DELIVER ME FROM A CALLOUSED HEART
TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. “Ha! Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. Well then, save yourself and come down from the cross!” The leading priests and teachers of religious law also mocked Jesus. “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! Let this Messiah, this King of Israel, come down from the cross so we can see it and believe him!” Even the men who were crucified with Jesus ridiculed him.
Mark 15:29-32 NLT
TODAY’S THOUGHT
It is hard to wrap my brain around the scene at the cross. It was one of the more painful and humiliating forms of death. Stripped naked and nailed to a wooden cross by spikes in your hands and feet. To breathe one had to push himself up on the spike in their feet. That caused great pain but was the only way to get a breath. Jesus is hanging there with a crown of thorns thrust onto His head. His back is raw from the flogging of the Roman whip. His beard had been partially plunked out. He appeared only partly human. I understand the Roman soldiers—they were trained to kill. It was just another day to them. They had to have become calloused to the process. No emotion expected from them. Perhaps the crowd of people were the same ones that showed up for every crucifixion. They got some weird sense of pleasure in the pain of another person. They were as calloused as the Roman soldiers. However, the strange participants are the religious leaders. Where was their compassion for the hurting? How could they ridicule and yell at a man helplessly hanging on a cross? When did they stop to have sympathy for the broken and hurting? It is a sad statement at how far envy will take us. Being jealous of someone else will open the door for a hard heart in us. It is hard to believe God-fearing people can be so calloused. But we can. It should be a wake-up call for all of us to be sure we keep our hearts humble and loving. We should guard against having hard hearts. It is a horrible thing for a follower of Jesus to have a hard heart. Our hearts should always be marked by love.
TODAY’S PRAYER
Prayer: Holy Spirit please help me to keep my heart humble and tender.
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