The burial of Jesus.
It was an honorable interment.
I. THE DEVOTED MINISTRY OF FRIENDS. "After this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave."
1. The character and position of Joseph.
2. His application to Pilate.
(a) The disciples, who were openly identified with him in life forsake him in his last extremity, and have no share in the honors of his burial.
(b) Two disciples, who had no open relations with him in life, step forward boldly at his death, and give him the last offices of the dead.
II. THE ASSOCIATION OF NICODEMUS WITH JOSEPH IN THE HONOR DONE TO THE DEAD. "And there came also Nicodemus, which, at the first, came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pounds."
1. The character and position of Nicodemus.
2. The two friends wind the body of Jesus in linen with spices, and then place it in the sepulcher of Joseph.
3. The two friends then disappear from history.
(a) It is better to be a timid disciple than none at all.
(b) There are drawbacks to secret disciples' life. How much they lost by missing the opportunity of constant association with Christ in life!
(c) Timidity does not save men from annoyance. Joseph and Nicodemus would lose the confidence of those with whom they were still visibly identified, while they would be exposed to the first just reproach of Christ's open friends.
(d) Let none of us tread the solitary way, but rather openly confess the Lord.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON