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Silence, Stillness, and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Silence, Stillness, and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading
“Look!
The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John
1:29 (NLT)
They
brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means Skull Place. 23 They
tried to give him wine mixed with myrrh, but he didn’t take it. 24 They
crucified him. They divided up his clothes, drawing lots for them to determine
who would take what. 25 It was nine in
the morning when they crucified him. 26 The
notice of the formal charge against him was written, “The king of the Jews.”
27 They crucified two outlaws with him, one
on his right and one on his left.
33 From noon until three in the afternoon the whole earth was dark. 34 At three, Jesus cried out with a loud shout, “Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani,” which means, “My God, my God, why have you left me?”
33 From noon until three in the afternoon the whole earth was dark. 34 At three, Jesus cried out with a loud shout, “Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani,” which means, “My God, my God, why have you left me?”
Devotional GOOD FRIDAY! PASSOVER BEGINS AT SUNDOWN TONIGHT!
The
most important event in the Old Testament, the Jewish Bible.
Central to the exodus was the slaughtering of a perfect, innocent, first
born, sacrificial lamb. If a
Jew had the blood of lamb smeared on their front door, they would be saved from
death and would escape further slavery in Egypt.
In the New Testament, which along
with the Old Testament, is Christian Scripture, we learn that Jesus becomes
the sacrificial which saves believers from death and from further slavery to
that which holds us in bondage.
The
following is excerpted from Jerusalem:
The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore. At the time of Christ,
Passover was a religious observance that brought Jews from throughout the world
back to Jerusalem and turned the city into a colorful, teeming and dangerous
spectacle:
"At
Passover, Jerusalem was at its most crowded and dangerous . . . . In the Upper
City, across the valley from the Temple, the grandees lived in Grecian-Roman
mansions with Jewish features: the so-called Palatial Residence excavated there
has spacious receiving-rooms and mikvahs. Here stood the palaces of
Antipas and the high priest Joseph Caiaphas. But the real authority in Jerusalem
was the prefect, Pontius Pilate, who usually ruled his province from Caesarea on
the coast but always came to supervise Passover, staying at Herod's Citadel . .
. .
"Josephus
guessed that two and a half million Jews came for Passover. This is an
exaggeration but there were Jews 'out of every nation,' from Parthia and
Babylonia to Crete and Libya. The only way to imagine this throng is to see
Mecca during the haj. At Passover, every family had to sacrifice a lamb, so the
city was jammed with bleating sheep -- 255,600 lambs were sacrificed. There was
much to do: pilgrims had to take a dip in a mikvah every time they
approached the Temple as well as buy their sacrificial lambs in the Royal
Portico. Not everyone could stay in the city. Thousands lodged in the
surrounding villages, like Jesus, or camped around the walls. As the smell of
burning meat and heady incense wafted -- and the trumpet blasts, announcing
prayers and sacrifices, ricocheted -- across the city, everything was focused on
the Temple, nervously watched by the Roman soldiers from the Antonia Fortress .
. . .
"The
towering, colonnaded Royal Portico [was] the bustling, colourful, crowded centre
of all life, where pilgrims gathered to organize their accommodation, to meet
friends, and to change money for the Tyrian silver used to buy sacrificial
lambs, doves, or, for the rich, oxen . . . .
"Crucifixion,
[the favored form of public execution in the region], said Josephus, was 'the
most miserable death,' designed to demean the victim publicly. Hence Pilate
ordered Jesus' placard to be attached to his cross --KING OF THE JEWS. Victims
could be tied or nailed. The skill was to ensure victims did not bleed to death.
The nails were usually driven through the forearms -- not the palms -- and
ankles: the bones of a crucified Jew have been found in a tomb in north
Jerusalem with a 4.5-inch iron nail still sticking through a skeletal ankle.
Nails from crucifixion victims were popularly worn as charms, around the neck,
by both Jews and gentiles to ward off illness, so the later Christian fetish for
crucificial relics was actually part of a long tradition. Victims were usually
crucified naked -- with men facing outwards, women inwards.
"The
executioners were experts at either prolonging the agony or ending it quickly.
The aim was to not kill Jesus too quickly but to demonstrate the futility of
defying Roman power. He was most probably nailed to the cross with his arms
outstretched as shown in Christian art, supported by a small wedge, sedile,
under the buttocks and a suppedaneum ledge under the feet. This
arrangement meant he could survive for hours, even days. The quickest way to
expedite death was to break the legs. The body weight was then borne by the arms
and the victim would asphyxiate within ten minutes."
Question to Consider
What do you make of God Himself choosing to experience not only death, but this most brutal form of death? What does this tell you about the value that God places on humanity, the value he places on you?
Prayer
“Lord, when I see or wear a cross, help me to remember what it means. Help me to see its beauty, not because it's gold or silver but because it speaks of God's valuing me light years beyond anything I deserve. It speaks not only the death of death but also of actual freedom from captivity to lesser things than God. Today I will live in that freedom. Amen."
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
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Tears streaming down my face!!
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