Seeing who Jesus truly is
Mark 15:24-39
24 Then the soldiers nailed him to the cross. They divided his clothes and threw dice to decide who would get each piece. 25 It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. 26 A sign announced the charge against him. It read, “The King of the Jews.” 27 Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left.
29 The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. “Ha! Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. 30 Well then, save yourself and come down from the cross!”
31 The leading priests and teachers of religious law also mocked Jesus. “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! 32 Let this Messiah, this King of Israel, come down from the cross so we can see it and believe him!” Even the men who were crucified with Jesus ridiculed him.
33 At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. 34 Then at three o’clock Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
35 Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for the prophet Elijah. 36 One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him on a reed stick so he could drink. “Wait!” he said. “Let’s see whether Elijah comes to take him down!”
37 Then Jesus uttered another loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.
39 When the Roman officer who stood facing him saw how he had died, he exclaimed, “This man truly was the Son of God!”
It seems that God’s people missed it, but wise men from somewhere in the east recognised the signs and came searching for the “king of the Jews” (Matthew 2:1-12, yesterday’s passage). They alone worship Jesus as who he is, while Herod and his wise men try to kill him.
Now, God’s people stand around, full of bitterness, mocking Jesus on the cross, and Romans gives him his title: “king of the Jews” (though probably ironically).
After three hours of darkness, Jesus shouts out the first line of Psalm 22. The bystanders seem to recognise the significance of this psalm about God’s salvation coming in the middle of what looks like abandonment. But they don’t understand that Jesus isn’t pleading to be saved. He’s the one who’s saving them from darkness and separation from God.
But the Roman centurion who nailed him to the cross clearly sees that “this man truly was the son of God.”
There seems to be a pattern here: the people who know all God’s promises and should recognise who Jesus is and what he’s doing not only miss it, they oppose him; but outsiders recognise who he truly is.
It’s so easy to allow what I know about Jesus to get in the way of knowing him personally. I’m challenged to focus first on Jesus. I want to know who he is and what he’s doing because I first know him.
Jesus, I want to see you clearly. I want to know you deeply. Fill my life now. Fill my mind and my words and my actions with what you’re doing in me and in the world around me. Please give me words to tell the truth about who you truly are.
Written by David Cornell
