Category: Bible Reading & Meditation

“If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is void of content and your faith is empty too.” –1 Corinthians 15:14 What did Jesus do between His death and resurrection? Did He just lay in the tomb? During the time Jesus was buried, “it was in the spirit also that He went to preach to the spirits in prison” (1 Pt 3:19). “The reason the gospel was preached even to the dead was that, although condemned in the flesh in the eyes of men, they might live in the spirit in the eyes of God” (1 Pt 4:6). Because Jesus...

“Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered.” –Hebrews 5:8 Through His suffering and death, Jesus’ appearance was marred beyond that of man (Is 52:14). “He was spurned and avoided by men, a Man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, One of those from Whom men hide their faces” (Is 53:3). Our infirmities He bore; our sufferings He endured (Is 53:4). He was “stricken,” “smitten,” “afflicted,” “pierced,” and “crushed” (Is 53:4-5). Jesus became “an Object of reproach, a Laughingstock,” and “a Dread” (Ps 31:12). Jesus was dreadfully brutalized, tortured, and traumatized for love of us. What will we...

“The Lord Jesus on the night in which He was betrayed took bread, and after He had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you.’ ” –1 Corinthians 11:23-24 God became a human being. “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us” (Jn 1:14). The Lord emptied Himself (Phil 2:7). He became like us in all things but sin (Heb 4:15). God became a human embryo, baby, toddler, little child, teenager, etc. God washed the feet of His disciples (Jn 13:5) and continues to do so today (see Heb 13:8). God emptied...

“Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” —Matthew 26:25 Notice that, in Matthew’s account of the Passion, Judas addressed Jesus merely as “Rabbi,” not as Lord (Mt 26:25; see also Mt 26:49). The other disciples all addressed Jesus as “Lord” (Mt 26:22). Calling Jesus “Rabbi,” that is, “Teacher” (see Jn 1:38), gives evidence that Judas had already stopped recognizing Jesus as his Lord and Master. Since no man can have two masters (Mt 6:24), Judas now had a different master than Jesus; he transferred his loyalty to the Jewish chief priests (see Mt 26:14ff). How tragically sad! Judas betrayed Jesus so...

“Jesus grew deeply troubled.” –John 13:21 Especially in Holy Week, we may become deeply troubled. We are troubled by other people, by Judases who betray the Lord and us, and by Peters who deny the Lord and us after promising never to do such a thing (see Jn 13:21ff, 38). We may also be troubled by the seeming uselessness of our lives. We may feel as if we have “toiled in vain…for nothing, uselessly” (Is 49:4). Moreover, we may be troubled even by the Holy Spirit, Who points out that we are not only victims of people like Judas and...