6.12.25 – Mark 15

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Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. We join Allen J. Huth as he shares Bible passages and comments from over 30 years of his personal Bible reading journals.

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Today we are in Mark 15, the crucifixion of Jesus. We’ll listen to our guest reader Tom Siekmeyer as he reads the 47 verses of Mark 15.

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Mark chapter 15. And Pilate again asked him, Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you. But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed. Now at the feast, he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. And among the rebels in prison who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. And he answered them, saying, Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews? For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. And Pilate again said to them, Then what shall I do with the man you call the king of the Jews? And they cried out again, Crucify him! And Pilate said to them, Why, what evil has he done? But they shouted all the more, Crucify him! So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.” And the soldiers led him away inside the palace, that is, the governor’s headquarters. And they called together the whole battalion, and they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews! And they were striking his head with a reed, and spitting on him, and kneeling down in homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak, and put his own clothes on him, and they led him out to crucify him. And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. And they brought him to the place called Golgotha, which means place of a skull. And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. and they crucified him and divided his garments among them casting lots for them to decide what each should take and it was the third hour when they crucified him and the inscription of the charge against him read the king of the jews and with him they crucified two robbers one on his right and one on his left And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, Aha, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross. So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, He saved others, he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe. Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.” And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing it said, behold, he is calling Elijah. And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down. And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God. There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James the younger, and Joseph and Salome. When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him. And there were also many other women who came up with him And when evening had come, since it was the day of preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died, and summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. And when he learned from the centurion that he was already dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud, and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.

