“Is It Possible to Stop Jesus?”


BIBLE READING: Matthew 27, Mark 15
DISCUSSION                                             
                In Matthew 27.1-2, the chief priests and the elders have taken counsel against Jesus to put Him to death.  Something very interesting happens before they lead Him away to Pilate the governor. The text says that they “bound” Him.  The word “bound” simply means to “tie up” or to “put in chains”.  I guess the idea was that they were going to tie Jesus up so that He would not be able to escape or break free and run away.  Don’t you think it rather strange for them to do this?  After all, they had all been around Him and seen some of the magnificent things that He was able to do.  They had just witnessed Jesus reattach Malcus’ ear that had been severed by Peter.  What was it that entered their minds that allowed them to think that they could contain the Almighty Son of God with a few ropes or chains?  On the surface it sounds rather ludicrous to believe that mere ropes or chains would be able to prevent the Son of God from doing something.  However, there is only one real way to limit Jesus’ power within our lives; simply put, just ignore Him.  That seems crazy for me to say, but we can’t prevent the power of the Creator of the universe from changing our lives by simply ignoring Him.  Those ropes and chains would never be able to stop Jesus from doing something, yet our unwillingness to open up our hearts to Him would.  Paul wrote“…since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” (Romans 1:28-32). The reason why they were given over to these horrible things was that they did “not see fit to acknowledge God”.  The only thing that stands in the way of Jesus making an impact in our lives is our unwillingness to allow Him access to our lives.  Maybe things haven’t been working out for us spiritually because we have been “binding” Jesus, by ignoring His advances.  Let’s stop trying to tie Him up, but rather let Him loose.  Let’s let Jesus take control of our lives and change them for the better.

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