disciple for some time. But notice the irony given what Matthew 19 tells us about the rich people. In Matthew 19, we're told this, beginning in verse 22. When the rich young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus said to his disciples, Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich man enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. And when his disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished. And they said, well, who then can be saved? And he said, well, man, that's impossible. But with God, all things are possible. And one of the ways we know with God all things are possible is He's a rich man from Arimathea who's a disciple of Jesus. Right here in the story. Nothing is impossible with God. Joseph of Arimathea is proof of Jesus' own words from Matthew 19. He's not the same rich young ruler. That man went away sad and sorrowful. He idolized his possessions. This Joseph of Arimathea, though, demonstrates God saves both the rich and the poor. Both the small and the great in the eyes of society. The young and the old. No matter what their background, they should come to Christ. And in verse 58, Joseph asked for the body of Jesus. It says he went to Pilate. He went to Pilate. Here's what we should not imagine happening. We should not imagine Joseph going to the cross and trying to sort of take matters into his own hands. He doesn't do it that way. He knows who to ask, and he's going to ask Pilate, and Pilate was the governor before whom Jesus had stood earlier in Matthew 27, who had agreed with the crowd at the end that Jesus would be crucified. But in Pilate's heart, Pilate really didn't believe Jesus was guilty of the things the crowd was charging him with. He didn't deserve to be crucified, at least. Now, the reason he needs to go to Pilate and ask for the body of Jesus is because it's not normal or typical or customary for the Roman soldiers to give anybody who was crucified an honorable burial. They didn't do that. They would take you down and they would sort of cast you in a very common burial site with all these other bodies because they needed to do something with the bodies. If the bodies were just lying there, then the Jews would be very upset because corpses made a land unclean. And they were very concerned about keeping certain ritual laws and laws of cleanliness. So they did something with the body, typically when people were crucified in a more common site. But they weren't going to give anybody an honorable burial. After all, if you were crucified, that was a dishonorable, shameful way to die. And that was a forfeiture of an honorable burial. Because it meant you were on the cross for terrible reasons. It's not as if anybody wanted to honor your life after that, considering what probably led to you being crucified. And so it was a shameful act that resulted in a dishonorable end with the body. But Pilate did not regard Jesus as guilty. And so. Joseph goes to Pilate, asks for the body of Jesus, and this appears to happen before the Sabbath begins. The other gospels seem to confirm this as well. There's only a few hours, though. It's around 6 p.m. where the Sabbath would be beginning. If Jesus dies around 3 p.m., then they've got a few hours, just a handful of hours to act. And they have to deal with the body of Jesus, at least this disciple does. We also know that in John 19 31, the Jews object to have bodies displayed on the Sabbath. So there's a couple things they wanted to avoid. Not only a body strewn upon the ground, they needed to have bodies taken care of. They didn't even want people almost or nearly fully crucified on the cross to death, but yet not completely and somehow hanging on through the time of the Sabbath. That's why soldiers, upon the coming of the Sabbath, would take instruments to go and break the legs of the people who were crucified so that they could no longer push up to breathe, because they wanted to end that life. So the Sabbath is near. Joseph is going to act. He has just a few hours before the Sabbath begins if he's keeping Jewish custom. And it tells us that Pilate ordered it to be given to Joseph. This means the order is given to people in charge of the cross. Pilate is likely, I think it's reasonable here to imply, Pilate is ordering the soldiers to take Jesus down and order them to give the body to Jesus. Now, something's already remarkable that's happened among these soldiers. Earlier in Matthew 27, at the death of Jesus, various supernatural phenomena were taking place. Before his death, three hours of darkness. After his death, earthquakes and tombs opening and even life from death for people who had been entombed. The centurion and those who were with him in verse 54, among these soldiers said truly, this is the Son of God." So when Pilate gives the order to these soldiers, the centurion, the leader of these people, already sees something unusual about Jesus. And friends, it's an unusual request that Pilate makes. This is not what would typically happen to the body of a crucified person. So these soldiers, in receiving an unusual order, especially the leader with the centurion, may already be prepared to do an unusual thing, because they've concluded something about Jesus on the cross. They've concluded that this man was the Son of God. It doesn't tell us how many soldiers, but the centurion and many who were with him did. We also know, though, other reasons why Pilate may be so willing to give this order to Joseph. Joseph of Arimathea wasn't just anybody. He wasn't a typical bystander or just one of other Jesus' disciples who did not have any respectable standing. Listen to a few other things that Mark, Luke, and John say. These things about Joseph of Arimathea really turn the lights on even more so on the scene. In Mark 15, we learn in verse 43 that Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin. The Jewish High Court that had ruled against Jesus in Matthew 26. Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin. And according to Mark 15, verse 43, he was a respected member. He was a respected member. Not just a member, but one viewed highly by the other 70 members of the Sanhedrin. We also learn in Mark 15.43 that this member who was respected among the Sanhedrin was looking for the Kingdom of God in Mark 15.43. It also tells us in that same verse that it took courage for him to go and ask Pilate for this request. After all, this is not something that would be highly regarded or confirmed or agreed upon by his fellow colleagues in the Jewish legal court. Listen to Luke 23. So that's Mark 15. In Luke 23, we learn some other things. Some of the same things are reported. So I won't go over those again, but some new stuff also in Luke 23. We learn, according to Luke 23, 50, that he's a good and righteous man, a good and righteous man. So he's evaluated from the heart inside out. He is a good, righteous man, respected among the Sanhedrin, of which he's a member. And we also learn in Luke 23, 51, listen to this closely. He had not consented to the decision of the Jewish high court against Jesus. He was a dissenting member. He did not agree with what they ruled against Jesus in terms of saying he should be turned over for blasphemy and deserves death. Joseph of Arimathea, as a member of that high court, heard those words in Matthew 26. He was there in the court and Jesus and the high priest were going back and forth and he was there and he did not agree with the final ruling against Jesus. And listen to John 19. We also learn a couple other things. In John 19, we learn that Joseph went to Pilate secretly for fear of the Jews. John 19.38. And then lastly, John is not alone in the deed he's about to perform. John 19.39 tells us he went with Nicodemus, who had earlier gone to Jesus by night in John 3. We're talking about Nicodemus who was a Pharisee. Now, since Pharisees and Sadducees were not typically palling around, and since the Sanhedrin was made of Pharisees and Sadducees, it's likely not only that Nicodemus was a Pharisee, but that Joseph of Arimathea was a Pharisee. Can you imagine a Pharisee being the one to bury the Son of God? And that is very likely what took place. So these things from Mark, Luke and John shed some more light here. But here's a question, and this is something we have to think about that's not often prompted by our reading of a passage like this. Where is Jesus's family? Why is Joseph of Arimathea doing this? The reason we have to ask that question is because Jesus has a mother and he has siblings. And in Matthew one and two, we learned that he had an earthly father married to Mary named Joseph, who was his adoptive father. For of course, his arrival in Mary's womb was of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, not being mentioned, his father that is, being mentioned at this point in the gospel has led many scholars to conclude Joseph may have died by this point. And that's possible. But here's what's strange. There's no report of any of Jesus' siblings being involved, which is unusual because according to Jewish custom, the family was required to assist in the honorable burial of a family member. And Jesus had multiple brothers and sisters. according to Matthew 13, 55 and 56, where are they? They're not in that text. Consider a likely explanation. In John 7, verse 5, we're told that his siblings did not believe in him before the resurrection. They were not among the disciples in John 7, verse 5. In Mark 3, 21 through 35, they didn't understand Jesus, nor were following him during his earthly ministry, but they concluded that he was even out of his mind with the things he was saying and doing. So from their perspective, From their perspective, if Jesus isn't in their mind what he seems to be claiming and what all these other disciples are, these are the people who grew up with him. If they don't see it and they didn't believe until after the resurrection, then when the cross happens, when his death happens and the burial happens, it's a shameful way to die, a dishonorable way to die. And they have no motivation to give him an honorable burial. They may have been deeply ashamed of their brother. They may have been humiliated. What has Jesus done to the family name? But either way, they're not there in Matthew 27, lending a hand, helping at all. There's no report at all in any of the Gospels that Jesus's immediate family was involved in any of these affairs. So here's Joseph of Arimathea. He's acting boldly. And any objection to what he's doing would certainly come from his colleagues, which is why we're reminded in the other Gospels that he went secretly for fear of the Jews. And most likely he means the leaders, the people that he went to work with every day, the colleagues in the court. So here he is, though, knowing the politics of the situation, but taking the risk anyway. This is bold. Mark's Gospel in Mark 15, 43 tells us that he took courage and went to Pilate. This is not a cowardly man here. This is someone who is growing with increasing boldness in doing something that he knows would be deeply frowned upon and could cost him much more on that in a bit. So