THINK TOGETHER.
Have you ever seen God turn something bad into something good?
READ TOGETHER.
Mark 15:12-15. 12And Pilate again said to [the people], “Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” 13And they cried out again, “Crucify him.” 14And Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.” 15So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
Jesus has been arrested and is on trial in front of the governor, Pilate. What is the charge against Jesus? Jesus has claimed to be the King of the Jews. Of course, Jesus IS the King of the Jews. He’s the king of everybody and everything. But in Jesus’ day calling yourself the King of the Jews would have been considered illegal and worse yet, treasonous. Do you know what treason is? It’s when you actively try to go against the rulers of your country. The Jewish leaders wanted Pilate to believe that Jesus was trying to go against him and the whole Roman government. But was that true? No, it wasn’t.
Jesus wasn’t trying to defeat the kingdom of Rome; he was trying to defeat the kingdom of Satan. And the only way for Jesus to do that was for him to die on the cross as the sacrifice for our sins and as our substitute, taking the punishment that we deserved.
So when Pilate reluctantly delivered Jesus to be crucified, he was actually doing exactly what God wanted. God used Pilate’s wickedness to save the world. Now, God didn’t cause Pilate’s wickedness; Pilate’s own selfishness and fear caused him to crucify Jesus. But God used Pilate’s terrible choice to make sure that Jesus would be crucified for us on the cross.
That’s what God does best – he always turns the worst things into the best things. The worst decision ever was probably Pilate’s decision to crucify Jesus (of course the people in the crowd wanted to crucify Jesus too, not just Pilate). But God turned this evil decision into the best thing ever – our salvation.
God still turns bad things into good things all the time. Bad things can help us to grow stronger in our faith and trust God more. Difficult things can teach us the best lessons in life. Sad things make the happy things feel even more happy.
Remember, God doesn’t cause bad things. He didn’t cause Jesus to be crucified by wicked people. But he does use bad things for good.
Because of Jesus all bad things will become good things.
With Jesus we know our badness is made good by his death on the cross.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Listen to the song Goodness of God by CeCe Winans together.
PRAY TOGETHER
Father, you allowed the worst thing ever to happen when Jesus was crucified. But you did that for my good. Help me to trust that you are always doing what is good for me. Amen.
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