A Secret Disciple No More

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.

John 19:38

Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin… the very body of religious leaders who had Jesus crucified! But Joseph didn’t agree with their decision. In fact, Joseph had believed that Jesus was the Messiah, but he had been unwilling to openly associate with Him for fear of what it would do to his reputation. He was a man of high rank, and he knew how much he stood to lose if he associated with Jesus. Joseph had been fearful and cowardly, so he kept his faith a secret.

But Good Friday, the day Jesus died, was the day that Joseph of Arimathea stopped being a secret disciple of Jesus. Mark's Gospel says he “went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body.” (Mark 15:43) Joseph wasn’t related to Jesus. He wasn’t asking to bury a family member. He was a member of the very ruling body that had accused Jesus of treason against Rome. And now Joseph approaches Rome and asks if he can give Jesus a proper burial?! This was a highly unusual request that was sure to draw attention.

More than that, Joseph likely had to publicly go up to Jesus’ cross and take His body down. Surely, word would get back to the Sanhedrin that he had done this. And then how could Joseph deny what he had done when Jesus was buried in his own new tomb?! (Matthew 27:60) He couldn’t.

As the Bible Knowledge Commentary says, there can be little doubt that Joseph’s actions “amounted to an open confession of personal loyalty to the crucified Jesus... He was a secret disciple no longer.”*

Are you a secret disciple of Jesus? You come to church and you believe... but you don’t tell your family or the people you work with or your friends because you are afraid. You're afraid they won’t understand, afraid they’ll make fun of you, afraid they'll cut you off, afraid it will be social suicide for you. 

Are you keeping Jesus a secret? If so, why not make today the day you follow Joseph’s example and openly follow Jesus no matter the cost. No matter the cost to you personally or professionally, go public with your faith. It’s time. Don’t keep your faith in Jesus a secret any longer.

*John D. Grassmick, “Mark,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 191.

Peter Wept

Immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows twice you will disown me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

Mark 14:72

Peter had big failures, but he also had big regret. He was not blind to his sin, and he wasn’t too proud to grieve over and repent of it. That is why there was hope for Peter. And that is why I fear there may not be hope for some of our churches. 

You see, we have big failures too. Our churches today are full of big failures, major sins. But there is no weeping. No regret. No repentance like this. When was the last time someone came forward in your church and anointed the altar with holy tears? When was the last time someone wept over their sins? When was the last time you wept over your sin?

It’s not that we don’t sin anymore. It’s not that our failures and our sins aren’t that big. That isn’t it. It’s that we just aren’t that moved by them. We explain them away. We think that sex outside of marriage doesn’t really matter, that divorce doesn’t really matter, that greed and all manner of worldliness doesn’t really matter. And, perhaps worst of all, we think that repentance doesn’t really matter. So, we just move on and expect God to forgive us.

But sin that hasn’t been repented of is a hindrance to your intimacy with God. Many of you aren’t as close to God as you used to be and you can’t figure out why. And it’s because of your sin. Sins that you willingly committed against God and haven’t repented of. It is holding you back in your relationship with the Lord.

So, allow yourself to be broken over your sins. Name them before your God and ask for His forgiveness and see if He won’t restore you to close relationship and usefulness to Him, just as Peter was eventually restored and used in amazing ways.

Deserting Jesus

Then everyone deserted him and fled.

Mark 14:50

Jesus went into the Garden of Gethsemane with 11 disciples, but He came out alone.

At first, the disciples tried to resist Jesus’ arrest. One of them drew his sword and attacked a man in the mob. But once it became clear that Jesus wasn’t going to resist, once it became clear that He would surrender, and that He was going to be put on trial…well then…then the disciples all fled.*

In fact, Mark’s gospel tells us that there was a young man who wasn’t one of the 11 disciples who was also there. As the mob tried to seize him and he wriggled away his linen garment was torn. He fled from that place naked, leaving the garment behind. I think that detail is included to show us just how desperate and panicked the disciples felt in that moment.

The old Puritan Pastor Matthew Henry captures the point I want to make here rather succinctly. He says, “It is easier to fight for Christ than [it is] to die for him.”**

Before he was stripped of His clothes and hung on the cross, He was first stripped of all friendly support. It wasn’t just that Judas betrayed Him. It was also that EVERYONE deserted Him. No one was willing to suffer with Jesus in the end.

Are you? Are you willing to suffer with Jesus? Or like the disciples, will you run away when true suffering comes? Will you disappear, go home, or fall silent to avoid suffering for Jesus? Have you already begun to draw back?

Let us learn from the disciple’s mistake. Make up your mind now that you are willing to suffer for your Lord should it ever come to that. That no matter what, you will stand with Jesus even if it means your life.

* John D. Grassmick, “Mark,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 181.

** Matthew Henry and Thomas Scott, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1997), Mk 14:43.

He Sees Past Your Failures

“You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “for it is written: “‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”

Mark 14:27–28

Jesus knows His disciples will scatter and abandon Him in His hour of greatest need, and He tries to prepare them for it. He tells them they will all fall away, but that He will meet them in Galilee after He has risen.

Notice that even though Jesus knows they will abandon Him and fail Him and prove unfaithful to Him at the worst possible moment, yet He loves them still! Jesus doesn’t cast them out early. He doesn’t say, “You are all gonna fall away, so just go ahead and get out of my sight now." Jesus isn’t speaking to them in anger, but with a sense of sorrow and compassion. He is trying to prepare them for what’s ahead. And He makes a special point to give them hope for reconciliation after their failure. That is why He mentions the resurrection. He wants them to know where they can gather again after they have been scattered so that they will not be lost forever.

What Jesus does is He looks beyond their failure and sees their potential. He sees what they will become. So, He deals gently with their failures in the meantime until they are fully formed into the apostles who will shake the world after His ascension.

I want you to know that Jesus is the same with you. He knows you will fail. And He sees your failures coming, but He loves you still. And He sees past your failures to what you will become, what He is making you into. So, do all you can to avoid failing Him, but when you do fail, know that He isn’t surprised. When you fail, don’t run away from Him for good, but rather go back to the place where you first met Him, at that place called repentance and be reconciled to Him. And let Him keep shaping you through your failures into the mature Christian He wants you to be.