This is a devotional with my thoughts added to verses from the Bible. I highly encourage you to dig into the word with your own thoughts. The Daily Devotion series is one way to do this. However, I know that sometimes we want to read other people’s ideas about Bible passages, so I am starting the Everyday series. I hope and pray that these posts will draw you nearer to Jesus.
DAY 4–Remember to pray before you begin.
Mark 15:22-28 The Crucifixion
They brought him to the place called Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, “The place of a skull.” They offered him wine mixed with myrrh to drink, but he didn’t take it. Crucifying him, they parted his garments among them, casting lots on them, what each should take. It was the third hour, and they crucified him. The superscription of his accusation was written over him, “THE KING OF THE JEWS.” With him they crucified two robbers; one on his right hand, and one on his left. The Scripture was fulfilled, which says, “He was counted with transgressors.”
The third hour is nine o’clock in the morning. Jesus would die at 3:00 p.m., which means that Jesus lived for about six hours after being nailed to the cross. Here at the beginning of that torture, Jesus was offered wine mixed with myrrh. Some of the women of Jerusalem had made it their mission to mercifully offer drugged wine to criminals who were about to be crucified. They wanted to dull the pain. Jesus refused to have His senses overpowered by the drugged wine. Later, Jesus would accept sour wine when He thirsted, but He was unwilling to lose Himself in medication when He was on such an important mission.
The upright posts of the crosses were permanently placed, which makes sense when one considers all the work involved in putting something upright in the ground from digging the hole to tamping everything down so that it stands firmly upright. Thus, the prisoners carried only their own crossbeam, not the full cross. When they arrived at the place of execution, their clothes were removed and their hands were nailed to the crossbeam. Then, the crossbeam was lifted into place on the upright. The upright post had some kind of peg that the victim sat on. The purpose was to protect the pierced hands from being torn away from the nails when the crossbeam was hung upon the upright. Then the feet were fastened to the upright post with cords or nails. Crosses were not as high off the ground as we usually imagine. This would have put Jesus closer to both the scornful mockers and to loyal John and Jesus’ mother Mary.
After all the prisoners were in place on the crosses, the only job left to do was to decide who would receive the clothes. The soldiers threw “dice” or gambled to see who would receive Jesus’ robe. John gives more details about this act since he was there to see it. “Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also the coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. Then they said to one another, ‘Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to decide whose it will be,’ that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which says, ‘They parted my garments among them. For my cloak they cast lots.’ Therefore the soldiers did these things” (John 19:23-24). John is referring to a remarkable psalm which prophetically recorded this act along with other details of this day. Psalm 22:18 says “They divide my garments among them. They cast lots for my clothing.”
Whenever prisoners were sent to be crucified, a sign with the charge against them was taken along also. Either they carried it hung around their necks, or a herald would carry it before them. In the case of a cross where the upright extended above the crossbeam, the sign was hung above the prisoner’s head. This is one reason that we know which of the different kinds of crosses Jesus died upon. The sign for Jesus said, “The King of the Jews”. Pilate would have been the person who told the soldiers the charge that should appear on the sign. The priests objected to the sign. “Pilate wrote a title also, and put it on the cross. There was written, “JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” Therefore many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. The chief priests of the Jews therefore said to Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘he said, “I am King of the Jews.”’ Pilate answered, ‘What I have written, I have written’” (John 19:19-22). The sign was supposed to be an accusation and a reason for condemnation, yet in reality, it was simple truth. It is funny how God can take our worst condemnations and insults and transform them into blessings. Even the cross was changed from an emblem of shame and dread into a symbol of hope and love.
There are no words that can express the gratitude that we humans should have for Jesus’ choice to die for us. The cross is beyond our depth of understanding. Yes, we can understand the physical aspects and even someone choosing to die for a person that they love, but Jesus chose much more than the cross. He chose to become the very evil that He abhorred with every fiber of His being in order to redeem us. That is what we cannot comprehend with our selfish hearts. We cannot understand it, but we can offer our praise and gratitude to our Lord for His choice.
DAY 5–Remember to pray before you begin.
Mark 15:29-32 He Can’t Save Himself!
Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads, and saying, “Ha! You who destroy the temple, and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!” Likewise, also the chief priests mocking among themselves with the scribes said, “He saved others. He can’t save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, that we may see and believe him.” Those who were crucified with him also insulted him.
In these modern days, it is difficult to comprehend how anyone could stand around watching a man die a slow torturous death and mock him to his face as he died. The high priests and scribes who claimed to represent our loving God exposed who they truly worshipped that day. Their cruelty and satisfaction as they watched the God they claimed to serve die a painful humiliating death on the cross because of their own actions demonstrated that they did not serve the Lord of heaven, but rather the liar and betrayer, Satan.
We rightly condemn the religious leaders who mocked Jesus, but do we feel the same shock when our own friends and political groups are unmoved by other people’s pain? How have people become so callous? Frequently, distance is the cause. People can divorce themselves from feeling sympathy because they do not have to look at the victims that they mock and condemn to their faces. The victims are not real humans to them. Many people mask their cruelty in humor or statements of principle that show no mercy. In the past, people tended to hold back their insults when the one they hated was in pain. However, in recent years, even this slight mercy seems to have disappeared. There is a spirit of hurtfulness spreading throughout the world, and people are justifying cruelty rather than condemning it.
All the people who passed by Golgotha had the same theme: “Save yourself.” They were not saying this of their own volition. Satan was speaking through their mouths in an attempt to lead Jesus to selfishness, to stop Himself from dying for us. Satan seems to have been sure that if he just put enough pressure on Jesus, He would leave humans to their old master. When Satan realized that Jesus was going through with His sacrifice to the bitter end, Lucifer started pushing even harder. “Save yourself.”
The cross is a lesson in how even in the midst of the worst situation, God’s work is still being accomplished, and God’s light is shining through the darkness. The taunts demonstrate that Satan himself has no clue about God’s character and that he believes many of his own lies. “Save yourself” would not tempt the Savior of the world to come down. Instead, seeing the cruel beasts that the priests and scribes had become and knowing the potential of who they could have been, it would have inspired Jesus to continue. Hearing the thieves carrying on with their bitterness in the face of death would have been encouragement to persevere with His plan to save humanity. When one of those thieves saw Jesus’ mercy and grasped the hope he saw in the middle man hanging on a cross, Jesus had all the encouragement He needed to proceed with the horrible ugly fate that he was experiencing and the further pain that was still to come.
Most people do not understand that in mocking or trying to discredit someone, a critic can make a profound statement of truth in support of that person. The high priests and scribes proclaimed, “He saved others but can’t save himself!” They thought they were confidently producing reasons as to why Jesus could not be the Messiah, but in reality, they were announcing a great truth that proved Jesus was the Messiah. Yes, Jesus did save others, but in order to do so, He could not save Himself. Jesus had to choose to lose Himself in order to save us. Here is the conclusive proof of His Messiahship.
The religious leaders who condemned Jesus acknowledged Jesus’ work in saving others. It should have been their responsibility to offer salvation to their own people and to the world, but instead they only valued their positions of power and prestige. They were Jesus’ representatives on earth, yet they not only did not acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and Master, they also did not have the first idea as to what the job they had spent so much effort and money obtaining was about. They thought they had power and did not have a clue that true power was being demonstrated right in front of their eyes on the cross. They prided themselves in their education and intelligence, yet they did not have the mental capacity to comprehend the significance of the scene in front of them. They were witnessing the salvation of the world and the ending of the system of sacrifices that they led. They were watching the official termination of their own positions. Powers and principalities in heaven itself were observing this horrible, yet necessary, process unfold with respect because they knew the importance of what was taking place while the high priests and scribes looked on with mocking nonsense that ended up saying the very essence of what was happening. Jesus was saving others–we humans–so He could not save Himself.
DAY 6–Remember to pray before you begin.
Mark 15:33-34 Darkness
When the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. At the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is, being interpreted, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus was put on the cross at nine in the morning, but darkness did not cover the land until three hours later at noon. Why the time delay? Maybe, it was necessary for the Father not to interfere before that time in order to allow the universe to understand how Satan and his rebellion would treat the Beloved Son. The cross demonstrated the depths to which Satan had sunk and showed God’s gracious character clearly contrasted with His enemies’ cruelty. The cross showed the universe the results of rebellion. However, a time came when it was no longer about the need for all of creation to witness the ultimate act of war. Instead, it became about the Father, Son, and Spirit being torn apart. At that point, there was no need for witnesses and interactions with sinners. It was only about God being torn apart. Thus, the Father did the only thing He could to protect the Son. He hid His agony in darkness.
