A new thought to me….
As we studied in Gospel of Mark the passion week of Jesus, our teacher warned about graphic reality when he showed a film clip from the movie, The Passion of the Christ, covering the road to the cross, as well as the crucifixion. We had completed a study of the account and discussed the Lord’s cry from the cross.
As we studied in Gospel of Mark the passion week of Jesus, our teacher warned about graphic reality when he showed a film clip from the movie, The Passion of the Christ, covering the road to the cross, as well as the crucifixion. We had completed a study of the account and discussed the Lord’s cry from the cross.
I am also presently teaching the book of Acts and this past week’s lesson centered on Jesus’ promise of the Spirit as well as His imperative regarding the comforting and empowering presence of the Sprit.
As we discussed the Lord’s final hours, something occurred to me I had never considered previously. Since I believe the Lord was always filled with the Spirit and fully aware of the Father’s presence in His humanity, it seems to me that in those final, painful hours on the road to the cross the Father and Spirit’s presence would have been sustaining and supporting Him. If this is true, then when on the cross, in the word’s of the current song, “The Father turned His face away,” Jesus’ cry of agony (Mark 15:33) came as, overwhelmingly, for the first time ever He was not fully connected and supported by both the Spirit and the Father.
This comforts me to consider that in those agonizing hours before the cross the intense presence of the Father and Spirit would have supported and comforted Him. (I have had many people who have experienced tragic circumstances express how they sensed God’s presence with amazing reality.) It also makes even more powerful Jesus’ cry from the cross when He became sin and thereby lost the intimate experience of God’s presence for the first time, for my sake.
What you do you think? Is this a new thought to you?
Gwynne Johnson
Gwynne Johnson currently serves on the Board of Entrust, Inc., an international education and training mission where she authored the Entrust curriculum, Developing a Discerning Heart. She recently served as Co-Chair of the training project, Christian Women in Partnership, Russia and as Senior Director of Women's Ministry at Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas. Gwynne has a M.A. in Biblical Studies from Dallas Theological Seminary. She currently lives in Huntsville, Texas with her husband of 58 years, Don. She works part-time in her daughter and granddaughter's bakery "The Best Box Ever," where she gets paid in cookies.
