{"id":235,"date":"2014-03-25T09:30:22","date_gmt":"2014-03-25T09:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parkwood.org\/blog\/?p=235"},"modified":"2015-03-03T18:45:58","modified_gmt":"2015-03-03T18:45:58","slug":"an-inconvenient-faith-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/an-inconvenient-faith-18\/","title":{"rendered":"An Inconvenient Faith (18)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons. Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to Him, went out and asked them, ‘Who is it you want?’ ‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ they replied.\u00a0 “I am He.” Jesus said.” <\/em>(John 18:3-5)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

What just happened?\u00a0 Jesus comes out of His third and final prayer time and wakes the sleeping disciples with a determination that has been absent over the past few hours.\u00a0 He charges headlong into the impending doom that awaits Him.\u00a0 As the Master strides past them, the disciples scramble to get to their feet but they can barely keep up as Jesus walks towards the torch lights.\u00a0 “What just happened?”, they must have asked, “What did we miss?”\u00a0 Good questions as we watch the One who was sweating blood moments ago walking straight toward His betrayer without hesitation.<\/p>\n

Maybe during the final prayer of “Thy will be done” Jesus sensed a peace that this was God’s will.\u00a0 The Scripture above says that Jesus knew “all that was going to happen to Him”.\u00a0 There is a lesson here of a determined obedience once we know what God wants for us.\u00a0 Jesus didn’t hide from the arresting mob.\u00a0 He didn’t wait where He was praying for them to pull Him from His knees and drag Him away like a rebellious protestor.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 He walked directly to the armed and hostile crowd and confronted them…”Who are you looking for?”\u00a0 It wasn’t the disciples standing between Jesus and the soldiers.\u00a0 They were still brushing the dirt from their cloaks after a nap on the ground.\u00a0 It was Jesus, ready to be about His Father’s business.<\/p>\n

As we have said, God sometimes calls us to an “inconvenient faith” that requires us to go where we wouldn’t choose to go or do what we wouldn’t naturally do.\u00a0 We want to believe that we would, at least, follow His will but with what kind of attitude?\u00a0 Like a child dragging their feet, many of us move ahead in obedience but with a “martyr” attitude that expresses our displeasure with the direction.\u00a0 There is none of that with Jesus.\u00a0 He models for us an obedience that follows with the same confidence and resolve no matter what the sacrifice.<\/p>\n

In the sermon on the mount Jesus said, “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting.”<\/em> (Matthew 6:16).\u00a0 Today as you observe your lenten discipline, do it with the confidence modeled by Jesus in the garden.<\/p>\n

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“So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons. Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to Him, went out … 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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235","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\/235","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=235"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions\/241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}