A WORD FOR TODAY, April 7, 2023
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, April 7, 2023
“My praise of you comes in the great assembly. I will pay my vows before those who fear him. The humble shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise Yahweh who seek after him. Let your hearts live forever. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to Yahweh. All the relatives of the nations shall worship before you. For the kingdom is Yahweh’s. He is the ruler over the nations. All the rich ones of the earth shall eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him, even he who can’t keep his soul alive. Posterity shall serve him. Future generations shall be told about the Lord. They shall come and shall declare his righteousness to a people that shall be born, for he has done it.” Psalm 22:25-31, WEB
It had been approximately thirty-three years since the birth of our Savior. For the last three years, He shared the Kingdom of God. He did many incredible things. He healed the sick, cast out demons, and fed thousands. He even raised the dead. He preached an old truth that was new to the people: God is merciful, full of forgiveness, and love. He also taught that following Him would not be easy, that He demands much from our lives.
After the Passover Seder dinner with His disciples, Jesus took them to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. For the next few hours, the world seemed in control. His disciples could barely stay awake and were confused when confronted by the crowds that came to arrest Him, led by His friend Judas. So that His accusers would not which man to arrest, Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. Peter tried to stop the arrest by wielding a sword, cutting the ear of a guard. Jesus healed the wound. The will of God would not be hindered by the desires of men. Jesus appeared before Caiaphas, the chief priest, so that the Sanhedrin could find some crime worthy of death. They found him guilty of blasphemy, but by Roman law, the Jews could not put a man to death.
The disciples scattered. They hid in the crowds, trying to see each moment, but afraid of being discovered. Peter warmed himself over a fire, trying to fit in to the crowd. Three people approached him and claimed they had seen him with Jesus. Three times, Peter denied knowing him, just as Jesus said. After the final denial, a rooster crowed, and Jesus looked directly at Peter. Peter wept bitterly because he knew that he had denied his Lord.
Jesus was taken before Pilate, the Roman governor. Pilate could find nothing against Rome that would be punishable by the death penalty. When Pilate discovered Jesus was from Galilee, he sent him to be tried by Herod. Pilate was anxious to be rid of this problem. His wife has seen in a dream that Pilate would be blamed for the death of this innocent man. Leaders from the temple were scattered in the crowd that watched the proceedings. He was taken to Herod who was quite excited about seeing Jesus face to face. He’d heard so much about the man; he wanted to see some mighty miracle performed before him. When Jesus would not prove himself, Herod humiliated Him and sent Him back to Pilate.
Pilate was around at the beginning of the week. He had seen how popular Jesus was with the people. He did not view Jesus as a threat, after all this was the Roman Empire. Who could destroy it? So, he went to the people. The crowd was easily agitated because events of the Passover did not go as they’d hoped. Scattered among the people were leaders from the temple, ready with a word to manipulate the crowd. When Pilate saw that Jesus was innocent, he asked the people if He should be freed. Someone yelled, ‘Crucify him.’ At this, the whole crowd went wild and began to yell for Jesus’ death. The final betrayal came when the people said, “We have no king but Caesar.” They showed Jesus that they did not even look to the Lord God Almighty as their King. Pilate tried three times to release Jesus, but he had no control over this situation. Jesus had to die.
Jesus was humiliated, beaten, and stripped of everything. They took His clothes and His dignity. They forced a cross onto His already sore and bleeding back and pushed Him on to Golgotha. When He fell under the heavy burden, they forced a man named Simon to carry it for Him. Other prisoners were taken with Him to the hill, each sentenced to die for their crimes. As He walked His final footsteps on this earth, He faced the women who were weeping over His fate. He told them to weep for themselves, because the time would come when they would face great suffering.
When they were hanging on their crosses, one thief begged Jesus to save them, but the other humbled Himself in repentance and accepted responsibility for the wrongs he had done. Jesus welcomed him to His kingdom. He saw His mother and the one disciple who stayed nearby. He gave Mary to John to care for the rest of her life, seeing to her welfare even in the midst of His pain. The soldiers mocked Jesus and tried to serve Him a poison that would bring death more quickly, but Jesus refused. He would control every moment. As Max Lucado so eloquently states, “He chose the nails.”
It is finished; Jesus Christ is dead. There is such finality to that statement. Jesus died at the ninth hour, 3:00 PM. The earth rocked with the anger of God. The ground shook and the rocks split. A centurion pierced Jesus in the side, and His blood spilled into the earth. The curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom. This curtain was not some flimsy piece of material like lace, easily ripped. It was thick, a wall like protective covering over the Most Holy Place, the dwelling of God Himself. Within the room which was covered by this curtain was the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat, the Throne of God. When Jesus died, God ripped the curtain from top to bottom, opening the way into His presence for all people, not just the High Priest. God would no longer live in a box.
Jesus died just hours before the Passover Sabbath was to begin. It was necessary for Him to be buried quickly for no one could do such work after sunset of that day. A temple leader named Joseph of Arimathea, who was a righteous man that did not agree with the verdict of the council, approached Pilate for the body of Jesus. He took the body, wrapped it in a new cloth and laid it in his own tomb, one that had never been used. The women watched as Jesus was laid in the tomb, so they would know where to go to properly prepare His body for permanent burial.
It is finished! But is it? The disciples were afraid, confused, angry, grief-stricken, uncertain. They hid from the world and mourned the loss of their beloved teacher and companion. Can you imagine the things they must have thought about and talked about? Who was Jesus? Why did He die? Why did we spend these years following Him? What will happen to us? Had we truly wasted three years of our lives? Is this really the end?
We know that the story of Jesus is not really finished, that there is hope for a tomorrow, but for now we grieve with the disciples as we wait for the day when we can say “Alleluia” again.
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