NOVEMBER 25 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#32 “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?” (Matthew 26:40)

 NOVEMBER 25  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#32 “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?”  (Matthew 26:40)

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer   

JESUS, JESUS, JESUS - Praise to the Son that was Obedient to the Father’s Will, the Only Begotten Son that Lived a Sinless Life, gave up His Glory to become the Propitiation of our sins, that instead of condemnation of death WHICH WE ALL DESERVE, we could be RESURRECTED to life because of HIS INFINITE MERCY! O the Mystery of God that He loved the world so much that His Plan of Salvation of the world which has rejected His Grace could receive His Mercy. Truly Jesus is the Son of God and to all those that desire to be made well, we can KNOW that we WILL be made well by Believing in the DIVINE POWER of the Name of the Only Begotten Son of God, even our LORD — JESUS!!!   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has prayed three times in the Garden of Gethsemane where the betrayal of our LORD into the hands of the chief priests was about to occur. His DEATH was happening just as Jesus had told His disciples it would be two days before the Passover when Jesus had said: “You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.” (Matthew 26:2) and then when His Last Passover with His disciples began Jesus told His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.” (Matthew 26:21). Now Jesus and His disciples (with the exception of Judas Iscariot) are in Gethsemane and Jesus awakes the sleeping disciples and announces, “Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer (Judas Iscariot) is at hand.” (Matthew 26:46) Matthew writes: “And while He was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, with a great multitude with swords and clubs, came from the chief priests and elders of the people.” (Matthew 26:47) Judas then gave Jesus a kiss as a sign of identifying Jesus and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” (Matthew 26:49) Jesus replied to this greeting from Judas His betrayer, “Friend, why have you come?” (Matthew 26:50). Jesus of course knew the reason Judas had approached Him in the darkness with a detail of  armed guards but no one else knew that this was all part of the Master Plan of Salvation and it should be noted that even though Jesus KNEW that He was being betrayed by Judas that Jesus still addressed Judas as “Friend”! Had this event caught Jesus by surprise and had Jesus been mad at Judas then it would have been a victory for evil and darkness but Jesus by His calm greeting of “Friend” to Judas at this exact moment announced VICTORY for all that is GOOD for the Plan of Salvation was going according to Plan and even though this final Path for Jesus would lead to the Ultimate Sorrow on the cross, Jesus KNEW that His Suffering would lead to the Ultimate Joy and with His Final Earthly Destination of the Cross, Death, a Grave , and the Resurrection clearly in view, Jesus called Judas “Friend”!!! All Christians who profess Jesus as the Son of God and believes that God so loved the world that He gave us GRACE through the Sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son that we should see the betrayal of God and His Son by the world as part of the Path to God’s Glory! We should never seek to “judge others” nor seek “revenge” for Jesus commanded us to “judge not” and God has declared “vengeance is Mine”  and when we see Jesus fulfilling prophecy as He becomes the Passover Lamb of God we should see VICTORY over evil as the Ultimate Outcome of any life lived in Obedience to the Father’s Will! This Ultimate Confidence comes when Peter pulls his sword in an effort to protect Jesus from His betrayer’s and Jesus says to Peter: “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it happen thus?” (Matthew 26:52-54) Jesus knew His “hour had come” and as always Jesus points “the multitudes” to the Scriptures as He expresses the Ultimate Confidence in the Scriptures to provide “Deliverance” when He the explains why the betrayal and why the Sacrifice: “But all this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” (Matthew 26:56A) However Matthew records what is still today our normally predictable human response when evil raises its ugly head for immediately after Jesus spoke those words Matthew wrote: “Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled” (Matthew 26:56B) — and we today when faced with great sorrow and great evil we fail to listen to JESUS,  but instead we forsake Him and go the way of the world and we fail to “Watch and Pray” — but that does not change the Plan of Salvation nor diminish the VICTORY OF THE CROSS!!! Our failure to pursue God in no way diminishes God, His Glory, nor His Sovereignty — our failure only makes us vulnerable to the attacks of evil for our defenses are weakened because our Faith has been abandoned and we expose ourselves to the lies of the world! Our best defense is to “Watch and Pray” for God is VICTORIOUS OVER THE WORLD!