Running With Mark 34

Posted on 31Jan posted by Karen Bruins CATEGORIES: Bible Study, Running With Mark 0

 

 

Day Thirty-Four – January 31, 2020  

Read: Luke 9:37-47 New Revised Standard Version

“Let these words sink into your ears:

The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands.”

Luke 9:44

Jesus often refers to himself as the “Son of Man”.  To learn more about what that means, check out this video from the Bible Project Son of Man – The Bible Project

Jesus, in Luke 9:44, is already telling the disciples what was going to happen to him.  They do not understand what he means.  To them the idea of him not being a victorious ruler, not striking down their Roman oppressors, does not make sense.  They still do not see him as a different kind of king, a different Son of Man.  They love Jesus so much, that the thought of him dying breaks their hearts.

 

If we had been there would we have understood?  I don’t think we would.  God’s plan is so beyond anything humans with our finite minds can understand.

 

The way of Jesus is countercultural, and goes so against our human instincts, that we could easily have missed what he meant.

Whose were the human hands into which Jesus would be betrayed?
  • Religious leaders who preferred legalism to the spirit of the law
  • Roman authorities who felt threatened by Jesus’ growing popularity
  • Peter, who will 3 times deny even knowing Jesus
  • The disciples who flee after Jesus’ arrest in the garden of Gethsemane
  • The disciple who drew his sword when soldiers came to arrest Jesus. Matthew’s gospel does not name the disciple.  John’s gospel says it was Simon Peter

 

Do you think you and I betray Jesus?  I think that we do whenever we:

  • Put others down in order to feel better about ourselves
  • When we gossip
  • When we resort to violence (in speech or in deed) rather than peacemaking
  • When we put idols before God (careers, money, status, power)
  • When we fail to love God and love our neighbor

If you are willing, would you reply in the comments section or send me an email with your thoughts on if and when we betray Jesus.

 

Music:

Ride on King Jesus This song is an African American spiritual. 

Create in Me a Clean Heart -The Acapella Company

 

Prayer Focus:

Talk to God about times, places, situations in which you deny Jesus.

How do our actions of not loving God and loving neighbor betray Jesus?

 

Grace and peace,

Pastor Karen Bruins