“and he [Joseph of Arimathea] gathered up courage and went in before Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.”
(Mark 15:43b)
When the text says that Joseph “gathered up” his courage, that leaves me to think that it had been scattered before. Which makes a lot of sense – His Lord had just been killed. That would scatter my courage. He had been waiting for the kingdom and now it looked like the King was gone – that scattered a lot of people’s courage, including the apostles.
But Joseph did what even the apostles failed to do. He gathered his courage back up and went and asked for the body. Joseph was a man of means and he had an opportunity to give Jesus a respectable burial. He knew that this opportunity wouldn’t come around again. So he gathered up his courage and went in and asked Pilate. The Scriptures forever record him for his bravery.
Sometimes we just needed to gather up our courage and do what needs to be done. If you have an opportunity to do something, it may be time to just have a little talk with yourself about finding the courage to do it.
Matthew 4:4 #Biblebites