Holy Week #7: A “Secret Disciple’s” Regret

Did Joseph of Arimathaea experience regret for having been a secret disciple?
A secret disciple always has his communion with Christ diminished. I am confident that when Joseph became public in his confession of his love for Jesus, he regretted not having done that sooner. He could have had sweet fellowship with the Creator of the universe for the short time he walked on earth, but instead he was silent because of his fear of others.

I’m sure he believed Jesus was a man sent by God, but I’m not so sure he loved him as the Son of God. Love always delights in the expressing of that love. Love is expressed by surrendering things that are most precious to us, and laying them at our beloved’s feet. Our positions, our possessions, our reputation, are the ‘sweet spices’ which we can lay upon the altar that glorifies Christ?

And what is the cure of cowardice and selfish silence? As Joseph of Arimathaea experienced, it is seeing Christ hanging on the cross that makes the coward, brave. If Jesus endured that kind of persecution because of his love for me, then I have no excuse but to love him back in the same way, or I cannot call myself a follower of Christ. It took a lot of courage for Joseph to go to Pilate and to voice his sympathy with a condemned criminal. He put his reputation, his fortune and his life at risk.

And the precise moment, God called Joseph of Arimathaea out to center stage and he played the role he was created to play. He boldly asked for the body of Jesus so he could place him in an uncorrupted tomb, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 53:9 “And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death” Jesus died between two wicked thieves but he was buried in a rich man’s tomb.
Jesus pleads with his followers in this regard when he says, “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” (Mt 10:32,33)