04-05-2026 - JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA - Luke 23:50-53

 MESSAGE BY PASTOR ROB INRIG

 FROM BETHANY BAPTIST IN RICHMOND, BC.

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I invite you to pray together: O Father of mercies and God of all comfort, our only help in time of need: We humbly beseech thee to behold, visit, and relieve thy sick servants for whom our prayers are desired. Look upon them with the eyes of thy mercy ( Vicky O, Nancy R, Tere G, Liz N, Stevie A, Socrates D, Sara's mom H, Margarita G,   Rosy Ch, Patricia L. Lina J.  Magda- Laci M.  Gloria F, Miguel A H. Silvia H, Manuel D, Brianda M, Alejandro M, Natalia M, Oscar ND.   Comfort them with a sense of thy goodness; preserve them from the temptations of the enemy; and give them patience under his affliction. In thy good time, restore them to health, and enable them to lead the residue of their life in thy fear, and to thy glory; and grant that finally they may dwell with thee in life everlasting; And for those who have departed and are in eternal sleep, waiting for you to come, and with joy they will live eternal life with you. 

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

You can add names from family and friends who need prayer

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When He first came on the scene, I thought it just one more malcontent looking for importance.  Another Messiah speaking promises of oppressors gone and evil destroyed.  Their promise - God with us, meaning life far different from the one under Rome, her cruelty and religiosity - a stench to God.  ‘Gods’ everywhere - a god of fire, a god of rain, a god for crops.  Gods of the over-world and gods of the underworld.  How could these be thought of as gods? – rulers over their little domains, powerless outside the areas they supposedly rule?  

So yes, a Messiah was needed but our past is filled with these who promote themselves as God’s heaven sent answer.  Too bad God wasn’t aware they were on divine assignment, Rome quickly ending their mission with cold steel. Still they come, dangling hope: Believe and be healed. Believe and be free. Believe but first deposit some coin.  Larger the coin, larger the blessing.  

Yet reports about Him were different.  He was neither braggart nor malcontent.  He asked for nothing that would benefit Him.  At first, stories trickled in, laughable in what was said.  

Jesus, filling nets to overflowing.  Jesus, walking on water. Jesus turning water into wine. I, like the rest of the Council, dismissed these as little more than the delusional and inebriated of those who had enjoyed   too much of His wedding ceremony water.

But, the trickle of stories soon became waves.  

Jesus healing the lame and giving sight to the blind.  Jesus casting out demons.  Jesus turning loaves and fish into a multitude’s feast.  Jesus raising the dead back to life.

Accounts of the preposterous, but the stories wouldn’t stop, causing things to spiral out of control.  At least that’s how my fellow priests saw it.  Their reaction red hot anger.

I, on the other hand was more curious than alarmed, not convinced he was the danger they conveyed.  I was intrigued, could He be who some were declaring Him to be?  Could this at last, be the Messiah for Whom we had waited?  

Almost none of the council members were prepared to entertain that possibility.  They’d invested too much to give their power away to some no account, peasant girl’s son.  A carpenter no less.    

Really?  A carpenter Messiah?   Now there’s a picture. 

What was He going to do, lift up some roughly shaped wood, His fearsome weapon of deliverance?  Was He going to wield a hammer and nails to bring a fatal blow to the enemy?  Then again, as one of the Council said, let Him try, so His blood could be spilt and this story brought to an end.  But then again – what were we to make of this carpenter?  The truth is over time, we had seen evidence of things said - people healed, the lame made to walk, the blind made to see. 

But even with these, He didn’t fit any image we were prepared to see. Nothing in His appearance that impressed.  No stature.  No royal bearing.  No legions of power. Nothing screaming Messiah or roaring King.  More lamb than lion.  A stark contrast alongside the One of whom Isaiah spoke when he prophesied, “And of His kingdom there shall be no end.”  

Kingdom?  By all we could see, His was a kingdom of the unschooled and unworthy - more suited for peasants and fishermen than palaces and thrones.  What sort of kingdom is made up of such as these?  What sort of Messiah, what sort of king - that could bring deliverance and have our enemies quaking at His presence?  

