The Week That Changed The World Devotional March 30
by David Joynt on March 30, 2024
Stress Test Devotional April 27
April 27, 2024
MARK 15:42-47 | 42 When evening had come, and since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council who was also himself waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 44 Then Pilate wondered if he were already dead, and summoning the centurion he asked him whether he had been dead for some time. 45 When he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the body to Joseph. 46 Then Joseph bought a linen cloth and, taking down the body, wrapped it in the linen cloth and laid it in a tomb that had been hewn out of rock. He then rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where the body was laid.
Jesus is buried in a borrowed grave behind a great stone, His body forever scarred by the marks of the nails and the thrust of the spear. No one can even attend to His body because it is the Sabbath, when no work is permitted. After all the healings and the miracles, after all moments of magnificent teaching, the movement of Jesus is finished. He went into the mental hospitals and restored patients to sanity, and woke up corpses in the graveyard. He befriended the broken and lonely, made the lame dance and blind see. He solved eternal mysteries and taught heavenly truths in stories that amazed scholars and appealed to children. Then, suddenly, it was all over. Crowds had changed from “save us” to “crucify.” All His disciples, save a number of faithful women, had deserted and gone into hiding. A glorious life had ended in failure and shame and the long silence of the grave.
What has been the low point of your life?
Gracious God,
You moved downward into the womb of a teenager, into a muddy stable, into troubles of the troubled and struggles of the struggling, into hands of sinners, down into the suffering of the forsaken and condemned, into the darkness of the grave. You did so for me. Thank You.
Amen.
