{"id":351,"date":"2014-04-19T10:36:53","date_gmt":"2014-04-19T10:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parkwood.org\/blog\/?p=351"},"modified":"2015-03-03T18:40:43","modified_gmt":"2015-03-03T18:40:43","slug":"an-inconvenient-faith-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/an-inconvenient-faith-40\/","title":{"rendered":"An Inconvenient Faith (40)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.\u00a0 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.”<\/em> (John 19:41, 42)<\/p>\n

After Joseph and Nicodemus finished the preparation of the body they placed Jesus in a garden tomb close by because the Sabbath was about to begin.\u00a0 The Savior who was arrested the night before, dragged from courtyard to courtyard all night long, beaten and tortured and, finally, nailed to a cross…is laid to rest.\u00a0 The quiet of the garden is in such contrast to the chaos of the cross.\u00a0 So peaceful.\u00a0 No one shouting insults.\u00a0 No more accusations.\u00a0 No more pain and anguish.\u00a0 It is done.<\/p>\n

Today marks the final day of our lenten journey.\u00a0 We have walked through the last few days of Jesus’ life with His disciples and now we sit in the stillness with them…waiting.\u00a0 What was the purpose of the silence of the tomb on that Saturday?\u00a0 Why didn’t Jesus come back from the dead immediately?\u00a0 What was gained by His delay?\u00a0 Be assured that this was no coincidence that Sabbath began the moment Jesus was laid to rest.\u00a0 Since time began, God used the Sabbath rest as a scheduled time to stop and reflect on our life and our dependance on our Creator.\u00a0 I believe that God, in His sovereignty, knew that the disciples needed some time to digest the events that had just occurred.\u00a0 What did they really believe?\u00a0 “He did tell us that this was coming, remember?\u00a0 What else did He say?\u00a0 Something about three days later…He would…uh-mm…He would…rise?”<\/p>\n

As they regrouped in the upper room they had to ask themselves what they believed.\u00a0 It is this day, between the cross and the empty tomb, that defines “faith” for every disciple of Jesus.\u00a0 When things haven’t gone the way you expected and things are not clear…before you get an answer…what do you believe?\u00a0 Or…WHO do you believe?\u00a0 Before you see His comforting hand…do you know it’s there?\u00a0 Faith is believing in things unseen (Hebrews 11:1).\u00a0 We want to shout out to those questioning disciples, “Hey guys!\u00a0 Sunday’s coming!\u00a0 Wait till you see!”\u00a0 Jesus would say to Thomas a few days later,<\/p>\n

“Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”<\/em> (John 20:29)<\/p>\n

Between the cross and the empty tomb is a day in a quiet garden where we can sit and decide what these things mean to us.\u00a0 It is an opportunity for us to make the events that have happened up until this point…personal.\u00a0 The cross was about you.\u00a0 It was about your sin and His great love for you that would not let you die but, instead, would die in your place so that you might live.\u00a0 For forty days and six Sabbaths you have been on a journey which has included discipline, sacrifice, failure, weakness and “inconvenience”.\u00a0 This day is a day of faith.\u00a0 Today we ask what difference it has made and will make in our daily lives.\u00a0 Know this as you sit in the quiet garden struggling with what to believe…Sunday’s Coming!<\/p>\n

It has been a blessing to me to be able to walk with you during this season of Lent.\u00a0 It is my prayer that you have also been blessed and that this Easter will find you closer to God and each other.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.\u00a0 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, … 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-351","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\/351","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=351"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":361,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions\/361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}