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In 1986, I was reading the Gospel of Mark when I was moving my family from Denver, Colorado to Nashville, Tennessee. I was on the road and I was trying to keep up with my reading and sometimes I did okay and sometimes I didn’t do very well. Our trip from Denver to Nashville included stops in Oklahoma City and Little Rock, Arkansas. We arrived on Easter weekend, Saturday night, and we went to church on Easter Sunday. Easter Sunday, a very appropriate time to be reading the last couple of chapters of the Gospel of Mark. Moving on to 1996, I wrote about Mark 15. Barnabas is us. He was a convicted criminal, a sinner, who was released from death as Jesus died in his place. He was guilty and deserved death, as all of us are. But Jesus, the innocent one, took his place as he does ours. Praise God, I can live forever thanks to Jesus. Another 10 years later, in 2006, concerning Mark 15, I wrote, Pilate pleased the crowd. The chief priest stirred up the crowd. Barnabas, a murderer, was set free. Jesus was crucified. I wrote a prayer that day. I wrote, God help me not to be a crowd pleaser. I too put you on that cross. Forgive my sinfulness. The next day I finished Mark 15 and I wrote my journal. Was Jesus dead? A Roman centurion saw him breathe his last. Pilate wondered if he was dead, summoned the centurion, who confirmed to Pilate Jesus was dead. Joseph, a prominent member of the Jewish council, took the body down, wrapped it, laid it in a tomb. I don’t think he would have done that to a living, breathing body. He held him. He touched him. He carried him. He wrapped him. He sealed the body in a tomb. The women watched all this, doubtful they would have permitted it had they seen life in his body. Why do we question that he was dead? On that day, too, I jotted a little prayer. I said, Thank you for suffering separation from God Almighty for my sin. Forgive me, Jesus. Jesus may have been the only person in history to be crucified for who he was, not for what he did. Verse 26 says, And the inscription of the charge against him read, The King of the Jews. Jesus died for who he was, not for what he did. The cry from Jesus on the cross was not about physical pain. It was about suffering the sin of the world and for a moment possibly even being separated from his Father. He cries out, My God, my God, Why have you forsaken me? My English Standard Version Study Bible says this about what Jesus cried out on the cross. It says, Jesus utters the opening words of Psalm 22 and in doing so cries out to God in the immense pain of divine abandonment, which he suffers as a substitute for sinful mankind. Jesus knows why he is experiencing God-forsakenness, just as he knows his death, will not be the end of his story. Mark chapter 15 ends with the death and burial of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But the story doesn’t end there. There is a Mark chapter 16 we’ll listen to tomorrow. Lord Jesus, Pilate asked you, Are you the King of the Jews? And you said, You say it is so. The inscription on your cross proclaimed to every passerby that you are the King of the Jews. You are not only the King of the Jews, Lord, you are the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But you set that aside to become the Lamb of God for sinners slain. Thank you for going to the cross for me. Make it personal, friends. Thank you for going to the cross for me, for my sinfulness, for my sin nature. You crucified my sinfulness on a cross. You buried it in the tomb. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. According to a recent Barna research study entitled Bible Reading, A New Year’s Resolution, most Americans are not satisfied with their current level of Scripture reading. A majority express a desire to read the Bible more than they currently do. Born-again and practicing Christians are the most likely to desire more Bible reading in their day-to-day lives. It should not come as a surprise that the majority of Americans wish they read Scripture more than they do, says Roxanne Stone, editor-in-chief of Barna Group. After all, two-thirds of Americans agree that the Bible contains everything you need to know to live a meaningful life. Why wouldn’t you want to read such a book more often? The study continues. However, like other New Year’s resolutions, such as exercising more and eating healthier, Scripture reading is often an aspirational goal. It’s the goal that for most people probably doesn’t feel necessary to survive and so can easily get swamped by the day-to-day demands of a busy life. Scripture reading takes time and focus, two things that feel like scarcities in today’s fast-paced and on-demand culture. Like exercise, like dieting, regular Bible reading does not offer instant payoff. It’s a discipline whose rewards are reaped over the long haul. And the study continues, when people go from feeling they should read the Bible more to needing to read the Bible more, they find the time. Access to the Bible is not the issue in the USA, is it? We all have Bibles. According to another study done a few years ago, 88% of Americans own a Bible. We have 3.5 Bibles in our homes. And this is amazing. 59% of people who have no faith or are atheists even own a Bible, probably just in case. So if you have a smartphone, you have access to the Word of God. My Gideon Bible app has over 2,100 languages. Access to the Bible is not the issue. The issue is changing our beliefs about the Bible to behavior with the Bible. So where are Christians with the Bible today? Christians are well-intentioned when it comes to the Bible. We believe that the Bible is the Word of God. We believe, we just don’t behave. Our belief in the Bible and our behavior with the Bible are inconsistent. The middle ground related to the Bible seems to be disappearing. The decrease of Bible-neutral and Bible-friendly people and the increase of Bible antagonists suggests that more people are picking a side. Which side are you on? Are you a Bible antagonist questioning the Bible? Are you Bible-neutral? I just don’t know. Or are you Bible-friendly? I love the Bible. Wherever you are, pick a side. Because of our neglect of God’s Word, we are becoming biblically illiterate. For example, in a private religious elementary school, kids were asked about the Old and New Testaments. Here are some funny things that they had to say. The first commandment was when Eve told Adam to eat that apple. Lot’s wife was a pillar of salt by day but a ball of fire by night. What kind of man was Boaz before he married? Ruthless. The epistles were the wives of the apostles. Christians have only one spouse. That’s called monotony. So, if we think about Bible literacy or illiteracy, we think about it this way. If God decided to come down from his throne in heaven, become an author here on earth, you’d think his book would be on the bestseller list. And the fact is, the Bible is the number one bestselling book of all time. 2.5 to 5 billion, according to research. It’s also the most read book of all time. Praise the Lord, that alone might be evidence that the Bible, not any other so-called writing, is God’s Word. According to a weekly World News report, here are a few other Bible facts. About 50 Bibles are sold every minute. The Bible is the world’s best-selling book. It’s also the world’s most shoplifted book. That’s interesting. And that doesn’t even count all the Gideon Bibles stolen out of those hotels. So I encourage you to enjoy a portion of God’s Word every day. Make it a daily spiritual habit. And so until next time, I’m Alan J. Huth, and this program is sponsored by The Ezra Project, with support from listeners like you. Visit EzraProject.net to keep AdBible, connecting God’s people to God’s Word, on the air.