{"id":53,"date":"2012-02-22T12:50:42","date_gmt":"2012-02-22T17:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sky-dog.com\/blog\/?p=53"},"modified":"2015-03-03T18:46:56","modified_gmt":"2015-03-03T18:46:56","slug":"road-to-the-cross-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/road-to-the-cross-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Road to the Cross #13"},"content":{"rendered":"

“The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking Him and beating Him. They blindfolded Him and demanded, ‘Prophesy! Who hit you?’ And they said many other insulting things to Him.” <\/em>(Luke 22:63-65)<\/p>\n

Insulting and humiliating the Lord of all creation.\u00a0 Daring to hit the God of the universe.\u00a0 They definitely needed the blindfold.\u00a0 Not so Jesus would not see.\u00a0 Oh no, you can be sure He knew who was hitting Him.\u00a0 He knew who was spitting.\u00a0 He knew who was insulting Him.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 The blindfold wasn’t for Jesus.\u00a0 Maybe they were really hoping that Jesus would not know.\u00a0 It is much easier to strike out at someone when you are anonymous.\u00a0 A blind fold also puts distance between you and the person blinded.\u00a0 It covers their eyes and face and, therefore makes it less personal.\u00a0 I think the soldiers blindfolded Jesus so they didn’t have to look into His eyes while they were having their fun.\u00a0 I don’t think that you could look into Jesus’ eyes and strike Him.\u00a0 I think that seeing His face, even in anger, would cause you to look away.\u00a0 So, if you are going to mock the God who created you today…you better blindfold Him.\u00a0 It will make it easier for you to go your own direction.\u00a0 You could try and convince yourself that He can’t see you.\u00a0 You might even forget who He is that stands there with you.\u00a0 It is easier to hurt someone when you can’t see their eyes and face.\u00a0 “Who is this anyway?”\u00a0 “Who does He think He is?”<\/p>\n

Sometimes Jesus makes us uncomfortable.\u00a0 I think these soldiers were.\u00a0 It shows in their behavior.\u00a0 Here is a man that is offering no resistance.\u00a0 He is innocent and they know it.\u00a0 They are uncomfortable so they lash out.\u00a0 Mocking what they don’t understand.\u00a0 Covering the eyes that show forth compassion even in the midst of unfairness.\u00a0 They have to overreact to make themselves feel better about what they are doing.\u00a0\u00a0 I want to hate these men who are treating my Savior this way but, unfortunately, I think I sometimes treat Jesus with the same disrespect.\u00a0 I usually know when it is happening.\u00a0 I am saying something I should not be saying or doing something I know I should not be doing.\u00a0 The last thing I want to do is look into the face of Jesus.\u00a0 But He is there in my “courtyard”.\u00a0\u00a0 So, if I want to continue to rebel against Him…I must blindfold Him.\u00a0\u00a0 Then, my guilt turns to anger.\u00a0 I get defensive and strike out at the very ones who wish to help get me on the right path.<\/p>\n

“Oh Lord, the suffering and shame that you endured in the courtyard is painful for me.\u00a0 I cringe when I think about You being beaten, spit upon, and mocked.\u00a0 I am angry but also convicted.\u00a0 I know that I could be in that crowd.\u00a0 I could have been one of those soldiers.\u00a0 In fact, I am guilty of mocking You at times in my life.\u00a0 Please forgive me.\u00a0 I want to take the blindfold away today.\u00a0 I want you to see me.\u00a0 I want to look into Your loving eyes.\u00a0 Thank you, Lord for doing that for me.\u00a0 Thank you for your love and forgiveness.\u00a0 Have your way with me today.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Blessings.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking Him and beating Him. They blindfolded Him and demanded, ‘Prophesy! Who hit you?’ And they said many other insulting things to Him.” (Luke 22:63-65) Insulting and humiliating the Lord of all creation.\u00a0 … 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":[9,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all_posts","category-road_to_the_cross"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53","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=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":476,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions\/476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}