Reflective Bible Study

During the past couple of podcast episodes, we have been looking at how Mark describes the time Jesus spent on the cross. For this episode, we will conclude looking at what Mark tells us happened during the hours Jesus spent on the cross, and discover what we can learn during the last portion of this event.

Our passage for this episode is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 15, and for this episode, we will read from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 33, Mark tells us that:

³³ At noon darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. ³⁴ At three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

³⁵ When some of the people standing there heard him say that, they said, “Listen! He’s calling Elijah.” ³⁶ Someone ran and soaked a sponge in vinegar. Then he put it on a stick and offered Jesus a drink. The man said, “Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down.”

³⁷ Then Jesus cried out in a loud voice and died. ³⁸ The curtain in the temple was split in two from top to bottom.

³⁹ When the officer who stood facing Jesus saw how he gave up his spirit, he said, “Certainly, this man was the Son of God!”

Without any question in my mind, the moment Jesus cried out in a loud voice and died is the darkest point in the entire Bible. For three hours, darkness covered not only the entire region but specifically Jesus on the cross. I wonder if this darkness was caused by supernatural forces, if there was some type of eclipse that blocked out the sun, or if this happened because of a thick cloud cover. It was as though the last three hours of Jesus’ life were aimed at prompting Jesus to feel like He was all alone.

Mark doesn’t describe anything that happened during these three hours, and I wonder if nothing noteworthy happened, perhaps except for Satan trying to mock and taunt Jesus that His death was for nothing and that His sacrifice would not be accepted by God.

Whether the darkness ended immediately after Jesus gave His last breath, or whether the darkness ended at the point Jesus cried out about feeling like God had abandoned Him, the last hours leading up to Jesus’ death gave Jesus time to reflect on His sacrifice. These three hours likely felt like an eternity, but it was an eternity where Jesus was able to reflect and resolve that His death would open the way for our salvation.

In my mind, it is significant to pay attention to what Jesus cries out here in Mark’s gospel. After three hours of darkness, Jesus cries out in verse 34 saying, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

This cry of Jesus is a cry we all may be tempted to believe when we go through dark points in our lives. In our lives, we all will have times when things go our way and when life is looking up, and we will all have times when it seems like everything is going wrong. It is tempting to think God is with us in the good times and that He has abandoned us in the bad times, but if we choose to believe this, we may be believing a lie Satan wants to trick us with.

I have no idea whether the darkness during the last hours of Jesus’ time on the cross was caused naturally or supernaturally. I don’t know whether it was something symbolizing God turning His face away from Jesus or whether it was a move by Satan to try to break His spirit.

However, I believe that regardless of the source of the darkness, and regardless of Jesus’ cry out to God about feeling abandoned, I have no doubt in my mind that God was 100% focused on this moment in history. Even though Jesus felt like God had left Him, I don’t believe for a moment that God turned His back on Jesus’ sacrifice.

One of the most famous verses in the Bible tells us that God loves humanity to the point that He sent His Son to face death for us. Jesus took the punishment we deserved onto Himself because God loves us that much. God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice because Jesus returned to life the following Sunday morning. The weekend of the cross was what the entire Godhead had been directing history towards.

However, with God’s focus present on this moment, I don’t believe God felt joy during this moment. Instead, in ways that would be hard for us to imagine, I believe God felt pain during the hours Jesus hung on the cross. Regardless of whether a skeptic could rationalize God’s perspective and say that He knew Jesus would be alive days later, God knows what it is like to watch someone you love die. God understands one of the greatest pains we can experience in our human lives.

In this event, we discover that Satan wanted Jesus to feel as though He was alone, and in this regard, it is possible that he succeeded. However, Satan wasn’t strong enough to convince Jesus that His cries to His Father would not be heard.

This means that for us living today, Satan can try to trick us into believing that we are all alone and that God is uninterested in our lives. Satan can try to trick us into believing that our prayers fall on deaf ears, or no ears at all. However, Satan is powerless to stop our prayers from being heard by the Father, and Satan is powerless to stop the Father from being passionately in love with us!

The best Satan can hope for is tricking us into not praying and seeking God, because he knows that if we turn to God, God is more than willing to help us in our time of need.

When Jesus gave up His Spirit, the curtain in the temple ripped in two from top to bottom. This spiritual and significant act opened the way for sinners to come before God directly and ask for forgiveness, ask for help, and ask God for answers to our prayers and requests. Jesus’ death makes coming to God possible, and Jesus’ death bridges the gap sin had created between humanity and God.

Everything worth anything in life hinges on Jesus’ death, and because Jesus died on the cross, we are able to accept the gift of eternal life through Jesus that extends into eternity!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life. Resolve today to never let Satan trick you out of praying and seeking God. Satan’s best chance is tricking you into thinking that God doesn’t care about you and letting your mind resolve to give up on God. This is because Satan knows that God is unwilling to give up on us. Jesus came to prove to us that God loves us with all His heart and that He wants us together forever with Him in heaven!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and fall in love with the God who gave Himself for you and me. Through the pages of the Bible, discover just how much God loves you and what He was willing to give up in order to redeem you and I for eternity.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him – even when Satan tries to convince us we are living alone and God has forgotten. God never forgot Jesus, and He will never forget you!

