Journey to the Cross: If Every Day Were This Saturday

Disciples Today is publishing this brief Quiet Time series for those who would like a guide to walking through “Passion Week” — or any week — in the footsteps of Jesus. Please see the other days of the week in the Bible Study / Quiet Times section.

To deepen your study, consider these options:

Read the text in a different version than you normally use. Note the Bible Gateway tool on the left hand column of our site. You can access numerous versions here.
Read the account of Jesus’ journey to the cross in each of the gospels. Most Bibles today give excellent cross references to similar passages in the other gospels.
Create your own chronology of the events of Passion week in the order they happened, using information from each of the gospels. See how they harmonize into the greatest story ever told.

Saturday: If Every Day Were This Saturday

As kids, most of us wished every day was Saturday. But what if every day were like this particular Saturday? The Saturday that Jesus was dead and buried. No one saw his face, heard his voice or felt his love and they thought they never would again. What would life be like without Jesus? What was your life like before you knew Jesus?

Why did Jesus have to die?

How would Mary have answered that question?
How would Peter have answered it?
How would Judas have answered it?
Were Caiaphas, Pilate and the Sanhedrin celebrating Jesus’ death and feeling proud they had taken down the systemic evil?
Was anyone from the mob shouting for Jesus death suffering doubts?
Most importantly, how do I answer that question?

God says:

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation. Colossians 1:20-22

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:9

We were under the control of our sinful natures:

Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey–whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6: 16-23

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:16-21

We had no hope in this life or the next.

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death–that is, the devil–and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death…Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Hebrews 2:13-18

But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Hebrews 9:26-28

Application:

When life gets dark, does it seem that Jesus is still in the tomb to me?
What if Jesus had never come out of the tomb? Contemplate on how you would have had no hope to come out of your sinful nature.
Was my sinful nature ever put to death and buried as the Bible teaches? (Romans 6)
If it was, am I tempted to go dig it up again because I miss it or because I still feel guilty about it?
If my sinful nature was crucified and buried, am I enjoying my spiritual nature the way God wants me to?

Read Isaiah 53 and make it personal by inserting your name. i.e. In verses 4 and 5:

Surely he took up ______’s infirmities and cariied _______’s sorrows, yet _______ considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for ______’s transgression, he was crushed for _______’s iniquities.

God doesn’t want me to live in constant guilt because Jesus died for me. He wants me to be alive in Christ. How can I be more alive in Christ celebrating Jesus’ death for me?