Joseph of Arimathea
The actions of Joseph of Arimathea are totally selfless, courageous, and noble. His request of Pilate for Jesus’s body, and then his burial of that body, is the act of a great man. I look forward to meeting him in glory.
What act of selfless integrity can you perform today?
For more on Joseph, this is from an entry in The Anchor Bible Dictionary (a fancy new multi-volume encyclopedia I just got):
“According to Roman law execution signaled the sacrifice of all of the victim’s earthly possessions and left the right of burial only to the good favor of the magistrate, although the body was often released to relatives. Jewish law on the contrary held that burial was a duty to be performed even for enemies, and according to Deut 21:23 and rabbinic law the body was not to hang on a cross after sundown. Joseph, as a leader of the Jews, and out of respect for Jewish law, especially in light of his apparent dissent from the voting for Jesus’ execution (Luke 23:51), and possibly as a favor to Jesus’ followers and as a friend of Pilate, felt compelled to request from Pilate the right to bury him. But this motive faces the difficulty of why Joseph would have risked ceremonial uncleanness; perhaps servants helped him; to say nothing of his political and religious careers (John 19:38; cf. Mark 15:43, where Joseph “took courage” to go to Pilate), for such a criminal as Jesus. As depicted in the Gospels, Joseph at the least probably felt that Jesus’ message of the coming of the kingdom warranted this one final act of devotion, with Matthew seeing this as a further sign of Joseph’s being a follower. The NT documents agree that Joseph, with help from others (though no family members), prepared and laid Jesus’ body in a tomb and rolled a stone across the opening.”
from “Joseph of Arimathea”, in The Anchor Bible Dictionary