It’s amazing how different people react to the same situation in totally different ways. For instance, put two men in prison for the same crime. One is deeply remorseful and serves his sentence as a model prisoner and, after his release, lives an exemplary life. The other man becomes hardened, embittered, spends his time in jail perfecting his criminal skills, and, when released, embarks on even more vicious criminal acts.

At a recent Bible Study  time did not allow us to consider in detail John 12:42, “many of the chief rulers believed in Him…..but because of the Pharisees did not confess it”.  Amongst this group would be Nicodemus, Joseph, and others like them. Their concern was that if they did express a trust in the Lord Jesus they would be excommunicated – put out of the synagogue (see John 7:13, 48; 9:22, 34). They were convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, but at this stage in their lives they “loved the praise of men more than praise of God” (John 12:43).

When the Lord Jesus was crucified, the disciples went into hiding. Fear and despair gripped them; self-preservation and survival dominated their thinking. They had publicly associated with the Lord for over three years, but now out of fear they fled. Meanwhile, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus the Pharisee moved in the opposite direction. Previously in hiding as far as their commitment to Jesus was concerned, they came forward at last after Jesus was crucified. Nicodemus is carefully identified as “the man who had come to Jesus at night” (John 19:39). When he went to the Lord (John 3), he had desired to know more. But he had difficulty understanding, or accepting, what the Lord told him—namely, that “unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3). We don’t know if Nicodemus made a definite response to the Lord’s message at that time, but we do know that he subsequently took a bold stand in challenging the attempts to arrest Jesus being carried out by the ruling Council, of which Nicodemus was a member (John 7:50). There is every reason to believe that, by the time Jesus was put to death, Nicodemus was one of his disciples.

Joseph of Arimathea, also a member of the ruling Council, had been “waiting for the Kingdom of God to come” (Luke 23:51). In fact, he “had been a disciple of Jesus secretly for fear of the Jews” (John 19:38). Yet by the time of Jesus’ death, he, too, was willing to take a stand—he refused to go along with the decisions and actions of the other religious leaders (Luke 23:51). We are told “he went in boldly unto Pilate” (Mar 15:43). This act would without doubt identify him for the first time with the disciples of Christ. When Jesus was alive he had merely refrained from condemning Him, but now having seen the events of Calvary, (the behaviour and words of Jesus, the darkness, the earthquake, the torn veil), he had the courage to go in personally to the Roman governor, and ask permission to take down the body and bury it. If this be the first instance of lives being changed by Christ’s death on the Cross it is not the last.

At what point these two men of conviction and character came to the point of commitment to the Lord we are not told.  There is a hint that Nicodemus and Joseph gradually came to recognise that their secret belief needed to be expressed in action. The dreadful events of Jesus’ execution gave them the opportunity. They took it! There comes a time when fear must be overcome by love and conviction. Nicodemus and Joseph showed how, while sadly the disciples, at that moment of time, fled.

Every secret believer needs to study the cross of Christ. It will turn such a one into a bold "witnesser" for Christ.