“Again, the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”
Mark 14:61b-62
To this day the high priest’s question is being asked in one way or another and much like the high priest’s response to Jesus’s answer, similar rage and hostility continue.
Jesus prophesied persecution of His followers which today is manifested in beheadings in Muslim countries, imprisonment in communist countries and school shootings in neighbouring countries. Persecution of Christians is broad, severe, and growing.
How should reflecting on the Passion and Resurrection of Christ better equip us to live in a world that despises our King and hates us His subjects? Martin Luther reflecting on faith and the reality of death said, “The school of faith is said to go about with death. Death is swallowed up in victory. If death, then sin. If death, then all diseases. If death, then all misery. If death, then all the power of the devil. If death, then all the fury of the world” If death is the worst the world can throw at us and death is swallowed up in victory through the victorious work of Christ what should we fear?
This Passion weekend, remember that Jesus died and rose, defeating sin and death. When the apostles said they could drink the same cup that Jesus would drink I considered them naive but with a post-Passion perspective we can be reassured that the ultimate enemies of sin, death, and Satan, have been defeated and have lost their sting.
Even at a young age discuss the death of Christ with your children and as well why His faith-filled followers, can face death in His strength.
