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Seven Last Words Daily Devotional -34

by David Joynt on March 22, 2021


MARK 8:31 |  31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

 The ordeal of the cross did not simply begin at 6AM and end at 3PM. Jesus had to live with the consciousness of the cross for many months. Halfway through Mark’s gospel, Jesus begins to tell His disciples about the ordeal of the cross and His coming suffering.

All the teaching He subsequently did, all the healings He performed, all the questions and challenges He faced, were in the shadow of the cross. It is difficult the day before an operation, during which we  know we will be unconscious. Imagine living with the knowledge of this kind of shame and suffering. On Good Friday the difficult anticipation was over as it became a lived reality. Further, the temptation to avoid the cross by changing message, calling in divine aid, or skipping away from the city, was also over.

 Have you ever felt the dread of anticipating something?

Tags: anticipation, dread

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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