So don’t wonder why we struggled with Him.  We who searched Scripture and held to truth.  But over time, our ‘truth’ - our traditions and our dictates added on and weighing down, replacing God’s truth. We speaking rules and laws telling others how to live, much slower to live the things we spoke.  And Jesus knew it.  I think that disturbed us more than anything.  He saw right through us, we unable to hide from Him. That was the real reason the Council heated Jesus we were afraid of Him because He exposed our hearts, stripped us bare.  

While we struggled with Jesus, others didn’t.  They were amazed by what He said and did.  He speaking to hearts in ways we never could. In ways we never thought to do.  We were so busy holding up God’s law - even the ones God had called us to that we forgot what those laws were to mean.  He also holding up God’s law but doing it in a way that pointed to something greater, something better. The God He presented was loving and did not need to be feared.   

Over time I began sharing my thoughts with Nicodemus.  Despite the dangers, we talked much of this.  Like me, he longed to know if this Jesus could be the One for whom we searched.  

At first, we were cautious because we weren’t sure what the other thought but that changed after he had a night visit with Jesus where he was told that despite best efforts, his goodness would never be enough.  That His good would always fall short of what God required.  In a way that didn’t condemn, Jesus told him he needed to be born again – born new.   When He said it, Nicodemus said it was as if the scroll of Isaiah had been opened to him in a way he had never seen, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned — everyone – to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”   As they talked, Nicodemus sensed that the ‘everyone’ Isaiah spoke of was Him and the One on whom our sin would be laid, was Jesus.  

And there were other things - like His statement, “That just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so too must the Son of Man be lifted up for the forgiveness of sins.”  Jesus drawing connection to Moses and the deliverance from death God gave when the dying looked on a cross in the wilderness.  The cross defeating the serpent’s power.

Jesus’ words seeming like one more riddle yet somehow ringing true.  As Nicodemus spoke, the riddles increasingly, like a tapestry taking shape in a form I could no longer deny.  

Undeniably the reports given were true – the lame made to walk, the blind made to see, the demon possessed set free but what was REALLY true - where they pointed. The miraculous, this Jesus - God come in flesh - Messiah.  His coming demanding response.  Not response that was forced but given by invitation wrapped in love.  So simple children could take and so profound, the most undeserving could receive.

An invitation received with unrestrained joy in Him embrace of a leper and the forgiveness of an adulteress.  These weren’t rules to keep given by a priest or good words about better ways to live or nicer ways to act.  These were the actions of a forgiving God standing before us in flesh.  

That’s why with full assurance, I finally understood - knowing Jesus wasn’t about rituals and rules, not about religion and doing all things right - it was relationship with the living God - God who had come to us. 

That is where the story should have led all of us – exuberantly welcoming Him like those waving palm branches celebrating His entrance; coats strewn on the ground, marking His path.  People dancing and praising, people bowing.  Children ringing out, ‘Hosanna, Hosanna.  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’   

If only the story had triumphantly continued on from there!!

But no triumphant story had continued because sinister forces were at work.  Forces of evil flowing through the veins of those with whom I studied Scripture.  They were consumed with Jesus but having no intention of letting this story be told with Hosannas and celebration.   

Caiaphas had made that clear – Jesus was to be destroyed.  To hear him talk, you’d think he was talking about ridding the Temple of vermin.  Truth is, Caiaphas thought Him no better than that - an infestation. And the only way to deal with an infestation is to exterminate.  Sure, the high priest didn’t dress his intent like that, instead choosing pious words but undeniably his reasons clear - Jesus exposed the evil in his heart - and ours.  And when that’s not what you want others to see, you make certain those things are never revealed.

How righteously he spoke differently than that!  People are being deceived so we must act. If we don’t, Rome will act for us.  Better to sacrifice one than for the nation to perish.

We all knew that the nation he spoke of was our own personal nation of position and the benefits that brought.  That is what we were so zealous to protect.

