Matthew 27:11-56
Reflect
As we read this passage, this was the same Jesus who entered Jerusalem, fulfilling prophecy, and was the emblem of promised victory and hope. If you were a witness of His death, this was not a picture of hope but of excruciating pain and defeat. Before we jump into Easter, where we witness victory over defeat, let’s reflect on this pivotal moment in history by reading Sterling Brown’s poem, “The Twelve”:
There by some wrinkled stones round a leafless tree
With beards askew, their eyes dull and wild
Twelve ragged men, the council of charity Wandering the face of the earth a fatherless child, Kneel, at their infidelity aghast,
For where was it, somewhere in Syria
Or Palestine when the streams went red,
The victor of Rome, his arms outspread,
His eyes cold with his inhuman ecstasy,
Cried the last word, the accursed last
Of the forsaken that seared the western heart With the fire of the wind, the thick and the fast Whirl of the damned in the heavenly storm:
Now the wind’s empty and the twelve living dead Look round them for that promontory Form Whose mercy flashed from the sheet lightning’s head;
But the twelve lie in the sand by the dry rock Seeing nothing—the sand, the tree, rocks
Without number—and turn away the face
To the mind’s briefer and more desert place.
Pastor Nathanael
Pray
- Pray for our childcare team, the children and their families this week. Pray for the Director, Angie Clark.
- Pray for our Lead Team Pastor, Terry Okken and his family.
- Pray for our Missions Ministry Assistant, Oleksandr Lushchyk.
- Pray for our Young Adults Ministry Assistant, Shone Williams.