Missionary Renegade: The Daily Guide/Daily Devotion grow. pray. study. from The Resurrection United Methodist Church in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Thursday, 27 August 2015

Thursday, August 27, 2015

The Daily Guide/Daily Devotion grow. pray. study. from The Resurrection United Methodist Church in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Thursday, 27 August 2015 – "Was crucified, dead and buried"

Daily Scripture: Mark 15:22 They brought Yeshua to a place called Gulgolta (which means “place of a skull”), 23 and they gave him wine spiced with myrrh, but he didn’t take it. 24 Then they nailed him to the execution-stake; and they divided his clothes among themselves, throwing dice to determine what each man should get. 25 It was nine in the morning when they nailed him to the stake. 26 Over his head, the written notice of the charge against him read,
THE KING OF THE JEWS
27 On execution-stakes with him they placed two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. 28 [Mark 15:28 Some manuscripts include verse 15:28: And the passage from the Tanakh was fulfilled which says, “He was counted with transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:12)] 29 People passing by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! So you can destroy the Temple, can you, and rebuild it in three days? 30 Save yourself and come down from the stake!” 31 Likewise, the head cohanim and the Torah-teachers made fun of him, saying to each other, “He saved others, but he can’t save himself!” 32 and, “So he’s the Messiah, is he? The King of Isra’el? Let him come down now from the stake! If we see that, then we’ll believe him!” Even the men nailed up with him insulted him.
33 At noon, darkness covered the whole Land until three o’clock in the afternoon. 34 At three, he uttered a loud cry, “Elohi! Elohi! L’mah sh’vaktani?” (which means, “My God! My God! Why have you deserted me?”)[Mark 15:34 Psalm 22:2(1)] 35 On hearing this, some of the bystanders said, “Look! He’s calling for Eliyahu!” 36 One ran and soaked a sponge in vinegar, put it on a stick and gave it to him to drink.[Mark 15:36 Psalm 69:22(21)] “Wait!” he said, “Let’s see if Eliyahu will come and take him down.” 37 But Yeshua let out a loud cry and gave up his spirit. 38 And the parokhet in the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 When the Roman officer who stood facing him saw the way he gave up his spirit, he said, “This man really was a son of God!”
John 19:38 After this, Yosef of Ramatayim, who was a talmid of Yeshua, but a secret one out of fear of the Judeans, asked Pilate if he could have Yeshua’s body. Pilate gave his consent, so Yosef came and took the body away. 39 Also Nakdimon, who at first had gone to see Yeshua by night, came with some seventy pounds of spices — a mixture of myrrh and aloes. 40 They took Yeshua’s body and wrapped it up in linen sheets with the spices, in keeping with Judean burial practice. 41 In the vicinity of where he had been executed was a garden, and in the garden was a new tomb in which no one had ever been buried. 42 So, because it was Preparation Day for the Judeans, and because the tomb was close by, that is where they buried Yeshua.
2 Corinthians 5:14 For the Messiah’s love has hold of us, because we are convinced that one man died on behalf of all mankind (which implies that all mankind was already dead), 15 and that he died on behalf of all in order that those who live should not live any longer for themselves but for the one who on their behalf died and was raised. 16 So from now on, we do not look at anyone from a worldly viewpoint. Even if we once regarded the Messiah from a worldly viewpoint, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is united with the Messiah, he is a new creation — the old has passed; look, what has come is fresh and new!
Reflection Questions:
We still sometimes see the claim that Jesus just fainted on the cross. But Roman soldiers knew their business. If they ever by mistake let a convict live, they paid with their own lives. No, Jesus really died—and Christians said Jesus died for all of us. Paul summed up for the church in Corinth the message he believed with all his heart. “One died for the sake of all….He died for the sake of all so that those who are alive should live not for themselves but for the one who died for them and was raised.”

Scholar Craig Evans wrote, “The Roman centurion confesses of Jesus what he should only confess of the Roman emperor….In calling Jesus the Son of God, the centurion has switched his allegiance from Caesar, the official ‘son of God,’ to Jesus, the real Son of God.” What kind of a king—what kind of God—reigns from a cross? What has to happen in your heart to allow you to serve that kind of divine king?
The result of Jesus dying for all, Paul said, is that “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” In what ways has genuinely trusting in God’s forgiveness opened a new world for you? In what parts of your life are you still struggling with guilt, and seeking a new start? Are you open to getting any help you need in order to move beyond destructive guilt and self-hatred?

Today’s Prayer:
Lord Jesus, you really died on the cross. Yet your divine creativity took the worst we could do, and brought from it the best gift I could ever receive. You release me from fear and guilt, and empower me to live a truly human life. Thank you. Amen.
Insights from Dr. Amy Oden

Dr. Amy Oden is Professor of Early Church History and Spirituality at Saint Paul School of Theology at OCU. Teaching is her calling, and she looks forward to every day with students. For 25 years, Amy has taught theology and history, pursuing scholarship in service of the church.
“What kind of a king—what kind of God—reigns from a cross? What has to happen in your heart to allow you to serve that kind of divine king?” (GPS for Thursday, August 27)
These 2 questions from today’s GPS pierce me. This kind of God reigns through love, not brute force. What has to happen in my heart? To serve this kind of God, my heart has to reject the daily temptations to be right, to have the answer, to control others, to win. Instead, my heart has to focus on loving the way God loves from the cross.
Here is one prayer practice that helps my heart stay attuned to serving this kind of God:

First, I breathe. Slow, deep breaths that force me to pay attention to breathing. As I breathe, I acknowledge that this breath comes from God, in whom I live and move and have being.
Second, I close my eyes and picture God’s love coming into me through that breath and spreading throughout my whole body, like little rivulets of light.
Third, I picture that love filling my heart, all its nooks and crannies, even the hard, crusty places, until my heart is glowing with the light of God’s love.
Last, I picture my heart, glowing with love, placed within God’s heart. God’s own heart surrounds and strengthens my heart, completing and perfecting the love in my heart.

Crucified, dead and buried. A different kind of power. A different kind of love.