What if I told you that Jesus didn’t die for you and I. You would think…”well, this concludes my reading of this crazy blog.” But, in fact, He didn’t. He died because he knew it was God’s design…God’s order… God’s plan and it was his duty to be obedient.
My brother and I once were asked to obey by cleaning the living room. I was slower to get up than my brother. He quickly became anxious and said “what about Jason? why isn’t he helping?” My dad then immediately instructed me to sit down in the living room and watch my brother clean the entire room by himself. He told my brother, “I told you to do something. What he does is not your concern. You worry about you.” My dad was looking for obedience and this was a chance to teach that. Does it sound harsh to make a kid clean a room while everyone else watches? Maybe to some. But I never forgot it. So it worked. It taught me about obedience.
Most of us have heard the story of Jesus praying before the betrayal of Judas. He knows what’s coming. So he decides to sit down and have a little chat with God. He basically gets so stressed he can’t stand up. He asks God 3 different times to remove this burden from him. He didn’t want to do this. The only thing that drove him to the cross was his obedience and love for his father. I’m fully convinced Jesus could’ve taken many different routes. He could have just wiped out an entire army with one command. But he chose to be obedient.
We often find ourselves trying to negotiate with God. We have a better idea. We have a plan that works. “I gave my tithe to the homeless man. I think God would understand.” Actually, no, He doesn’t. He understands obedience. Jesus could have said, “I’ll still sacrifice, just in a different way…surely you’ll understand, Dad…right?” This is tough for all of us. But for God it’s very simple. OBEDIENCE BEFORE SACRIFICE. Sacrifice is good. Sacrifice is necessary. But obedience is imperative. It’s imperative to validate the sacrifice. Without the obedience, the sacrifice falls on dead ground. The moment we decide we know better, we immediately walk away from the best God has to offer. The moment we choose to put our tithe where we think it will be better served, it then serves as a burden to us, instead of a blessing. I use tithe because this happens more often than anything else. But it’s certainly not limited to that.
Jesus knew he could give his life. He was hoping to just do it in a way that maybe God hadn’t thought of yet. (feels funny to even type that). Notice that after he prays, he checks on his guys who are sleeping. He scolds them, telling them he needs their help. Yeah, Jesus said he needed their help. Chew on that a second. Jesus wasn’t afraid to ask for help from his friends. Then he returns a second time. Same result. Then a third. This means that he asked God 3 times… “you sure about this one? There has to be another way!” All three times God had the same answer. The ball was in Jesus’ court. Obey or doom all of mankind. He chose to obey. Learning to simply obey will enrich your life. Teaching your children to obey will save theirs. Teaching them to obey requires consistency, firmness, compassion and a willingness to not let your feelings get in the way of a lesson learned. Had my dad worried about our feelings on the matter(that also felt funny to type), I would not have learned that lesson.
Throughout the Bible, obedience always came before love, sacrifice, generosity, encouragement… anything and everything. Obedience came first. Obedience opens the door for everything else to be validated and supported by God. I’m thankful that Jesus decided to be obedient. As a result, we all have an open door to the very Guy that carved out the oceans and painted the sky. Stay classy GP!