Day 92 | They Laid the Cross
January 1, 2015 - WEEK FOURTEEN
Titian, Christ Carrying the Cross, [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
DAILY READING
Matt 27:27-49
Mark 15:17-32
Luke 23:26-43
John 19:17-27
For Younger Disciples
CONSIDER AS YOU READ
- Would you have volunteered to carry Christ’s cross? Are we asked to do so today?
- Why was being mocked and reviled important to the process of atonement?
- Are there times in your life that people have asked you, “If you are what you purport to be, then _______________”?
- Do you ever feel forsaken?
SUPPLEMENTAL READING
As a preliminary to crucifixion, Mark and Matthew record, Jesus was brutally scourged (Mark 15:16– 20: Matthew 27:27– 31). Worse than the earlier whipping that John related, this scourging was meant to torture and weaken the body, perhaps to hasten the effects of crucifixion. The scourging was followed by mocking, spitting, and more physical abuse. While what Jesus suffered is unpleasant to read, the fact that all of this was prophesied in detail (1 Nephi 19:9; 2 Nephi 6:9; Mosiah 3:9) suggests that these experiences, too, were part of his atoning journey….
Further, what Jesus experienced personally on this terrible day, together with the vicarious suffering that began in the garden the night before, seem part of the filling of his bowels with mercy “that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities” (Alma 7:12).
Yet even while the Lord can truly empathize with us in our afflictions, there ways in which our sorrows, heartaches, and sufferings allow us, in some measure, to be more like our Savior….
How often we pray to be more like Jesus, but when pain, rejection, loss, and heartache come our way, we recoil and beg for these experiences to be taken away! (Eric D. Huntsman, God So Loved the World: The Final Days of the Savior’s Life, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011).
ADDITIONAL MEDIA
Jesus is Scourged
and Crucified
FOR YOUNGER DISCIPLES
QUESTIONS FOR YOUNGER DISCIPLES
- Why did Jesus need to go through torture by the guards?
- Could you forgive someone who treated you like this?