Matthew 27:57-61
When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.
The next two scenes would appear to be denouement, the falling action or final scenes, of the tragic story of Jesus. The great drama of his trial, the chilling spectacle of his crucifixion, and the brutal climax of his cry of desolation and death – these are all over. Very little is left except to bury him. Or so it would appear.
Matthew’s story, however, as with the other Evangelists, breaks literary tradition with a second climax that is to come. Except that it’s not as much a climax as it is a reversal, an upending of the outcome of the natural climax and the opening up of a whole other story.
But we get ahead of ourselves. For before Matthew leads us to this new climax, reversal, and possibility in the story of Jesus and, indeed, the world, he will first yield several important clues about the shape of Jesus’ ministry and mission both up to this point in the story and in the new chapter that is to come.
One of those clues we’ve seen already, as Matthew testifies to the fidelity of the many women who followed Jesus and stayed with him to the end. Two of those women appear in this scene of Jesus’ burial as well. This is important both to continue the witness to the fidelity of Jesus’ female disciples and to provide a hinge to the reversal to come, as the two Marys, having seen where Jesus is buried, will know where to go on Sunday morning to pay respect by anointing Jesus’ dead body.
Another clue comes in the form of Joseph of Arimathea. Interestingly, while he appears in all four gospel stories, we know very little about Joseph. It might be that Matthew, in describing him as a “rich man,” believed Joseph fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy that the suffering servant’s grave would be with the wicked (crucifixion) and his tomb with the rich (Joseph’s tomb) (Is. 53:9). It may also be that Matthew and the other evangelists want to remind us that while we often focus on “the twelve” disciples of Jesus, there were many, many more. Like the women. Like Joseph. And like countless others.
If so, then it may be helpful to remember that it is these other disciples who stay with Jesus to the end, boldly approach Pilate for Jesus’ body, bury him, and care for his crucified body. The twelve, ironically, are nowhere to be found in these last scenes; rather, it is all the other disciples who see Jesus through to the end of his earthly journey in small ways and large.
Might we see ourselves in these other faithful disciples? For fidelity, it seems to me, is expressed most often not in grand or glorious gestures but in the small things, the minor acts of kindness and courage that can occupy any ordinary life every single day and slowly but surely usher in and witness to the coming Kingdom of God.
Prayer: Dear God, keep us faithful in the little things, knowing that when done in faith, there are no little things. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Post image: Joseph of Arimathea, by Pietro Perugina, a detail from his “Lamentation Over the Dead Christ” (1495).
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