With Caiaphas’ intentions clear, plans were set in motion.  The mood perfect for turning people against Jesus.  It was Passover which meant large numbers returning to the city.  Emotions high.  A few euphoric, thinking this could be the day Messiah would come. Those like the insurrectionists, opportunistically bold.  Surrounded by this sea of emotion, a fortified Roman presence was on edge.  And in this surround, it was easy to stir up unrest.

Finding those willing to ignite hatred into flame was easy. Chief among them, the money changers - their profits had dropped like a stone when  Jesus overturned tables in the Temple - coins spilling everywhere.  And then there was the strange alliance with those we normally despised- the idol makers, the fortune tellers and the political – all whose business had suffered.  But we partnered with them in what needed to be done.  My self-righteous companions - the chief priests and the scribes, stung by Jesus’ words when He called us blind guides and white washed sepulchres, doing whatever was necessary to achieve our ends.  Our combined efforts had led to this: 

- an audience of mockers as the lash whipped across His back.  Who was He to scatter coins on the Temple floor?  Who was He to set sacrificial animals free?  Who was He to direct His accusations at them?  To them the lash was small satisfaction, far greater to come.  Mocking cheers celebratory and loud while a few of the unimportant following Him wept.

Those weeping weren’t asking, ‘Who was He was?’   That question had been answered when He gave strength to paralyzed legs that now walked and sight to blind eyes that now saw.  Their question was one nobody was ready to answer with anything that made sense, ‘What was His crime?  Was it gifting new life to a beggar or putting arms around a leper?  Was the lash justified because He exchanged love for hate or gave life to those once dead?’

The mob was too loud and to  angry to respond to any questions like these.  Many voices not even knowing why they yelled, they caught up in the inferno of hate surrounding them.  But among these, those who knew exactly why they scorned.  To them, Jesus represented everything that should be hated.  And in the surrounding frenzy, soldiers joined the mood of the crowd.

One of the soldiers reached out and grabbed Jesus’ beard, ripping both face and hair.  But that was merely the beginning, the lust for blood far from satisfied. That wouldn’t happen even when Romans took up hammer and nails, spilling blood from hands and side.  There was no humanity in any of what I’d seen but then Jeremiah’s word came back, The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked Jer 17:9. He making clear, actually it was our humanity that had done this which is what Jesus had been telling us all this time, that There’s none righteous, no not one Ps 14:3. 

The voices so shrill - “If you be the Christ, why don’t you come down from the Cross and save yourself?  You saved others, save yourself and us?”

The incomprehensible? this asked of the One whose now bloodied hands had welcomed the outcast and healed the sick.  Hands that embraced the orphan and raised the dead.  Hands that took nails because the hands He reached out to had responded with clenched fists and closed off hearts.

His accusers laughing with scorn - as nails pierced flesh Mocking, as spear impaled side.  

Hail King of the Jews!!

Only days earlier I had watched a far different coronation.  It was lamb selection day – 5 days before Passover when our sacrificial lambs are chosen, their blood given for the forgiveness of our sin. I was on my way to make my selection when noise drew me to the place where I watched Jesus enter the city on the back of a donkey.  Only later would I remember what Zechariah had prophesied, “See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”  Zech 9:9

Now as I watched, I couldn’t help but wonder:

Was it coincidence that Passover’s ‘lamb selection day’, when we remembered our deliverance from Egyptian slavery, was the day Jesus made His entry into Jerusalem?  

Was it coincidence that at 3 PM when the priest sounded the shofar, signalling that the sacrificial lamb had been slain, was the very moment Jesus, the Lamb of God, cried out, “It is finished!” as He took on Himself the sins of the world?  

Was it coincidence that at the very moment, Jesus the Light of the world gave up His life, the sky turned black, the heavens quaked, and the earth began to shake?  

Was it coincidence that the veil separating the Holy of Holies from the Temple split from top to bottom?  This curtain 4 inches thick and 30 feet high split as if God had rent it in two. A curtain fall.  It may crumple.  What it cannot do is suddenly split.    

And then there were the other appearances of things impossible to explain - I among the many who saw what we had - graves opened and people, undeniably dead now alive.  Undeniably alive - God raised.  Young, old all holding one thing in common, they were known as those who had been lovers of God.  Alive - the death of One bringing life to many.    

