Killing Jesus

Meditations This Week on Jesus’ Passion for You
 
Mark 14:1-2 Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him. 2 “But not during the Feast,” they said, “or the people may riot.”
 
THE chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him. Is there a more dreadful sentence in Scripture? To witness Israel’s great crime against God even centuries later should cause all of us to shudder over our sin. And then we should tell God, “I love you! Thank you for your great love to save me to eternal life through Jesus’ brutal death.” Stop, too, and remember such gracious words as Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
   If the teachers of the law had truly known God’s law, they would have known the Savior was teaching them. In their ignorance they attempted to trick him with their weak questions. But Jesus revealed their lies and their false motives. The experts in the law lost every debate. The more they encountered him, the weaker they looked to the crowds. It came to the point they had no reply the Living Word: Luke 20:40 And no one dared to ask him any more questions. Power and prestige defiled their hearts. Their solution was to kill him.
    “Kill” is a hard word to consider. We don’t say this much. “They crucified Jesus. They put him to death.” are certainly hard statements. But to kill someone seems to be a more personal, intentional act. Very personally and deliberately the ruling Jews plotted and planned in the dark to kill the one who threatened their unlawful lives.
   We must be very careful we’re not as those teachers. We can easily be too self-righteous, too confident of ourselves to allow Jesus to rule our hearts. We don’t like to use the word “kill” when we talk of disobeying our Lord. But Jesus can become dead to our minds if we refuse to listen to his wisdom. Our debates and excuses are foolish next to Jesus’ suffering death. We will plot to put him away, so we will remain safe in our own view of life.  
   Safety, though, is only in our Redeeming LORD God. David said it like this: Psalms 3:3 But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head. 4 To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill.
   Indeed, are you listening? Jesus answers your prayers and forgives your sins from the power of the “holy hill” on which he was killed. Through faith, he becomes your shield. He surrounds you all day and all night long because he is LORD of heaven and earth. He is Savior, Redeemer. He is the Great Passover Lamb, slain in shame for his glory and fame forevermore.