Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents
Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 11 – The Kingdom Enters
The Darkness
[Bible references: Matthew 17:11; 27:45-46; Luke 23:43; John 16; 19:25-27; 23:44-46; Romans 1-3]
Jesus’ trials were performed in the dark of night, physically and spiritually. He was condemned by the Jewish rulers who were spiritually blind and then allowed to be crucified by the equally blind Roman rulers and even deserted by the disciples he spent three years training. He was condemned by a world who did not deserve him; the whole world was guilty of turning away from him. The world he loved, and for which he would suffer and die, was not deserving of his mercy and grace. The world itself and all the creatures who bore the image of God were corrupted by sin and truly separated from the one who never stopped loving them all. The Creator literally put his life on the line to break the hold of sin in the world so that the world and image-bearing creatures could be restored to what he had intended from the beginning.
The darkness that hung over the world at that moment was a darkness that Jesus had come to defeat. The darkness would only last for a while more. So, with that in mind, even as he was hanging on the cross, Jesus was fixed on the future. He assigned one of his disciples to take care of his mother, Mary. When one of the criminals who were crucified with him, recognized Jesus as God and confessed his guilt, Jesus assured that man, “Today you shall be with me in paradise.” Jesus had chosen to be born the same way as his image-bearing creatures so that he might come to this moment of suffering and dying on our behalf; for this was the way to defeat the hold of sin and death, not only over our lives but over all of creation as well.
Observe
Read John 16. As John is writing about these events, he is careful to detail how the events correspond to the prophecies in Scripture. What is important about making that kind of connection?
Dancing In The Kingdom 