During the night Jesus was arrested, Luke’s gospel records a powerful miracle that shows us just how much love Jesus has for humanity. This miracle is special because it happens simply because a miracle is needed to show God’s love. When we look at the circumstances surrounding this miracle, those who had faith in Jesus likely didn’t want this healing to happen, and those arresting Jesus probably didn’t want to show or demonstrate any faith in the one they were arresting.

However, Jesus uses this opportunity to demonstrate God’s love, and He does this in an amazing way.

Let’s read about what happened. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 22, and we will read it from the New Living Translation. Starting in verse 47, Luke tells us what happened:

⁴⁷ But even as Jesus said this, a crowd approached, led by Judas, one of the twelve disciples. Judas walked over to Jesus to greet him with a kiss. ⁴⁸ But Jesus said, “Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”

⁴⁹ When the other disciples saw what was about to happen, they exclaimed, “Lord, should we fight? We brought the swords!” ⁵⁰ And one of them struck at the high priest’s slave, slashing off his right ear.

⁵¹ But Jesus said, “No more of this.” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.

⁵² Then Jesus spoke to the leading priests, the captains of the Temple guard, and the elders who had come for him. “Am I some dangerous revolutionary,” he asked, “that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me? ⁵³ Why didn’t you arrest me in the Temple? I was there every day. But this is your moment, the time when the power of darkness reigns.”

This passage and miracle is amazing every time I read it. This event was likely what the disciples imagined would be the start of their rise to prominence. Every time before this, Jesus successfully evaded being arrested or trapped, but this time, the religious leaders’ mob had found Jesus with the help of the traitor.

The disciples knew the mob wasn’t interested in discussing or debating, and that the numbers of people present at this point favored the mob that had circled them. This looked like the point in time they had been preparing for in their minds when Jesus would step up into the leadership role they believed was coming.

However, this miracle is amazing, because while the disciples are preparing to fight, at the first hint of blood, Jesus calls for the situation to stop and He heals the member of the mob who was just injured. In essence, Jesus healed someone who was there as His enemy. Jesus healed someone whose goal was helping to bring about Jesus’ death.

This event, probably more than most others, demonstrates Jesus’ love, and God’s love, for humanity. While humanity was caught in a rebellion against God and more interested in sin that salvation, Jesus steps in as God’s representative and as a light in the spiritual darkness. While Jews, gentiles, and even one of Jesus’ own followers orchestrated the arrest that led to Jesus’ death, no one present for this event even suspected that Jesus chose the cross.

At the point Jesus described as the “time when the power of darkness reigns”, Jesus is more interested in healing those who are against Him than on trying to save Himself or escape. This event demonstrates God’s love for us because Jesus walked the path leading to death and all along the way, His focus was not on Himself, but on others. Jesus’ focus on others is clearly seen in His arrest, and when you are looking for it, you can see it in most every stage leading up to His last breath.

John calls Peter out as the disciple who began the defense and as the one who struck the high priest’s slave’s ear. However, while Peter seemed to be the first disciple to speak or act, it’s likely that most, if not all of the others would have done the same if given the chance.

By stepping up to defend Jesus, even while Jesus stopped the specific action, Peter displays an attitude that we all should have. Too often today, when faced with ridicule or hostility from the secular crowd in today’s world, we are too quick to back down, give up, or abandon our faith simply because the situation is challenging. A faith that is abandoned when challenges come is worthless. The only faith worth having is one that pushes back against the challenges and one that is strengthened when challenges come.

Jesus does not challenge Peter on his faith or on his desire to defend Jesus, even if Peter might feel like this is what Jesus did. Instead, Jesus challenged Peter on using a method of defending Jesus that does not demonstrate God’s love. In a fascinating way, through Jesus’ challenge towards Peter over using a sword, Jesus challenges every follower of Jesus throughout history regarding how they will choose to defend their faith.

Christian history has many examples where violence was used to defend the faith, and because of what Jesus challenges Peter about in this passage, I get the idea that Jesus would challenge every one of His followers who would lean towards violence as a way to defend their faith.

The last amazing thing I see in this miracle on the night Jesus was arrested is that Jesus let Judas Iscariot betray Him. It would have been easy for Jesus to have hidden, but that was not Jesus’ goal.

Jesus came to face the cross and death because His focus was on saving people for eternity. Jesus’ fight was not against humans or humanity, it was against the powers of darkness. While death doesn’t appear to be the way to win this fight, Jesus’ sees a bigger picture than we do and death in this case is the only way to justify God’s laws about sin while also opening the way for God’s merciful nature.

Jesus focused on helping and healing those who were intent on bringing Jesus to the cross, and this amazing miracle proves God’s love for all of humanity – including those who reject God and are hostile towards Him.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As always, seek God first and choose to place your love, hope, faith, trust, and belief in Him. Choose to show God’s love to the world around you and do so in a way that uplifts humanity like Jesus uplifted humanity. Jesus didn’t put people down. The only people Jesus challenged were those who felt like they were spiritually superior to others. Jesus loved those who were honestly searching and seeking God.

Also, be sure to always pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God. While other people have ideas, always filter what you learn through the truth of God’s Word. If an idea runs counter to the Bible, it is not an idea that will stand the test of eternity.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!