Yesterday was gorgeous, even long into the evening.  Due to the warmth and beauty of the night, we decided to eat dinner out at a nearby establishment.  The place was filled with people, with strangers, with those who I had never formerly met.  We sat together near one another, sitting at our own tables positioned there on the outside patio.  After dinner, as I drove home, it occurred to me that I had not seen the new tombstone of a dear friend, so I turned into the church parking lot that I passed on my drive home.  My husband joined me there, too.  We parked our vehicles (because we had arrived at dinner separately), and walked toward the grave markers fenced all together there in the church cemetery.

• My dad is buried there, and my husbands’ parents too.
• Friends and family, acquaintances have also been buried there, within this cemetery.  &
• Each person was unequivocally dead when they were buried in the ground.

As we walked toward the tombstone we had come to see, I found myself reminded how many of the deceased had professed to believe in Jesus when they had lived.  This thought brought me such comfort, such peace, remembering the words Jesus spoke:

• Believers in Jesus know “the way” to eternal life.
• Followers of Jesus understand the path to God’s salvation.
• Christians who have received the precious blood of Jesus’ forgiveness for their sins must be willing to share “the way” and the path with others—BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE FOR THOSE WHO REMAIN LOST.

By the power of God, Jesus arose from the dead; hundreds became witnesses of Jesus’ resurrected body, AND By the power of the Spirit of God, we are made witnesses of this glorious

HOPE—JESUS IS ALIVE!

DEAD!

JESUS CHRIST, THE MESSIAH, WAS—DEAD!

When Jesus was crucified on the cross outside the city Jerusalem, there on Golgotha’s Hill, many watched in horror, feeling all hope was lost.  As that day passed, ushering in evening before a Sabbath rest, a man from Arimathea, Joseph, courageously stepped before the ruler Pilate, asking if he could please take down the dead body of Jesus.  Just imagine how scary that ASK must have been, for to associate with the dead man who had claimed to be the King of kings could mean imminent death for Joseph.  BUT JOSEPH WAS WILLING.

Notice that Joseph came with a new linen cloth, one he had purchased just for Jesus’ dead body.  What was Joseph thinking as he worked to pull out the long iron spikes, the ones that held Jesus nailed to the wooden tree?  Did Joseph’s heart hurt as he gazed into the scarred visage (appearance) of His Savior Jesus?  Was Joseph remembering how Jesus spoke of His resurrection from the dead?  OR  Was Joseph focused more on the deadness of Jesus?  Whether upset, confused because of the events of the previous day’s crucifixion, or slightly hopeful because of Jesus’ prophecy proclaiming HE WOULD LIVE AGAIN, we read the Scriptures and are reminded how JOSEPH WAS WILLING TO DO THE HARD WORK FOR JESUS.

Like Joseph, we too are called to be willing.

• Just as Joseph was, we are also commissioned to do the difficult task, going and telling the world about our risen Savior.
• Maybe we have prayed and prayed and prayed—seeing no results in the salvation of the one for whom we are praying.
• Quite possibly, we have planted God’s seed, watered the seed, and even attempted to keep the soil from growing weeds, but—the harvest still has not come.
• It’s there in the hard place where we are called to go, to tell, to witness and to testify about the saving grace of Jesus—even when no results come.

On the day Joseph came to the tomb to bury Jesus, it was an ordinary day.  Jesus’ crucifixion had to have been the greatest emotional day EVER.  Sabbath was coming, so Joseph came with a brand-new clean, linen cloth.  Nicodemus was there with Joseph, having purchased burial spices to place inside the linen cloth, next to the DEAD BODY of JESUS.  Then the deceased body was placed into the face of limestone rock, the very tomb that Joseph had chiseled himself.  What was Joseph thinking as he worked to chisel the rock, creating the tomb?  Did God give Joseph insight for whom the tomb was being hewn?  Was Joseph crying as he worked?  Could he have been aware (supernaturally) about the upcoming crucifixion of Jesus?  Did Joseph focus on the dead body of his Savior that would be laid in the tomb?  OR  Was Joseph chiseling the tomb for his own body, when he died one day?  We read the Scriptures and are reminded how JOSEPH WAS WILLING TO DO THE HARD WORK FOR JESUS.

• Our positions place us where we can be used by God.
• Our faith makes us cognizant of God’s kingdom work.
• Our Savior gives us courage to do His will.
• Our discernment of the upcoming return and judgment of Jesus creates urgency.

“How hopeless our lives would be if these words [of Christ Jesus] were not true.

Every cemetery and every grave site would be a mute witness to the futility and despair of human life.

But Jesus’ words are true!” (Reverend Billy Graham, Hope for each day 2002)