A Season of Courage
Mark
15:42-47
by Jim Westmoreland
The subject this evening is "A Season of Courage." I'm not sure I'm qualified to talk much about courage. Most days, I feel more like the cowardly lion in the Wizard of Oz. But, on my good days, I'm more like the man who bragged that he had cut off the tail of a man-eating lion with his pocket knife. . . . Asked why he hadn't cut off the lion's head, the man replied: "Someone had already done that."
In 1941 Sgt. Ward of the Royal Air Force climbed out on the wing of his Wellington bomber. At 13,000 feet he had only a rope tied to his waist. He smothered the starboard engine fire and returned to the aircraft cabin.
When Winston Churchill summoned Ward to Number 10 Downing Street, the low-ranking flyer was dumbstruck before the Prime Minister. "You must feel humble and awkward in my presence," Churchill said to the young man. "Yes sir," Sgt. Ward mumbled. Churchill said, "Then, you can imagine how I feel in yours."
Churchill was great for what he rose to and for what he bowed to, the nobility of courage.(1) Why is it that courage is so easy to write about and is such a difficult choice to make?
Our text comes at the end of the fifteenth chapter of Mark. It is Mark's story of Jesus' trial, of how he was beaten and mocked and crucified. The disciples have vanished. Jesus has been declared dead, and it is three in the afternoon. In other provinces the Romans would leave those crucified on their crosses. They sometimes took a couple of days to die, and then they left them there for the vulchers and wild animals to the tear the corpses apart. But, in Judea, the Jews insisted that bodies not be left on the crosses when night came. That is why the soldiers went to check on Jesus and the others. If they were still alive, they would break their bones with mallets to speed up the collapse of their lungs and hearts. But, Jesus was already dead.
It was 3 pm on Friday, and the next day was the Sabbath when no work could be done, and Sabbath started in just three hours, at 6 pm. There was not much time. Normally, the family would claim the body for burial, but Mary was from Nazareth and was poor. She had no place near Jerusalem to bury Jesus. Without anyone to claim the body the soldiers just discarded the bodies into the trash heap near Golgotha.
Now, into this terrible scene of suffering and death, from which all the disciples had fled, steps Joseph of Arimathaea. Where did he come from and why is he here?
Each of the Gospels contributes to the picture of this Joseph of Arimathaea. His story is told in all four of the Gospels. Mark describes him as a respected member of the council, the Sanhedrin, who was "looking for the kingdom of God." Matthew simply calls him a rich man. Luke vouches for him as a good and righteous man, and adds that he had not consented to the Sanhedrin's decision to get Jesus crucified. John tells us that he was a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one, because he was afraid of the Jews.(2)
All four Gospels record that after the crucifixion of Jesus, Joseph went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus, took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a tomb. Matthew tells us that this was Joseph's own personal tomb. And John tells us that Nicodemus came with Joseph bringing enough spices for the burial of a king. In just three hours Jesus' body is claimed by Joseph of Arimathaea, taken down, prepared for burial and buried in Joseph's personal tomb, carved out of a rock. The women had no place to bury Him and would have had trouble preparing him for burial before sundown. Luke tells us that they returned home to prepare spices and ointments, which they later took to the tomb on the first day of the week, after the Sabbath.(3)
It is easy to treat Joseph of Arimathaea as a simple, one-dimensional character. His part in the Gospel story is brief, but his part is given depth when taken together from all the Gospels. We are curious about him. It may well be that it is from Joseph that all the information about the trial before the Sanhedrin came. We know that none of the disciples were there. The information must have come from an insider, and that could have been this same Joseph.(4)
There is also a certain tragedy about Joseph. Though he was a member of the Sanhedrin, we hear no word that he may have spoken on behalf of Jesus. Joseph of Arimathaea gave Jesus his tomb when He was dead, but he was silent when He was alive. How sad it is that we often save our tributes until people are dead.
