30 Days In The Gospel Of MarkSample

  

Thought:

After hours of excruciating pain, Jesus died. He was really, fully, all-the-way dead. A man named Joseph took Jesus’ body and buried Him in a tomb, closing it with a very heavy stone. Jesus died on the cross for you and for me. He chose to die of His own free will. He could have rescued Himself at any moment but He chose not to. He knew that the penalty for sin is death. Because we have all sinned, we all deserve to die and be separated from God. Jesus is full of grace and He did not want this to happen to us. So, He died—a horrible, gruesome, unfair death—to pay the price for our sins. When He died, the curtain of the Temple was torn in two, symbolizing that God and humans no longer have to be separated from one another. (The Temple was the Jewish place of worship and, until the curtain was torn, had a special room where God’s presence dwelled and that only the High Priest could enter once a year.) Why did Jesus die for us? We did not deserve it. We betrayed and abandoned Him to live in our sin. Jesus died for us because He loves us, because He is love. That is who God is: God is love. It is impossible for us to comprehend how much God loves us. It is too vast and deep for us to ever understand. It is so big and powerful that even sin and death cannot stop it. Jesus went as far as it is possible to go to save us. He stopped at nothing to show His great love for us. And that is very good news!

1. What unusual thing happened from the 6th hour (noon) to the 9th hour (3 in the afternoon)?

2. What did the centurion say when He saw Jesus die?

3. What happened to Jesus’ body after He died?

4. How is this sad story “good news,” as the gospel claims it is?

Engage:

It is because of the great love Jesus displayed at the cross that the apostle Paul tells us in Romans, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39, NIV). How can you remind yourself of Jesus’ great love for you this week?

Deeper Waters:

Look up Psalm 22. What verse do you see quoted in today’s passage?