LEGACY OF A RICH MAN: JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA'S MISSION IN BRITAIN

By Sandra Troutman

Legacy of a Rich Man, Joseph of Arimathea's Mission in Britain was ignited by the biblical account of the man who gave Jesus his burial tomb after the crucifixion, as it appears in the four Gospels and prophecy in Isaiah 53. This story was fueled by the legend of Joseph in Britain. It was enhanced by Roman/British archaeological history. Although Joseph of Arimathea appears in all four Gospels, no details are furnished about his prior life, family, or his relationship to Jesus and the disciples. The lack of in-depth biblical information about Joseph made it possible to imagine him with a plausible life as a church founder during the first century AD Roman occupation in his adopted land of Britain. A cast of characters ranging in age from teens to senior adults infuse the story with love, loss, humor, and adventure. The Good News of Salvation is woven throughout the story. FYI...there are also dogs in the story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9781644683064

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Introduction

Joseph of Arimathea was a wealthy and influential man who was a member of a high council called the Sanhedrin. The account of the tomb he gave for Jesus after His crucifixion is in all four of the Gospels as follows:

As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb. (Matthew 27:57–61, NIV)

It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. Pilate was surprised to hear that He was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid. (Mark 15:42–47, NIV)

Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. (Luke 23:50–55, NIV)

Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews.

With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night.

Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. (John 19:38–42, NIV)

This story is based on the evidence that appears in the Scriptures; however, it is fictional based on plausible speculation of the spread of The Way into the far northern territories, where Joseph of Arimathea is considered a patron saint in a legend from the first century period.

The four Gospels fully attest to Joseph’s existence and connection to Jesus. They tell who he is in the Jewish community, but they do not give details about his family or where his wealth came from—nor do they give information about what he did after the resurrection of Jesus.

This story takes place twenty years after the crucifixion of Christ, before organized religion and during the expansion of the Roman Empire. The Roman occupied countries, experienced Greek-Roman cultural influence, and benefited from the establishment of many trade routes before the fall of the Roman Empire. The Dark Ages and mass poverty did not occur until after the fall of the Roman Empire.

God Himself chose the Jewish peoples to birth Jesus, the Messiah, and to go into all the world to preach the good news. Subsequently, many Gentiles were saved and continued to witness in the name of Christ.

The Holy Spirit is the source of all creative gifts, talents, and knowledge.

Part One

The Village of Bainbridge

The cobbled streets were lined with little shops on both sides. The shopkeepers did well because of the ships that came into the port from other countries carrying merchandise for them to buy and sell. They had known Joseph for about thirty years because he used to come to their port selling his merchandise from Jerusalem and other parts of the Roman Empire. They were a little curious as to why he came to stay. He was known as a devout Jewish man and a wealthy nobleman. When he came back twenty years ago with his son, Benjamin, a lot of things were very different about him.

When he got off the ship that day, he had a thorn tree staff in his hand. He took the staff and jabbed it down into the ground. After a few weeks, the staff had limbs on it. No one thought anything about it until December, when white blooms started to appear on the limbs of the staff; the villagers believed it to be a miracle and a sign. It was a sign to Joseph that he should stay permanently and make Britain his new home. Consequently, several of the village families started going to the makeshift church Joseph and Benjamin built that first year before the church compound was completed. That was the first time the villagers heard the good news of the Gospel. Joseph taught them about Jehovah God and His son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. After they heard the truth, the villagers realized their pagan beliefs were not of God and were worthless to them.

The druid priests were outraged by Joseph of Arimathea and his Jesus Christ. They fought to maintain control, but most of the villagers no longer wanted to have anything to do with their ritualistic demands. The druids required human sacrifices to appease the gods of the underworld and told the native people of Britain that in order to become immortal, it was necessary to submit their souls to the gods, then after death, each soul would enter another person. Many of the villagers had already done that, so Joseph had to perform exorcisms to rid the people of the demons that had entered their bodies.

The first few years was a time of turmoil between the followers of Jesus and the druids. The chief priest, Enolive, swore he would never give up in his efforts to regain his authority. There are some who still live by his rule and attend the rituals at the ancient stone structures and in the oak groves. Wherever there was evil and death, he and his loyal ones were responsible. Evidence of humans being burned to death in sacrificial rituals was found by streams and in oak groves of the forests.

Kniftar was one of his followers. He lived on the outskirts of the village in a cold, dark, dirty shack with a raven he called Nomed. He walked the streets of the village shops thieving things and eavesdropping on conversations. He wore a long, black, hooded cape over a ragged garment. If a shop had goods sitting out on a table, he would steal things when the shopkeeper was not looking. He smelled putrid, and his raven strutted down the middle of the street like he owned it. Everyone suspected him of warning Enolive when the Romans were going to raid the forests to find him and his followers. Kniftar was as evil and sinister as Enolive, but he had never been caught. It is sad to say, but some of the shopkeepers let him come around because they liked to hear the malicious gossip he usually had to tell about someone in the village.

