Mark 15:46 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. The Easter story started with Jesus experiencing a betrayal, a humiliating trial, a beating and the horror and agony of the cross. His broken, lifeless body was taken down from the cross, tenderly wrapped in linen, and laid in the borrowed tomb of a rich man named Joseph. A huge stone was rolled over the mouth of the tomb – locking in Jesus and locking out all light and life. For three days, the cold stone of grief weighed down the disciples’ heart. For three days, the rock of fear locked them behind close
Luke 19:36 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” NIV Isn’t it interesting that though the religious leaders didn’t recognize who Jesus was, the rocks did? John 1:3-4 God created everything through Him, and nothing was created except through Him. The Word gave life to everything that was created…
In John 19, we find Jesus on a hill outside of Jerusalem crucified on a tree. Even as His body was writhing in pain beyond anything we could possibly even begin to imagine, Jesus was concerned about His mother. “Woman...here is your son”….“John, here is your mother.” John 19:16-27 And in that single moment a new family was born!! John and Mary were not related. In fact, though they were both Jews, they were very different. They were from different families, different tribes and lineage, different cities and backgrounds. Yet Jesus, on the cross, binds them together. There is no where in the world, but at the cross, where people, no matter where they are from, what they’ve done, what race they
John 19: 16-27 …Pilate turned Jesus over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus away. Carrying the cross by Himself, He went to the place called Place of the Skull (in Hebrew, Golgotha). There they nailed Him to the cross. In today’s culture the cross is an emblem we wear in gold around our necks, stain artfully in glass in our cathedrals and frame in carve wood in colorful paintings in our homes. But in Jesus’ day, the cross was the symbol of a death sentence. The horrific tool of torture for a condemned criminal. Crucifixion was designed to be excruciatingly painful – its purpose was to bring a person such agony that not only would his body convulse but he would become tormented psych
