Mark Devotionals
[Please read and meditate on the passage before (or after) reading the devotion.]
At the end of six agonizing hours Jesus dies. But he didn’t go as one defeated. He dies “with a loud cry”. Most probably it was “It is finished” that John 19:30 records him saying just before he died. He had finished doing his Father’s Will as a human, as the Incarnate Son of God. He had finished making a “new” way to God the Father, so that now all could freely come to Him – Jews and non-Jews, sophisticated and ordinary, law-abiders and law-breakers, the (seemingly) religious and irreligious (and marginalized). This was visibly seen in the tearing of Temple curtain, and the Roman centurion acknowledging Jesus’ specialness. It was a cry of completion, victory, obedience. Would you and I be able to say that when our lives ended? Only one who has learned how to die, knows how to live.
Prayer: I look at my life and wonder if I have fulfilled the purpose you brought me into the world, Lord. And have I fulfilled the purpose for which you died for me? Your Word says that I have been “bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20), and yet I continue to live mostly for myself. Forgive me, loving Lord Jesus, for not living totally through and for you. I want to live a “purpose driven life”; I want your purpose to drive me! And with my last breath may I too be able to say “I have done what You wanted of me”. I want to hear you saying to me, “Well done my good and faithful servant…” Come fill me afresh, Sovereign Lord. Amen.
