{"id":229,"date":"2014-03-22T17:58:15","date_gmt":"2014-03-22T17:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parkwood.org\/blog\/?p=229"},"modified":"2015-03-03T18:45:59","modified_gmt":"2015-03-03T18:45:59","slug":"an-inconvenient-faith-16-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/an-inconvenient-faith-16-2\/","title":{"rendered":"An Inconvenient Faith (16)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Then Jesus went with His disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to them, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with Him, and He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then He said to them, ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.’ Going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.'” \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/em> (Matthew 26:36-39)<\/p>\n

It’s in the garden called Gethsemane that we gain more insight into the sacrificial love lived out in Jesus.\u00a0 In the Scripture above we see the intensity of the struggle He was experiencing on His way to the cross.\u00a0 Sacrifice is honorable and necessary in love but it is no walk in the park.\u00a0 There is no doubt that Jesus went willingly to the cross for you.\u00a0 He was not trapped or forced to go.\u00a0 We have been reminded that this was the very reason that He came.\u00a0 He could have stopped it at any time but He didn’t.\u00a0 So why the sorrow in the garden?\u00a0 When I think about Jesus coming to die on the cross I see Him resolved to walk into it with the confidence of the “winner” that He is.\u00a0 There is something uncomfortable about this scene as we are exposed to a, seemingly, conflicted Savior.\u00a0 He knows that this is what He has to do.\u00a0 He already had to put Peter in his place when the well meaning disciple tried to keep Jesus from following through with this plan.\u00a0 And now…He doubts?<\/p>\n

These verses are not given to show us a Jesus who is wondering what to do, they are showing us a Jesus battling with the mental anguish that comes when you know what must be done.\u00a0 You see, even though He knew why He came and what would be required, it still was not easy.\u00a0 Jesus said that He was sorrowful to the “point of death”.\u00a0 His heart was breaking for our condition and what needed to be done to bring us back.\u00a0 He was sick to the soul as He thought of the torture that lied ahead, that “cup” that He must drink.\u00a0 He did not walk to the cross with some kind of hero complex where He enjoyed the suffering.\u00a0 The writer of Hebrews says that He “endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2).\u00a0\u00a0 What did He endure?\u00a0 Humiliation.\u00a0 Beatings.\u00a0 Flogging.\u00a0 Crucifixion.\u00a0 But, as we see here, the internal suffering and anguish began in the garden.<\/p>\n

Sometimes it is hard to do the right thing and it’s even harder when the right thing involves sacrifice.\u00a0 You may have found some joy from the sacrifice that you are observing during this season.\u00a0 A victory here and there.\u00a0 A special insight that has come as a direct result of this willing act.\u00a0 Be reminded today that there was nothing enjoyable about the cross for Jesus.\u00a0 He knew it needed to be done and…He did it but…it was not easy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Then Jesus went with His disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to them, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with Him, and He began … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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-229","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\/229","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=229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions\/230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}