Who do you identify with?

Would you risk your life and job to identify with a person who had been sentenced to the death penalty by your co-workers? Beyond just identifying with that person, would you and I go to the judge and beg for the person’s body so we could handle their burial?

That’s what Joseph of Arimathea did.

Matthew 27:57-60      ⁵⁷ As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. ⁵⁸ Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. ⁵⁹ Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, ⁶⁰ and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.

The book of Luke has a few more details:

Luke 23:50-52             ⁵⁰ Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, ⁵¹ who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. ⁵² Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body.

Joseph was one of the 70 members of the council, or Sanhedrin. They are the ones that arrested Jesus, tried him, and convinced the people and Pilate to have him crucified. Apparently, it wasn’t a unanimous vote. As Luke stated above, Joseph hadn’t consented to their decision. Instead of giving up, moving on, wallowing in his own sorrow, or thinking he couldn’t make a difference at that point, Joseph chose to identify with and serve Jesus (even after Jesus’ death at the hands of his own co-workers). In fact, Mark 15:43 says he “went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body.”

Are you and I that bold?

Are you and I identified as followers of Christ?

How will you and I identify with and serve Christ this week, even when a situation seems hopeless?