we have courage that's exemplary here. In fact, this is what Jesus' disciples should have been doing. Now, Judas has hanged himself, but he has eleven others. One of them has denied Jesus three times. He doesn't even want to be associated with Jesus, and yet Joseph of Arimathea is willing to be. The other disciples have ministered with Jesus for years in various concentric circles of intimacy, so that even Peter, James, and John, the closest of the twelve disciples that were to Jesus, they couldn't even stay awake in the Garden of Gethsemane while Jesus was praying multiple times. They were failing over and over again. And yet, they are nowhere to be found. They are not here. Joseph of Arimat. Who is this guy? That's what the reader's wondering. Who's this guy? We know all of his other disciples. Why aren't they dealing with the body of Jesus? They're gone. But not this disciple. Not this member of the Sanhedrin who's doing something bold and courageous and going up to Pilate. Pilate probably knows this guy. Pilate orders that the body be given to him. So here's what happens in verse 59 and 60, the body of Jesus put in a tomb. It tells us in verse 59 that Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud. Now, the readers would know by implication the practice involved in caring for a body for burial. So we need to review a few things that the text doesn't say. First of all, the body would have been removed by the soldiers and then the body would have to be washed. Now, you need to think a moment about what a crucified body would look like. Now, you may have had to clean wounds before, but you're dealing with a crucified body. You're dealing with a body that is so bludgeoned and so bruised and so broken that you are probably seeing all kinds of things. And I don't mean cuts and bruises. I mean muscle and flesh, if not more on the inside, that is often exposed through a flogging experience followed by crucifixion. This would be a brutal, messy experience. Now, washing it typically wouldn't take very long, but this would be some sight to behold in dealing with a crucified body so terribly exposed and bludgeoned. Then, the body would be wrapped in a very lengthy cloth over and over again, typically a very single, long sheet several times around Jesus' very mutilated body. And then lastly, a face cloth would be wrapped around the face, which John 20 verse 7 tells us was even there in the empty tomb when the people went on that morning. Then there would be spices and perfumes because this body that was so broken and so bludgeoned and heading toward decay would have stench that would be covered over by these spices and perfumes. This would help the development of decay, not give off what you would expect a decaying body to. And what John 19.39 tells us is that Nicodemus comes with Joseph with 75 pounds of spices. 75 pounds. This is not something you carried around in a small sack, right? 75 pounds. That's not normal. That's an unusual, surpassingly great amount of spices to bury someone. In fact, according to records, that's the kind of thing more fitting for a royal burial. Which, in the case of Matthew's gospel, makes all the sense in the world, doesn't it? Because Matthew's gospel begins declaring that at his birth he's king, and it's as if at his death he is as well. treated like royalty. This is the son of David. Nicodemus is bringing this. Joseph is a disciple. This is a lot of pounds of spices. Then, let's notice something else. This Joseph in verse 59, that's here with the body of Jesus, it forms an interesting frame with the beginning of the Gospel. Because I mentioned earlier, there is a Joseph in Matthew 1 and 2. He's the earthly adoptive father of Jesus. So just consider what's striking here for a moment. There's a Joseph associated with the birth of Jesus. And there's a Joseph associated with the death of Jesus. And the Joseph in Matthew 1 held the living, newborn body of Jesus. But the Joseph in Matthew 27 held the dead, crucified body of Jesus. But in both cases, in God's providence, you have this interesting literary link in the Gospel. In Matthew 27, verse 60, this body, having been wrapped and having been covered with spices, is laid in its own new tomb. It tells us in verse 60 that it's His own new tomb, meaning Joseph's. Not Jesus's family tomb, Joseph's family tomb. Joseph had a family tomb that as a rich man you would typically find among those who were wealthy that was a stone-cut tomb forming a kind of cave. Not something like in the ground. Here's what we shouldn't imagine. That the body was put in sort of a six foot deep place in the ground. No, not at all. We're talking about a stone that will cover this entrance. So we should imagine this entombment involving a cut in a cave setting. Or a cut in rock that forms a kind of cave that somebody would go through. And the holes would not be abnormally large either for all these people to just walk right in. This would be something that was small enough sometimes that somebody would slide a body through and crawl through. So we don't know the largeness of this entrance, but either way, the body gets in there. stone-cut tombs, there would be these slabs on the inside, either formed by the people themselves, a kind of bench that you would lay the body on, so that over time, when only the bones were left, they would gather those bones and put them in a jar and then put them in the tomb. Or, these would be natural benches or places to lay the body against the walls of the tomb. But either way, notice it tells us in verse 60, Jesus is laid