We finished reading the 4th gospel this week and the one we read last was Mark. My purpose in following along with Annie F. Downs podcast, “Let’s Read the Gospels” was to learn more about Jesus while He was on earth and somehow translate that into acting more like He did. So finishing up the reading on Monday, Annie challenged us to write about the one thing I learned about Jesus that I didn’t know before this journey. She’s reading again in February, so here’s the link to follow along: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lets-read-the-gospels-with-annie-f-downs/id1655219933
As I listened along in January, I had a purpose in mind. I wanted to know how Jesus related to the people around Him. I tried to concentrate on Jesus’ teaching techniques, or the language He tended to use, how He treated women, or how He did holidays, I wasn’t really dissecting the writing or the verbs or even exactly what He said, but rather how He said it. I’ve been looking for things that I didn’t know for an entire month. And towards the end of Mark somewhere, when I heard yet again about the betrayal of Peter and the loneliness of the public spectacle of death on a cross it occurred to me that what I hadn’t noticed ever before is how much real estate in these four relatively short books is taken up by the documentation of Jesus’ death and resurrection. It’s a topic of conversation between Jesus and the disciples relatively early in the narration. He often warns that He will die, He will be killed, that the Christ must die. Even if they didn’t understand it, they had to have heard it. And then they lived it. If you use the account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem at the start of Holy Week as a starting point, Matthew covered the week in 8 of 28 chapters, Mark 6 of 16 chapters, Luke, 6 of 24 chapters, and John used 10 of 21 chapters. What I realized from that exercise was that the early church and the four gospel writers all felt that preserving these stories and documenting the exact details of these final visible acts of Jesus on earth were ultimately important to our understanding of who Jesus was. And without this incredible finale of the public crucifixion of a righteous man, his burial, and his improbable resurrection from death to actually walk and talk with them, there was no understanding at all of what it could possibly mean. In the end, they staked their reputations, their life’s work, and their own personal safety on this very sure knowledge that a man called Jesus had lived among us, was killed, buried, and raised from the dead. Why would anyone do that? My thought is that they were sure of what they had seen and heard and what they themselves could discern from prayer and reading scripture texts. They believed what they wrote was true and they wanted you to know it too. If I’m being honest, I don’t really enjoy reading about the betrayal and crucifixion part of the gospels. I don’t do scary movies or horror genre books. I’m too sensitive and unable to slow my heart rate or even sleep if I’m exposed to violence. Yes, sometimes the news is too much for me. And of course what propels me through the gospel accounts of Jesus’ death is the certainty that indeed, Sunday will be coming. Even in darkness and grief, there is hope. As I’ve contemplated Jesus’ story this past month, I’ve realized that His life was important and for our instruction, but His very purpose was not the teaching, not the rejection, but in His sacrificial death and the surety of His resurrection. That’s why the stories were recounted four different times in four different gospels and untold numbers of times in the centuries since. So as I listened, Mark 12:11 became pivotal to me as I heard it: The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. I think it’s fair to say that the mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection can only be understood in the context of God’s entire story. Since the beginning, God has continuously been re-creating His creation, the new Heavens and the new Earth. And the very cornerstone of that is Jesus Christ. In even His death and resurrection, He has become a stumbling block to those who reject His truth, but oh, He is the beautiful focus of those who believe. In the words of the Psalmist, “It is marvelous in our eyes.”
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