Year 6, Day 200: Matthew 26

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

I am awed by Jesus’ obedience.  He came to die for our sake simply because the Father willed it to happen that way.  That is the very definition of obedience.  The Father asks, the obedient follower obeys.

But the depth of His obedience is truly mind-boggling.  Let’s take a few examples here.

• First, Jesus knows that He is going to die well before it happens.  It’s one thing to be courageous in the moment.  It is sheer obedience to know you can walk away safely but instead you go headlong into danger just because it is the will of the Father.
• Second, Jesus experiences the bickering of His own disciples because the will of the Father sets a different morality and ethic than the expectations of the world around Him.  In spite of the disciples bickering, Jesus stays obedient to the Father.
• Third, not only does Jesus experiencing some verbal dissension, He also experiences outright betrayal.  One of His own hands Him over to the enemy.  Worse, Jesus knows this ahead of time!  Yet, Jesus remains obedient even though He can foresee the incident.
• Fourth, and perhaps my favorite moment of obedience in this chapter, is the Garden of Gethsemane.  Jesus is clearly struggling with what is coming.  It is a hard moment.  It is difficult to imagine all of the emotions and pain that Jesus will endure.  He asks if it is possible to go another route.  However, He folds his own will and accepts the will of the Father.

So many of these incidents could have easily taken any of out of obedience to the Father’s will.  There is external pressure and inner angst.  Yet, Jesus remains obedient.

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