Monthly Archives: October 2020

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – GONE…IN A PUFF OF SMOKE!

Bible Study, ,

CHAPTER 16

GONE…IN A PUFF OF SMOKE!

​1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”
8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. Mark 16:1-8

How would this story impact a first-time reader? What sort of ending would they expect to this extraordinary man’s life? Such an anti-climax to the expectation of the both those who walked with Him and listened to and watched what He said and did, and those who read the story! He seemed so genuine, so full of promise, but His death abruptly ended it all. What now? What of God’s kingdom that He said was here? He’s gone. What are the disciples supposed to do now?

They sit around in the upper room, the most logical place to be at that moment. The atmosphere is tense and heavy with grief. Any sound of footsteps outside puts them on high alert. Only the women move about freely because they are no threat to the Romans. The disciples wait, but for what? They have no idea.

The story moves along slowly, told with simplicity and matter-of-fact-ness. Had Mark made it up, it would not have had the flavour of an eyewitness and especially not from the mouth of women because their testimony was regarded as unreliable in a court of law. Three women go to the tomb at daybreak, having witnessed the burial in a rocky cave near the place of execution. They carry loads of spices with which to embalm His body. Their one concern is the stone. How would they move it to get in? They would solve that problem when they get there. They go anyway.

Imagine their astonishment when they are confronted by a gaping hole in the rock! The stone has been moved! They rush forward and burst into the tomb. It’s lit up with an eerie light – a figure sitting on the stone slab, glowing in the dark. They are paralysed with fear. What does this all mean?

The figure speaks. His voice is soft and gentle. “Don’t be scared, ladies. This is it. Jesus has really risen. Come and see where they laid Him. Now go and tell His disciples that He will meet them in Galilee.” The women flee from the tomb, from the figure with such a mind-blowing message. They can’t make sense of it. It’s too fantastic to take in. They say nothing to anyone in case it is all just a dream. Is this how it’s all supposed to end?

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – “I’LL BE BACK!”

Bible Study, ,

“I’LL BE BACK!”

Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome. 41 In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.

42 It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, 43 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. 44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. 45 When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. 46 So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid. Mark 15:40-47

Mark is careful to record the activity of the women around the cross. No mention of the disciples – they were probably hiding, but the women were present, watching what was happening and planning their next move. So was Joseph of Arimathea. According to Mark, he must have anticipated Jesus’ death since he was a non-consenting member of the Sanhedrin. He had decided to take charge of Jesus’ body and had brought the linen cloth in which he would wrap the body.

By this time. the hostile crowd had melted away. Their sport was over. Jesus was beyond their taunts and jeers. Besides, the strange events in the heavens made them restless and uneasy. Only the women, Joseph and soldiers kept vigil. When Joseph was sure that Jesus was dead, he made his way quickly to Pilate to request His body for burial. He did not want the body of His Master to be thrown on the city garbage heap where the bodies of criminals were burned. Pilate consented after ensuring from the centurion that He was really dead – something unusual because victims of crucifixion could hover between life and death for days.

The women watched – Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James the less and Salome. According to John, there was a third Mary, the mother of Jesus, held by her love for her son. Matthew also mentions the mother of James and John and Luke adds Joanna. They were all loyal women who had trailed Him all the way from Galilee and who were always hovering in the background, seeing to His needs and serving Him and His disciples.

Unlike the disciples, they were no threat to anyone, least of all the Roman soldiers. They were not afraid of associating with Jesus. What a beautiful ministry they had, just being there! They followed Joseph so that they could see where His body was being buried. The Sabbath was only hours away. They would rest and then pay Jesus their last respects by anointing His body with oils and spices.

There is an atmosphere of sorrow that hovers over this scene.  Everything has slowed down. The panic is over. Time seems to have stopped! It’s as though heaven and earth are holding their breath, waiting for something to happen. Only His friends mourn, unaware of a new drama to unfold un three days. In the pain of their loss they had forgotten His promise, “In three days I’ll be back!”

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – FINISHED!

Bible Study,

FINISHED!

37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.
38 The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”
40 Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome. 41 In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there. Mark 15:37-41

Jesus’ behaviour on the cross does not make sense in the natural. How can a man dying of blood loss, trauma, dehydration and suffocation keep uttering loud cries? Mark is careful to get this point across. Unless someone dies violently in a healthy body, as life ebbs away, there is no strength to shout, let alone whisper and yet Jesus shouted His victory cry and surrendered His breath to the Father.

Mark doesn’t tell us what Jesus shouted. John records, “It is finished,” and Luke, “Father into your hands I commit my spirit,” as His last words.  It’s no wonder a hardened Roman centurion had to conclude, “This had to be the Son of God.”

