Fast Fridays: 30 Minutes for God: Difference between revisions
→Friday, Nov 15: "Get behind me, Satan!"
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It's a sublime response that, thinking like humans and not God, they cannot accept, and not accepting it their contempt grows, even to mock him as he is dying on the Cross:<blockquote> | It's a sublime response that, thinking like humans and not God, they cannot accept, and not accepting it their contempt grows, even to mock him as he is dying on the Cross:<blockquote> | ||
Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him. ([https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/15?32 Mt 15:32])</blockquote> | Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him. ([https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/15?32 Mt 15:32])</blockquote> | ||
It's not in any sense ironic that forty years later the Romans ended up destroying Jerusalem, killing hundreds of thousands of people through starvation, warfare, and, again, no irony, crucifixion. It's logical for the Jews to have expected that God would once again save his chosen people: he brought them from Egypt; he saved them from the Babylonians and Assyrians; and he gave them victory over the Seleucids (Greeks) who had profaned the Temple. Along with the element of thanksgiving, the Jewish system of sacrifice was for expiation of the sins of Israel and the ongoing restoration of its kingdom, so for the Israelites, the lesson was always that God punishes infidelity and rewards faith, lessons that backfired horrifically when God wasn't there for them in 70 AD. | It's not in any sense ironic that forty years later the Romans ended up destroying Jerusalem, killing hundreds of thousands of people through starvation, warfare, and, again, no irony, crucifixion of thousands<ref>Stopped only when the Romans ran out of wood.</ref>. It's logical for the Jews to have expected that God would once again save his chosen people: he brought them from Egypt; he saved them from the Babylonians and Assyrians; and he gave them victory over the Seleucids (Greeks) who had profaned the Temple. Along with the element of thanksgiving, the Jewish system of sacrifice was for expiation of the sins of Israel and the ongoing restoration of its kingdom, so for the Israelites, the lesson was always that God punishes infidelity and rewards faith, lessons that backfired horrifically when God wasn't there for them in 70 AD. Instead, reason failed them when they say the plain miracles of Christ but refused to believe. | ||
It is ironic, however, that the only person in the Gospel not guided by the Holy Spirit who realizes before Jesus' death what was actually going on was the "good thief," who after mocking Jesus for not saving himself ([https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/27:44 Mt 27:44]), repents, telling Jesus, <blockquote> | It is ironic, however, that the only person in the Gospel not guided by the Holy Spirit who realizes before Jesus' death what was actually going on was the "good thief," who after mocking Jesus for not saving himself ([https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/27:44 Mt 27:44]), repents, telling Jesus, <blockquote> | ||