July 20, 2023
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Mark? Here’s today’s reading:
Mark 15 (NIV)
Jesus Before Pilate
1 Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.
2“Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate.
“You have said so,”Jesus replied.
3 The chief priests accused him of many things.…..Continue Reading
“Surely this man was the Son of God”
Imagine to be there and to see what Jesus endured on our behalf. Innocent man tortured, tormented, and crucified without cause. A crowd blindly following out of fear, confusion, and misinformation set free a murdered instead of Jesus.
An ending of a perfect life and He did it all for us. The way it had to be to save the same people who did all these things to Him. It had to be this way to save us and still we fall short. But to see darkness fall and the curtain tore and to know what you were just witness to!
Every time I read this account (and sometimes I feel like I should read it each morning as I start my day) it is a sobering reminder of what He did for me and how often I can become too familiar with the cost of my salvation.
I remember seeing the Passion of the Christ. I was fairly new to the faith. While watching the movie, there was this truth playing over and over within my spirit- “See how much I love you.”
~Selah
How Jesus suffered for us. How wrong and hypocritical the religious leaders of the Jews were to accuse him and rev up the crowd against Him, even to the extent of freeing a murderer instead of Him. How brutally He was treated by the Romans…undergoing torture that wasn’t even substantive to our salvation, but just because of how cruel people are. I did wonder if satan was egging them on as part of the explanation of just how excessively cruel they were….but maybe Roman soldiers wouldn’t need any help. And how about the hubris of those who mocked and questioned Jesus on the cross. “Come down now and we will believe”. There will come a day when they will regret those words. And yet we know this was all orchestrated under the sovereign hand of God fulfilling His purposes through the free will of man. And can we even imagine that the greatest suffering that Jesus went through was when the sin of the world was placed upon Him and His Father forsook Him? That was the worst for Jesus and the true substance of our salvation…He who knew no sin becoming sin for us. Oh yes, how He loved us and wanted us to be able to be in relationship with Him.
And it is good to see that certain members of the Jewish leadership did believe and were willing to honor Jesus in death and put Him in a tomb that He could then break free from…
Mark 15
Wouldn`t you know it. I just spent 2 and a half hours or more on Mark 15. Comparing the four gospels with each other. And I hit something before finishing and I lost it all. It takes me time to write.
hate when that happens, Dennis!
I find it necessary to compare the four gospels with each other especially coming up to the few weeks before His betrayal. They all write with different emphasis. Matthew writes for the Jewish people and tells them in Matthew that this is a fulfillment of scripture. Without looking up the passages again I am just going to mention a few of them. We know how and why Christ died on the cross. When Jesus came before Pilate he knew that the Pharisees were jealous of Jesus. He knew that his wife warned him about her bad dream about Jesus and after questioning Him found no wrong in Him. He gave the people a choice between Jesus and Barabbas thinking he could just send Jesus away free. But the people with the Pharisees wanted Barabbas free and Jesus crucified. Some of my thoughts were on thee reflection of Pilate and his wife after the resurrection of Christ. Also the man Simon a Cyrenian and his two sons mentioned. Why is this in such detail to name the two sons. Alexander and Rufus. Maybe he and his family were saved after the resurrection. Another point was about the reflection of Barabbas that Jesus died on the cross in his place. Did he latter get saved with a full repentant heart or did his heart remain hard. We know from one of the gospels that one of the thieves on the cross had a change of heart and turned to Christ to be with Him. Jesus said that he would be with Him. In John we are giving the last words of Jesus. It is finished and then He gave up the ghost. Some other gospels say Jesus spoke loud and gave up the ghost. While on the cross Jesus seeing His mother says to John behold your mother, and to her Woman behold your son. He was making sure that His mother was to be taken care of by John. Jesus own brothers and sisters were not followers of Christ at this point in history. John also is the only one that tells us that the title King of the Jews was in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Another thing that is mentioned by John is the fact that Nicodemus assisted Joseph of Arimathea with the body of Jesus. I just noticed in Luke it says that Jesus said. [ Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit , and having said this gave up the ghost.] It seems that that it is finished would come before this. There is in one of the gospels Jesus addressing the crowds while He is being brought to the cross. It is a warning. Then after Jesus is dead the soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves and came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead. They didn`t break His legs but put a sword through Him instead. This is in only one of the accounts. Earlier when the people mocked Him to come down off thee cross to save Himself they didn`t know what they were saying. Even earlier He had prayed Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. He could had come down off the cross but He wouldn`t have fulfilled His mission which was to save wicked sinners like you and me or even those who called for His death. Call upon the name of the Lord and you bee saves. The thief on the cross is a perfect example of someone getting saved without any works. He called out to Jesus and went to be with Him. God bless us in Jesus Christ our Savior.
Thanks for detail from the other Gospels
Thing that sticks with me the most is the large heavy thick tapestry separating the Holy of Holies in the temple was ripped in two, destroyed.
No longer does man have to be separate from God. Belief in Jesus and changed heart opens a path to God.
Mark 15
And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.
Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, “Truly this Man was the Son of God!”
I’m always struck by the veil of the temple tearing in two at the moment of Jesus’s death. This was not a linen sheet, this was a thick curtain. Historically it was about a handbreadth thick – about 3 1/2 inches.
I find it hard to read about the death of Jesus, it’s so horrific. It’s difficult to understand how the Jewish leaders could do such a wicked, vile thing to someone – a good, innocent man, and even if they would not acknowledge it, the Son of God! How can people mock someone who was being crucified? And Jesus allowed this to happen to him to save all people because he loves us. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13 Thank you Jesus