Bible Devotion

Meditative Reflection
Gaining the World at the Expense of the Soul

“Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged and hand Him over to be crucified.” (Mk. 15:15)

The entire event of the crucifixion of Jesus unfolded like a drama, with the midnight betrayal and arrest of Jesus, followed by the religious kangaroo court. While the chief priests and the scribes could not pin any capital crime on Jesus, they went ahead anyway, presumably with a vote to hand him to Pilate to sanction their murder.

Unexpectedly, it was not an automatic sanction in the hands of Pilate who struggled in his conscience, knowing full well the innocence of Jesus and being warned by his wife with her dream (Matt. 27:19). His half-hearted attempt to drag Herod into the process did not succeed and eventually his last hope was the release of Jesus according to the custom. Alas, the crowd changed their mind ever so quickly and turned against Jesus, demanding His crucifixion. And we read, “Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate…handed Him over to be crucified.” (Mk. 15:15)

Pilate thought that washing his hands in public would excuse him of this terrible crime of murder (Matt. 27:24), but the verdict of the Bible is clear, “Indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed” (Acts 4:27).

One wonders what might have happened if Pilate chose to act justly and release Jesus.

For sure, Jesus had to die somehow, in the hands of the people, to accomplish the salvation plan for the world. The release of Jesus would certainly lead to a riot, and perhaps Jesus would be executed by the mob. Pilate would probably lose his popularity with the Jews and would lose his job as the governor. As it turned out, he kept the world and lost his soul.

I was reading the letter of Franklin Graham (president of Samaritan's Purse) back in 2013 in which he shared the latest news of persecution in Mali and in Syria. I was greatly touched by how Christians and their pastors persevered under such horrific circumstances, being able to reach others with food, supplies and the gospel. One such Syrian couple who came to Christ in the midst of devastation said, “We lost our whole world, but we gained our souls.”

Meditative Reflection
Carrying the Cross of Christ

“A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.” (Mk. 15:21)

I like the way Barclay depicts the scene of Mark 15:21:

“This must have been a grim day for Simon of Cyrene. Palestine was an occupied country and any man might be impressed into the Roman service for any task. The sign of impressment was a tap on the shoulder with the flat of a Roman spear. Simon was from Cyrene in Africa. No doubt he had come from the far off land for the Passover. No doubt he had scraped and saved for many years in order to come. No doubt he was gratifying the ambition of a lifetime to eat one Passover in Jerusalem. Then this happened to him.” (Barclay, Mark, 360)

Jesus has told us that anyone who wishes to follow Him must take up his own cross and follow Him (Lk. 14:27). But Simon did not have any intention to follow Him. He was just “passing by”, and was made to carry a cross which he considered not his. As it turned out, this was a cross he must carry for him to know and follow Christ. Many of us today are weary of the cross we carry, but we need to learn from this experience of Simon:

(1) As much as he was just passing by, it was no accident. In truth, it was not so much the Roman soldiers who drafted him for the service, it was God.

(2) At the time of carrying the cross, we, like Simon, would be very unhappy, asking, “Why me?”.

(3) As it turned out, as he took the cross from Jesus, he came face to face with the Savior — what better encounter with the Lord than when we see Him face to face under His cross.

(4) Indeed, his journey that day ended at the foot of the Cross. I believe, he would have stood there, perhaps at a distance, witnessing the suffering and death of Christ, and obviously it was a life-changing event for him.

(5) Not just for him though, but for his entire family as Paul sent greetings to his family in Rome, “Greet Rufus (Simon’s son), chosen in the Lord, and his mother (Simon’s wife) who has been a mother to me, too.”
(Lightfoot’s opinion of Romans 16:13 based on Mark 15:21—TICC, Romans, 793)

Looking back, perhaps Simon relished not only the opportunity of encountering Jesus, but also the opportunity of lessening the suffering of Christ. What a privilege it was to bear His cross at a time when He needed someone to share His burden most!

Next time, if you find the cross that you carry too heavy and unpleasant, remember Simon of Cyrene.

Meditative Reflection
How Great is the Love Lavished upon Us

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mk. 15:34)

This cry by our Lord on the cross at the ninth hour is perhaps the most heart-wrenching of all the Seven Words on the Cross. This is heart-wrenching because it is framed as a question for which the Lord Himself knew the answer, and yet He asked just the same.

