The death and burial of Yeshua the Messiah is, in many ways, a unique event in world history. It also has some very mysterious aspects. Here, the amazing signs come into view. There was a piercing darkness blotting out the sun from the time Yeshua was hanged upon the cross at noon, until the time of His death, around 3. When He died the event was accompanied by a fierce earthquake that literally raised some of the dead, and shattered stone buildings in the area. And of course, the huge veil of the Temple was torn asunder, from top to bottom, as if by an unseen hand of amazing force. Finally, the eerie visage of an apocalyptic blood red moon shook the sensibilities on that uniquely mournful night. In times past some have sought relief from the implications of these signs by calling them myth and legend. However, modern science as well as ancient witnesses prove the truthfulness of these events, leaving the world with no excuse. This was the Son of God who died, killed by a wayward and wicked world. There is guilt here, and a price to be paid.

And what about the strange burial? The wealthy and influential Sanhedrin member, Joseph of Arimathaea, makes his appearance here, as if out of nowhere, having not been introduced before this point in any of the four Gospel accounts. Yet, in this place, he is mentioned by all four! Not only that, but he enters the picture with amazing authority before Pilate, to claim the body of the Lord for burial. Further, he takes total control of all aspects of the burial and even inters the Lord in His own freshly hewn tomb! This seems a startling and powerful introduction for a man of great promise for the future among the early disciples. Yet, after this one incident he is NEVER mentioned again. Who is this man, anyway, and why is he supervising the solemn task of the faithful women who prepared Yeshua's body?

The death of Yeshua Messiah has had an awesome effect on all of us. However, those disciples who witnessed that death, and were a part of its aftermath, were effected by it in a uniquely personal way. The women who gently cleaned the lifeless corpse, and lovingly applied scented spices and flowers mingled with their own tears, and finally stood there and watched as the massive stone was rolled in front of the tomb, and who later saw Him alive again! - what became of them? Why do we not hear of them as the years progress in the book of Acts? Surely, those who were so directly involved with Him at His death are deserving of further mention thereafter. How is it, like Joseph of Arimathaea, they just seem to vanish from the pages of Scripture? Is this not a mystery?

Every good mystery provokes both research for facts and fanciful imagination. Over time facts and/or speculations become blurred and stories and legends emerge through the fog of time. This happened with Joseph of Arimathaea, with legends and stories placing him about as far away from his Judean homeland that one could get, on the very farthest edge of the world, in ancient Britannia. Surely, such a thought boggles the mind. By the middle ages this legend had become part of the mythical landscape of England. Robert de Boron, like other writers of the middle ages, wrote of an earlier time in the Isles, of a king named Arthur and of his knights of the Roundtable. In his 12th century work, Joseph d'Arimathie, Boron offered an answer to the mystery of what became of Joseph of Arimathaea. In Boron's story Joseph of Arimathaea acquired the chalice of the Last Supper to collect Christ's blood upon his removal from the cross. This chalice Boron calls the "holy Grail." In the story, Joseph gathered others around him and sailed west, eventually making his way to a place in the Isles called Avalon. There, Boron says, Joseph raised up a dynasty of Grail keepers that eventually included the brave knight of the story, Perceval. Yes, the Arthurian legend and the mythical quest for the Holy Grail were said to have started with Joseph of Arimathaea!  

Shalom,

Eliyahu
Tsiyon.Org