in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And we learn from the other gospels, too, there are no other bodies there. This is important because there's no confusion about on the third day who's missing from the tomb. There's only one body in there. And when they go to the tomb on the third day, that one body is gone. They're laying it in this new tomb which he had cut in the rock. Now we know in John 19.42 the tomb is nearby, it tells us, the place of execution. And this is helpful because Joseph and Nicodemus don't have all the time in the world to take care of these matters before the Sabbath begins. And so to complete their act of devotion, in John 19.42, it helps that the proximity of Joseph's family tomb is nearby. Tombs were often found, or at least cut, these kind it is, cave tombs, found and cut in stone quarries which stone cutters had abandoned. And therefore this is a nearby stone quarry that's been cut. They're expensive, and so someone like Joseph, who's marked by Matthew as being a rich man, it's certainly in keeping with what they would do. Now, we should be prepared to see this as an incredible mark of loyalty and devotion. This is an expensive tomb, nobody's used it, and it's for Joseph of Arimathea's family, and yet he gives it all to Jesus for this case. This reminds some New Testament scholars of Matthew 26 when the report of the woman with the alabaster jar is reported. Because she had such an expensive jar and her act of devotion was so lavish and so incredible and so extravagant that some have noted this episode here with Joseph and then with the parallel accounts with Nicodemus being part of it. What an extravagant act of devotion it is. It's like a royal burial they're conducting in this tomb cut by the rich and probably for the rich families and Jesus is there. And this is reminding scholars of Isaiah 53.9. Isaiah 53.9 says that the suffering servant would be assigned a grave with the rich in his death. And we see that in Matthew 27, the work of the suffering servant includes the fulfillment of details even to that very point where he is buried with the rich in his death. It tells us that he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. A large stone like this is probably something that would go at an angle. This is what was typically done with tombs that were cut into rocks to form these little tomb caves. They would have a little slant so that very few people, if only one, would be able to roll the stone by moving it. But because of the incline of the rolling of the stone, it would be far difficult to roll it back up. So it was entombing. But nobody was planning on rolling it back up. This was something that was to be done so that the people could not worry about grave robbers, so that nobody would worry about animals. So the tombs were sealed. And it tells us in verse 60 that he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and he went away. We know one other thing about the location of this tomb that's significant here. In John's Gospel, in John 19.41, not only do we know that the tomb is nearby the place of execution, it tells us that in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden. There was a garden. And in the garden, a new tomb where no one had yet been laid. Now, I read something like that My mind, and maybe yours too, just starts thinking about Genesis and the first Adam and the first garden and things that took place there. There are some correspondences when we recognize that the first Adam heard the sentence of death in the garden. But in this garden, in Matthew 27, death is laid to rest, isn't it? In Genesis 1, 2, and 3, God creates the world. He puts mankind in a garden. And in this Matthew 27 garden, death will be overcome by the last Adam, right there in a garden tomb. Resurrection is coming on the third day. In a garden is where it all went wrong in Genesis. But in this garden, God is going to be making all things new. He's starting a new thing. Launching new creation. Bringing to pass prophecies and promises and patterns and types and shadows that have been coalescing and interweaving in the person and work of Jesus Christ to climax on the third day with resurrection from a garden. So that when somebody talks about the work of an Adam in a garden, it's not always bad news anymore because there was a last Adam and the work he did in that garden is good news all the way through. We also learn in verse 61 that there were women opposite the tomb. Look there at this last verse together. It tells us Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there sitting opposite the tomb. Neither of these are the mother of Jesus, even though her name was Mary. I think we can recognize Joseph was a common name. Mary was a common name, multiple Marys, even in the gospel accounts. But it's important that Mary Magdalene and this Mary are there because they know where to go on Sunday morning. They know the tomb Jesus was buried in. Here's what this avoids. It avoids a reader being worried that they went to the incorrect tomb on Sunday morning. They know where this tomb is. They're there, sitting opposite the tomb. And they see the stone rolled and put there, sealing the tomb and the body inside. So they are there. And it's not the whole group of women, it seems, who had been following Jesus earlier or even were at the crucifixion. Matthew 27 does mention many women that were there. But here are two, two Marys, in fact, that are there. Notice another striking thing, then, about the beginning and the end of Matthew's Gospel. At the beginning