#DailyDevotion Being The Messiah Is A Dirty Job
Lent Day 31
Mark 10:33 “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. 34 And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”
This takes place on Jesus’ downward slope heading up to Jerusalem. He’s been transfigured before several of his disciples. He’s been testified to being the Christ by Peter. Now he’s reminding his disciples again what it means to be the Christ. In all earthly terms, being the Christ, the Messiah, the King of Israel isn’t a pretty job. In fact one could say it’s a dirty job.
Jesus is trying to prepare his disciples for what is coming up. This isn’t the first time. Some of them are afraid. So what’s going to happen to the Messiah? Well he’s going to be arrested. We know it happens in the middle of the night with swords and club and a great company of men. The fulfillment of Isaiah 50 and 53 are going to be fulfilled. Jesus, the Son of Man will have a kangaroo court before his people and they will reject him as their king and God. They will condemn him to death and traitorously be handed over to the Gentiles to be killed by them.
The Gentiles will mock him. They will spit on him. They will have him flogged where his flesh is ripped and exposed. With a crown of thorns they will crown his head. They will strip Jesus down, gamble for his clothes and then pierce him through with nails in his hands and feet and crucify him. Both Jew and Gentile alike will mock him upon the cross and deny him and kill him. The suffering and death he endures is the suffering and death we by our sins have deserved, yes even those slight sins no one else seems to care about. Remember, it was only eating a piece of fruit that brought on all the suffering and pain in the world today. But it was eating it against the expressed command against it by our Creator and God.
But Jesus gives hope here as well, not that the disciples understood it. On the third day, Jesus will rise again. Mankind will be justified by God through the resurrection of Jesus. Our sins have been paid for. By his blood Jesus has ransomed us from death. Peace with God and reconciliation with God has been won for us by the Son of Man, the Son of the Living God. But his resurrection Jesus has glorified our bodies. Death need not alarm us any longer. By his rising, Jesus has prepared our bodies to rise again on the Last Day. There we will given immorality, life and light to spend it with God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in a new heavens and a new earth. All who heard and trusted this message shall receive it and be gathered into his kingdom of glory on that day. Be one of those people.
Heavenly Father, it was your will to crush your Son Jesus Christ for our iniquities at the hands for sinful man so we may be redeemed and gathered to you. Grant us such faith that on the Last Day we may be resurrected to eternal life in glorious bodies like your Son’s resurrected body and live now in newness of life. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.