{"id":210,"date":"2014-03-20T09:32:07","date_gmt":"2014-03-20T09:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parkwood.org\/blog\/?p=210"},"modified":"2015-03-03T18:45:59","modified_gmt":"2015-03-03T18:45:59","slug":"an-inconvenient-faith-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/an-inconvenient-faith-14\/","title":{"rendered":"An Inconvenient Faith (14)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of Him but also to see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in Him.”<\/em> (John 12:9-11)<\/p>\n

“Now Joseph (of Arimathea) was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews.”<\/em> (John 19:38)<\/p>\n

What does it mean to be associated with Jesus?\u00a0 Jesus was a wanted man by the religious leaders of His day.\u00a0 His idea of a righteous life was unconventional and did not fit their comfortable lifestyles.\u00a0 He was considered dangerous and a threat to the community.\u00a0 Therefore, those who followed Him were always at risk.\u00a0 Especially those like Lazarus.\u00a0 Jesus had raised him from the dead.\u00a0 Lazarus had become a living illustration of what Jesus could do for all those who followed Him.\u00a0 They could be born again!\u00a0 Jesus came to bring life into the graveyards of this world.\u00a0 Those who were dead in their sins could be called from the tomb to new life.<\/p>\n

But this new life requires us to follow Jesus to the cross.\u00a0 In our lenten journey we have seen that it requires sacrifice, discipline and resolve…and add to that…danger.\u00a0 Lazarus had become a marked man simply by being a testimony of what Jesus could do.\u00a0 People were putting their faith in Jesus because of Lazarus.\u00a0 Wow!<\/p>\n

Some of us have forgotten that being a disciple of Jesus is still radical today.\u00a0 Many are like Joseph of Arimathea who was a secret follower of Jesus.\u00a0 He believed in Jesus but he was not willing to take the risk to be identified with Him.\u00a0 Not until the cross is Joseph’s faith revealed.\u00a0 Up until then a faith lived in the open would have been inconvenient.\u00a0 One Christian writer gives this challenge:<\/p>\n

“What we desperately need to re-understand is that it is dangerous to be\u00a0a true Christian.\u00a0 Anyone who takes his or her Christianity seriously
\nwill realize that crucifixion is not something that happened to one man
\nnineteen hundred and fifty -odd years ago, nor was martyrdom just the fate of His\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 early followers.\u00a0 It should be an omnipresent risk for every Christian.\u00a0 Christians should – need – in certain ways to live dangerously if they are to live out their faith.”<\/p>\n

– M. Scott Peck, A Different Drum<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Today, who do you identify more with?\u00a0 Joseph…who feared the reaction of others and kept his faith a secret or Lazarus…who embraced his new life by being an unashamed follower of Jesus?\u00a0 Be forewarned, the abundant life that Jesus calls you to is one of sacrifice, risk and it will sometimes be…dangerous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of Him but also to see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-an-inconvenient-faith-2014-lenten-blog","category-all_posts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions\/227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}