November 18, 2024: Monday Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 15:33-34
May joy in Jesus Christ fill your life today and always.
A reminder today especially, if you are able, please pray for Teri as she has her fourth same hip replacement today starting at approximately 12:30 and lasting for about three hours. Prayers of thanksgiving too that Jeff has gotten through his liver cancer surgery, and now we need to pray for his recovery and improvement in his quality of life. Please continue to pray for Kandice too as she battles cancer. Prayer is really making a difference in all of these people's lives.
I want to share a brief word with you this morning about the movement and wonderful surprise which God brings to us through his creation. Last week I was looking at the navel orange tree outside our dining room window seeing the beautiful fruit that was still green and growing larger. Today as I am working on our Bible Study, I looked at it once again. The oranges are a beautiful bright orange color! One week is all it took. The order of God's creation, to which we have been called as stewards, offers us all opportunities to see the power and wonder of the world that we have received as a gift from our Creator. I understand how and why those navel oranges change but it still amazes me. This fruit tree is one that Adam, Denise and Ron's son, got for us about 27 years ago during the time that he worked at a tree nursery. It is still producing wonderful, sweet large oranges this year. Adam is now a Reed Park Zoo dietary animal care specialist here in Tucson. Thanks so much Adam for selecting this tree for us, and for being such a good friend to our children who now are middle-aged adults just like you!
Today's reading from Mark is probably the one for which we have waited, and at the same time, is the very hardest for us to read, reminding us of our own sin and brokenness, and taking us back to all of those Good Friday worship services during which this is one of the Scriptures that is read. I know why Jesus did this for us, but I remain amazed and filled with thanksgiving for the mighty gifts that His sacrifice brings to each and every person who has come to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Today we will break down this passage and focus on the people, the scene, and the difficult words of Christ from the cross. Though Mark has chosen to not share with us the gruesome reality Christ's being placed on the cross, we all know how horrific it was, so much so that many of us are brought to tears as we read Mark's description and realize the power of Christ's love and faith-courage that made Him humble Himself before the Father to save us all.
Perhaps the most difficult of the words which Christ speaks from the cross, are "My God, My God, why have your forsaken me!" If you are like me, you must be drawn into wondering what in the world this might mean. Did God really leave Jesus as He suffered on the Cross? Or is there something else that we must consider. What we must realize is that Christ is experiencing the terror of what sin means in death for those who have not accepted Christ's salvific acts on the cross. Sin is, simply and terribly, separation from God now and in the next life. Without Christ, we must know that this separation would be ours, total, complete, darkness, a void of nothingness! But through our faith in the Savior, we will instead know the light of Christ with us throughout eternity. But in that moment on the cross, our sins, which Christ is bearing, have shown Him that absence and void, however briefly. It was enough for Him to come to know that separation and its horror. The second thing that Jesus says in Mark is a loud shout at the end of His life as He takes His final breaths Both Matthew and Luke speak to this shout as well, but John tells us something else about it. The author of John writes that Jesus says, "It is finished". What is finished? It was the task to which Christ had been called, and during which he humbled Himself before Our Father. It was His work to bring us life, free from the burden of our sin, which in reality could only come from the Perfect One of God, Jesus Christ, when he became the Once and for All Atonement for our brokenness, which brought to all believers the sole way to be right with God now and forever, with sins carried and forgiven by our Lord and Savior, Jesus.
There was also a bystander, if you will, a person who was there for the "show". He had no care for anyone who was dying on those Roman crosses. He was there only for the spectacle. He was a person who was looking for verification, proof, that Jesus was God's Son, and that is why he says to wait in giving Jesus any aid, to just see if Elijah will show up to take Jesus down from the cross. My best guess is that he was a non-believer who wanted verification of his doubt.
There were plenty of Roman soldiers around Golgotha that day, keeping guard, and making certain that no one would try to take anyone down who was sentenced to death on their cross. But this one, this one is different. In the midst of all of the moaning and grief of the family and friends of these crucified men, this Centurion came to know that Christ was indeed God's son. The only way that could happen was if he was moved by the Holy Spirit, so his eyes had been opened, as well as his heart and mind. I think that we have to realize that these soldiers, no matter the brutality which they took out on Jesus, probably wanted peace so that they could go home, and here in front of this soldier was the one who could really do it!
Off to the side of all of the action in the area of the crucifixion were the women who loved Jesus, and who were committed to his ministry. In the Rock Opera, Jesus Christ Super Star, Mary Magdalene says it all as she sings, "I don't know how to love Him". When only one of the disciples, and perhaps Mark himself hanging around in the distance, as it appears he so often did, had come to offer support and love for their master, the women remained steadfast just in case there was anything that they might be able to do to help Jesus. From these women we learn that it is only love which can give us a hold on Christ. That is so true for all of us too. Our mutual relationship with the Triune God is found in the fullness of the Love of God for us, and of our love for God!
In addition to the people near Christ's Cross, in the Temple, so far away from that place of death and terror, there was another action of God taking place. The Holy of Holies was, for the first time, opened to all people when the veil that surrounded "God's Place" was completely torn in half from top to bottom. No longer would God be shrouded in such unapproachable mystery behind that vail. Finally, in the completion of God's charge to Christ to pay the penalty for the sins of people and all of His Creation's brokenness too, Christ reveals for all time God's true nature. We read Scripture so that we might know too. We sing a song with the words, "He Came Down that We Might Know Love". To know the Christ of God is most certainly to know God's Love.
Thanks for being with me today. I will be back with you tomorrow.
With love for Christ's children and all of the rest, Pastor Kim
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