Message Notes Oct. 10, 2026

Congregation Beth Messiah

The Death of the Great King

Congregation Beth Messiah — Oct 10 2026 — B'resheet - Genesis 1:1-6:8

Gemesis 1:1-3 (TLV)

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was chaos and waste, darkness was on the surface of the deep, and the Ruach Elohim was hovering upon the surface of the water. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light!” and there was light.

John 1:4-5 (TLV)

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered it.

2 Corinthians 4:6 (TLV)

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Messiah.

• The message is that God's first creative act was to speak light into chaos, and He has never stopped doing it.

• The same voice that spoke over the formless deep speaks into the formless places of our lives, our grief, and our world.

Genesis 3:15, often called the first announcement of the gospel, appears in this same portion. 

Genesis 3:15 (TLV)

I will put animosity between you and the woman— between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.

• Right after the fall, God promises that the seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head, though his own heel will be struck. 

• The portion that begins with light also ends its first great story with a promise of redemption through a coming descendant who suffers yet triumphs. 

Brief thought on the use of the word "cross"

• "Cross" is what the Tree of Life Version (TLV) uses along with the word stake, and many Messianic congregations use it freely, especially those with many Gentile members. The modern Hebrew word is tzlav (צְלָב).

• The concern is historical: for many Jewish people, the cross is associated with the Crusades, pogroms, and forced conversions, so it can be a barrier for Jewish visitors or to those Jewish believers who are new to faith in Yeshua.

• We want to avoid: "torture stake" is this is strongly associated with Jehovah's Witnesses and their particular theology, so we will avoid it to prevent confusion.

•  "The tree" works well in teaching and outreach to Jewish people, while "cross" is fine in contexts where it won't cause stumbling.

• What matters most is that the reality behind the word is clear: Yeshua gave His life as the final atonement, as Isaiah 53 foretold.

Mark 15:21-28 (TLV)

Now Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was coming in from the countryside. The soldiers force this passerby to carry Yeshua’s cross-beam. 22 They bring Yeshua to the place called Golgotha (which is translated, Place of a Skull). 23 They were offering Him wine mixed with myrrh, but He didn’t take it. 24 Then they crucify Him and divide up His clothing among themselves, casting lots for them to see who should take what.

25 Now it was the third hour when they nailed Him on the stake. 26 And the inscription of the charge against Him was written above: “THE KING OF THE JEWS.” 27 And with Him they execute two outlaws, one on His right and one on His left. (28 )*

* Verse 28 is not found in the earliest manuscripts. Later manuscripts add: "So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘He was counted with the sinners.’" See Isa. 53:12.

• First, the camera zooms in on Simon of Cyrene being forced to carry the cross (v 21).

• Second, Mark draws our gaze to the wine mixed with myrrh (v 23).

• Third, Mark points out that the soldiers divided Yeshua’s garments (15:24). 

• Fourth, Mark wants his readers to see when the crucifixion began: at the third hour (Mark 15:25).

• Fifth, Mark highlights the inscription that contains the charge against Yeshua: “The King of the Jews” (v 26). 

• Sixth, Mark directs our gaze to the right and left of Yeshua, where we see two others nailed to crosses. 

Psalm 69: 20-22 (TLV)

You know my reproach, my shame, my disgrace. All my adversaries are before You. 21 Scorn has broken my heart, so I am sick. I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but found none. 22 They put gall in my food,
and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

Psalm 22:17-19 (TLV)

For dogs have surrounded me. A band of evildoers has closed in on me. They pierced my hands and my feet. 18 I can count all my bones. They stare, they gape at me. 19 They divide my clothes among them, and cast lots for my garment.

Mark15:29-37 (TLV)

29 Those passing by were jeering at Him, shaking their heads and saying, “Ha! You who are going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days, 30 save Yourself by coming down from the stake!”

31 Likewise the ruling kohanim, along with the Torah scholars, were also mocking Him among themselves. “He saved others,” they were saying, “but He can’t save Himself? 32 Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down now from the stake, so we may see and believe!” Even those executed with Him were ridiculing Him.

33 When the sixth hour had come, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 At the ninth hour Yeshua cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me?”

35 When some of the bystanders heard it, they began saying, “Look, He’s calling for Elijah.” 36 Then someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine. He put it on a stick and was offering it to Yeshua to drink, saying, “Wait, let’s see if Elijah comes to take Him down.” 37 But letting out a loud cry, Yeshua breathed His last.

• In the first circle, we stand on the outskirts and see people passing by on the road (v 29-30).

• In the second circle, drawing nearer, we see the religious leaders (Mark 15:31-32). 

• In the third circle, we move one step closer. No longer do we stand beneath the cross with the religious leaders. Now we come to those on the other two crosses. Even they have joined the mockery (vs. 32).

• The innermost circle comes in verses 33-37 and the cross of Yeshua. The scene changes as darkness descends on the land from noon until 3 p.m.   

Amos 8:9-10 (TLV)

“It will be in that day” —declares my Lord Adonai— “I will make the sun go down at noon, yes, I will darken the earth in daylight. 10 I will turn your festivals into mourning  and all your songs into a dirge. I will pull up sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son—  its end a bitter day.”

