January 17 - Mark 15

Dig Deeper:

CROWD WATCH: Remember, every time we see the word 'crowd' now it no longer represents people thronging to see Jesus, now they want Him crucified. If this is the same crowd as before, it goes to show how fickle people are and how short our attention span is. If it is a different crowd, it is just as indicting. Why, then, did these people who saw the miracles and heard Jesus teach amazing things, why do they now stay silent? Why did nobody speak up in Jesus' defense?
PRETTY COOL FACT: The name Bar-abbas means 'son of the father.' Isn't it amazing that Jesus, who is the Son of God, and whose favorite name for Himself was 'Son of Man,' is basically exchanged by the crowd for Barabbas? The Son of God/Man was traded for the son of Adam.
THIS IS WHY WE'RE READING GOD'S WORD: Hanging on the cross, Jesus is at His lowest possible moment, undergoing unspeakable agony. In this midst of this, He quotes Psalm 22 in v34. If Jesus could count on memorized scripture to help Him through this awful time, I think we can count on it as well.
PRETTY COOL FACT #2: At the beginning of Mark (1:10) we read that heaven was schizo - aggressively torn open (this is where we get the English word schism). Now near the end of Mark we read that the massively thick curtain in the temple was schizo. The barrier separating God and man was aggressively torn open when Jesus made the full and final atonement (payment) for our sin!

Prayer Tips:

Pray that you will not be torn away from Jesus like the people in the crowd were.
Thank the Father that He exchanged His Son for sinful man.
Ask God to plant His Words of truth deep in you so that when the trials and difficulty comes, you will be able to draw on what you've memorized like Jesus did.
Remember the reason you can pray directly to God like this is because the barrier between us and Him has been torn away by the death of Jesus.