went forth

Mark 16:19&20

"19 So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, He was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.

20 And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen."

After today's reading; we have read the Gospel of Mark twice this summer. It has been a whirlwind, it is written in a style that takes us from one event to another quickly! We can only imagine how the disciples felt in the few years they lived with and learned from out Lord and Savior. 

Mark 15 details the Crucifixion of Jesus, beginning with His trial before Pontius Pilate. Despite finding no fault in Jesus, Pilate yields to the Sanhedrin and an incited crowd, releasing the rebel Barabbas and ordering Jesus to be flogged and crucified. Roman soldiers mock Jesus as the "King of the Jews" in the Praetorium, and Simon of Cyrene is forced to carry the cross to Golgotha (the place of the skull). 

At the crucifixion, Jesus is mocked by passersby, religious leaders, and criminals. From noon until three in the afternoon, darkness covers the land. Jesus cries out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" and dies. Miraculously, the temple veil tears from top to bottom, and a Roman centurion declares, "Truly this man was the Son of God!" Joseph of Arimathea courageously requests Jesus' body, wrapping it in linen and placing it in a new rock-hewn tomb before the Sabbath begins. 

Mark 16 covers the Resurrection and concludes with the empty tomb. Three women, including Mary Magdalene, visit the tomb on the first day of the week and find the stone rolled away. A young man in a white robe tells them Jesus has risen and instructs them to tell the disciples to go to Galilee. The chapter ends with the women fleeing in terror and silence, though some versions include additional accounts of Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene, two disciples, and the eleven apostles, ending with the Great Commission and Jesus' ascension.

The Gospels are incredible written records of the events that changed our world forever! Christianity, beginning as a small Jewish sect in the first century, grew into the world’s largest religion and became one of the most consequential forces in shaping civilization; especially in Europe and, through European expansion, globally.

Its most lasting contribution was ethical and cultural. The claim that every person is made in the image of God undercut ancient assumptions that some lives (infants, slaves, the disabled, outsiders) were disposable. Early Christians opposed infanticide and exposure of infants, cared for widows and the sick, and eventually helped end gladiatorial games. Those same ideas later supplied moral energy for campaigns against the slave trade, sati in India, and other practices, and they fed into Western notions of human dignity, equality before the law, and limited government.

Institutionally, the Church preserved literacy after the Western Roman Empire collapsed, founded the first universities, and ran hospitals and charitable networks on a scale unknown in the world. A theological conviction that the universe was the rational work of a law-giving Creator encouraged the systematic study of nature; many pioneers of modern science were Christians working in that framework. Christian patronage also produced much of the West’s canonical art, architecture, music, and literature. And, its ideas about the person, charity, time, and cosmic order left lasting marks that later secular movements inherited and that continue to structure law, education, healthcare, and moral language worldwide. Christianity as recorded and described in pages of the Holy Bible has made the world a better place. This world needs more Bible studying Christians! 

Amen!