Friday evenings have their own feeling. The week is closing. Some things got done and some didn’t. Whatever you hoped would be settled by now may still be sitting there, unfinished, as the light goes down.
There was one Friday evening when it looked like everything had ended.
“And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.” (Mark 15:42–43, KJV)
The man who had been hiding
John tells us something honest about Joseph. He was “a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews” (John 19:38, KJV). He was a respected member of the council, a man with a reputation and a lot to lose. For a long time he had kept his faith quiet.
Then came the cross. The crowds had scattered. Most of the disciples were hiding. Jesus’ body hung lifeless on a Roman execution stake, and every sign said the story was finished.
And that is exactly when Joseph stopped hiding.
He did not step forward when Jesus was filling hillsides with crowds and healing the sick at sundown. He stepped forward when there was nothing left to gain, when following Jesus looked like a lost cause. Mark says he “went in boldly.” Love found its courage in the dark.
He gave what he had
Joseph was not alone. “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 pound weight” (John 19:39, KJV). Two quiet men, both of whom had once kept their distance, now stood together at the foot of the cross with linen and spices as the sun went down.
“And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre.” (Mark 15:46, KJV)
It was Joseph’s own new tomb, “wherein never man before was laid” (Luke 23:53, KJV). He gave Jesus the place he had prepared for himself. He did not know about Sunday. He only knew that Jesus deserved his love, even now.
Faithful when it looks over
There are evenings when following Jesus feels a bit like that Friday. A prayer seems unanswered. A hope has been buried. You are not sure what God is doing, and you are not sure what to do next.
Joseph and Nicodemus show us something simple: you can still be faithful in the dark. You don’t have to understand the whole story to do the next loving thing. Wrap the linen. Carry the spices. Show up. Say His name out loud when it would be easier to stay quiet.
The women who had followed Jesus from Galilee did the same. They “beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment” (Luke 23:55–56, KJV). They grieved, they prepared, and then they rested. They did not yet know that their spices would never be needed.
The stone is not the end
Here is the part that makes a Friday evening different for us. We know what Joseph didn’t know yet. The stone he rolled across that door would be rolled away. The tomb he gave would be empty by Sunday morning. The end was not the end.
So whatever you are laying down tonight, the unfinished week, the buried hope, the thing that feels over, you can lay it down the way Joseph laid down Jesus: with love, and with the quiet trust that God is not finished. Rest tonight. Sunday is coming.
An evening prayer
Lord Jesus, this week is ending, and some of what I hoped for still feels buried. Give me the courage Joseph found, to stop hiding and love You openly, even when it costs me something. Help me to be faithful in the dark and do the next loving thing. I lay this evening down in Your hands, trusting that no stone is stronger than You. Give me rest tonight, and wake me with hope. Amen.