“When evening had come, and since it was the day of
Preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a
respected member of the council, who was also himself waiting expectantly for
the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then
Pilate wondered if he were already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked
him whether he had been dead for some time. When he learned from the centurion
that he was dead, he granted the body to Joseph. Then Joseph bought a linen
cloth, and taking down the body, wrapped it in the linen cloth, and laid it in
a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock. He then rolled a stone against the
door of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where the
body was laid.”
-Mark 15: 42-47 (NRSV)
Joseph of Arimathea is mentioned in all four Gospels,
but Mark, the earliest to be written, succinctly explains his role in the
burial of Jesus. Matthew (27:57-60) adds that he was a rich man and a disciple
of Jesus, and that he buried Jesus in a tomb meant for himself. Luke (23:50-53)
mentions that while Joseph was a member of the council (the Jewish Sanhedrin),
he did not agree to their plan and action—to turn Jesus over to the Roman
authorities. John (19:38-42) that Joseph was a secret disciple “for fear of the
Jews,” and that Nicodemus assisted him in preparing Jesus’ body for the tomb.
From the Gospels’ accounts of Joseph, we learn that
Jesus had at least one ally in the Sanhedrin and Joseph had the courage to ask Pontius
Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, for the body of Jesus, whom Pilate himself
had sentenced to death for sedition against Rome. Had it not been for Joseph’s
intervention, Jesus’ body might have been left on the cross to become the food
of birds and dogs. Joseph’s insistence of giving a Jesus proper burial was
crucial to the story of the Resurrection.
Naturally, legends arose about this key figure in
Christian history. He was, according to one legend, Mary’s uncle, and thus the
great uncle of Jesus. The story, which has the ring of plausibility, is based
on a Jewish tradition that the senior male relative of a deceased person had
the responsibility to give him or her a proper burial. And from that story,
plus another that Joseph had made his fortune as a merchant, came the legend
that he had taken the teenaged Jesus with him on a voyage to the tin mines of
western Britain. It inspired William Blake’s “From Milton,” which begins:
And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among those dark satanic mills?
In 1916 Sir Hubert Parry set the poem to music as
“Jerusalem,” which was voted the United Kingdom’s most popular hymn in 2019.
Another legend says Joseph of Arimathea returned to
Britain with the Holy Grail. The story, though, originated in late
twelfth-century France, with Robert de Boron’s “Joseph d'Arimathie.” The word “grail,”
from the Old French “graal,” which meant any kind of a vessel, from a chalice
to a cauldron, was virtually unknown until the Arthurian tale, “Perceval, the
Story of the Grail,” by another late twelfth century French poet, Chrétien de Troyes. In Chrétien’s poem, the grail is
not holy, but is something the knight Percival witnesses. Robert expands the
tale and declares the Grail, now the Holy Grail, to be the chalice Jesus drank
from at the Last Supper. In Robert’s poem, Joseph is imprisoned because he is
accused of stealing Jesus’ body from the tomb. The resurrected Christ presents
Joseph with the Grail, which sustains him for years until the Emperor Vespasian
releases him from prison many years later.
In Robert’s narrative, it is Joseph’s
brother-in-law, Bron, who brings the Grail to Britain. But in English lore, especially
in and around the town of Glastonbury in Somerset, Joseph himself brought the
Grail to Britain, where he hid it in a Glastonbury well, now called the Chalice
Well. In a related myth, Joseph planted his pilgrim’s staff on Glastonbury’s Wearyall
Hill, which grew into a thorn tree. Joseph is said to have founded Glastonbury
Abbey, which became major pilgrimage site largely because of the legends surrounding
the area. Pilgrimages to Glastonbury continued, even after 1539, when the abbey
was destroyed and looted on the orders of Henry VIII.
But even without the legends—and there are many more—we
honor Joseph of Arimathea chiefly for his courage in asking Pilate for Jesus’
body and then placing it in his own tomb.
Merciful God, whose servant Joseph of
Arimathea with reverence and godly fear prepared the body of our Lord and
Savior for burial, and laid it in his own tomb: Grant to us, your faithful
people, grace and courage to love and serve Jesus with sincere devotion all the
days of our life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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