Daily Devotions
Mark
Acts 4:23 "And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them." Acts 4:23"
Day 330 – Mark 15
“And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.” Acts 4:23
THE THIRD HOUR
Mark noted the commencement of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus.
“Now it was the third hour, and they crucified Him.”
MARK 15:25
The third hour would be about 9.00 o’clock in the morning. The jeering and the reviling of Jesus went on for about three hours. Jesus kept silent amidst the worst taunting of His foes!
THE SIXTH HOUR
Three hours crept by slowly. It was now high noon.
“Now when the sixth hour had come,
There was darkness over the whole land
until the ninth hour.”
MARK 15:33
There was an ominous sense of darkness that covered the whole land. This sense of darkness was inexplicable. It lasted for three whole hours. It certainly wasn’t an eclipse! Those were eerie hours. Would this phenomenon stop all the senseless verbal abuse hurled at Jesus?
THE NINTH HOUR
Another three hours had crept by! Jesus seemed to have mustered strength enough to make a short but heart-rending prayer.
“And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice,
‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ which is translated,
‘My God, My God, why have Your forsaken Me?'”
MARK 15:34
1. A cry of great anguish
Anguish at the deepest level of the soul must have been what Jesus felt in the symbolic darkness that enveloped the land. The darkness might have represented the judgment that took place as Jesus took upon Himself the sins of all mankind.
2. Alienated from the Father
Jesus had never experienced a moment where He was ever alienated from His Father. There was perfect union and communion at all times- till this moment when God judged! Sin alienated man from God! The sins that Jesus bore upon Himself now temporarily caused this deep sense of sorrow felt.
3. Feeling forsaken
Jesus felt, as none has ever felt, what it meant to be truly “forsaken”. His soul-rending cry portrayed the agony felt as He bore the sins of mankind on the cross!