For three hours, the day remained dark. Some might attempt to explain the blackness away as a solar eclipse, but we know when and where eclipses have happened, and there was no eclipse that day. Instead, this overshadowing came from God. The Father hated what was happening to His Son even though the plan itself proceeded from heaven, so God shrouded the light of day. The Pharisees were finally receiving what they had asked for several times—a sign in the heavens. Did the sign bring them to faith? Not for those who had been demanding signs, but maybe some people were moved to faith by the darkness.
Jesus finally could not bear the distance from His Father. He was split down the middle and as a child, He cried out for His Abba. The process of tearing Himself apart from His Father was now complete, and Jesus’ humanity cried out in despair for the missing part of Himself. Jesus knew why this was happening, so it was not a cry of confusion, but instead it was a cry of a lover for His missing beloved . . . the cry of a husband mourning His dead wife . . . the cry of a bewildered pet grieving for its missing master. The cry rang out because this painful separation was too sorrowful to bear in silence.
Jesus’ cry on the cross speaks of the close powerful relationship between the Father and the Son. This is also our guidance in our own relationship with God. We need to be closer to Jesus than to anyone on earth. In one place, Jesus spoke of how loving our family more than Him made us unworthy of Him (Matthew 10:37). Our love for Jesus takes nothing away from our friends and family. When Jesus becomes the most important love that we have, we will be able to love others better. Our love for Jesus will allow us to not blame those on earth that we love for their desertions and failings because we are never alone when we have our Savior close to us.
This fateful day that we look on as a day of triumph for humanity and for God over Satan was won through a battle so painful that it wrung a cry of anguish from deep inside the very heart of God. The darkness and pain of the day was shared by the whole universe and yet it was singular in the lonely heart of Jesus as He experienced the final breaking apart of His very being. In the end, He experienced a pain that cut through Him to the core and left Him for the first time in His eternal existence . . . alone.
DAY 7–Remember to pray before you begin.
Mark 15:34-37 A Sponge Full of Wine
At the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is, being interpreted, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Some of those who stood by, when they heard it, said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” One ran, and filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Let him be. Let’s see whether Elijah comes to take him down.” Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and gave up the spirit.
Darkness covered the area, but still some of Jesus’ enemies remained to watch Him die. Other observers who were present loved Jesus and mourned His suffering. Still other bystanders may have been passers-by who stopped out of curiosity to see why so many people were gathered for a crucifixion, especially why some Pharisees and priests were there. One of the crowd felt pity for the suffering Man on the cross and attempted to offer Him a drink. However, some of the more hardened onlookers intervened saying to wait and see if something miraculous would occur. How pitiful we humans can be. We see pain and callously stand back discussing the situation rather than running to help the suffering victim. We critique the victim’s words and actions rather than showing mercy. Often, we act no differently than Jesus’ enemies. John tells us that the callous observers’ interference was ineffective and eventually the sponge of wine was held to Jesus’ mouth. Then we are told, “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, ‘It is finished.’ He bowed his head, and gave up his spirit” (John 19:30).
It must have been quite a large crowd who stood there for six hours. They all witnessed Jesus on the cross and His death. This was important. The sacrifice given for humanity would not be covered up or forgotten with such witnesses. There were friends and foes and uncommitted people in that crowd of onlookers. They watched from different perspectives 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 was so great that He allowed that torture and destruction in order to He 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 creature like you, and God does not want an imitation you in His kingdom. He wants you. He is fixing the broken pieces without breaking the you that is inside. He is healing your hurt and violation while maintaining the individual that you are. He is infinitely more patient than you in this process. When Jesus declared, “It is finished,” He was declaring that you could be transformed because He had so identified Himself with you that you could become identified with Him in return. You could reconnect with God and survive and thrive and become a child of heaven as you were meant to be from the beginning. Do not waste that sacrifice!