Learning Jesus | Week 42
Who Is This Man?
Key Word – way >> Central Passages – all texts
This week you are encouraged to read all the texts and do all the questions to prepare for group for at least days 2-4.
In His last discourse with His apostles, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). These realities are bound together, meaning Jesus cannot be one without the other, but in Lessons 40 & 41, we focused mainly on Jesus, King of Truth. In this lesson we are studying Jesus’ first three hours on the cross as He experiences the “wrath of Man.” Watch Jesus closely for how He is the way to God because He was the only Person who was perfectly Fully Man -- fully loving God and those He created. Only Jesus who is also Fully God could do this. Many of the questions in this lesson will help you practice how to disciple the brokenhearted to both know Jesus as the way to God and to follow His way of living by using His story of suffering. These questions are highlighted.
Day 1
Background Notes – After Pilate washed his hands, Jesus is given into the hands of the Roman soldiers. For the third time Jesus is dressed as King in some fashion and then mocked, but this third time is the most extreme.
Read Mark 15:16-20 and Revelation 19:11-16.
1. These texts contrast Jesus in His current experience at the hands of Roman soldiers and Jesus in His future return as King. Use these texts to describe Who Jesus is as if you were talking to someone who is struggling to trust Him in their current life circumstances. Bullet points for such a conversation would work too.
Read Luke 23:26.
Background Notes – It was standard practice for the accused to carry his own cross beam to the site of his crucifixion. Many Jews thronged to Jerusalem during the Passover and not everyone could find a place to stay within Jerusalem. As a result, pilgrims congregated in “tent cities” outside the walls. So it is likely that Simon, who carried Jesus’ cross beam the remaining distance, was a pilgrim who came from North Africa to celebrate Passover. Only Mark, who is writing for a Roman audience, includes that Simon of Cyrene was the father of Alexander and Rufus. The church of Rome was founded by Jewish believers, and Paul references a Rufus and the mother of Rufus in his book to the Romans; therefore, some speculate that Simon witnessed to his family after carrying Jesus’ cross. Historical accounts of men carrying their cross record that they cursed and made obscene gestures; Jesus, as we shall, speaks and shows love all the way to His final breath.
2. Recall Jesus’ last hours -- from Jesus washing the feet of His disciples to His last supper and betrayal and discourse with the apostles to His time of prayer and arrest in Gethsemane, to His trials, Peter’s denial, His mockeries and floggings...to now. Meditate on the probable weariness of the Son of MAN, the physical, emotional, spiritual weariness. Enter into a time of praising Jesus.
Read Luke 23:27-31.
Background Notes – We see Jesus’ love as He speaks to the daughters of Jerusalem. In our last lesson, we read how the crowd cried out that the blood of Jesus could fall on them and their children. When Jerusalem is destroyed in A.D. 70 their rash deal will be fulfilled. But on His way to the cross, Jesus stops to warn these mourning women of this judgment and cautions them to mourn for themselves. These are His last words on the judgment of Jerusalem. Remember when Jesus initially prophesied of this event, He warned that women who were pregnant or nursing infants would suffer most particularly (Luke 21:23). Some see the mourning of these daughters as fulfilling Zechariah 12:10-14. This prophecy will for sure be fulfilled when Israel repents as a nation before Jesus returns.
3. Jesus created women, and throughout our gospel accounts we see them through His eyes as those possessing inherent worth and dignity. Use this passage and your favorite passage where Jesus interacts with a woman to explain how this is true as if you were talking to a woman who does not trust men in general.
Day 2
Read Mark 15:23.
Background Notes – Matthew includes that the wine was mixed with bitter gall. This wine was offered to those being crucified to numb their senses and pain, but Jesus refuses it. We see the offering of this wine as a fulfillment of Psalm 69:21a.
1. Why did Jesus refuse this wine at this time in His mission?
Read Luke 23:33-34.
