How It Happened (Matt. 27:45, 46)
The Gospels devote an immense amount of space to the final week of Jesus' life. In Matthew, it occupies one-third of the book. In Mark, more than one-third. And one-quarter of Luke and one-half of John are devoted to it. Clearly, the central focus is on Jesus' passion, death, and resurrection. The Gospels are not biographies; they should be seen, rather, as theological summaries of the significance of Jesus' death.
Relive the awful events of the passion by reviewing the following passages: Matt. 27:27-31, 45-54; Mark 15:21-32; John 19:28-30. How do they make you feel? What is your overwhelming emotion, and why?
None of us ever can claim to understand the full meaning of Jesus' death, or the circumstances surrounding it. What seems clear, however, is that the role played by those physically present and active (whether at His trial or at the cross) was theologically incidental, so far as the participants' racial or national identities were concerned. To malign Jews today, or modern Italians for that matter, for the involvement of some of their ancestors in the death of Jesus is theological stupidity, an attitude contrary to the very essence of biblical religion. The individual guilt of those involved in His death will be a matter between them and God. Instead of pointing fingers, maybe we should ask ourselves: What we might have done were we, ourselves, there? In one sense, actually, we were!
Read Matthew 26:38. What was it that hung so heavy on the Savior during this crushing agony? How did He manage to survive the ordeal? (See Luke 22:43.) "Having made the (final) decision," wrote Ellen G. White, "He fell dying to the ground (there in the garden)" (The Desire of Ages, p. 693). This means that although He later was killed by Roman hands, the fatal blow had come much earlier, delivered by one giant, collective hand, ours. How does it make you feel, knowing that your own guilt caused the death of Jesus? More important, how should you respond to those feelings?
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