There seems to be a lot of waiting in Scripture. Abraham and Sarah waited for a promised child (Genesis 12-18).
The Israelites waited for many years to be freed from slavery (Exodus 1-12). Simeon, Anna, and others waited for the Messiah to come (Luke 2:25-38). The Hebrews had many words and phrases for “wait,” just as some Indigenous languages spoken in northern Canada have many ways to describe snow. Snow is a large part of life there. Waiting, it turns out, is a large part of life for God’s people.
As we read in our text, Joseph of Arimathea was waiting for the kingdom of God. But here, surprisingly, he was taking the dead body of Jesus down from a cross. Joseph had thought Jesus was bringing in God’s kingdom, but now he was dead. If Joseph could bring himself to pick up the work of waiting again, it would likely have been a defeated, hopeless sort of waiting.
Think of the women there as well. They probably assumed that Jesus’ work and teaching had come to nothing, that there was just a body to bury.
But as Joseph laid Jesus’ body in a tomb and the women prepared spices for Jesus’ burial, God was preparing something new that would change hopeless waiting into joy and peace.
