Such was Joseph of Arimathea, and such are many young people of many towns and villages today. They would not like their friends to know that they were followers of Jesus. They might be ridiculed, or, perhaps, persecuted; therefore, they are ashamed to own the Lord who died for them upon the cross.
The evening when Joseph came to Pilate, and brought the body of Jesus, was the turning-point of his life. The sight of the Lord’s death, and of His sufferings, made Joseph brave for Christ; and so it will each one who is now “a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear”! We know of some young people who, for two or three years, have kept the secret of their being disciples of Jesus from their own parents and nearest friends. They did not like it to be known, lest they should lose the enjoyment of the things in life which they valued. We say to the “disciples of Jesus, but secretly for fear,” look you at your crucified Lord! See His wounds for you! Remember how He endured the shame and the spitting on your account. And the more you think of Him dying on the cross, the more often do you say, “Lord, it was all for me, all for me!”