The Romans established a military installation called Regulbium, four miles from Bainbridge at Herne Bay to regulate shipping and protect their trade routes. Its construction reflected the typical Roman style. The fortress was square-shaped with rounded corners, made out of massive granite stones, twenty-feet-high walls, and surrounded by trench barriers to keep the unwanted out.

Palm Sunday

It was a sunny spring morning, a week before the Sunday memorial of the resurrection of Christ. The group of believers had gathered together in the stone building Joseph and his son had built when they landed in Britain so many years earlier. Everyone looked forward to Sunday, when they could spend time together as Joseph and his son would tell them everything they could remember about Jesus, son of God. Joseph always referred to Yeshua, which was the Hebrew pronunciation, as Jesus when he was talking to the Gentile believers because that was how it sounded in their dialect.

Since it was the time of year when Jesus had been crucified, Joseph told them his story about what happened during the time of Jesus’ death because the Passover was approaching.

He began, "I took Jesus’ body off the cross after the Roman soldiers tortured Him until He died. I pleaded with them to leave Him there on the hill of Golgotha with His mother and those who loved Him, until I could talk to Pontius Pilate to convince him to let me take the body to my tomb. Pontius Pilate was a very powerful man; he had grown weary of all the fighting and bickering between the Sadducees, Pharisees, and followers of Jesus. The religious Jewish leaders hated Jesus for coming into their lives and disrupting how they wanted their traditions to be followed. They put Pilate in the middle of the dispute and made it a political problem for him to solve. They wanted Jesus disposed of, but when Jerusalem came under the control of the Roman Empire the Sanhedrin was stripped of its power to have someone executed.

"I was well known to Pilate from the time he became the Roman Pontius governor of Syria. My sons ran my merchant business after I became a high-ranking member of the Sanhedrin; our wives and children had frequent interactions during social events or business transactions. Although he and I were mutually respectful of each other, he considered the religious community to be a pack of trouble-making hypocrites whom he wished he did not have to deal with. However, he had no choice in the matter because it was his job to manage and keep the peace in the region.

"As I entered his reception room, he and his wife were obviously agitated over the so-called trial of Jesus whom he had crucified as ‘King of the Jews.’ She knew the Jewish leaders had manipulated her husband, and she was warning him that no good would come from his part in the killing of Jesus.

"It was urgent that I recover His body from being thrown into the pile of dead bodies that were rotting in the common grave for the executed criminals. I requested His body be given to me in order to bury Him respectfully. Pilate asked me, ‘Why should I give you the body? What was He to you? Were you a friend or a follower?’

"‘No,’ I replied. ‘I am a close relative. His mother’s father and my father were brothers. My wife’s mother was His father’s cousin. His mother, Mary, has been a widow for many years, and she is not able to bury Him properly on her own.’

"However, Pilate wanted more information before he would agree. He ordered the centurion soldier to confirm that He was assuredly dead. As the centurion left the room, Pilate turned back to me and said, ‘Tell me more about this relative of yours. Who are your ancestors? Is there anyone I may have heard of?’

"I was not sure what I should say. After a short hesitation, I felt something in my spirit come forth with an answer. I replied, ‘King David had many sons. One of his sons was Solomon, and another of his sons was Nathan. God promised King David that his descendants would remain on the throne of the Jewish nation. Jesus’ mother, Mary, is of the line of Nathan. His father, Joseph, is of the line of Solomon.’

"Pilate’s eyes widened as he said, ‘I know of King David and of King Solomon. That must be why the religious Jewish leaders feared and hated Him. I am glad I had them write ‘King of the Jews’ over His cross, and I’m glad it irritated them when they saw it! I do not understand your people and their strange ways, but I do understand contempt and betrayal and those who practice it. You may have His body as soon as the centurion returns with the conformation of His death. I deplore being used by your people to murder Him.’

"I was extremely relieved when he agreed, but he quickly followed his permission with a stipulation. He commanded, ‘I do not want any more trouble from the Sanhedrin, and I do not want them accusing me of undermining their authority by allowing you to take the body. So they can’t say you hid Him and claim He is not dead, my soldiers will escort you to your tomb. They will verify that He is dead and that He was placed in the tomb. Then the tomb will be covered by rolling an enormous stone to cover the entry. The stone will then be sealed with a rope and wax. And I want it all in writing for the records.’

"I replied, ‘Thank you, Sir, but there is something else I must ask of you. It will be the Sabbath soon, and His body needs to be prepared, but we do not have time to do the entire ceremony now. So I will have to come back on the morning of the first day of the week to do that.’

"Pilate’s jaw tightened, and his face turned red as he shouted out, ‘Very well, you can go back on the morning of the first day of the week, and my men will be stationed at the tomb after it is sealed until you return to finish the burial ceremony!’

"When the centurion returned with the verdict of death, I followed him out after he received his orders from Pontius Pilate. We hurried back to the place where Mary was waiting with Jesus’ body, and we carried Him to the tomb that was nearby in the garden of my estate. It had just been completed by the craftsmen who carved it out of a solid mound of white sandstone.

