Day 577 - John 19 & Psalm 19

 Michelle

It still just baffles me that Pilate didn't find any reason to crucify Jesus, yet the Jewish leaders just wanted him killed.  In this reading it says that the Jewish leaders had a law that he must die because he claimed to be the Son of God.  I don't recall this specific law in our reading so far.  And maybe it's not listed in the bible.  This reading goes on to tell about the crucifixion and what they did to Jesus.  I wonder if this is how they treated all those that were being crucified or if it was just Jesus whom endured this level of treatment.  The rest of this reading goes through Jesus' death and burial.  Some things that stand out to me are that he died before they had the chance to break his legs and force his death and that they stabbed him to make sure he was dead.  These seem extreme to me but such was the times I guess.  Also the burial talks about Joseph of Arimathea and that he kept his discipleship secret like all the others.  When you read about all that he went through for the people and yet they still don't all believe.  It's just heartbreaking in a way.  But then I remember that we choose to believe and there are many that make constant bad choices in their lives, and this is just another of those choices.

This psalm seems to be speaking to God's word and how his words or decrees are shown through the work of his hands.  In the skies and the heavens, and how it's all more precious than gold and sweeter than honey.

Julie

This is definitely a difficult one to wrap your head around. I believe that they treated him extra harsh and did more to him than they usually did to others. There was such hate in people about him that really does not make sense. In regards to the "law" about calling himself the Son of God, I don't believe that there was a literal law about that in the Bible and what they are talking about is something that is one of the first 5 books because that is where they took there "laws" from. I found this site where they listed what they call the 613 Mitzvot, or laws of the Torah (which is the first five books of the Bible,) it's the way things are worded that they felt that Jesus was breaking the law.

I like the way that you summarized that.