Profile from the Life Application Study Bible, Third Edition

The Absence of women among the 12 disciples has bothered a few people. But Jesus’ close followers clearly included many women. Also clear is the fact that Jesus did not treat women as others in his culture did; he treated them with dignity, as people with worth.

Mary of Magdala was an early follower of Jesus who certainly deserves to be called a disciple. An energetic, impulsive, and caring woman, she not only traveled with Jesus but also contributed to meeting the needs of his group. She was present at the Crucifixion and was on her way to anoint Jesus’ body on Sunday morning when she discovered the empty tomb. Mary was the first to see Jesus after his resurrection.

Mary Magdalene is a heartwarming example of thankful living. She was miraculously freed by Jesus when he drove seven demons out of her. In every glimpse we have of Mary, she was acting out her appreciation for the freedom Jesus had given her. That freedom allowed her to stand under Jesus’ cross when all the disciples except John were hiding in fear. After Jesus’ death, she intended to show his body every respect. Like the rest of Jesus’ followers, she never expected his bodily resurrection—but she was overjoyed to discover it.

Mary’s faith was not complicated; it was direct and genuine. She was more eager to believe and obey than to understand everything. Jesus honored her childlike faith by appearing to her first and by entrusting her as the first messenger of the Good News of his resurrection.

Strengths and accomplishments:

• Contributed to the needs of Jesus and his disciples
• One of the few faithful followers present at Jesus’ death on the cross

Notable facts:

• Had to have seven demons driven out of her by Jesus
• First to see Jesus after his resurrection

Lessons from her life:

• Those who are obedient grow in understanding.
• Women are vital to Jesus’ ministry.
• Jesus relates to women as he created them—as equal to men and as bearers of God’s image.

Vital statistics:

• Where: Magdala, Jerusalem
• Occupation: We are not told, but she seems to have been wealthy
• Contemporaries: Jesus, Jesus’ disciples, Mary, Martha, Lazarus, Mary (Jesus’ mother)

Key verse: “After Jesus rose from the dead early on Sunday morning, the first person who saw himwas Mary Magdalene, the woman from whom he had cast out seven demons.” (Mark 16:9)

Mary Magdalene’s story is told in Matthew 27–28; Mark 15–16; Luke 23–24; John 19–20. She is also mentioned in Luke 8:2.

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Article from the Illustrated Study Bible

Scripture unanimously depicts the personal and bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead by the power of God, but numerous other attempts to explain it have emerged:

(1) Jesus never really died—instead, he lost consciousness and regained it after being laid in a cool tomb (the swoon theory); (2) the disciples of Jesus stole his body and then lied about a resurrection (28:12‑15); (3) the disciples had hallucinations and dreams that they mistakenly confused with a physical resurrection; and (4) the resurrection is a personal experience in the heart of faith, not an event in history.

Behind such suggestions lies a deep-seated skepticism toward the supernatural, or at least toward whether a miraculous event could have happened. Such suggestions fail to take into account the fact that for NT authors and their audiences, the term “resurrection” could only have meant the literal reanimation of a dead corpse (see 1 Cor 15).

The historicity of Jesus’ resurrection and the historical reliability of the biblical accounts are supported by (1) the evidence of an empty tomb; (2) the presence of women as witnesses (no one would have made up a story with women as witnesses, since the testimony of a woman was considered to be less reliable than that of a man); (3) the varied but basically unified accounts of Jesus’ postresurrection appearances; (4) the transformation of the disciples from a fearful band into fearless followers; and (5) the disciples’ ability to overcome the scandal of following a crucified man (Deut 21:23 indicates that one who dies such a death has fallen under God’s curse).

Judaism had no concept of a dying and rising Messiah that could conveniently be applied to Jesus. Inventing something no one would find conceivable would have made little sense. The most reasonable conclusion is just what the NT announces: that Jesus did, in fact, rise from the dead.

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Devotional from the Beyond Suffering Bible

After years spent with Jesus, the disciples were devastated to hear him say,
“I am going away” (16:5). They had been living with him for years. They had come to place their faith in him as their Messiah. He was their hope. Now he was leaving? This couldn’t be!

We will all lose people who are close to us. This is one of the most painful experiences of life. However, Jesus did not want the disciples to dwell on his impending death. He revealed that something very significant would happen once he left them: He would send an Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to guide his disciples.

Although it would be great to walk and talk with Jesus, we discover as believers that God in his wisdom has given us a greater gift. As children of God who have been given the Holy Spirit, we have God himself dwelling within each of us. Jesus was restricted by time and space as an embodied person, but the Holy Spirit isn’t—he is with us always. He helps us in our weakness (Rom 8:26) and serves as a guarantee of our inheritance as God’s children (Eph 1:14). Think about it. No matter what our circumstances—whether disabled, alone, suffering, or confused and afraid—God is with us in the person of the Holy Spirit. Jesus did not leave the world because he wanted to return to heaven. He departed so that he could send the Holy Spirit to be with us always.