"My old friend, Nicodemus, had purchased about seventy-five pounds of a mixture of myrrh, spices, and aloes. After taking His body off the cross, we took the spices and covered Jesus’ body with them, then we tenderly wrapped His body with strips of white linen cloth, over His head, face, and body. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. We all stood for a moment and looked at Him lying there on the cold slab. His mother’s face wore the look of stoic resignation, and Mary Magdalene could not hold back her tears. I put my arms around them and turned them to the opening of the tomb. Mary, the mother of Joses, as well as some others were waiting outside for us. After we left the tomb, I explained what the soldiers were going to do until we could return.

"I went back to be with my wife and family. Jesus’ mother went home with John. Mary Magdalene went home to be with Martha and Lazarus. I wondered where the other disciples were but did not want to dwell on why they had run away and denied knowing Jesus. Only God can be the judge of why they did that. This Passover would be like no other Passover we had ever known before. Jesus, the promised Lamb of God, had been sacrificed for atonement of our sins, and no other sacrifice would ever be required.

"The morning of the first day of the week came, and I met up with the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and some of the other women who had followed Jesus from Galilee. As soon as Mary Magdalene saw me, she told me she knew where the disciples were. I followed behind the women as they somberly walked down the dry, dusty path to the tomb. I was touched by their devotion to the man who had changed their lives and mine.

I was far behind when I saw the women running back up the path toward me. Mary Magdalene’s body trembled as she exclaimed, We saw an angel who said He is risen. The tomb is empty!" As I got closer, I could see the stone rolled away from the entrance to the tomb. The guards were lying about on the ground as though they were recovering from some sort of battle. However, there were no wounds, no blood, only flat on their backs barely able to move a muscle. Suddenly, they got up and ran away as soon as their strength came back to them. They ran to hide in safety because they knew their lives were in danger from the authorities who put them in charge of guarding the tomb.

"Mary and another woman ran to where the other disciples were to tell them what we had seen.

"That was just the beginning of the accusations that swirled about through the palace and courtyards of the governing rulers. Fear spread as people saw many strange things happen after the crucifixion.

"The followers said, ‘Praise God, Jesus has risen as He said He would.’

"Then He began showing Himself to many people for a period of forty days until He ascended into heaven, where He sits on the throne at the right hand of God.

Now, let us pray and thank God. I will tell you more when we meet again next Sunday. Please bow your heads with me.

We praise you All Mighty God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with your Word and has given us Jesus Christ our Messiah and commanded us to be the light to the world.

All said, Amen.

After the meeting was over and all the fellow believers finished up their midday meal, Joseph went home with Benjamin and his family to spend the rest of the day.

Benjamin lived in the largest of the two stone houses on the church compound with his wife Jazelle, three sons Joel, Mark, Ethan, and daughter Grace. Joseph would often spend time with them there.

That evening after their light evening meal was over, the family sat around the table together. The two youngest children sat next to their grandfather, Ethan on the left and Grace on the right. He read some from the Torah, then the children asked him to tell them more about his life in Jerusalem.

Ethan asked, Grandpa, tell us more about what happened after you found your tomb empty where Jesus had been laid when you found Him gone.

All right, Ethan, I will tell you some more, but you have to listen closely and remember everything I say because you and your brothers and sister will need to tell others about Jesus someday.

Joseph looked them both in the eyes and said, "The day after we found the empty tomb, I found Mary Magdalene, and we went to the place where the disciples and some other followers were staying. John had taken Jesus’ mother there, and they were all wondering what was going to happen next. The city was in chaos because Roman soldiers and the council guards were out searching for the body of Jesus and anyone who may have been involved with taking it. They were all nervous, and I was nervous as well because I was the person Pilate released His body to for burial. I dreaded what Pilate might do to me. I knew the Sanhedrin would blame me for taking the body, and I dreaded what they would do to me as well. Peter was downcast and could not stop talking about how he had denied knowing Jesus to several people, and he did nothing to stop the torture. Mary tried to console Peter and told him, ‘There was nothing you could have done, because He knew all along what was going to happen.’

"Peter said, ‘Remember what Jesus said to us the last time we were together in the upper room. Jesus said He would be betrayed, and He would die but would return after three days. I did not understand what He was talking about. He told us so many things, and we need to try remembering them, starting right now.’

"So we sat around and, one by one, repeating things He had told us. It was then that I realized the prophecy of Isaiah’s description of His death and burial was fulfilled and I was part of it. We all began to see things more clearly and understand what He meant. That went on for several hours, then suddenly, Jesus appeared to us. You can just imagine how terrified and shocked we were. The shock turned into great joy like something we had never felt before. He said, ‘Shalom Aleichem! Why are you so shaken? And why do doubts arise in your heart? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I, myself! Touch me and see! For a spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones, as you see I have.’

"We slowly moved toward Him and put our hands on Him. Then He said, ‘Do you have anything to eat?’ He ate and then said to us, ‘These are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you. Everything written concerning me in the Torah of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be