The Death of Jesus

 

July 12, 2020

 

Mark 15: 33 – 41

 

The Death of Jesus

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.   And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”   And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.”  And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.”  And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.  And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.   And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he^] breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.   When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.

What was the sixth hour, it was noon and the darkness lasted till three p.m., for Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God; God’s only Son, who had never known sin, took all sins that had to happen, that means from Adam (the past) to what you and I refer to as the future, till time is no more.  And that darkness was not scheduled it was super-natural and was God’s judgment over the sins of mankind. 

 

 It may be of encouragement to some to find that God had to use darkness when Pharaoh and Egypt had been under the plague of Locusts, and Pharaoh confessed to Moses about sinning against both God and Moses, and Moses asks God to remove the Locusts.  God did, but for His divine purpose God hardened Pharaoh's heart and he did not let the Israelites go. Exodus 10:21-23, “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over Egypt—darkness that can be felt.”   So, Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days.   No one could see anyone else or move about for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.”

 

The chosen people of God who had come out of Egypt had to go to an intercessor to approach a Holy God.  But on that day when Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, in that He was our pure Lamb, that was killed for sin, past, present, and future.  ^“And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom,”  they no longer needed a priest to be a go-between to God, and nor do we. Talk with Jesus and the Father, they desire your praise.

 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice