Good Morning Friends,
“And when the centurion, who stood there in
front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, ‘Surely this man
was the Son of God!’ … It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the
Sabbath). So as evening approached,
Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting
for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. Pilate was surprised to hear that he was
already dead. Summoning the centurion,
he asked him if Jesus had already died.
When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to
Joseph. So Joseph bought some linen
cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut
out of rock. Then he rolled a stone
against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene
and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.” (Mark 15:29; 42-47)
It didn’t take long for the death of Jesus to
make an impact on some people.
The centurion in charge of His crucifixion
saw Jesus die and witnessed the things that happened when He died and that
impacted him. There is no way that Roman
military officer would have declared Jesus to be the Son of God before He was
crucified or during the crucifixion. But
there was something very powerful about the way Jesus died – even a hardened
executioner could see that.
And then there is the impact on Joseph of
Arimathea. He was a prominent member of
the Jewish Council. That means he was
there when they debated what to do about Jesus and all the trouble He was
causing the Jewish leaders. That means
he was there when Jesus was brought before the Council after His arrest. He was there when the Council decided they
had to seek the death of Jesus. He was
there through all of those events and had the kind of influence that might have
made some difference – but he kept quiet through all of those sessions. Then Jesus is executed and suddenly Joseph
gets bold. Joseph gets bold enough to
tell Pilate – the man who had sentenced Jesus to death – that he wanted the
body of Jesus. After Jesus’ death,
Joseph was willing to do something he didn’t do before He died.
It seems to me that most of those who are executed
have the opposite impact on people. They
may have some impact while they live, but once they die, they are forgotten and
ignored. But not Jesus. There was something incredibly special about
the way He died – something incredibly special about Him.
Jesus had astounding impact on people while
He lived and taught. He taught as one
with authority and many people listened and followed.
Jesus had amazing impact on people when He
died. Immediately some lives were
changed.
Jesus still has incredible impact on the
lives of people today.
His, by Grace,
Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment