Saturday, July 22, 2017

Day 28

Day 28: Matthew 26-27
To the eyes of those who saw it, Jesus’ life and ministry ended in shame, betrayal, mockery, pain, and rejection. This was it. The disciples had been fooled. His followers were scattered. And everyone who had placed their trust in this Jesus was disappointed.

But this death was no accident. This was, in fact, the very reason why Jesus came. Go back to Day 19 and re-read Isaiah 53. Remember that this chapter was written hundreds of years before Jesus walked the earth. And yet it summarized the nature and purpose of his death perfectly. This suffering servant, this would-be Messiah, was “despised and rejected” (v. 3). He “took up our infirmities and carried our sorrow” (v.4). And in all this, “he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (v. 5).

Paul would later explain that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and that God is both “just and the one who justifies” (Romans 3:26). The sin of each person who has ever lived was upon Jesus that day, and he acutely felt the separation that it caused him from his Father. Someone had to pay the penalty of sin. The idea of a sacrificial offering - one life offered in place of another - had been in place since God covered Adam and Eve with animal skins after the fall (see Day 2). But here, it is God himself who is paying the price. How many times in our Old Testament readings did we see God affirm again and again that the penalty of breaking the covenant would be on him? (See, for example, Day 3.) He cannot break the laws of justice - sin demands death - but instead of our eternal death, it was the death of Jesus that accomplished this.

The disciples and those who saw, however, did not yet understand these things. For three days, they lived in complete darkness of the soul. They did not yet realize that this had to happen, that this was God’s plan all along, or that “by his wounds, we are healed.”

Questions for reflection and discussion: How does the death of Jesus fit in with the rest of the Biblical storyline we have read so far? What do you think that Peter, Joseph of Arimathea, Mary, Judas, or some of the other people in these chapters would have been thinking and feeling? Why did Jesus die, and what implications does this have for you and those around you?





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