Background Notes – Mark records that Jesus was crucified at the third hour, which is 9 AM. According to Arnold Fructenbaum, author of The Life of Messiah from a Messianic Jewish Perspective volume 4, this is the same time that the priests offered up the special Passover sacrifice the chigagah on the first day of Passover. The procedure for crucifixion was to nail the convict’s wrists to the cross beam and then affix that to the upright pole. This lift and drop caused the victim’s bones to get pulled out of joint. This is a fulfillment of Psalm 22:14: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.” The feet were nailed through the back of the heel to the wood, and usually a footrest would be nailed to the cross. The piercing of Jesus’ hands and feet is in fulfillment of Psalm 22:16. Many extra-biblical sources comment on the nature of the crucifixion; Cicero describes it as “the cruelest and vilest penalty” to the point that there existed no “sufficiently suitable” word for this torture.
2. First, internalize this text and notes for yourself. Then consider -- How would you engage a brother or sister in Christ who is living in disobedience to God in a conversation about the submission of Jesus to the will of the Father?
Background Notes – Jesus speaks seven times from the cross, and His first utterance was to forgive (See Isaiah 53:12). The question is who is Jesus forgiving? The general consensus is that Jesus is forgiving the Jewish people, not because they lacked knowledge, but because they did not understand God’s kingdom plan of redemption. Commentators offer these reasons: 1) Since the Roman soldiers have not been referenced yet, it seems unlikely Jesus is speaking of them or only of them. 2) When Stephen forgives the Jews who accuse and stone him, he quotes Jesus’ statement of forgiveness (Acts 7:60).
Eckhard J. Schnable, author of Jesus in Jerusalem: The Last Days, believes that Jesus’ forgiveness extends even to Jewish leadership because even though Peter holds leadership responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion, he also states that the leaders acted in ignorance (Acts 2:36; 3:17).
3. Cicero said that there was no sufficiently suitable words for describing the torture of crucifixion. Try to find the words to explain the Man who forgave those who put Him on the cross as if you are talking to someone struggling to forgive deep wounds inflicted by their parent or child.
Day 3
Read John 19:20-22a.
Background Notes – Pilate ordered that the titulus, which would bear the convict’s name and the crime for which he was convicted, to read “the King of the Jews.” This reads more like a title than a criminal conviction. Remember that these same chief priests had threatened to basically report Pilate if he did not convict Jesus of insurrection, claiming basically, “We don’t know about you, Pilate, but WE have no king but Caesar.”
1. How is Pilate’s superscription revealing the true Man on the cross?
Read John 19:22b-24.
Background Notes – Part of the convict’s humiliation was that he was stripped of his clothing and hung naked on the cross. It was customary for the four Roman soldiers to be allowed to divide the convict’s garments among themselves. They first divided the four less expensive parts among them: so one took his head covering, one his long girdle, one the coarse Talith, and one his shoes. This left the fifth and most expensive piece. The upper class wore this type of one-piece garment, so being reluctant to rip it, the soldiers instead cast lots for it. This is in fulfillment of Psalm 22:18: “They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” Again, we see that many of these prophecies only make sense if the Messiah’s capital punishment was carried out by Rome and not by Israel.
2. Jesus has experienced already verbal and physical abuse, and now His naked body is exposed for all to see. Jesus willingly endured these abuses for us and He did so without responding to these sins against Him with sin. How would you explain the implications of Jesus’ suffering without sinning to comfort someone who has experienced some form of abuse?
3. That last question was difficult and this one is even more so. How would you exhort someone who experienced significant sin against them and is struggling with certain sins as a result to turn to Jesus? (To exhort someone means to call their attention to God’s word and to help them to live it out like Jesus did.)
Optional Memory Verses – I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you: 23 You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! 24 For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him. Psalm 22:22-24
Day 4
Background Notes – Jesus is crucified outside the city gate at Golgotha, or what in English is called Calvary, near a main road that led into Jerusalem. It is Passover morning, so the gate is open and people from all over the world are walking that road. As they pass, they can read the titulus “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” The gospels record what Darrell L. Bock, author of Luke, calls “a cameo of the world’s reactions to Jesus” as He hung on the cross. This is in fulfillment of Psalm 22:6-8. Note who speaks to Him and what they say. You should see a pattern in how Jesus is derided by all...but one.
