Tuesday, April 21, 2020

From the Bible Bunker: Let the Gospels Speak

During this corona lock-down, we all have the time to grow in our understanding of God and his word. With that in mind, I invite you to join in a series presentations dealing with the faith-related topics. 
In this first video, found at the bottom of the page, we discussed the importance of not combining details from the different gospel stories. I used the four accounts of the crucifixion to illustrate this point. These accounts are below:
Mark 15:33-39
About noon the sky turned dark and stayed that way until around three o’clock. Then about that time Jesus shouted, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you deserted me?”
Some of the people standing there heard Jesus and said, “He is calling for Elijah.” One of them ran and grabbed a sponge. After he had soaked it in wine, he put it on a stick and held it up to Jesus. He said, “Let’s wait and see if Elijah will come and take him down!” Jesus shouted and then died.
At once the curtain in the temple tore in two from top to bottom.
A Roman army officer was standing in front of Jesus. When the officer saw how Jesus died, he said, “This man really was the Son of God!”
Matthew 27:45-54
At noon the sky turned dark and stayed that way until three o’clock. Then about that time Jesus shouted, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you deserted me?”
Some of the people standing there heard Jesus and said, “He’s calling for Elijah.” One of them at once ran and grabbed a sponge. He soaked it in wine, then put it on a stick and held it up to Jesus.
Others said, “Wait! Let’s see if Elijah will come and save him.” Once again Jesus shouted, and then he died.
 At once the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, and rocks split apart. Graves opened, and many of God’s people were raised to life. Then after Jesus had risen to life, they came out of their graves and went into the holy city, where they were seen by many people.
The officer and the soldiers guarding Jesus felt the earthquake and saw everything else that happened. They were frightened and said, “This man really was God’s Son!”
Luke 23:44-49
Around noon the sky turned dark and stayed that way until the middle of the afternoon. The sun stopped shining, and the curtain in the temple split down the middle. Jesus shouted, “Father, I put myself in your hands!” Then he died.
When the Roman officer saw what had happened, he praised God and said, “Jesus must really have been a good man!”
A crowd had gathered to see the terrible sight. Then after they had seen it, they felt brokenhearted and went home. All of Jesus' close friends and the women who had come with him from Galilee stood at a distance and watched.
John 19:28-37
Jesus knew that he had now finished his work. And in order to make the Scriptures come true, he said, “I am thirsty!” A jar of cheap wine was there. Someone then soaked a sponge with the wine and held it up to Jesus' mouth on the stem of a hyssop plant. After Jesus drank the wine, he said, “Everything is done!” He bowed his head and died.
The next day would be both a Sabbath and the Passover. It was a special day for the Jewish people, and they did not want the bodies to stay on the crosses during that day. So they asked Pilate to break the men’s legs and take their bodies down. The soldiers first broke the legs of the other two men who were nailed there. But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, and they did not break his legs.
One of the soldiers stuck his spear into Jesus' side, and blood and water came out. We know this is true, because it was told by someone who saw it happen. Now you can have faith too. All this happened so that the Scriptures would come true, which say, “No bone of his body will be broken” and, “They will see the one in whose side they stuck a spear.”


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