In today’s lesson we see the stark contrast between man’s planning and God’s planning. First, let’s look at the day from God’s planning, and then compare it to man’s.
At the moment of creation (and before if time existed), God knew that His creation would fall to sin and that a savior would be required, a savior who would need to be both fully God and fully part of the creation, man. When He placed Adam and Eve in the garden He allowed free will, meaning they had to choose to obey or not, meaning there had to be a path available to disobedience. He knew the serpent would tempt them. When it happened He told them of His plan to send a son of Eve to crush the serpent’s head. The books of the bible that we call the Old Testament, from this point forward, all point to that savior, the Messiah, the promised one, the King from the house of David, the scape goat, the pascal lamb, the sacrifice of blood in the garden to provide a covering of sin and as prescribed in the law through Moses. Foretold over and over again through the prophets. He knew Rome would overtake the Jews, introducing the torture and death of the cross. He planned for His son to be born 33 years before. He planned His ministry to begin three years prior. He said over and again through Jesus the hour had not yet come, until, He announced in John 12 that the hour had now come. He died on the cross at the exact moment on the exact day at the exact place that had been foretold and reminded year after year, the moment the Passover Lamb was killed outside of the gates of the city of Jerusalem.
On the other hand, after rushing out to capture Jesus the night before the Jews who captured Jesus and demanded His execution realized the process of crucifixion normally took 3 days and it was getting into the afternoon of the preparation day of the Passover and they needed to “speed things up”.
The next time we grow impatient with “God’s timing”, I think we need to keep in mind the depth of His plans versus the shallowness and naiveté of our own.
My Answers:
3.
To speed up their death (couldn’t prop themselves up to breath so they would die quicker). The Sabbath was near (started at sundown) and they did not want to be in defiance of the law about leaving a body hanging on a pole overnight nor did they want to come into contact with a dead man. Either would make them unclean.
4.
It was all for show. Outward appearances, not inward transformation. They were receiving all of their rewards and bringing others to harm through false teaching.
5.
His willingness to die. If Christ did not die he could not have risen again. If Christ had not died, the price for my sins would be left unpaid. If Christ had not died He would not have been obedient to His Father
The Notes are Good 