Mark 15:33-41
The Death of Jesus
33 At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 34 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?”).
35 When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”
36 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.
37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.
38 The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 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!”
40 Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome. 41 In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.
Mark 15:42-47
The Burial of Jesus
42 It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. 44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. 45 When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. 46 So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.
Matthew 17:14-20
Jesus Performs a Miracle
14 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”
17 “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” 18 Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn't we drive it out?”
20 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
John 11:38-44
Jesus Raises Lazarus From the Dead
38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
Psalm 66:5
Our God is a God of Miracles
5 Come and see what God has done, his awesome deeds for mankind!
Matthew 16:21
Jesus Tells Everyone Before He Dies He Will Be Raised to Life on the Third Day
21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
With a loud cry Jesus breathed His last breathe and died for our sins on the cross...At the time of His death, it did not seem like a valiant death...Upon His last breathe hope stopped for the moment...How could the One who came to change the world die?...How could His personally taught disciples, who believed that He was the Messiah -die like a man?...In that last breathe, hope had died...
St. Matthew tells us that Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome were there, as were other women whom Jesus had met in Jerusalem...His Eleven Disciples were probably questioning themselves as they heard about His death...His followers and those that believed in Him and who had loved Him would for three days be in grief and be questioning themselves...The Messiah was not a military general wielding a sword or weapon...The Messiah who came to them was a gentile Teaching Messiah, whose weapons were words, His Words...He talked a lot about love and forgiving...And His Words would be more powerful than any sword...Yet at this time, the time of His death all seemed to be standing still...Was the death on the cross an end to His reign?...
Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Sanhedrin Council would bury Him in a tomb cut out of rock...Joseph rolled a stone against the entrance of Jesus' tomb...Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph watched where Joseph buried Him...It seemed to those who believed that He was the One to come -but now their hopes were buried behind a large stone...Who or what could and would be next?...
In our grief and grieving, we can lose hope for awhile...All that Jesus had stood for seemed to be gone...He was now somehow locked away in a small tomb...He was gone...Death can do this to our feelings and emotions...We get this feeling of numbness and time seems to slow down, and hope gets lost when our love ones are buried...Our pain is heartfelt...
Jesus performed many miracles and did many great healings for His people...Couldn't He perform one last miracle and come out of the tomb as He did with Lazarus?...Lazarus returned from the dead, you know...Couldn't He do the same?...Our minds seem to tuck such miracles away, and we forget about their greatness...We look to the next thing and things and what is going to happen next in our lives, as loss of hope can lead to doubt...
But faith is more than what is going to happen next, or our next desire or want...Our faith and is about a Father and Son who are the Absolute Moral Truth for us...Jesus taught that the smallest of faith could move mountains...The dead Jesus would need a miracle bigger than any mountain to move the large stone away from His tomb...For this to happen, wouldn't we need more than mustard seed faith?...The answer seems to be no...Jesus taught us when we believe and have faith -great things can happen...Faith does not make life perfect, but faith is one of the eternities He teaches us...Faith helps us to get to eternal life...
Faith sometimes requires us to believe in things outside the Natural Laws...Mary Magdalene and the Mary, the Mother of Joseph, seemed to have this mustard seed faith He teaches us they loved and seemed to continue to believe...They were at the cross and paid attention to where He was buried...They awaited for a mountain to be moved...They awaited for the stone in front of the tomb to move...For those who loved Him, hope had not completely died...They were holding on to the old things and the way things normally happen in life...I believe in miracles...My God is a God of miracles...Faith must now wait to see if the stone in front of His tomb can be moved...Can He return to us, like Lazarus did?...
Faith requires one to believe in miracles...One must believe in things outside the regular laws of nature...Faith requires us to believe in eternity...Since God created nature, shouldn't He be able to do things outside of His creation and nature?...When the world was created, it was one of the biggest miracles of all (and even many scientists would say that the Big Bang was a miracle of sorts)...God does awesome deeds, such as miracles for mankind...Miracles provide opportunities for hope to be restored...Miracles give us a new perspective about life and about who God is...Believing in miracles strengthens one's faith and gives us a better quality of life...Miracles happen by faith, most often through prayer, and the moving of God's Spirit...And sometimes God just does an awesome Grand Miracle just to help mankind...Faith believes that Jesus would do what He said early in His ministry -that He would be killed and be raised back to life in three days...Faith sometimes requires patience in waiting...