*Just a reminder...when you read through a chapter each day, type out some of your thought in the comment section of the blog. Write out what God has spoken to you through His word. That's all I'm doing.
27:3-5 - I know it sounds strange, but I have always felt sorry for Judas. He betrays the son of God for money and when the severity of what he has done finally sinks in, he kills himself in his anguish. I wish he could have turned back to Jesus for forgiveness. That's all it would take, even for the betrayer...all he had to do was repent - just like us. Peter denied he ever even knew Jesus - and returned to become the leader of early Christianity. Judas had the same chance to turn back to Jesus and got too caught up in self-pity to grab on to the grace of Jesus.
27:18 - "For he knew that it was out of envy that they offered him up." I know Jesus had to die for our salvation, but it is still tragic to see the religious leaders of the day offering their long awaited Messiah up to death because they didn't want to share any of the spotlight. It is also tragic when we allow envy to drive wedges between ourselves and other Christians. Every person is gifted in different ways...every one of us as ministers of Jesus Christ can reach people that others can't...I hope that we can be people that rejoice in the kingdom work of others and not feel jealousy over our differences.
27:34 - He refused to take the wine mixed with gall because it would dull his senses. Jesus knew that he needed every mental and spiritual resource at his disposal to fight against the temptation to save himself. He wanted nothing to dull his connection with God, even though it meant feeling every tendril of the pain ripping through his body. I hope that we can each make the choice every day to remove distractions and seek out the strength of God.
27:51-53 - This aspect of the story is talked about too frequently (As in, NEVER), but I think it is awesome. Out of the death of Jesus Christ came life and resurrection and redemption and second chances and victory! He has the power to conquer death and the dead believers in the tombs were brought back to life as witnesses to his power.
* I didn't want to say much on the actual crucifixion because it speaks for itself. This is the greatest profession of love ever given in the history of man.
5 comments:
I had that thought about Judas too. In fact, I've always had problems with the idea of condemning people for suicide. I mean, what a world of hurt a person has to be in to start with to consider that...
One thing that strikes me is that there could be more to the story than we know. Maybe he did turn back to Jesus seeking forgiveness as he was dying. While the New Testament tells some things, it certainly doesn't tell all - for example, there's literally not one word describing what Jesus looked like physically.
I was just talking to somebody about this suicide topic today, and I am happy to say that fortunately judgment is not up to a human being...it is up to our perfect God. God will make the right call on each individual and I can put my hope in that.
It was intersting to see just how corrupt the pharisees and priests were and how much power they held. They were able to convince a crowd of people to let out a murder out of prison instead of a peaceful rabbi and condemn an innocent man to death because he threatened their authority. Its weird how despite how horrible the actions of Judas and the pharisees were, everything that went down was part of the plan for salvation.
Never saw this before – verse 45 - From noon to three, the whole earth was dark. That’s 3 hours – 180 minutes. When someone does a 180, they turn completely around going in the completely opposite direction of their original destination. God the Father turned away from His Son for 180 minutes. Through the Son, we are turned around from our old selves to Him.
There is no such thing as coincidence or luck.
Gives a whole new look on what a 180 really means...
j
It's rather funny to me how at the end of this chapter, people still remember Jesus' prophecy of raising the temple in three days. They even got the right meaning out of it by sending guards to watch over the tomb. I love how God was able to use this only to remove doubt from people about Jesus' resurrection.
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