Our Savior
Over 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ the Son of God came to earth as a living, breathing human.
Yesterday we thought about passages related to what God has done with His breath. Thirty-three years after Jesus came to earth as a living, breathing human, . . .
. . . the Roman cohort and the commander
and the officers of the Jews,
arrested Jesus and bound Him . . .
John 18:12
Jesus suffered indignity and injustice that night, first at the hands of Jewish leaders and later by the Roman authorities.
American artist Henry Ossawa Tanner painted The Savior,
which portrays Jesus waiting for the crown of thorns and purple robe
Roman soldiers would use to disgrace Him.
Image courtesy Smithsonian American Art Museum,
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Robbins
Finally the Roman governor, Pilate, sentenced Him to death. Jesus walked to a hill called Golgotha outside the walls of Jerusalem. On that hill, Jesus hung on the cross He had carried. He hung there for you and me and our children and for every living, breathing human God has created.
After a few hours . . .
. . . Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said,
“Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.”
Having said this, He breathed His last.
Luke 23:46
Jesus breathed His last for us all.
Bystanders stood nearby. Some women, including Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James the Less and Joses, Salome, and others who had followed Jesus during His ministry, looked on from a distance.
When the centurion,
who was standing right in front of Him,
saw the way He breathed His last, he said,
“Truly this man was the Son of God!”
Mark 15:39
That evening, Joseph of Arimathea asked the Roman governor for the lifeless, breathless body of Jesus. Joseph took His body down from the cross, wrapped Him in a linen cloth he had purchased, laid Him in a tomb hewn from rock, and rolled a stone against its entrance.
On Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went back to the tomb.
Return to the Tomb by Henry Ossawa Tanner
Courtesy Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase.
There they saw that the stone had rolled away.
Entering the tomb,
they saw a young man sitting at the right,
wearing a white robe; and they were amazed.
And he said to them, “Do not be amazed;
you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene,
who has been crucified.
He has risen; He is not here;
behold, here is the place where they laid Him.”
Mark 16:5-6
Jesus lived and breathed again.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who according to His great mercy
has caused us to be born again to a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
1 Peter 1:3