{"id":1228,"date":"2016-03-21T12:13:35","date_gmt":"2016-03-21T12:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/?p=1228"},"modified":"2016-03-21T12:43:50","modified_gmt":"2016-03-21T12:43:50","slug":"we-had-no-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/?p=1228","title":{"rendered":"We Had No Idea…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"P1050349\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Palm Sunday…a narrative from the perspective of one of Jesus’ closer followers…as I imagine he might have told the story based on narratives\u00a0from the four gospels…<\/p>\n

Often, we think we know what’s happening…we lean on our own understanding, our own perspective…only to find out…<\/p>\n

We had no idea…<\/p>\n

We knew what every good Hebrew boy knew…we knew God’s law, we knew the questions to ask on the night of Passover…we knew Messiah would come and establish David’s throne forever.<\/p>\n

And like every Herbrew had been asking for hundreds of years we wondered…when would Messiah come?<\/p>\n

We had no idea.<\/p>\n

When the baptiser was in full swing preaching repentance, turn to God, get ready for the kingdom of God, Andrew was among those following him. \u00a0But one day John, who seemed like a prophet (and we hadn’t seen one of those for a long time) John pointed out another man and said\u200b,\u200b \u200b\u200bHe is the one! \u00a0The one I said was greater than me because he was before me!\u200b\u200b<\/p>\n

So Andrew followed this new teacher\/rabbi, wondering Who is this man who John says was here before him? \u00a0We had never heard of him. \u00a0Who was he?<\/p>\n

We had no idea.<\/p>\n

When this new rabbi told Peter to go fishing in the morning, the morning<\/strong>! \u00a0Peter got a little sarcastic and was like\u200b,\u200b Ok\u200b,\u200b Teacher,\u200b whatever you say. \u00a0And then the nets pulled in so many fish it almost sank the boat! \u00a0It might have if James and John hadn’t pulled alongside. \u00a0Peter freaked out and fell before Jesus the teacher and said, \u200bGet away from me I am a sinful man.<\/p>\n

Well sure Peter, you and everyone else, but why did you say that to the teacher? \u00a0And how did you get so many fish in the morning<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

We had no idea.<\/p>\n

When we were out on the lake and that crazy storm hit; we were sure it was over for us. \u00a0Yet the rabbi was asleep- in all that weather! \u00a0Can you imagine? \u00a0Someone woke him up and he spoke to the storm, the water and the waves, and they calmed. \u00a0The storm stopped.<\/p>\n

Who does that? Could this be Messiah?<\/p>\n

We had no idea.<\/p>\n

James and John thought it was, in fact they were so convinced they wanted to secure their place in his new kingdom. \u00a0So their mom asked Jesus to put one of her sons on each side of Jesus. \u00a0Nice move dudes. \u00a0Jesus said those weren’t his places to give, but could they drink the cup of suffering?<\/p>\n

Suffering? \u00a0Sure let me suffer on the right or left hand of the king!<\/p>\n

What suffering would Messiah experience?<\/p>\n

We had no idea.<\/p>\n

When Jesus started talking about all kinds of suffering he would have to endure, Peter tried to set him straight. \u00a0Messiah suffer? \u00a0May it never be! \u00a0But he was harshly answered, rebuked as a stumbling block to God’s ways.<\/p>\n

Poor Peter. \u00a0He put his foot in it that time. \u00a0So maybe Jesus would suffer, but then, maybe he wasn’t the Messiah\u200b?\u200b<\/p>\n

We had no idea.<\/p>\n

And then Passover came and we headed to Jerusalem. \u00a0To observe the festival and remember when God set his people free from slavery. Wouldn’t now be a good time for Messiah to set us free? \u00a0But when would he come?<\/p>\n

We had no idea.<\/p>\n

And then Jesus, he does this crazy thing. \u00a0He rides into Jerusalem on a donkey! \u00a0Like a king. \u00a0People lining the street yelling\u200b,\u200b Hosanna, Save us! \u00a0And he didn’t just agree<\/strong><\/em> to ride into the city on the back of a donkey, he arranged it! \u00a0He sent a couple of guys to go get the donkey!<\/p>\n

What?! \u00a0Is this it? \u00a0Is David’s throne to be established now once and for all? \u00a0Freedom from our oppressors! \u00a0Is Jesus the Messiah? Could it be?<\/p>\n

We had no idea.<\/p>\n

Then the passover meal itself. \u00a0It got a little weird at the end. \u00a0Jesus was talking about his body and blood. \u00a0And he offered us a cup, like a man offers a cup to the woman he wants to marry. \u00a0What did he mean?<\/p>\n

We had no idea.<\/p>\n

Then it got even weirder…he said someone was going to betray him. \u00a0What?\u200b!\u200b \u00a0Who?<\/p>\n

We had no idea.<\/p>\n

So there we were, with our teacher, who just rode into Jerusalem like a king, on Passover no less, perfect time to free God’s people. \u00a0We were on pins and needles, also exhausted. \u00a0Was this God’s time? \u00a0Was freedom near?<\/p>\n

We had no idea.<\/p>\n

Then Judas shows up with Roman soldiers and high priests and it looks like a battle is about to errupt. \u00a0And Peter, ever the first to react, draws his sword and cuts off a kid’s ear. \u00a0But Jesus tells him to put his sword away and heals the ear.<\/p>\n

And Jesus goes with the soldiers. \u00a0He just goes. \u00a0No fight. \u00a0No battle. \u00a0No freedom from slavery on Passover. \u00a0He just goes with them.<\/p>\n

Wha…?<\/p>\n

What happens now?<\/p>\n

We had no idea.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Palm Sunday…a narrative from the perspective of one of Jesus’ closer followers…as I imagine he might have told the story based on narratives\u00a0from the four gospels… Often, we think we know what’s happening…we lean on our own understanding, our own perspective…only to find out… We had no idea… We knew what every good Hebrew boy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2O0qX-jO","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1228"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1236,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions\/1236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}