A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.
It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS. They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!” In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.”
Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him. At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.” Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.
With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”
~ Mark 15:21-39
~ Jeremy Van Genderen
Our daughter Sara has Type 1 insulin-dependent diabetes. She was diagnosed at age 18 and has struggled with this disease as a brittle diabetic ever since. After 21 years of testing, shots, insulin pump failures, and hospitalizations, she has been losing her sensation of feeling her high and low blood sugar levels. To assist her in monitoring her highs and lows, she wants to get a service dog trained to sense her condition before it become life-threatening.
During each session we were asked to write a word or phrase, on the white plastic sheeting, that applied to that type of psalm,. For example, for psalms of wisdom we drew a heart in orange and put a word of truth about ourselves in it. In a couple sessions the words we were asked to write words in brown or black, such as guilt or fear etc., depending on the psalms we were studying. In the last session while reading Psalm 136 aloud and having circled around the white plastic sheeting, a couple volunteers wiped off all the “bad” words, illustrating that Jesus wipes out all the bad and leaves just the good.
Services for Jean Vandivier will be Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 11am at the church. Visitation is Monday evening, 5-7pm, and again at 10am Tuesday morning before the funeral service.
JR Henderson