Read Matthew 27:38-43 & Luke 23:35-43.
1. Observations
o What do passersby say to Jesus? (Matthew 27:39-40)
o What do the chief priests and scribe and elders say to Jesus? (Matthew 27:41-43; Luke 23:35)
o What do the soldiers say to Jesus? (Luke 23:36-37)
o What does the first criminal who talks to Jesus say? (Luke 23:39)
Background Notes – In Scripture, Satan acts an accuser. The very first sin against God is that Satan trafficked accusations against God in heaven (Ezekiel 28:15-16). After God permits Adam and Eve to eat of any tree of the garden, except the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil, Satan accuses God of withholding secret knowledge from them (Genesis 3:5). After God commends Job as a righteous man, Satan accuses God of blessing Job abundantly and Job of being righteous only because God has abundantly blessed him (Job 1:8-11). After the Lord promises Zechariah that Israel shall be redeemed and enjoy a relationship with Him, the Angel of the Lord shows Zechariah a vision of Satan standing at the right hand of God accusing Joshua the high priest of Israel (Zechariah 2:11-3:1). In the book of Revelation, we learn that Satan accuses the saints, those who are saved in Christ, before God day and night (12:10).
2. How do you see Satan the accuser speaking through the world’s reactions to Jesus on the cross? Consider the outcome for the world if Jesus had chosen to “save Himself.”
Background Notes – When the rulers scoff at Jesus telling Him to save Himself if He actually is the Chosen One, they use the wording of Isaiah 42, one of four Servant Songs that are Messianic. These Servant Songs speak of a suffering servant and a victorious servant. The rulers did not understand that the Chosen One would suffer before victory.
The criminal who asks Jesus to remember him had previously mocked Jesus as well (Mark 15:32), but Jesus promises this repentant man that he will be with Jesus and the righteous in paradise. This word paradise recalls the Garden of Eden. The Jews called this place for the righteous dead “Abraham’s bosom.”
3. You are talking to someone who says, “You don’t know what I’ve done. God would never let someone like me into heaven.” Use Luke 23:39-43 to explain how you would share Jesus with this person.
Day 5 | Personal Reflection Time
In Lesson 42, we have shown how Psalm 22 is being fulfilled throughout Jesus’ passion. This validates Jesus as God’s Chosen Suffering Servant. But now read Psalm 22 in its entirety to appreciate how it also pencils a portrait sketch of the HEART of this Messiah that Jesus fulfills in the flesh.
Who is this Man Jesus? What do you adore about His heart? Pray your answers out loud for an extended time of prayer.
REFLECTION Questions
Last lesson we looked at the first row of the Journey of a Disciple Chart. It focused on learning about God through Godward rhythms of Bible reading, prayer, fellowship, etc. And we talked about how we can even engage seekers in these rhythms in various ways.
Now we are looking at the second row. It is focused on growing in obeying God by taking steps of becoming a disciple and then making disciples ourselves. Just take a minute to see that focus moving from left to right.
This week you read about Jesus’ first three hours on the cross, and as you did so practiced how you could disciple the brokenhearted by using Jesus’ story of suffering.
1. We all named some people in our circle whom we want to know Christ as Savior. And likely in this lesson other brokenhearted people, whether unbelievers or believers, came to mind as we went through the questions.
Having processed this lesson’s text and questions, what ideas do you have for drawing near to people God has put on your heart?
2. Look at the chart again. How by drawing near to the brokenhearted would YOU be changed?
3. Enjoy a time or praying for those you are called to disciple & for yourselves as disciplemakers
COMMUNITY GROUP TIME
• Read all the text and background notes together. Choose at least six questions to answer.
• Is anyone able to recite all or part of Psalm 22:22-24?
• Discuss Reflection Questions.
• Close in prayer.
God’s joy and strength to you,
kpaulson@gracelaredo.org