New day greetings to ya’s! I’m in the mood for Monday as it is a gift of great opportunity to be able to walk through this day in relationship with our Father. Each day is an adventure and open to surprises! Today in Dad’s Word, we will see a certain man from Cyrene named Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus who had great opportunity and surprise as well. He was somebody just like each of us! He was just walking through life on his way in from the Country when he was put into a position to carry the cross for Jesus because Jesus was not able to carry it Himself. He was put in a place of helping somebody in life and he didn’t even have to go looking for it. The opportunity came to him. How cool is that? The soldiers brought the man with the cross and Jesus to the place of Golgotha which means the place of the skull. The soldiers offered Jesus wine mixed with myrrh (a bitter sweet drink) but he didn’t take it. Jesus’ pain must have certainly been symbolic of that same kind of bitter sweet at that moment. The pain of His circumstance must have been hard to carry, but for the sake of the work on the cross which was important, Jesus also had joy set before Him and He went the distance. Bless Him for it! They crucified Him with the written notice of charge against Him – “The King of the Jews” which He was indeed. They stripped Him of His clothes and then cast lots to see what they would get. The soldiers’ mindset stands out to me here that they were far more into material things than caring about a relationship with Jesus. How sad that they missed out on the opportunity to know Him. How we see this in the world today! I just wonder what a difference it might have made to the Roman Soldiers if perhaps one of the disciples were there and shared with them their experience of Jesus. Sometimes people just need someone to help them look up, help them focus and see. If they would’ve went “Hummmm” (made themselves busily active in pondering), they would have become humming birds instead of mocking birds. It could’ve made a huge difference in their outlook! They could have seen there was a whole lot of sweet nectar to taste in who Jesus was and what He was doing there! The soldiers also crucified two robbers, putting Jesus in their midst. Interestingly, just as in this story, in the final hours just prior to death is when many people finally see Jesus! Hope gives us that delay is not denial! As Jesus hung on the cross, people passed by Him and mocked Him. People still do that today. Even the chief priests and teachers of the law had to get their final digs of mockery in. Those crucified with Jesus also hurled insults at Him. Wow! There sure were a lot of mocking people all around Jesus. As I ponder all of this, my thoughts or bird’s eye view humming around in my head right now is that I need to look at this as a good reminder to try and see life with Jesus’ outlook when it comes to mocking others. Until we have hung where they are at in life, we can’t fully understand how they came to be where they are. Rather than being known as a mockingbird, I’d rather be a hummingbird humming along focusing on who Jesus is and what He is doing. In tasting of the sweet necter of Jesus in my life, I’ve found He just keeps me coming back for more and more of Him which makes me hum all the more. How yummy! I’m humming right along with ya!
Mk 15:21-32; Mt 7:1-5; Ps 34:8, 22:7, 18
Tag Archives: Mockery
Joy in the Pain by Sheila and Dad
It’s Saturday Family! May your day be saturated with the reality of His presence with ya! In looking at the next section of Mark’s story today, I’m trying to keep a heart of joy, excitement and enthusiasm, but given the story of Jesus’ abuse, I’m struggling. However, in the midst of the darkness of the event transpiring, our Dad gives me light to see the bright side in it all. I share these thoughts with you: After Pilate had Jesus flogged which must have been excrutiating for Jesus, Pilate handed Jesus over to his soldiers to be crucified. Here we have a group of soldiers who had an awful job of putting Jesus to the agonizing death on a cross. How would you like to have that job? Yikes!!! I can imagine it makes pretty much any job look pretty good in comparison. In the right mindset though, the job these soldiers had could have been viewed as carrying out the will of the Father in that it was necessary for Jesus to fulfill Scripture to die on the cross to save all mankind from sin. In that light, it could have been viewed as an honor to be the ones chosen to help Jesus carry out His Father’s work had they truly known who Jesus was. It is said often that laughter is therapy in a life that is difficult. I suppose these soldiers must have needed humor to lighten the pain of what they did for a living, but sadly, their humor was targeted at the expense of a real human being. They at least clothed Him in purple that was truly fitting for a royal King. The soldiers had that part right and their address of Him as the King of Jews was fitting as He was in fact a King and falling to their knees in homage to Him was something I’m sure they will see as the proper position before Jesus when the review button on their lives is played. But the beating of Him, spitting on Him and smacking the crown of thorns into His head and laughing at Him with mockery was far beyond the call to duty. When they had finished with their so called fun, they put His clothes back on Him and led Him to be crucified. The job of crucifying Jesus was a dirty job and someone had to do it. I pity those soldiers for their job, but there has to be more Godly humor than making someone the focal point of mockery and laughter. Dad’s Word says when we point a finger at someone else, there is a finger pointing back at us. I can’t imagine going down in history having treated Jesus as these soldiers did, yet people even today make a mockery of Him and His ways. While these soldiers had a tough, painful job and they sought to find some joy in it, Jesus had an even tougher, painful job as He felt the pain of their sinful humor. He, too, sought to find joy in His circumstance as He fixed His eyes on His Daddy and His great eternal plan to rescue them all from their sin. Their abuse could have actually inspired Him to persevere, knowing what He was going through was bringing their rescue as well as the rescue of many. These soldiers mocked Jesus for His view of Himself as the King of the Jews. They did not see His Godliness. In so doing, they had fingers pointing back at them as their mindset placed themselves as Kings of authority over Jesus, lacking Godliness in how they treated the one who could rescue them from the wrath their sin deserved. Despite their erroneous attitude and as a result of them doing their job, Jesus paid the price on the cross for the sins of all mankind and now there is a day coming when all of Dad’s kids will laugh with Godly laughter - and they will live without death or mourning or crying or pain. Until then, I’m just happy to be doing life with ya’s! It just makes me giggle!
Mk 15:16-20; Ro 12:2; Lk 6:21; Rev 21:4