Mark: Journeying With JesusShembull

Some people say Jesus was a wise man. Others say Jesus was an influential leader. But Jesus won’t let us settle for a false idea of who he is. He won’t let us keep our ideas of him theoretical. He’s determined that we may see clearly, so that we may trust completely. It’s very personal.

Mark 8:27-29

[Jesus] asked,

"What about you? Who do you say I am?"

Peter answered,

"You are the Christ."

There are two ways of looking at the cross. If we look at the cross from a human point of view, the cross looks very weak. Jesus is exposed, humiliated, and defeated. The cross seems to prove that Jesus had got it wrong.

But if we look at the cross from God’s point of view, then we see God’s rescue mission. As Jesus dies on the cross, he takes on himself the punishment we deserve for our sin. He dies in our place. We do not need to face God's judgment ourselves. Our sin has been paid for, fully and finally and forever.

Isaiah 53:4-6 [New International Reader's Version]

[Jesus] suffered the things we should have suffered.

He took on himself the pain that should have been ours.

But we thought God was punishing him.

We thought God was wounding him and making him suffer.

But the servant was pierced because we had sinned.

He was crushed because we had done what was evil.

He was punished to make us whole again.

His wounds have healed us.

All of us are like sheep. We have wandered away from God.

All of us have turned to our own way.

And the Lord has placed on his servant

the sins of all of us.

There has never been a more powerful moment in history.

Our lives, as well as our deaths, will be determined by the way in which we respond to who Jesus is and what he did on the cross.

PRAYER | Heavenly Father, help us look afresh at the magnitude of Christ and the cross, and our relationship with Jesus, that we might respond in accordance with your will. Amen.