What Jesus shouted has huge significance for our understanding of His death. He was completing on earth what was already complete and written into Scripture in the first chapter of Genesis. From God’s point of view, Jesus sacrifice was accomplished before creation so that the price was paid and all sin forgiven before the heavens and earth were ever formed. The historical event being played out here was for man’s sake, so that we could see in the natural what had already been completed in the unseen. And so, Jesus announced to the entire cosmos that everything God had planned through Him had been completed.

Luke’s record focuses on the nature of Jesus’ offering, terumah; the first-fruits that guarantee the harvest; the grain of wheat to which Jesus referred in John 12. The whole sacrificial system was being brought together in this one offering; sin, guilt, trespass, peace fellowship, atonement, terumah, all rolled into one, removing every obstacle to restore fellowship with the Father, reconstituting ECHAD and releasing everything that flowed from that one sacrifice.

Poor fools at the foot of the cross who thought they were so right! They had no idea of the priceless event happening in front of their very eyes!

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – THAT THEY MAY BE ONE…

Bible Study, ,

THAT THEY MAY BE ONE…

33 At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 34 And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
35 When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”
36 Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said. Mark 15:33-36

Darkness, inky black, thick, impenetrable darkness, covered the earth for three hours, the physical universe responding to the disrepair spawned by the unity Adam’s sin broke in the Garden of Eden. That said it all – and Jesus,was enveloped and enshrouded in it. What was happening in those three hours inside that darkness?

The rupture of ECHAD between Father and Son was slowly rising to a crescendo of agony – deep spiritual darkness that squeezed from Jesus’ parched and bloodied lips the cry that echoed round the cosmos – “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Whatever David felt that caused him to pen those words centuries before, was intensified a million times for Jesus in those hours on the cross. How natural that He should cry out His agony in the words of Scripture! Only Jesus knows what it is like to be separated from the Father, even for those few hours. He bore it so that no-one need ever be separated from God again and yet…who really understands what that means? Here and there, we have glimpses of the massive significance of this ECHAD that Jesus treasured and protected throughout His earthly life and tried to impress upon His disciples.

This unity was the passion of His last recorded prayer on earth (except for His utterances on the cross), “That they may be one, Father, even as you and I are one.”

How important is ECHAD to you and me? What will we do and what will we need to sacrifice in order to protect unity in the community in which we live? Do we treasure unity only as long as it demands nothing from us? What about mutual submission? What role does that play in the way we live out ECHAD in the body of Christ? “This is the way the world will know that you sent me…ECHAD.”

Jesus shed His blood to the last drop, suffered the worst that humans could put Him through, felt the agony of aloneness in His darkest hour… and never faltered because unity was His ultimate goal, the unity between the Godhead and the universe and all its components including redeemed mankind, restored.

Sear this truth on our hearts, Father, so that, like the Master we are called to follow, we value and treasure ECHAD with you and with our family of believers above everything.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – THEY COULD NOT MAKE IT STICK

Bible Study, ,

THEY COULD NOT MAKE IT STICK

25 It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. 26 The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS.
27 They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left. [ 28 ] 29 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, 30 come down from the cross and save yourself!” 31 In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! 32 Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him. Mark 15:25-32

If we take a step backwards and look at the whole scene from our vantage point, what do we see? We see three men impaled on poles like scarecrows in a wheat field. We see three bits of garbage strung up like  plastic bags blown against a barbed wire fence.

One of them, the one in the centre, has some sort of identifying pamphlet plastered on a rock behind Him, a mocking poster announcing to all the passers-by that this was His claim and his crime – KING OF THE JEWS. Some king, enthrone on a Roman stake! Who were His subjects? Two bits of garbage suspended next to Him and one of them a rebel anyway! That’s what we see with our natural eyes.

But what do we see in the spirit? We see a spotless, perfect lamb, pure as the driven snow, with the weight of the world’s sin pressing down on Him. We see sin with its stench and filth, plastered all over Him, and the people around and beneath Him, slinging more at Him. We see, not blood, but thick, foul-smelling slime dripping off His body. The smell is so bad that the Father turns His face away. The sight is so terrible that the Father blots out the light of the sun.

But, in spite of hell’s every effort, in spite of the jeering and mocking that filters through the physical pain and the filth of the world’s sin, His soul remains pure. Not a thought of reproach, not even a passing moment of retaliation or threat. He utters what is in His heart, “Father, forgive them.” Despite all they said and did,, they could not make it stick. It was all on the outside.

That’s the Jesus who took our sin away. When He emerged from the tomb, He was still spotless and pure. He left behind every bit of what He had carried on the cross. He was radiant with light, holiness, truly the king of the Jews. He proved His right to own the title and to reign as king.