The words of my enemy voiced it while I was still trying to make sense of everything I had just seen, Truly this man was the Son of God.

He was right.  There was no denying, we had crucified the One for whom we had searched.  Crucified Jesus, God’s own Son.

Not caring what Council would think, I went to Pilate and requested His body for burial.  As expected Pilate was only too glad to be rid of Him but also as expected, Caiaphas was furious.  If he had his way, he would have been far happier to have his body discarded outside the city wall where birds of prey could finish what he had started.

But me?  I was determined to protect in death what I couldn’t protect in life.  It was the least I could do.  The sepulchre I had chosen for my death, would now be for the One who should have never died.   

How had we gotten Passover so wrong?  How do we celebrate when evil at its worst destroyed life at its best?  Which had brought us to this place, for so long and for so many like a puzzle, not recognizing that its pieces had all come together - scattered pieces now assembled and fitting together to show us what we had never seen.  Prophet after prophet providing pieces we thought unimportant because they didn’t fit any picture we understood.  So we created other images of what we thought the picture should look like which meant when the true picture was finally given, we no longer cared to look beyond the one we had settled on. 

This Messiah doing the unthinkable, and what amazed? - His weapon of deliverance was some roughly shaped wood.   Hammer and nails would be used to bring a fatal blow to sin and death.  His Forgive them for they know not what they do would be spoken so we could come close and be made new.  He who was despised and rejected, pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.

Yet, it pleased the Lord to crush Him, putting Him to grief; rendering Him as a guilt offering…  As a result of the anguish of His soul, by His knowledge the Righteous One will justify the many as He will bear their iniquities…  He poured out Himself to death and was numbered with the transgressors yet He Himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors.  Is 53:10-12

An inconceivable way for how things should all end.

But what none of Jesus’ haters had accounted for - resurrection.  The Cross hadn’t ended it,  meaning everything that rejected, everything that declared death, held no power over Him. His death undeniable, Roman accomplished, Roman ensured, Roman guarded but His resurrection also undeniable - God promised, God accomplished, God delivered.  Jesus our risen and coming King - who died that we might have life - not just for now but for all eternity.  Life everlasting with Christ for all, who in repentance, come to Him for the forgiveness of our sin, accepting Him as our Saviour and Lord.  God’s only way of salvation. 

The resurrection - the celebration of Easter for all who will receive forgiveness of our sin through Jesus’ shed blood. His promise, I am the Resurrection and the Life, whoever believes in Me will live even though he dies and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die Jn 11:25,26  

This new life totally given us in Jesus, not in any way dependent on us, not on any good we have done, not on any credentials we think we can offer. Alistair Begg stating it well, that we need to forget speaking in the first person when it comes to knowing Christ by what I did or what I earned rather EVERYTHING is about what HE did.  Begg brilliantly captures this as he speaks of a heavenly face to face encounter he one day wants to have with the thief on the cross.  

So tell me, how did this shake out for you that you are here?  One moment you were cussing that guy out with a friend and now this?  I mean, you’ve never been in a Bible study, you’ve never been baptized, never had church membership and yet .. you made it?  You made it!  

How did you make it?  What are you doing here?   

I don’t know.  

What do you mean you don’t know?  

Well because I don’t know.  

Well ....uh... why ...  how ...         Look just a few questions to help me understand - Are you clear on the doctrine of justification by faith?   

Guy said, I’ve never heard about it in my life.  

So some of the prophesies suddenly made sense?  ...     Listen, on what basis are you here?  

The Man on the Middle Cross said I could come.  

And that is the only answer that counts.  All because of Him.   All because of what He did.      

This Easter is a celebration The Man on the Middle Cross has invited you to.  It’s not about religion or some plan to give you a better life.  It’s about rescue and a new life that can be yours this morning by bowing to Jesus and accepting Him as your Saviour and Lord.  

Why?   How?   Because the Man on the Middle

Cross who, on an explosive, everything has been

made new, Easter morning, said you could come. 

It’s an invite just waiting for you to accept.  

www.bethanybaptist.bc.ca