Posted by Pastor Tan Meng Geok • Apr 16, 2022
Our Best Thought is a weekly devotional thoughtfully penned by leaders in DUMC arising from their daily devotions. The devotional’s title, “Our Best Thought” is taken from the hymn, “Be Thou My Vision” as a reference to God: “Thou my best thought, by day or by night.” Publishes on Sundays.
Scripture:
So Pilate then took Jesus and had Him flogged. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and placed it on His head, and put a purple cloak on Him; and they repeatedly came up to Him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and slapped Him in the face again and again.
John 19:1-3
Observation:
(It is to be noted here that the observation below was gleaned as I meditated on John 19:1-37. It is not an attempt at theological exposition of Christ humanity nor his divinity).
Christ shared our humanity, and yet maintained his divinity.
In Isaiah 9:6, we are told, “For a child has been born to us, a son has been given to us”. And in the Gospels we are given an account of his birth. “A child has been born to us”, signified the start of Jesus’s humanity, “a son has been given to us” signified his divinity.
Jesus’s divinity is seen throughout the Gospel. In John 1:1-5:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Jesus also known as the Word existed even before the creation of earth as we know it. And further in John 8:58 Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”.
In John 10:30, Jesus explained that “I and my Father are one” testifying that he is God and co-equal to God the Father.
And throughout the Gospel, we also see his humanity, we know that he drank and ate food. He even wept at Lazarus’s grave, after Jesus raised him from the dead. In John 4:6, it is recorded that Jesus “tired” from his journey, and sat down.
He suffered physical pain in John 19:1, Jesus is “flogged”, which some translation uses the word “scourge”. The movie “Passion of The Christ” more accurately portrayed the physical pain that Jesus suffered. The whip was a Roman implement for severe bodily punishment. It consisted of a handle, to which several cords or leather thongs were affixed, which were weighted with jagged pieces of bone or metal, to make the blow more painful and effective.
He thirsted in John 19:28, “I am thirsty”.
And finally in death, Jesus said, “It is finished”.
He did it for me. He did it for you.
Application:
There was a week in Ignite resource where a question was asked: what does surrender mean to me? Sacrifice or obedience or restriction? This question reminded me of Prophet Samuel who said in 1 Sam 15:22, “… to obey is better than sacrifice”. So my answer is obedience.
Jesus has done the ultimate sacrifice. My life is not even my own to sacrifice. God created me. I do not have anything that do not belong to God in the first place. I have nothing that is worth anything to sacrifice.
In the earliest of my memory since kindergarten days, I suffered from migraine. There was no medical cure. Painkillers only took away the pain away for that moment. After a few weeks, it would recur. That is how I suffered for many years throughout my childhood to adulthood.
After I became a Christian, I prayed and prayed for the Lord’s healing. Then one day at a healing rally in DUMC Sea Park, I was prayed for, and healed. A migraine headache is such that when there is no episode, I am totally fine and healthy, which was the case on the day of the rally. So at the moment of being prayed for, I had felt no immediate impact. But after some weeks passed, I realised that I have not had my usual episodes. A month passed, two months, three, and to date, I have not had a single episode of migraine.
The Lord healed me! From that day on and every day I thanked God for not having to suffer anymore migraines.
This is how I come to realise that my health, my very being, is not my own to sacrifice.
It is Christ who has accomplished the ultimate sacrifice.
My part, as Prophet Samuel, says, is to obey.
Response:
Lord, thank you for making the ultimate sacrifice of your life for my life. Thank you for your blood that covers over my sins.
Teach me to be obedient to your Word, where you say “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
I pray that these commandments are etched into my heart, so that my heart will resolutely be focused upon you.
I pray in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.
Pastor Tan Meng Geok is Zone Pastor for PJ South 2.
Our Best Thought is a weekly devotional that follows DUMC’s Bible Reading Plan. Posts on Sundays.