Mark 15:34-37 A sponge full of wine
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: May 5, 2018, Mark 15:34-37
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, eloi, lema sabachthani?” , which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the people standing there heard this, they said, “Listen! He’s calling for Elijah!” So someone ran and soaked a sponge in some sour wine. Then he put it on a stick and offered Jesus a drink, saying, “Wait! Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down!” Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.
(Understanding the Text) It was dark, but still some of Jesus’ enemies were standing around watching Him die. Others were His friends. Some may have been passers-by who stopped to see why so many people were watching a crucifixion, especially why some Pharisees and priests were there. The high priests had probably gone home to the comforts of their wealth and privilege, but I’m sure that they left some representatives behind who were ordered to make sure Jesus died. I believe that in their hearts was probably a fear that what they were doing would somehow turn around and hurt them. The evidence of this is in the seal and the soldiers guarding the tomb. They understood some of the prophecies that Jesus had voiced even if His own disciples did not.
The words that Jesus cried out sounded to some of them like He was calling out for Elijah. I guess Elijah was on their mind, so when Jesus called Eloi, they heard Elijah. Someone ran and soaked a sponge in some sour wine. In Luke, it says that the soldiers had already offered Jesus sour wine, but as a mockery. “The soldiers also made fun of Jesus by coming up and offering him sour wine, saying, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!” (Luke 23:36-37). We are not told if they actually tried to give Him a drink or if they just pretended to give it to Him. They had heard some of the stories of Jesus’ miracles from people standing around speaking, yet they held Judaism itself in contempt, so they just joined in the mockery as much to poke at the Jews as at Jesus. John gives us a detail about the later offering of wine that is written of in Mark. “After this, when Jesus realized that everything was now completed, he said (in order to fulfill the Scripture), “I’m thirsty.” A jar of sour wine was standing there, so they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth.” (John 19:28-29). Thus, the person who ran to get the wine was responding to Jesus’ comment of thirst. However, he was interfered with by others who thought Jesus had called for Elijah and wanted to see if there would be a supernatural response to Jesus’ cry. This tells me that whoever ran to get the wine was not a soldier, but a servant or friend of Jesus.
On the other hand, it could have gone down that the surrounding people said that Jesus had cried out for Elijah, and a soldier asked who Elijah was. When he learned that in the Jewish religion Elijah had never died but been taken up into heaven, he wanted to see if anything more supernatural would happen because there was already the strange darkness, so he stopped the offerer of the wine, who may have been a soldier or servant or friend of Jesus, from giving Jesus a drink. I still think it was a friend or servant because of the fact that he ran to get the wine. Running seems to signal eagerness to help.
John 19 tells us that eventually they held the sponge of wine to Jesus’ mouth. Then we are told, “After Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and released his spirit” (John 19:30). In Mark, we see the part of the story of someone from farther away who heard the loud shout to the Father and the crowd’s comments and saw the runner for wine and observed people obstructing him from giving the wine to Jesus. Was Peter or James there staying farther back and watching? It would make sense to me that James might have been there and told Peter about it later in the room where they were hiding. On the other hand, I think Mark gives us a clue as to who these witnesses were. “Now there were women watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of young James and Joseph, and Salome” (Mark 15:40). Mary Magdalene and the other women may well have been the source of Mark’s information about the crucifixion. I can think of no other reason for Mark to mention them specifically by name here. Being women, they would not have been able to get closer. Mary the mother of Jesus could be closer as she was Jesus’ mother and because John was there with her to be an escort, but the others had no claim to take a space near to the crosses, so they came as close as they were allowed.
Whoever it was, was not as near to Jesus as John. John and Mary were right up front next to the cross. John saw Jesus drink a little and say, “It is finished” before bowing his head and dying. Mark’s witness was not close enough to see the details or clearly hear the last words. All Mark’s witness could make out of the last words was that it was a loud cry of some kind just before Jesus died.
I think Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were there also. They had probably arrived too late for the council that condemned Jesus and as they watched their fellow Pharisees mock Jesus and display satisfaction for the torture of a man they admired, their hearts grew colder and colder towards their fellow Pharisees and council members. In their souls was a burning conviction that the council that they were members of was now condemned by God. They watched Jesus and saw the darkness. They heard the shout and knew it to be to God not Elijah. They heard the last resounding cry of Jesus that “It is Finished” and felt the earthquake. They knew that something important had happened without knowing exactly what, but conviction overtook them that they had to cut their ties with the apostate council and show allegiance to the crucified Messiah. They consulted with each other and understood that because of their late decision, the only thing that they could offer was an honored burial rather than a condemned man’s grave.
(Revelation of God / Application) Who else was watching in the crowd? Was Simon still there? It must have been quite a crowd who stood there for six hours or more. They all witnessed Jesus on the cross and His death. This was important. There were friends and foes and uncommitted people in that crowd of witnesses. They saw from different viewpoints the most heinous act of all the terrible acts that sinful humans had performed in their history of rebellion. They saw human beings torture and destroy their own Creator. They also saw that Creator’s love being so great that He allowed that torture and destruction so that He could recreate His fallen children. We have gone horribly wrong in our development, but because of Jesus’ sacrifice, there is a chance for us to be different. We can be created anew through Jesus. It is not a quick process, but a gradual painstaking one. Why? Because God values who we are and would not destroy our personality. There is no other like me, and God doesn’t want an imitation me in His kingdom. He wants me. He is fixing the broken pieces without breaking the Me that I am inside. He is healing the hurt and violation while maintaining the individual that I am. He is infinitely more patient than me in this process. When Jesus declared, “It is finished,” He was declaring that I could be transformed because He had so identified Himself with me that I could become identified with Him in return. I could reconnect with God and survive and thrive and become a child of heaven as I was meant to be from the beginning.
(Prayer) Please, don’t let me waste Your sacrifice. I want You to transform me so that Your death is not wasted on me. I want to be close to You and never let You go, but I am so weak in faith and love. Hold me tight.