Unlearning

John 19:17-22

For many years my wonderful wife had wanted to take a trip to Israel, but it was not on my bucket list so we did not go until a few years ago.  It is by far one of the most memorable of the many trips that we have been blessed to take.  One of the last things we did was go to the place of the skull, and then to where they believe Jesus was placed in the tomb.  The trip, as a whole, had been full of sights and lessons and it gave me clarity about many of the lessons we had been taught in Bible studies over many years; that is till we arrived at the place of the skull.  An Englishman began to share that the Romans did not crucify Jesus on a hill far away, that the Romans always crucified people on the main roads that lead into the city, a road well traveled so many could see and learn that it did not pay to break the laws of Caesar.  He explained that often when a ruler was coming from Rome, they would line the road with the crosses of lawbreakers that were being crucified.

Now this is not in keeping with the song, the “Old Rugged Cross,” but is that where we get our doctrine, a songbook, I hope not and yet for me it had been in that one area.  So we need to look at the apostle John’s account of that day, is it in keeping with what the Englishman was teaching us? “So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” (John 19:17-22 ESV)

I once more understood that much of what I had been taught needed to be examined, not by some commentary, but by the authority of Scripture.   Folks, what we believe about Scripture is critical, yes, it is extremely important because God will hold each of us responsible and because John 10:10 tells us that the deceiver is good at selling us a lie, and those lies will keep us from living the life of abundance on planet earth. 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice