QT 2/5/2024 Matt 15:16-20, Wanting to be gods

Mark 15:16–20 (ESV) —

16 And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. 17 And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. 18 And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 19 And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. 20 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.

 

NOTE: Why so much anger? There a few possibilities. 1) Men, sinful human beings, find it amusing to bully another human being for no reason. 2) They had heard some of the rumors of his teaching and did not like the moral restrictions on their behavior. 3) They did not like their assignment (location or job) or the Jew's religion and associated Jesus with this job. 4) Satan incited them against Jesus because of his hatred of God (Satan thought he was winning).

 

The story is full of irony. Jesus was and is the King of Jews. He will subdue all enemies and place them under his feet someday in the future. They will kneel down before Jesus, but not in jest next time. I like to think that later some of these soldiers repented and kneeled in submission to his authority.

 

The issue harkens back to the garden of Eden, where the couple wanted to be their own gods, to determine good and evil for themselves. They did not want to submit to God's rules, but wanted to be like God. That is still the problem today. No one wants to submit to rules that they don't agree. You see it while driving. A person does not stop at the stop sign because no one is there. A person goes through the red light because he can. Nowadays, theft has become so common at stores, that self-serve checkouts are being eliminated. We have lost our moral baseline. We are brainwashed by society to believe morality is subjective and relative. We have become our own gods choosing what is right and wrong for ourselves.

 

PONDER:

1. Do I believe in objective truth?
2. Do I believe God's truth is the ultimate truth for society?
3. Would I have acted like one of those soldiers?

 

PRAYER: Father, for those of us who are honest, we are debased, sinful human beings who glory in our "freedom" and "god-ship." But, our real need is not freedom but submission to your Lordship. We will never be truly happy until we see your word as the truth for life, and Jesus as our hope of salvation.