This last week I finished reading Matthew and I read Mark. When I was finishing Matthew I realized how crazy God’s love is for us and how amazing Jesus is.
In Botswana I started to really dig into my Bible. I wanted to get through the New Testament but I skipped Matthew, Mark, Luke and John because I thought I knew them too well already. I was so wrong. Towards the end of South Africa I started with Matthew and I was amazed with everything that Jesus had done for people. When I arrived in the Philippines I finished reading Matthew and I was blown away.
I’d much rather tell these thoughts to everyone in person but I’m going to try my best to write them out. It’s kind of long but it would mean so much to me if you read through it all because the ending is the most important part.
Jesus’ Crucifixion.
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Crazy stuff.
Alright, so I’m just going to talk about some passages that really stand out to me. Here we go.
Judas was one of Jesus’ 12 disciples and he betrayed him. He told the Chief Priests about Jesus and they made a plan to go and arrest him. They sent a large crowd armed with swords and clubs and when they got there Judas walked over to Jesus and kissed him to signal to the others that it was Jesus. (I’m going to be talking about Matthew 26: 50-54 if you want to open your bibles and read it with me, if not that’s okay too) “Jesus replied, “Do what you came for, friend.” So the men seized and arrested him. One of Jesus’s companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more that twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?”
Okay so Judas betrayed Jesus, Jesus is arrested, the man cuts off the guys ear and Jesus tells him no because if he wanted the soldiers gone then he would’ve called to God and had them sent away by the angels. But the coolest part to me is when Jesus says, “But then how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” Jesus knew what was about to happen, he could’ve called on God to have it stop but he didn’t because this was God’s plan. This had to happen so he willingly went with the soldiers.
Alright so now we have Jesus before Pilate. (If you want to read it by yourself it’s in Matthew 27:11-26) I’m going to write it all down and then talk about it after.
“Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of Jews?”
“You have said so,” Jesus replied.
When he was accused by the chief priest and the elders, he gave no answer. Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge – to the great amazement of the governor.
Now it was the governor’s custom at the festival to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. At that time they had a well-known prisoner whose name was Barabbas. So when the crowd gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” For he knew it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over to Him.
While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.”
But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.
“Which of the two do you want me to release to you? Asked the governor.
“Barabbas”, they answered. “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked.
They all answered, “Crucify him!”
“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”
All the people answered, “His blood is on us and our children!”
Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
Okay, so the crowd of people had two options. Release Barabbas, who is a murderer, or release Jesus, who is the Messiah. And what did they do? They released the murderer. I was so frustrated while I was reading this but then I remembered what Jesus said when he was getting arrested, “But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” This all had to happen. Barabbas had to be the one released otherwise Jesus wouldn’t have been crucified for us.
Okay this next part is going to be long but please stick with me because it is so so important. >> The soldiers mock Jesus, Matthew 27: 27-31 reads:
Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then waisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. Then put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.
Alrighty, so this part really hit me. I want you guys to imagine this next part that I’m about to say.
By this time Jesus is already beaten up bad. They had these weapons with balls and the end of a rope and on the balls there were little blade things that kind of had a curve to them so that when they hit the skin, it would dig into it and rip it off. (Mhmm.. so I’m going to get very graphic with this because this is how it actually happened and we need to realize it.) Jesus got hit so many times with this weapon, one after the other. There were no breaks to prepare himself for the next one. Nope. One after the other. Bam. Bam. Bam. And it’s not like the soldiers had safe zones either. You know when you wrestle with someone and you’re like, “okay you can’t pull my hair or hit me in the face”, well Jesus didn’t have that option. He couldn’t tell them where they were allowed to hit him. So no safe zones. If they wanted to hit him in the face with that thing they did. And imagine how that would feel. Getting blades into your face and having skin and flesh get ripped off everywhere. Ouch. Painful. Absolutely painful. Just imagining it makes me cringe. So this happened and then he was taken into the Praetorium. Okay, so now I want you to imagine how Jesus looked. Blood everywhere, probably not too much skin left on his body either. So the soldiers put a robe on him and made a crown of thorns and put it on his head. Alrighty, has everyone gotten a sliver before? Those darn things can be painful, am I right? So now imagine some thorns. Huge, sharp thorns set on your head. And then BAM. Someone just comes over with a staff and hits them into your skull over and over again. Yeah, I can’t imagine the pain either. Too much for any of us to handle. Okay, now back to the robe. By this time the blood from Jesus has probably dried to the robe and I’m assuming it stings a lot. Okay so everyone knows how a bandaid feels when you rip it off. Well, try and imagine a robe that your blood is stuck to being ripped off of your whole body. Ha, how painful is that bandaid compared to that?
Sorry if this is too much for you but this is what happened you guys. THAT is what Jesus went through for US! Did we deserve any of this?? NO! Did Jesus willingly do this for us? YEAH! And we don’t even realize what Jesus fully went through for us.
Okay, so this whole time I’ve been telling you to imagine yourself in Jesus’ shoes. Now I want you to pick out someone you love greatly. And I want you to imagine yourself as God and imagine that loved one as Jesus. Do you think you could’ve given up that person for all of us? I sure as heck couldn’t imagine giving my loved one up for that. But ya know what? God did. He gave His one and only son to die on that cross and to suffer the worst death for all of us. This is the crazy love I was talking about in the beginning.
After I read through all of this I realized I was sad for no reason the next 3 or 4 days. I was trying to think why I was feeling sad but I had no reason, so I asked God and you wanna know what He told me? He was showing me a little part of how he felt through all of this. Probably not even a sliver of how he felt but He still showed me a little glimpse. It’s really cool when God shows me parts of Himself in this way. He did this for me in the Dominican Republic, I wrote a blog called “Pizza” and I explained it in there. So I want to challenge you to ask God to show you how He felt through all of this. And maybe it doesn’t have to be this passage, maybe you can find a different story of the Bible when it talks about joy and you could ask God to reveal to you His joy He had. It could be any emotion, but this is such a cool way I’ve connected with God a few times and I want everyone else to experience this also.
Thanks so much for reading this, sorry I haven’t posted anything in a while. I’ll try and post another one soon 🙂
