Joseph of ArimatheaSample

Waiting

He himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. - Luke 23:51, NIV 

Our society doesn’t like to wait. We’re busy people. We’ve got schedules to keep, things to do, and we’re always in a hurry. We’re the get-up-and-go generation. We weave through the traffic, looking for a faster lane. We frown at the person who takes eleven items into the ten-item express checkout. We tap our toe while we wait to receive our pre-ordered Starbucks seconds after entering the shop. We want minute rice in thirty seconds. We want six-pack abs in six minutes. Delay has become a dirty word. We don’t like to wait. Not for the doctor or for a delivery, for traffic, or for God. Unforeseen circumstances beyond our control can throw us off course and subject us to a time of waiting, to a time when our plans are overruled. 

We all go through seasons in God’s waiting room. The young couple seated in the corner? They are waiting to get pregnant. That gentleman with the briefcase who has sent out hundreds of résumés? He’s waiting on a job. As the clock ticks, hours become days, days become weeks, weeks become months, months become years. Waiting on God to intervene, waiting on God to interrupt, waiting on God with hope. We are caught in this tension, and we find ourselves stuck in God’s waiting room.

Joseph of Arimathea was familiar with God’s waiting room. He was expectantly waiting, like so many Orthodox Jews, for the promised Messiah. Though there was no single understanding of what the Messiah would be like, there were common elements of His coming which every Jew would have assumed within their messianic expectations. He was to institute a renewal of the Temple in Jerusalem. Joseph had a settled and fixed expectation and hope that this Kingdom could come at any moment. However, what Joseph could not have imagined was the way in which this Kingdom would be inaugurated in and through the life of Jesus. Joseph waited upon God and because of that, he discovered the Messiah who he had been waiting for his whole life.

Like Joseph, our own expectations often collide with reality precisely because of our selective reading of the situations we are in. It’s important in these times to remember, waiting time is not wasted time. There are times in all our lives when it is not immediately obvious how God intends to move in our lives. Joseph of Arimathea did not waste his time in waiting for the Kingdom. He saw the glimpse of it in Jesus, even if he did not fully understand what it was all about. He didn’t waste his time, and while he was waiting, he did not waver in his search for the truth. He waited for the Lord to make Himself known to him. 

Like Joseph, let’s be a people who wait upon God with hope and humility. Just as Joseph waited upon God to reveal Himself to Joseph, we must also seek to set aside our expectations of God in order to experience and see Him fully. If you ask, God will grant you the patience, like Joseph of Arimathea, to wait for the Kingdom to come with eyes wide open. 

Joseph, expectant of the Kingdom of God to be fulfilled through the person of Jesus, now has to stand up to the rest of the council and defend this man they seek to destroy.