Take a moment to thank the Lord for sending his Holy Spirit to empower you to overcome any obstacle and to accomplish the work of God. Allow the Spirit to guide you in your relationship with God and others. This is a lavish gift from God to his people; resolve to be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit in your life.

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Then the leading priests objected and said to Pilate, ‘Change it from ‘The King of the Jews’ to ‘He said, I am King of the Jews.’

Pilate replied, ‘No, what I have written, I have written.’

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they divided his clothes among the four of them. They also took his robe, but it was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. So they said, ‘Rather than tearing it apart, let’s throw dice for it.’ This fulfilled the Scripture that says, ‘They divided my garments among themselves and threw dice for my clothing.’ So that is what they did.

Standing near the cross were Jesus’ mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary (the wife of Clopas), and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said to her, ‘Dear woman, here is your son.’ And he said to this disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from then on this disciple took her into his home.

Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. When Jesus had tasted it, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

It was the day of preparation, and the Jewish leaders didn’t want the bodies hanging there the next day, which was the Sabbath (and a very special Sabbath, because it was Passover week). So they asked Pilate to hasten their deaths by ordering that their legs be broken. Then their bodies could be taken down. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they didn’t break his legs. One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out. (This report is from an eyewitness giving an accurate account. He speaks the truth so that you also may continue to believe) These things happened in fulfillment of the Scriptures that say, ‘Not one of his bones will be broken,’ and ‘They will look on the one they pierced.’ John 19:17-37, NLT

Notes from the Life Application Study Bible

This place called Golgotha, “the Skull,” was probably a hill outside Jerusalem along a main road. Tradition says that the rock formation of the hill looked like a skull. Many were executed in this place so the Romans could use them as an example to the people who traveled along the road. Crucifixion was a Roman form of execution. Those who were condemned would be forced to carry their crosses along a main road to their execution site as a warning to the people. Types of crosses and methods of crucifixion varied. Jesus was nailed to his cross; some people were tied to theirs with ropes. Either way, death came by suffocation because the weight of the victim’s body made breathing difficult as they lost strength. Crucifixion brought a hideously slow and painful death.

“And Pilate posted a sign on the cross that read, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.'” This sign was meant to be ironic. A king stripped nearly naked and executed in public view had obviously lost his kingdom forever. But Jesus, who turns the world’s wisdom upside down, was just coming into his Kingdom. His death and resurrection would strike the death blow to Satan’s rule and would establish Jesus’ eternal authority over the earth. Few people reading the sign that bleak afternoon understood its real meaning, but the sign was absolutely true. All was not lost. Jesus was King of the Jews—as well as the Gentiles and the whole universe. The sign was written in three languages: Hebrew for the native Jews, Latin for the Roman occupation forces, and Greek for foreigners and Jews visiting from other lands. Ironically, this sign, by virtue of being written in multiple languages, declared that Jesus was Lord of all.

Roman soldiers in charge of crucifixions customarily took for themselves the clothes of the condemned men. They divided Jesus’ clothing and threw dice to determine who would get his seamless garment, his most valuable piece of clothing. This fulfilled the prophecy in Psalm 22:18.

Even while dying on the cross, Jesus was concerned about his family. He instructed John to care for Mary, Jesus’ mother. Our families are precious gifts from God, and we should value and care for them under all circumstances. Neither Christian work nor key responsibilities in any job or position excuse us from caring for our families. What can you do today to show your love to your family? Jesus asked his close friend John, the writer of this Gospel, to care for Jesus’ mother, Mary, whose husband, Joseph, must have been dead by this time. Why didn’t Jesus assign this task to his brothers? As the oldest son, Jesus entrusted his mother to a person who stayed with him at the cross—and that was John. Tradition says that Mary moved to Ephesus later with John and that both are buried there.

This sour wine was a cheap form of wine normally mixed with water that the Roman soldiers drank to quench their thirst while waiting for those crucified to die. Until this time, a complicated system of sacrifices had atoned for sins. Sin separates people from God, and only through the sacrifice and shed blood of an animal, a substitute, could people be forgiven and become clean before God. But people sin continually, so frequent sacrifices were required. Jesus, however, became the final and ultimate sacrifice for sin. The word translated “finished” also means “paid in full.” Jesus came to finish God’s work of salvation (4:34; 17:4), to pay the full penalty for our sins. With his death, the complex sacrificial system ended because Jesus took all sin upon himself. Now we can freely approach God because of what Jesus did for us. Those who believe in Jesus’ death and resurrection can live eternally with God and escape the penalty that comes from sin.

These Romans were experienced soldiers. They knew from many previous crucifixions how to tell whether a man was dead or alive. There was no question that Jesus was dead when they checked him, so they decided not to break his legs as they had done to the other victims. Piercing his side and seeing the sudden flow of blood and water (indicating that the sac surrounding the heart and the heart itself had been pierced) was further proof of his death. Some people say that Jesus didn’t really die, that he only passed out—and that’s how he appeared to come back to life. But we have the witness of an impartial party, the Roman soldiers, that Jesus died on that cross (see Mark 15:44-45).