The answer to this question was given long ago in Isaiah 53:10, “yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer…(as) a guilt offering. “

As Jesus took on the sins of the world as a guilt offering on the cross, the Father had no choice but to turn His face away from Him—the Holy God is just too holy not to punish sin with death.

We can never understand the pain of that moment, as our Lord Jesus who knew no sin became sin for us; as the Son who knew no separation from His Father God was shunned by Him for however short a time. The pain, the suffering, had to be so unbearable that He had to ask this question, not so much for an answer, because He knew the answer, but to express the unspeakable pain of the Son.

But I believe the pain was mutual.

Abraham would have understood when he laid his son, Isaac, on the altar.

The pain was as much the Son’s as the Father’s. As the Son asked, Heaven remained silent—a painful silence, a violent silence, a Holy Silence. This is how great the love the Father has lavished upon us. (1 Jn. 3:1)

Meditative Reflection
How One Dies

“And when the centurion who stood there in front of Jesus, heard His cry and saw how He died, he said, 'Surely this man was the Son of God'.” (Mk. 15:39)

One wonders how this centurion could come to believe that Jesus is the Son of God by hearing His cry and seeing how He died. However, it is true that sometimes how one dies reveals more of the person than how one lives.

In the case of Jesus, both how He lived and how He died powerfully reveal who He is. The centurion was only privileged to witness the final moments of His life, but that was powerful enough for him to see who He really is.

Of course, being stationed in Jerusalem, this centurion would have heard of Jesus and the possible commotion that might erupt at His entrance into Jerusalem. When the population of the city swelled by many times during a festival, this centurion would have been on the alert and would get wind of the excitement building up upon Jesus’ entrance into town. Upon Jesus’ arrest, the claims of Jesus as the Jewish Messiah King and as the Son of God were at the center of all the charges—the former claim was used to accuse Him of inciting a revolution, while the latter would be pure religious blasphemy (not central to the case). The centurion would know these claims.

While his soldiers held a mock worship to Jesus as king, presumably the centurion was not so sure that He was a mere lunatic, claiming to be King and the Son of God. He would see first-hand how Jesus conducted Himself before Pilate—the calmness and gentleness projected a person of non-violence, and even of noble birth. While His cries in pain were natural for a person being crucified, His prayer for the Father’s forgiveness of those who offended Him, His assurance to one of the robbers of paradise, His concern for His earthly mother and His bitter cry addressed to Father God—all portrayed more than a mere man but one who was fully in control of His destiny. He was a person of divine origin. In other words, the centurion had never seen any person facing crucifixion like Jesus. He could only arrive at one of two conclusions: Jesus was either a lunatic— a very deluded person, or Jesus was truly as He claimed, the Son of God, the King of Israel.

The fact should be clear to all, but the priests and the religious leaders were blinded by their envy, the crowd was deluded by the lack of kingly manner and of instant demonstration of muscle-power by Jesus, and the soldiers were trapped in their racial bias and inhuman callousness. On the other hand, the centurion had a clean and unbiased conscience that could be awakened by the truth. He might not have understood the full meaning of Jesus being the Son of God, but His final moment was enough for him to believe Him as the Son of God.

Meditative Reflection
Finishing Well

“Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body.” (Mk. 15:43)

Some commentators like Barclay consider the action of Joseph of Arimathea a tragedy:

“He was a member of the Sanhedrin, and yet we have no hint that he spoke a word in Jesus’ favor or intervened in any way on His behalf. Joseph is the man who gave Jesus a tomb when He was dead but was silent when He was alive. It is one of the commonest tragedies of life that we keep our wreaths for the people’s graves and our praises until they are dead. It would be infinitely better to give them some of these flowers and some of these words of gratitude when they are still alive.”

Barclay obviously has his point and we should gather up our courage to make a difference when it counts most. However, his verdict on Joseph might not be entirely correct. The Gospel of Luke vindicates Joseph when it says, “Joseph…had not consented to their decision and action.” (Lk. 23:50-51)

It is likely that Joseph did voice his opposition or cast a no-vote but to no avail at the council meeting. Or, as some commentators opine, the council was called so hastily that he was basically excluded from the meeting because they could gather enough to form a quorum already. In any case, the Gospel Mark praises him instead, saying that he “went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body.” (Mk. 15:43)

Yes, he had remained a secret disciple all along (Jn.19:38), but at the death of Jesus he did not care any longer—his prestige, his privileged status, his wealth and perhaps his life. By asking for Jesus’ body and burying Him in his own tomb, he made a public commitment as the follower of Jesus. With the comment of Mark, we know that what he did pleased God and honored God. And, with this act of commitment, he also fulfilled one of the prophecies concerning Christ: “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death” (Isa. 53:9).

