In the following pages I have been indebted to various writings of Dr. Pusey and Dr. Trench for most of the quotations from the Fathers; the others have come upon me in the course of my own past reading. Some are imperfect recollections only, but I hope that no suggestion or chance word has been caught from any writer without acknowledgment. My prayer is, that the Spirit of God may be pleased to use this unpretending book as one of the many instrumentalities by which He takes of the things of Christ, and shows them to inquirers.' I. · Joseph of Arimathæa and Micodemus at the Burial of Jesus. John xix. 38-40. Read also Matt. xxvii. 57-60; Mark xv. 42-46; JOSEPH of Arimathæa, and Nicodemus!' At first, it may disturb your sense of proportion, if not shock your feeling of reverence, to see these names of two mere men making the title of a homily on such a theme as 'The Burial of Jesus.' While your souls are trying to live back into the moment after His death, and through the blow of that black bereavement, you may think that no name but His own should be mentioned in the same day. You care to know nothing about Joseph of Arimathæa, nothing about Nicodemus; you have eyes for nothing, ears for nothing, a heart for nothing but the one solemnity that stuns you; and the greatest earthly thing conceivable seems utterly trivial in the presence of a thing so tremendous. We shall, however, not be out of order, nor shall we break any canon of Christian good taste, by taking emphatic notice of these men just at this place. Just at this place the four Evangelists do themselves ask us to recall certain long trains of events in their lives, set the example of interweaving references to these events into the texture of sacred history, and so invite us, as it seems, to give them, not passing thought, but particular attention. Take note of two things : I. Before the death of Jesus the two rulers here named had been His secret disciples. Foremost in the transaction we see Joseph of Arimathæa. Unconsciously allowing this phrase to take colour from English ideas, some readers seem to fancy that 'Joseph' was the name of a certain great landlord, 'Arimathæa,' of the family estate from which he took his title; it is, however, only the name of his birthplace, as it had been before the birthplace of Samuel the Prophet.1 The statement about him which alone we now 1 'Ramah,' the birthplace of Samuel, was on an eminence, as the name implies. It appears to have had two peaks, for in the Hebrew text of 1 Samuel i. 1, a dual termination is given to this name. Corresponding with this is the name 'Apualaíu, given in the Septuagint. This may show how it came to be called in the New Testament 'Apualaía, 'Arimathæa.' |