Crucifixion Contemplation
What Crucified Christ Then, is Still Crucifying Him Now.
What is it?
The short answer: HATE and all its ugly forms.
Jesus said, “He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.”
JOHN 15:23-25
The long answer: I am condensing Scripture here, so you don’t have to go through so many words to get to the points, so please read the Book of Mark for clearer understanding.
HARD QUESTIONS
Forgiveness of sins
Why does this man speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only? MARK 2:5-11
Authority
The scribes and chief priests sought how they might destroy him
They asked Him. “By what authority do you do these things? Mark 11:15-33
Origin
They asked, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. Mark 6:3-6
Law
The Pharisees asked Jesus, “Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? “
Jesus answered, “From the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” MARK 10:2-9
SELF RIGHTEOUSNESS
When Jesus and His disciples sat down to eat with sinners, some did not like it.
How is it that he eats and drinks with publicans and sinners?
Jesus answered, “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. MARK 2:15-17
WORKS
They asked Jesus, “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not?”
Jesus said unto them, “Can the children fast, while the bridegroom is with them? as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.
They asked Jesus, “Why do your disciples on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?”
Jesus answered, “ The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.” MARK 2:18-28
HARD HEARTS
When Jesus was about to heal a man, He asked, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill?” He was grieved for the hardness of their hearts. MARK 3:4-5
BLASPHEMY
They said of Christ, “He has Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils does he cast out devils”.
Jesus said, “If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.”
And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand…All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation” MARK 3:1-29
When Jesus was on the cross those who passed by, blasphemed Him, saying, “Aha! You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself, and come down from the cross!” MARK 15:29-30
PROOF
They asked Jesus to show them a miracle
Jesus told them: “no sign will be given unto this generation”
But later He was with his disciples he reminded him of the miracle of the loaves he did among them MARK 8:11-21
MONEY
A rich one asked Jesus, “Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”
Jesus finally told him after the rich one told him he had kept all the commandments, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”
But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. MARK 10:17-22
FAULT FINDING; NOT KNOWING SCRIPTURE
They asked Jesus, “Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?”
Jesus answered, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” MARK 12:13-17
Those that did not believe in the resurrection asked Jesus about a woman who was married to seven brothers of which all of them die. “In the resurrection, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of the seven?”
Jesus answered, “Are you not therefore mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken.” MARK 12:18-27
FALSE WITNESSES
The false witness said “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.’
But Jesus kept silent and answered nothing MARK 14:57-60
MOCKERY
While Jesus was on the cross, they mocked him saying, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” MARK 15:31
THOUGHT: We’ve all been guilty of some of these at one time or another in our lives, and JESUS will forgive us if we believe HE IS WHO HE SAYS HE IS, deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him.
Let us say with the centurion when he watched Jesus die on the cross, “Truly this man was the Son of God.” Mark 15:39