Important Thoughts on Mark 15:34 (TLV):

At the ninth hour Yeshua cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me?”

• This is not a statement of abandonment, but a reference to Psalm 22

• there is no division between the Father and B'Nei Elohim, the Son Yeshua. They are Echad. 

• But Yeshua did take upon himself the wrath of the Father and endured the tree of sacrifice like one abandoned. 

• The image of the Father turning His back comes from devotional tradition and songs, but not from biblical text. 

• In Jewish practice, quoting the opening line of a psalm called the whole psalm to mind, much as a Jewish listener today hears "Sh'ma" and thinks of the whole prayer. 

• Scripture shows God seeing sin constantly, from our Torah portion today, Genesis 6:5.

Psalm 22:25 (TLV)

For He has not despised or disdained the suffering of the lowly one. Nor has He hidden His face from him, but when he cried to Him, He heard.

Habakkuk 1:13 (TLV)

With eyes too pure to see evil You cannot look at such trouble! Why do You look at the treacherous? Why do You remain silent when a wicked one swallows up those more righteous than him?

Genesis 6:5 (TLV)

Then Adonai saw that the wickedness of humankind was great on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their heart was only evil all the time.

John 16:32 (TLV)

Look, the hour is coming—indeed has come—when you will be scattered, each to his own, and you will abandon Me. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.

Mark 15:38 (TLV)

Then the curtain of the Temple was split in two, from top to bottom.

• Mark moves from Golgotha to the temple. 

• The temple curtain separated off the Most Holy Place, which represented God’s presence. No one but the high priest was able to enter behind the curtain. 

• Now it is torn in two (v 38). This is obviously a supernatural sign, but what does it signify? 

• There is a linguistic clue in that the word for “torn” only occurs one other time in Mark: at Yeshua’ immersion. 

• Yeshua saw “the heavens being torn open” (Mark 1:10). 

• It is the answer to the prayer of Isaiah 64:1 (ESV). In the TLV, it is at the end of chapter 63. 

Isaiah 64:1 (ESV)

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence.

Hebrews 10:19-20 (TLV)

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have boldness to enter into the Holies by the blood of Yeshua. 20 He inaugurated a new and living way for us through the curtain—that is, His flesh.

Mark 15:39 (TLV)

When the centurion, who was standing in front of Him, saw the way Yeshua breathed His last, he said, “This Man really was the Son of God!”

• The Roman centurion was perhaps the least likely person to see the cross of Yeshua as the victory of God’s Son.

•  He must have seen hundreds of executions, all of them showing the victory of Rome. But this one was unlike any other. He saw the way Yeshua breathed his last (Mark 15:39). 

• What did he see? The centurion saw that Yeshua died with a “loud cry” (v 37): a shout of victory, not a whimper of defeat. Imagine his confusion. 

• Was that a victory shout? What was going on? Then his eyes were opened, and the truth became clear: this is the Son of God! 

Mark 15:40-47 (TLV)

There were also women watching from a distance. Among them were Miriam from Magdala, Miriam the mother of Jacob the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41 They would follow Him and serve Him when He was in the Galilee. Many other women who had gone up together with Him to Jerusalem were there also.

42 Now evening had already come. Since it was the Day of Preparation, that is, the day before Shabbat, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a respected council member who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Yeshua’s body.

44 Pilate was surprised that He was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him whether Yeshua had been dead for long. 45 When Pilate learned this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. 46 Joseph bought a linen cloth, took Him down, wrapped Him in the linen, and laid Him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. 47 Miriam from Magdala and Miriam the mother of Joses were watching where Yeshua’s body was placed.

• The centurion stands right in front of the tree of sacrifice. 

• The women, by contrast, are “at a distance” (15:40). 

• The three women are identified as Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jacob and Joses, and Salome. 

• Why is it significant that they are looking “from a distance”? This is an allusion to Psalm 38:12: TLV 

Psalm 38:12 (TLV)

My friends and my companions stay away from my wound, and my kinsmen stand far off.

• Joseph of Arimathea is like the centurion in being one of the least likely candidates for discipleship. He is a “respected member of the council” (v 43).

• Even though Yeshua has been crucified for claiming to be King of the Jews, the Roman governor, Pilate, allows Joseph to take his body for a decent burial (Mark 15:45).

• Burial for a Jewish person would have involved washing the body before wrapping it tightly with linen. John’s Gospel confirms that Yeshua was buried according to Jewish tradition (John 19:40).

• Yeshua died as a convicted criminal but was buried like a rich man. This matters because it was a fulfillment of Isaiah 53:9.

Isaiah 53:9 (TLV)

His grave was given with the wicked, and by a rich man in His death, though He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

In addition to Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus (see John 19:38-42), Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses “were watching where He was placed.” 

• Thus the only people at His grave were two Pharisees and two women. 

• The disciples, who had professed proudly that they would die for Him (Mark 14:31), are in hiding. 

• By contrast those who once remained in the shadows or were hardly noticed by the “really important” people are there by His grave. 

• They do not care who knows of their loyalty and love for Yeshua.

• It is Finished in the sense of the payment of the penalty of sin, but the third day is coming! 

• And Yeshua's resurrection will be the miracle that brings everyone who believes,  eternal life!