Christ Church Daily Devotion March 30 2024

In Luke chapter 23, Jesus is led away by soldiers and forced to carry the cross. He tells the women not to weep for him, but for themselves and their children. Jesus is crucified with two criminals, and people mock him. One criminal insults him, while the other defends him and asks Jesus to remember him in his kingdom. Darkness covers the land, and Jesus breathes his last. The centurion praises God, and Joseph of Arimathea asks for Jesus' body. He places it in a tomb, and the women who followed Jesus prepare spices. Jesus' comments about the future resonate, as people today go against his teachings. Amidst darkness, there is hope in God's plan. Welcome to Christ Church's Daily Devotion for March 30th, 2024. Today we will be reading from Luke chapter 23, verses 26 through 56. As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him, including women, who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me. Weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed. Then they will say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, Cover us. For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry? Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there along with the criminals, one on his right and the other on his left. Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, He saved others. Let him save himself, if he is God's Messiah, the Chosen One. The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself. There was a written notice above him which read, This is the King of the Jews. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him. Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us. But the other criminals rebuked him. The other criminal rebuked him, Don't you fear God? He said, Since you are under the same sentence, we are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus answered him, Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise. It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. For the sun stopped shining, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. When he had said this, he breathed his last. The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, Surely this was a righteous man. When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching these things. Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the council, a good and upright man who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth, and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it, and then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment. Luke is the only gospel writer who includes Jesus' comments to the women on his way to be crucified. Earlier in the book, Jesus had spoken of Jerusalem's role in killing the prophets and later wept over the city. For some reason, verse 31 stuck a chord with me in this time. For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry? That statement has been interpreted in various ways. Jesus had predicted the coming destruction of Jerusalem, which happened less than 40 years later. I hear Jesus saying that if people would do this to an innocent man while there was relative peace in Jerusalem, imagine what they will do when there is strife and coming destruction. In our own day and time, people who claim to be followers of Jesus are living their lives and making choices that regularly go against the teaching and way of Jesus. It has me asking the question, if they do these things now, what will they do or allow to be done when the strife and tension increases? As I read the story of Jesus' crucifixion and I reflect on the condition of our nation and world, there is much to lament. And yet, even on the day Jesus was crucified, God was at work in people like Joseph of Arimathea. In our day, even in the midst of the darkness of hate and deception, God invites us to continue in the mission, knowing that with God there is always hope. It is that trust in the power and plan of God that keeps me moving forward into God's future. Your personal worship option today is, on this day between Jesus' death and resurrection, be reminded that no matter how dark life may get for you or for the world, the whole world, God cannot and will not be defeated. Offer a prayer of thanksgiving for that eternal hope.