"38 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. 39 Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. 40 So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. 41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. 42 So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there."
John 19:38-42
The last verses of the chapter recount the burial of Jesus. We should bear in mind that when Paul expounds the basic message of the gospel he also lays emphasis on the burial of Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:4). The burial comes into the gospel, as if to underline the fact that Jesus really died, and that when He was raised, it was not a resuscitation but a resurrection that took place. There is a strange sort of paradox in 38, Joseph was a secret disciple, for fear of the Jews. Yet one would have thought that this was the most dangerous action of all for him to have taken at such a critical juncture. To declare himself openly as a disciple then, of all times, was surely perilous in the extreme. Yet the death of Christ drew him right out into the open, for weal or woe. This is yet another evidence of the truth of Jesus words in 12:32, 'if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me'. We see the same power at work in the case of Nicodemus (39). He who came to Jesus by night, now comes in broad daylight, declaring his interest, and showing the abandonment of his heart to the crucified Saviour in the lavishness of the provision he makes for the burial. So great is the power of the cross to change men's hearts and draw them to open and unhesitating commitment to the Son of God!