Jesus was arrested by the Roman soldiers at Gethsemane, and from there he was questioned and trialed all night long until early morning when he got brought to the Pilate for the final trial …
Scripture Reading: Mark 15:1-15; John 10:11, 14-18
Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.
2 “Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate.
“You have said so,” Jesus replied.
3 The chief priests accused him of many things. 4 So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.”
5 But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.
6 Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. 7 A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. 8 The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.
9 “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, 10 knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.
12 “What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.
13 “Crucify him!” they shouted.
14 “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
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11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. … I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.”
Devotion Questions
- How absurd was it, for the Jewish people to ask to release Barabbas, a convicted criminal, and to crucify Jesus? Yet as we read the scripture, take a minute to reflect if we have always chosen Jesus in our lives? Or do we choose sin sometimes? Don’t we often choose out of our own comfort or leisure, something that we know God doesn’t like, or even something that we know is sinful, instead of choosing Jesus?
- Did you know – when Mel Gibson made the movie “Passion of the Christ”, it was Mel Gibson’s own hand that held the hammer and put the nail through Jesus’s hand into the cross in that scene. He later explained “I decided to do that shot myself because it is my own sins that nailed Jesus on the cross”. Is it not also our sins that put Jesus on the cross? Do we sometimes blame the Pharisees and the Jewish teachers for killing Jesus, without realizing Jesus also died for OUR sins?
- Take a moment to slowly read the extracted scriptures from Gospel of John above and meditate on it. Re-play the scenes at Gethsemane, the trial and now sentenced to crucifixion in your mind, and meditate on these scriptures.
- With a quiet and humble heart, pray this to Jesus “Jesus, you are the almighty prince of peace, you have authority over this entire world, present, past and future. Nobody could take your life away from you, but you chose to lay it down – only because you love me. Jesus you are my great shepherd, my great protector and my dearest teacher. Lord I am not worthy of your sacrifice, but may your love ignite my heart, so that I always seek your voice, so that I may know you like a sheep knows its shepherd, and that I follow you to expand your nation as one flock, one shepherd. I pray this in your holy name – Amen.”
** Tomorrow is Good Friday, the day Christians around the world gather at church to remember Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross for us. If our loved ones pass away we get together at the funeral to remember his / her life. When our beloved shepherd and teacher lays down his life for us, we have no reason not to set this day apart, and to remember our Lord in His temple. Good Friday is not an extra holiday for us to go on enjoy ourselves. It is not a long weekend for us to go on get-away trip. It is a remembrance service for our Lord. Come join us at GCGC tomorrow.