Sunset Room: April 2017

Lately, I've been discovering some passages in the Old Testament that describe Jesus' crucifixion perfectly. The ones that especially stand out to me are Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22. Many of the verses describe specific events from the night Jesus died. So the project I did was to take the Old Testament passages and combine them with New Testament verses that describe some of the specific events they point to, starting with Psalm 118 and Palm Sunday. The New Testament verses are in the K1-K10 footnotes. I hope you're blessed!

Psalm 118:22-29

²²The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;
²³the Lord has done this,
    and it is marvelous in our eyes.
²⁴The Lord has done it this very day;
    let us rejoice today and be glad.

²⁵Lord, save us!
Lord, grant us success!

²⁶Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.[K1]
    From the house of the Lord we bless you.
²⁷The Lord is God,
    and he has made his light shine on us.
With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession
    up to the horns of the altar[K2] .

²⁸You are my God, and I will praise you;
you are my God, and I will exalt you.

²⁹Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.

Isaiah 53

¹Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
²He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁴Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

⁷He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.[K3]
⁸By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?[K4]
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    for the transgression of my people he was punished.
⁹He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,[K5]
though he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,[K6]
    and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
¹¹After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.
¹²Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,

because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

Psalm 22

¹My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?[K7]
    Why are you so far from saving me,
    so far from my cries of anguish?
²My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
    by night, but I find no rest.

³Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
    you are the one Israel praises.
⁴In you our ancestors put their trust;
    they trusted and you delivered them.
⁵To you they cried out and were saved;
    in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

⁶But I am a worm and not a man,
    scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
⁷All who see me mock me;
    they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
⁸“He trusts in the Lord,” they say,
    “let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
    since he delights in him.”[K8]

⁹Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
¹⁰From birth I was cast on you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

¹¹Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.

¹²Many bulls surround me;
    strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
¹³Roaring lions that tear their prey
    open their mouths wide against me.
¹⁴I am poured out like water,
    and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
    it has melted within me.
¹⁵My mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
    and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;[K9]
    you lay me in the dust of death.

¹⁶Dogs surround me,
    a pack of villains encircles me;
    they pierce^[e] my hands and my feet.
¹⁷All my bones are on display;
    people stare and gloat over me.
¹⁸They divide my clothes among them
    and cast lots for my garment.[K10]

¹⁹But you, Lord, do not be far from me.
    You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
²⁰Deliver me from the sword,
    my precious life from the power of the dogs.
²¹Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
    save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

²²I will declare your name to my people;
    in the assembly I will praise you.
²³You who fear the Lord, praise him!
    All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
    Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
²⁴For he has not despised or scorned
    the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
    but has listened to his cry for help.

²⁵From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
    before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.
²⁶The poor will eat and be satisfied;
    those who seek the Lord will praise him—
    may your hearts live forever!

²⁷All the ends of the earth
    will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
    will bow down before him,
²⁸for dominion belongs to the Lord
    and he rules over the nations.

²⁹All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
    all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
    those who cannot keep themselves alive.
³⁰Posterity will serve him;
    future generations will be told about the Lord.
³¹They will proclaim his righteousness,
    declaring to a people yet unborn:
    He has done it!

[K1]Matthew 21: ⁸A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.⁹The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

[K2]Revelation 7: ⁹After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

[K3]Matthew 27:¹²When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. ¹³Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” ¹⁴But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor.

[K4]Matthew 26: ⁶⁹Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said.

⁷⁰But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

⁷¹Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.”

⁷²He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!”

⁷³After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.”

⁷⁴Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!”

Immediately a rooster crowed. ⁷⁵Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

[K5]Matthew 27:⁵⁷As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. ⁸Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. ⁵⁹Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, ⁶⁰and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.

[K6]Matthew 26: ³⁹Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

[K7]Matthew 27: ⁴⁶About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

[K8]Matthew 27:³⁹Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads⁴⁰and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” ⁴¹In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. ⁴²“He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. ⁴³He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” ⁴⁴In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

[K9]John 19: ²⁸Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” ²⁹A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. ³⁰When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

[K10]John 19: ²³When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.

²⁴“Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”

This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,

“They divided my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.”^[a]

So this is what the soldiers did.

Sunset Room

Friday, April 14, 2017

Our Wounded King

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

The Crucifixion, from perspectives Old and New