Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Luke 9:22 "The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day."
PONDERING THE PASSION OF JESUS
These verses don't sound too strange to us. Most of us have grown up hearing about the sufferings and death of Jesus on the cross. We have heard many times about Jesus being delivered by the Jews to the Roman authorities under Governor Pontius Pilate and how horribly they treated Him before they nailed Him to a wooden cross and left Him to die.
The disciples of Jesus had heard these words a number of times too before He was finally nailed to the tree on that first Good Friday. On a number of occasions during His ministry, Jesus told His disciples what would finally happen to Him in Jerusalem. The reactions of the disciples varied. One time Peter took Jesus aside and rebuked Him for saying such things. The Lord responded by rebuking Peter, saying, "You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men" (Mt 16:23). On another occasion, when Jesus told the disciples that He was going to Jerusalem to die, we are told that they "were exceedingly sorrowful" (Matthew 17:23).
At this time the disciples didn't see the meaning of Jesus' suffering and death. They didn't understand that this was the reason for His coming! Luke tells us, "But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken" (18:34). May God grant that we do see the meaning of our Savior's suffering and death, and understand that it was necessary to make the payment for our sin!
Make me see Thy great distress, anguish and affliction,
Bonds and stripes and wretchedness and Thy crucifixion;
Make me see how scourge and rod,
Spear and nails, did wound Thee,
How for man Thou diedst, O God,
Who with thorns had crowned Thee.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 140:2)
