Monday, March 24,
2014 Important
Details
John 19: 17-24
John doesn’t supply just
incidental details about Jesus. John’s account of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial
is full of specific details that point to the fulfillment of scripture that
Jesus is God’s Messiah. As you read the rest of Chapter 19, pay close attention
to the details and ponder the significance John wants you to see.
Two details stand out to me in
today’s passage. First, when Jesus was crucified, Pilate placed a sign on the
cross proclaiming Jesus as King of the Jews. John tells us the sign was in
three languages: Hebrew, Latin and Greek. These languages covered a vast part
of the known world, fulfilling the prophecy that Israel’s Messiah would be
proclaimed to the entire world.
Secondly, the soldiers gambled
for Jesus’ clothes. This was prophesied in Psalm 22:18. According to both
Matthew’s and Mark’s Gospels, Jesus prayed from Psalm 22:1 when he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
It is not just Jesus’ cry of anguish or the soldiers gambling for his
clothes that connects Psalm 22 to the crucifixion of Jesus. The psalmist also
mentions the people gathered around Jesus, the crowd scorning Jesus, and his
thirsting.
By connecting the crucifixion to
Psalm 22, John want us to know that Jesus, who was crucified, dead and buried,
was the Messiah of God: the One the scriptures promised would come and save
Israel, save the world. Psalm 22 also points to the coming again of Jesus in
final victory. (Psalm 22:27-28) As followers of Jesus, it is important for us
to always be mindful that Jesus isn’t finished with His work. He will complete
the restoration of God’s Kingdom on earth, and we get to be co-laborers with
him in that work.
We all experience times of trial,
suffering and distress in our lives. Jesus is our model for responding to these
difficult times. As we yield ourselves to him, he will empower us to follow his
path. Like Jesus, we can turn to scriptures like Psalm 22 for guidance and
comfort. We can openly acknowledge to God our sense of despair, to remember
God’s past care for our lives, to embrace the reality of our circumstances, and
to trust that as God comes to us, we can experience Him as “our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).
Sē’lah
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(Selah is a word that appears in the
Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my
correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about
these things.)
These
meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his
way of life. The meditations are
published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/
and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may
subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by
subscription.
Publications by Alex M. Knight:
·
Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New
Testament and Psalms has been
published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.
·
The second
edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.
·
Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus
Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.
Unless
otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible,
New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.
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