I think it is far more important that we finish well than that we only start well.

Meditative Reflection
Who Moved the Stone?

“But when they looked up, they saw the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.” (Mk. 16:4)

As we reflect on that marvelous account of that morning when our Lord rose from the dead, may I introduce you to a classic apologetic work, Who Moved the Stone, by Frank Morrison. Below is an excerpt from one of the critiques of the book:

"Originally published in 1930, the author claimed that it was the book that refused to be written. Frank Morison was an investigative journalist and a skeptic of Christianity. He set out to disprove the Christian faith by showing the resurrection of Christ to be a farce. Upon deeper study, Morison learned the truth of the matter: Jesus did actually rise from the dead. As a result, Morison became a Christian and wrote this book.

"In this book, Morison attempts to read between the lines of the gospel accounts to discover the truth about those three famous days beginning with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. He provides some great, and possibly new insight into the story that we have heard so many times.

"A major focus of Morison’s book was the initial visit of Mary Magdalene and the other women to the tomb early on Sunday morning. He convincingly shows that the attitudes and behaviors of the people in this story could only be the result of one thing: A genuine resurrection of our Lord and Savior.

"Chapters 10-12 are devoted to three different Biblical characters that serve as great evidence for the resurrection. The first man was Peter. What caused this man who fled from Jerusalem after thrice denying Christ to boldly proclaim the resurrection only several weeks later?

"The second man was James, the half-brother of Jesus. James was not even a believer in Christ until after the crucifixion. What happened to this man that changed him from a doubter to the leader of the Jerusalem church only a few years later?

"The third person was a man known as Saul of Tarsus. This was a man who was a bitter persecutor of the early Christians. Later he became the greatest Christian to ever live as well as the author of 13 books of the New Testament. What happened on the road to Damascus so many years ago that changed this man’s life so dramatically?

"The only logical answer to each of these questions is that each of these men had an encounter with the risen Lord. This was no mere hallucination. It was an actual, bodily resurrection from the dead."
(Tim Chaffey)

Meditative Reflection
The Great Commission

“Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed His word by the signs that accompanied it.” (Mk. 16:20)

Luke used the Book of Acts to tell of the obedience of the disciples to the Great Commission - spreading the gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth with the power of the Holy Spirit. Mark used the closing paragraph of his gospel to tell of the obedience of the disciples to the Great Commission - preaching the gospel as Jesus “worked with them", confirming the gospel with signs and wonders.

The ending of the Book of Acts signifies that the Great Commission is an “Unfinished Symphony” awaiting us to carry on the task.  The close of the Gospel of Mark gives us the Apostles’ example to follow. So, as we come to the close of the Gospel of Mark, let’s reflect on the state of the Great Commission and our duty to its completion through the lyrics of the following hymn.

O Zion, Haste

Refrain
Publish glad tidings, tidings of peace;
Tidings of Jesus, redemption and release.

1
O Zion, haste, thy mission high fulfilling,
To tell to all the world that God is light,
That He who made all nations is not willing
One soul should perish, lost in shades of night.

2
Behold how many thousands still are lying
Bound in the darksome prison house of sin,
With none to tell them of the Savior’s dying,
Or of the life He died for them to win.

3
Proclaim to every people, tongue, and nation
That God, in Whom they live and move, is love;
Tell how He stooped to save His lost creation,
And died on earth that we might live above.

4
’Tis thine to save from peril of perdition
The souls for whom the Lord His life laid down:
Beware lest, slothful to fulfill thy mission,
Thou lose one jewel that should deck His crown.

5
Give of thy sons to bear the message glorious;
Give of thy wealth to speed them on their way;
Pour out thy soul for them in prayer victorious;
O Zion, haste to bring the brighter day.

6
He comes again! O Zion, ere thou meet Him,
Make known to every heart His saving grace:
Let none whom he Hath ransomed fail to greet Him,
Through thy neglect, unfit to see His face.

(Mary A. Thomson, 1834-1923)