November 19, 2024: Tuesday Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 15:42-47
In this season of Thanksgiving let us give thanks to God for His gifts of abundance and hope-filled days.
This morning, I need to tell you that Teri's surgery went well yesterday, and she now begins a rather lengthy road to full recovery. Please continue your prayers for her. She sends her thanks for all of the support as she grieves at the loss of her dog Butters. Butters passed just a few days before Teri's surgery. Please pray for my brother Rick who has late-stage kidney disease. He does dialysis three times a week. At his last dialysis appointment his heart became erratic, a rapid heartbeat, and other cardiac issues too. He had to travel 60 miles to get to a cardiac specialist, and even then, the usual medications did not work to calm his heart. Today he is getting an echo cardiogram and a catheterization to discover the cause of this new health issue for him. I thank God for all of your prayers for the saints in light. That's us by the way, and others who believe in our Lord and Savior.
In today's study in Mark we discover that there is a rush to get Christ's body down from the cross, and to get it buried before the start of the Jewish holy worship day at 6PM on Friday evening. Joseph of Arimathea has come to offer to place Jesus in Joseph's own burial cave. He immediately goes to Pilate to request permission to take Jesus down from the cross, and to move him to a burial site. He is granted permission to do so. Unlike the others who had been crucified over the years, Jesus will be quickly moved to a burial site. What was more common was for those crucified to linger, sometimes for days before they succumbed to death. And often their bodies remained on their crosses after death, some to never be taken down until after their bodies a deteriorated, or the vultures and wild dogs would strip them to the bone on the ground. Perhaps Golgotha was given its name because of the bones and skulls left there as a sign of what happens when a person goes against the Roman Rule, or even against the temple priests.
What about this man Joseph of Arimathea? He was a leader of authority, a member of the Sanhedrin, a person of some wealth. But why did he come after Christ's death. He did not stand up for Jesus when Jesus was being tried. Maybe he was afraid of losing his position of power. But he must have come to the hill on which the criminals would lose their lives in crucifixion. What drove him to offer his personal tomb? It must have been the same thing as the Centurion who was at the side of Jesus' cross when He died. In some way, the Spirit moved both of these men's hearts and minds, and brought them to belief. Here we see the age-old question. Why did some come to belief at the death of Jesus, and not during his life and ministry to bring the Truth of God into the lives His chosen people once again, who, like them, would only stand quietly by as the abuse of Jesus took place. There can be no doubt that they received their gift of faith, and it is visible to us in the writing of Mark. It is here at the end of the 15th chapter of Mark that we are left hanging at the closed tomb of Jesus. His body is sealed in by a huge boulder, and though His body has been prepared, there is no lingering in the tomb to grieve because the day for worship is soon to start. Everything that Jesus did in His ministry has now come to that certain end we all face. Now no one can really find the space in their hearts and minds to remember with joy all that Christ did, and because His death is certain, it has all come to an abrupt stop.
If we had never read a Gospel, we would not know what is still to come. On Easter the certainty of God's answer, and its absolute surprise for all who come to see it will create in us immeasurable joy.
With love in Christ, Pastor Kim
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