It was against God’s law to leave the body of a dead person exposed overnight (Deuteronomy 21:23), and it was also against the law to work after sundown on Friday, when the Sabbath began. This is why the religious leaders urgently wanted to get Jesus’ body off the cross and buried by sundown.

The Roman soldiers would break victims’ legs to hasten the death process. When a person hung on a cross, death would come by suffocation, but the victim could push against the cross with their legs to hold up their body and keep breathing. With broken legs, they would suffocate almost immediately. The graphic details of Jesus’ death are especially important in John’s record because he was an eyewitness. They certified his accounts as authentic.

Jesus died as the lambs for the Passover meal were being slain. Not a bone was to be broken in these sacrificial lambs (Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12). Jesus, the Lamb of God, was the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world (1 Corinthians 5:7).

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He went on a little farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by. ‘Abba, Father,’ he cried out, ‘everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.’” Mark 14:32-36, NLT

Note from the New Believer’s Bible

For every believer there comes a Gethsemane, a place where obedience overrules personal desire and where spirit becomes more important than flesh, a place where the glory of God becomes more important than the believer’s glory. Jesus promised, “If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it” (Matthew 10:39).

Each of us must come to the point where we say along with Jesus, “I want your will to be done, not mine.” So don’t be afraid to pray, “Abba, Father”—a term of endearment and tenderness, like a child calling her father “Daddy”—and then surrender yourself to his perfect will for your life.

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Article from the Life Recovery Bible

It is easy to lose faith when we are troubled. As we are buffeted about by the storms of life, we may feel like the faith we once had has slipped away. We may begin to feel anger toward God.

Simon Peter had his ups and downs with God. On the night Simon Peter would deny him, Jesus said to him, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31-32).

Jesus pointed out that Simon had an assailant in the spiritual realm. Jesus knew Peter would be attacked and “sifted,” but he also was confident that afterward Peter would return to God. Wheat is sifted by throwing it repeatedly into the air. The kernels are separated from the chaff as the lighter chaff is carried away by the wind. All that remain are the good, solid wheat kernels.

We should not be surprised that we face times when our faith seems to disappear. We may feel as if we are being ripped open and our faith is being blown away like chaff. But we needn’t worry. We will find the core of our faith again. And when we do, we will be all the better for it—and better able to encourage others, too.

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Article from the Illustrated Study Bible

At the beginning of John’s Gospel, John the Baptist introduced Jesus by calling him the “Lamb of God” (1:29, 36). This odd phrase might refer to the sacrificial lamb that was killed daily in the Temple (Exod 29:38‑46) or to the sacrificial lamb of Isa 53:7 (cp. Acts 8:32‑35; Rev 5:5‑14). Both of these sacrifices spoke of rescue and forgiveness from sin.

However, this was not all that John had in mind. John presented Jesus as the Passover lamb whose death marks the central event of the Passover season (see Exod 12:46; Luke 22:7; 1 Cor 5:7). In the first century, Jews made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem each spring to celebrate the Passover and to reread the story of the Exodus (see Exod 12–15). When Israel was being rescued from Egypt, the blood of a lamb was sprinkled on the doorposts of each Jewish home in Egypt and saved those inside from death (Exod 12). Jews who came to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover needed to supply a perfect young lamb for sacrifice. The animal could not be diseased or have broken bones.

Jesus used his final Passover meal to show that his sacrificial death would give new meaning to the festival (Mark 14:17‑31). In John, the cross became an altar where Christ, the Passover lamb, was slain. Jesus’ legs were not broken (John 19:33), fulfilling a Passover rule (19:36; Exod 12:46). Blood ran freely from his wound (John 19:34), showing that his life was being exchanged for others. Just as a lamb died to save the lives of Jewish families at the Passover in Egypt, so, too, the death of the Son of God on the cross serves to bring salvation to the world.

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Read Matthew 21:1-11

As Jesus and the disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the town of Bethphage on the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two of them on ahead. 2“Go into the village over there,” he said. “As soon as you enter it, you will see a donkey tied there, with its colt beside it. Untie them and bring them to me. 3If anyone asks what you are doing, just say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will immediately let you take them.”
4This took place to fulfill the prophecy that said,
5“Tell the people of Jerusalem,
‘Look, your King is coming to you.
He is humble, riding on a donkey—riding on a donkey’s colt.’”
6The two disciples did as Jesus commanded. 7They brought the donkey and the colt to him and threw their garments over the colt, and he sat on it.
8Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around him were shouting,
“Praise God for the Son of David!
Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Praise God in highest heaven!”
10The entire city of Jerusalem was in an uproar as he entered. “Who is this?” they asked.
11And the crowds replied, “It’s Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.

Parade of Praise

The people in Jerusalem had a parade-like gathering to honor Jesus. What can you do to honor Jesus? Think of a few ways and write them down.

The people cheered Jesus. They laid their coats in the road and shouted praises. Thin of ways you can praise Jesus and write them down.

Now, that you’ve made a plan, get going! Show Jesus he’s more important than anything else in your life.

Get your family together and have your own Jesus-honoring parade. You could even get people who are far away involved by having a video conference call and all being in the parade together!

What are some of your ideas?

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