Trust and Obey

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

TRUST AND OBEY

Luke 23:35-39

35 The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One." 36 The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar 37 and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself." 38 There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. 39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!"

NIV

Luke’s account may not give us as much detail as some of the other gospel accounts, but it gives us enough. Those people who stood around watching this monumental event, which in fact was for their salvation, were in some sense no different than Pilate. They wanted to see a miracle. They had no real reason for Jesus to come down off that cross. They were not truly concerned for his saving himself. They felt in their own spirits they were right about him, just a man causing an insurrection against them. Their sneers were just about proving he was not the Christ, because he was on a cross with criminals and as one. Even one of the criminals wanted him to save himself, but surely for the purpose of saving him from that cross. With all the sneers from his own people, the Jews, not to mention some of them were supposed to be the spiritual leaders, the Roman soldiers chimed in on the sneering and mocking. It would have been a massive display of his divine power if he had simply stepped down from the cross with all his wounds being instantly healed, with the criminals floating off their crosses and being transported to some far off place, safe from the Romans. But that would not have accomplished the will of God. Two lesson we have within this narrative. The first is that the world watches how we behave especially toward Jesus, and if we behave badly, they certainly are going to join us. But at the same time they may well be mocking Jesus, mocking our faith. The soldiers certainly were aware of how the Jews acted toward Jesus, with exception of a few of the disciples, but they were silent in their weeping and remorseful over losing their friend Jesus, of course Mary was losing her son. They still did not truly get the significance of the moment. But the world was watching who they thought were his people and it was obvious most of them were not only very happy to see him suffer, so took advantage of his situation and verbally assaulted him. We need to be careful how we behave in the presence of unbelievers, so they cannot either assault Jesus, or make a case by our behavior he is not who he is. The second lesson is about his suffering without saving himself because he was accomplishing the will of the Father. Although we may never have to endure such physical suffering at the hands of an execution such as the cross, we might have to endure other forms of suffering. Of course we are the ones defining what that suffering is. It might be a job we truly do not like. It might be an infirmity we would rather not have or just the aches and pains of aging and being confined for a moment in this physical body, which by the will of God will give out at some point. It might be living where we would rather not. It might be the loss of a loved one we would rather not lose. It might be having less of what we want more of, whatever that would be. It might be the loss of financial security, when we desperately want it. The point is, we are the ones who define what we consider to be suffering in some way. Jesus did not have the opportunity to define what his suffering would be, it was the will of the Father. This is our lesson, the will of the Father. We need to see whatever our situation, if it is a form of what we define as suffering, as the will of God be accomplished in our lives. Can we be in situations of suffering because of our own bad choices? It would seem that is a truism. But then does that discount the will of the Father? Do we believe he is sovereign and in control of our lives, directing our footsteps although we have made our own plans? Does his directing our steps override our plans? Surely we have to say, yes, for he is God and we are but his creation. We have been taught that we should be content in whatever situation we find ourselves in, whether that be in want or in plenty, in illness or health, or whatever host of situations we could define as suffering. We need to always be aware that God’s plans may not be our plans. Does he care about us? Sure, but is he not more caring about our eternal spirit. No matter the situation we find ourselves in, we continue to trust and obey. Jesus was suffering beyond what we could imagine, for he was taking all the sin of the world upon himself, he that was without sin, became sin for us and suffered in the physical, mental, and emotional and yes even in the spiritual, yet he knew he was accomplishing the will of the Father and he trusted and obeyed his Father. Should we do any less? No matter what situation we find ourselves in, we need to always be about trusting and obeying the will of the Father. Sometimes we keep asking for our will, rather than his to be done. We want him to accomplish our will, but the point Jesus showed us, is we need to know the Fathers will, and then trust and obey.