The Sign

A Series on Lent
The stories of Passion Week – Jesus
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
John 19:1-37 

[Lent is a 40-day season of personal reflection with the purpose to prepare your heart to celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection at Easter. In this series on Lent, we will be looking into the stories of Passion Week. How the people who were directly involved were impacted and how that applies to us today.]

 

Twice a week I’ve been going to a Silver Sneakers exercise class at a nearby gym. When walking through the weightlifting room I often see many of the same people working out.

 

For some, it’s easy to tell that they work out regularly. Their biceps are huge, their chest is broad, and their thighs are thick. Apparently, they take to heart some signs in the gym that proclaim: “NO PAIN. NO GAIN”!

 

Jesus was subjected to intense pain – physical, emotional and spiritual. During his trial before Pilate, the Roman guards mocked him as the king of the Jews. They placed a crown of thorns and a purple robe on him. They slapped him in the face. Finally, they flogged him, which is the usual punishment preceding crucifixion.

 

Several times during the trial, Pilate tried to convince the chief priests to drop their charges. He told them multiple times that he found “no basis for a charge against him”. Yet the chief priests persisted. They were relentless and would stop at nothing to get what they wanted… Jesus crucified.

 

Finally, there was a climactic confrontation between Pilate and the chief priests. They must have worked themselves into a fighting frenzy because they proclaimed a political alliance that would hurt them in the synagogue. Here’s what happened when Pilate presented Jesus as their king.

 

^14b “Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.

¹⁵ But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”

“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.              NIV

 

Jesus had come to replace the sacrificial system that had been in place since the time of Moses. The chief priests saw Jesus as a threat to their position of power, and found a way to eliminate him. But in so doing, they actually facilitated the very change that he came to make.

 

¹² With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.                        NLT

                                                                                    Hebrews 9

 

While Jesus hung from the cross suffering a painful death, the Roman guards callously gambled to win his clothing. Mary, Jesus’ mother, stood nearby possibly over hearing their course conversation. Following this, Jesus said something that could send chills down your spine.

 

³⁴ And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (Which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).                  NIV                  Mark 15

 

Like the sign at my gym, Jesus had his own sign.

 

¹⁹ And Pilate posted a sign on the cross that read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” ²⁰ The place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, so that many people could read it.    NLT

 

Figuratively speaking, the sign can still be read today in significantly more languages. The truth of the sign remains unchanged. However, it’s not a sign for us to just read, but to change our life as a follower of Jesus, the King of kings.

 

For he is risen. He is risen indeed!

 

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

 

With Him I am Well Pleased

(7^th in a series on Lent)

Mark 15:33-41 & Hebrews 12:1-3

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2015%3A33-41&version=NIV;GNT

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%2012%3A1-3&version=NIV;GNT

  

When I was a little boy, there was nobody more important to me than my Dad. Above everybody else, I needed his love and affirmation.

 

 

 

If I felt his rejection, I could easily be moved to tears. All he had to do was raise his voice and I would be hurt. If he spanked me I would cry, not because of the physical pain, but because I felt unloved.

 

³³ At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. ³⁴ And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”)… ³⁷ With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.      NIV

 

Jesus suffered unimaginable torture and pain before he even got to the cross. Crucifying someone was not only a shameful death, but it was an excruciatingly painful death. He had hung on the cross for three hours before he spoke these words. Was he referring to his physical pain? I don’t think so.

 

I believe at the moment Jesus spoke these words, he was experiencing the total rejection of, and separation from his Heavenly Father; the same one whom he had been completely obedient to despite being fully human; the same one who Jesus spoke of as “if you have seen me, you have seen the Father”.

 

Complete and total rejection from the one who he desired to please the most. His Father turned his back on him at the time that He was needed the most. Jesus suffered, with his eyes focused on the other side of his crucifixion when he would once again experience the love and union with the One who he loved the most.

 

² Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. He did not give up because of the cross! On the contrary, because of the joy that was waiting for him, he thought nothing of the disgrace of dying on the cross, and he is now seated at the right side of God's throne. GNT

 

Jesus smiles now because he hears these words: “This is my son whom I love. With him I am well pleased.” Nothing can be sweeter than to hear our Heavenly Father speak these same words to us.

 

  

 

 

 

 

(If God has spoken to you through this blog, please feel free to share it with others.)

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