of Matthew's gospel, the names that are used are Joseph and Mary. And then at the end, the names Joseph and Mary again. Not the same people, but you get a sense of cohesion and things coming full circle in the providence of God of these people being involved in this very important and honorable and even royal act as Jesus, the son of David, is entombed. Now, we know that people are going to get worried about what's happened. At this point, Joseph of Arimathea has acted secretly for fear of the Jews. But look at verse 62. We'll look at this more next week. But it tells us that the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, Sir, we remember that the imposter said while he was still alive, after three days I'm going to rise, therefore order the tomb to be made secure. They've gotten word from Pilate or someone else. that something's happened to a crucified body that was out there on Golgotha that doesn't normally happen to crucified bodies. It's been taken down, it's been washed, it's been wrapped, and it's been put in a tomb. And they said, well, now we have to deal with that. We've got to make sure no one's going to start stealing his body. So something leaked. Someone has found out that Joseph of Arimathea's family tomb is now housing this criminal. because the guards know where to go to seal it. They know that Joseph did it. Consider what courage Joseph displayed here. When we look at a passage like this, we could ask, what if his secret devotion became public and known? Well, it absolutely would. He wouldn't be able to keep it secret for long that his family tomb was the one that was being used. The guards are going to know this. Number two, what about Joseph's standing in society? I mean, he's a rich man. He's a wealthy man. He was respected and he was known. What about that? And then thirdly, we could say, well, what about Joseph's position in the Sanhedrin? What about the awkwardness of having to get up and go to court the next morning to hear whatever case was up next with his fellow colleagues? What about all those things? Notice that behind Joseph of Arimathea's actions here is this driving idea, it seems. Jesus simply matters more. Jesus simply matters more. Social standing? Jesus matters more. Works with people that would certainly not only verbally negate and rebuke Him, but even could they seek to unsuit Him for the position He holds in the Sanhedrin? Could they seek to bring charges against Him? There is great risk in doing what he did. But for Joseph, Jesus mattered more. Now, he went secretly in fear of the Jews, but it seems that even his fear would not stop his ultimate faithfulness, even though I think we can recognize in our hearts sometimes those things can exist at the same time. Hesitancy and reluctance and fear and some doubt and concern. And yet, what's driving Joseph is this, that Jesus matters more. Now I don't know what Joseph of Arimathea thought would happen on the third day. But I know Jesus' family wasn't in this scene. His siblings aren't doing this. And none of the other living disciples are there at all that have been following Jesus for years. Here's this man. We don't know anything else about him. We don't know if he was a good dad or if he was a good husband. We don't know his last name. But what He was known for is His honor for and following after and discipleship of Jesus Christ. And friends, if that's all we're ever known for, Jesus matters more. Even if we're not remembered and we don't do something amazing that impacts history and whether our name is forgotten in another generation or two, we don't know anything else about this guy. He just appears on the stage of history and he's gone just as quickly. And how many of you realize that's just like our lives? We're just missed. We just come and then we go. But this man has known that he loved and honored and followed Jesus. And Jesus mattered more than any other things that he was committed to. And there was a very multiple hats that he wore, multiple positions that he held. Members of the Sanhedrin were typically married, so if he had a wife and he had children, here's what he's doing on that Friday. I don't know what he told his wife that day, I don't know what he told his kids that day, but what the record of Matthew's Gospel says is this is a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ doing what nobody else was willing to do. Friend, in these days, we need to be people who are courageous and are bold. Not because that's the only emotion that resides in the heart of man, but because Jesus matters more than our social standing, than the applause of the world, than the respectability of colleagues and friends and even family. Jesus matters more if he is who he says he is. You know, in Mark 15, we're told that Joseph of Arimathea was looking for the kingdom of God. He had a sensitive heart to the message of Jesus. He was looking for this deliverer. He was looking for God to act. And he believed that what happened in Jesus was God doing that thing. And if we're convinced of that, and we believe the testimony of Scripture, that Jesus is who He claimed to be, and that on the third day was raised and is seated on high, and before Him all nations will be gathered to stand, then we must have in our hearts the resounding resolve that Jesus matters more than anything. He matters more than anything. Let's learn that. from this Joseph of Arimathea, who comes through the winds of history to this scene and is gone just as quickly, but just like our lives, may our resolve be Jesus Christ, alone be our boast.