This is Spoken Gospel.

We’re dedicated to seeing
Jesus in all of scripture.

In each episode, we see what’s
happening in a Biblical text

and how it sheds light
on Jesus and his gospel.

Let’s jump in.

The Jewish leaders are ready to kill Jesus
over his claims to be the Son of God.

The problem is that they have no
authority to kill him on their own.

So, they try to brand Jesus
as a political threat to Rome.

But over and over again,
Jesus is declared innocent.

Pilate says Jesus has done
nothing wrong three times.

Herod says that Jesus is innocent.

A crowd chants for Jesus to be crucified, and they
demand he be killed instead of a murderer and terrorist.

When Jesus is hung on the
cross, the criminal next to him

recognizes he has done
nothing to deserve execution.

At the moment Jesus dies, the centurion
presiding over Jesus’ crucifixion worships God

and declares that Jesus is not
only innocent but righteous.

Just as Jesus prophesied, he was treated
and “numbered among the transgressors”.

He died like a criminal, having
done nothing wrong.

A man named Joseph buried
Jesus on “the day of Preparation”.

It was the day when all the
loose ends at work were tied up

and all meals were prepared so that
Israel could rest on the Sabbath.

Jesus’ body, like Israel,
was prepared for rest.

When Jesus dies, the curtain
in the temple is torn in two.

The curtain divided the sinful
world from God’s holy presence.

Jesus dies, condemned as a sinner. But in that
moment, everything that kept transgressors
from entering God’s presence was torn down.

Because of our sin, the innocent
Jesus was declared guilty.

Yet because of his innocence, we who
were guilty are now declared righteous.

Jesus bore our sins in
his body on the cross

so that we might die to our transgressions
and live fully forgiven in God’s presence.

Just as God worked for six days and then rested
on the Sabbath when his work was complete,

so Jesus completes his work at his
death and rests on the Sabbath too.

Paul writes that at the moment Jesus died,
he made everyone who trusts in him new creations.

In other words, when the Sabbath
is over a new week begins.

Jesus rising from the dead means
God is no longer at rest.

He is working.

Offering resurrection life and making new
creations of everyone who gives their guilt

to Jesus and receives
his perfect innocence.

May the Holy Spirit open your eyes
to see the God who creates and rests.

And may you see Jesus as the one who makes
us new creations who can live in God’s presence.