God went ahead to your lowest point
Big Ideas
- Mark 15:16-32
- The story of Good Friday is split up into 3 sections, each with its own focus or lens
- This lens is humiliation. Mark is focusing on the mockery that Jesus suffered.
- The physical pain of the crucifixion is only given one sentence in Mark’s account
- If Physical suffering was the point of Jesus’ crucifixion, it would have gotten more explanation in the story
- Crucifixion itself was designed to maximize humiliation and shame, not to maximize pain
- Jesus went lower, and lower, until he got to the lowest point that a human could get at this time
- This was what Jesus accomplished on the cross
- The humiliation IS the glorification of God
- This is the image of the invisible God
- The clearest picture we’ve ever seen of God is Jesus suffering humiliation on the cross
- The reason? Solidarity with people feeling shame.
- Solidarity with you
- You have a God who understands you
- You have a God who understands what you’re feeing, and is sharing the burden you’re carrying
- When you get to your lowest point, God has gone ahead, and is already waiting for you there.
- You never have to be alone.
Questions
- Read through the story together, talk about what stands out to you in the relentless lowering of Jesus
- Have you thought or been told that the point of the crucifixion was the amount of pain that Jesus suffered for you?
- What does it change if the crucifixion is about humiliation and shame?
- Have you felt like God is too good, too distant to feel what you’re feeling when you’re in a bad place?
- Can you find comfort in God actually understanding what you’re feeling no matter how bad things get?
- What do you think about a God who would come that far to share your lowest experience with you?
- Does this make it easier to think about sharing the burdens of others?