The death of Jesus had done for Joseph what not even his life could do. No sooner had Jesus died on the Cross than Joseph forgot his fear and boldly and courageously confronted the Roman governor with a request for the body. The cowardice, the hesitation, the careful concealment, the bobbing and weaving to avoid detection and the self-protecting silence were now gone! This same Joseph, who had been afraid when Jesus was alive, declared his love for him in a way that everyone could see as soon as he was dead. Jesus had not been dead an hour when his own prophecy came true: "I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."(5)
It may be that the silence of Joseph of Arimathaea or his absence from the Sanhedrin brought sorrow to Jesus. But, there must have also been joy to see the way that Joseph cast his fear aside as the power of the Cross had begun to operate and was already drawing all people to Him. As he stepped from the shadows of anonymity and marginal commitment to claim Christ's body, he moved from cowardice to courage, from a timid waverer into one who made an irrevocably public decision for Christ.(6)
In our daily lives what does courage look like? Who among us will do the uncommon thing and risk reprisal, risk being misunderstood? For one person to treat another fairly is an expression of our freedom and values. For society to treat a group of people fairly who have little power, influence or money is an expression of justice. Society does not change or look after one another on its own. It takes leaders with courage to step in front of the momentum of the crowd and say, "No" to the rationalized self-interest of the majority, and "Yes" to the narrow way that God is calling us to courageously follow.
Bruce Larson, who was President of Faith At Work when I did a seminary intern program through them in Columbia, Maryland, tells this story. When I was a small boy, I attended church every Sunday at a big Gothic Presbyterian bastion in Chicago. The preaching was powerful and the music was great. But for me, the most awesome moment in the morning service was the offertory, when twelve solemn, frock-coated ushers marched in lock-step down the main aisle to receive the brass plates for collecting the offering.
These men, so serious about their business of serving the Lord in this magnificent house of worship, were the business and professional leaders of Chicago. One of the twelve ushers was a man named Frank Loesch. He was not a very imposing looking man, but in Chicago he was a living legend, for he was the man who had stood up to Al Capone.
In the prohibition years, Capone's rule was absolute. The local and state police and even the Federal Bureau of Investigation were afraid to oppose him. But singlehandedly, Frank Loesch, as a Christian layman and without any government support, organized the Chicago Crime Commission, a group of citizens who were determined to take Mr. Capone to court and put him away. During the months that the Crime Commission met, Frank Loesch's life was in constant danger. There were threats on the lives of his family and friends. But he never wavered. Ultimately he won the case against Capone and was the instrument for removing this blight from the city of Chicago.
Frank Loesch had risked his life to live out his faith. Each Sunday at this point of the service, my father, a Chicago businessman himself, never failed to poke me and silently point to Frank Loesch with pride. Sometime I'd catch a tear in my father's eye. For my dad and for all of us, this was and is what authentic living is all about. Frank Loesch stepped out of the shadows of anonymity with the courage to make a difference.
Surely, it is time for some of us to live our lives with courage, as though we stand for something, as though we believe in something that is bigger than ourselves, and for which we will actually give and live our lives. But the shadows make us forget about time and timing.
A young girl had died with cancer and her funeral was jammed with school mates and family friends. The pastor had known the child well, and, when the time came to speak, he clearly had something to say. He walked to the podium and paused, then he punctured the silence with five words. "We," he said, "are a temporary substance." He repeated, "We are a temporary substance." Like the leaves on the tree, we fall and decay. Our time ends. The tree will stay, but we will not.
We all have a due date. That date motivates us to seize the moment, to stay on course, and to finish strongly. We are here for a season, and tomorrow is not promised. How then will we live? Let us be drawn to and transformed by the power of the Cross. Let us be drawn out of our hiding places. Let us turn in our chameleon clothes which we have worn to blend in and not stand apart from those around us. Let us hear this story of Joseph of Arimathaea, and Let us choose to live our lives with purpose and courage! Amen.
Community Lenten Service at Third Baptist Church, March 29 2006 - Sermon by Jim Westmoreland, pastor of Century Christian Church, www.centurychristian.org
1. Howard E. Butt, Jr., CD, "The High Calling of our Daily Work," Volume 2, 2005: H. E. Butt Foundation.
2. Who's Who In The Bible, p. 247.
3. William Barclay, The New Daily Study Bible: John, St. Andrews Press, p. 263.
4. Barclay, The New Daily Study Bible: Mark, p. 386.
5. John 12:32 NRSV.
6. Barclay, The New Daily Study Bible: John p. 263-4.