Wednesday Thought -- June 1, 2011

Good Morning Friends,

“As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, ‘Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?’ But Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they went to another village.” (Luke 9:51-56)

This passage contains a phrase that I think is one of the most impressive descriptions of how Jesus acted during His time on earth. It says, “Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.”

You have to remember that Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen to Him when He arrived in Jerusalem. Just a few verses earlier in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus had reminded the disciples, “Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.” (Luke 9:44)

Jesus was going to Jerusalem for the last time. His ministry on earth was nearly complete, lacking only its final and climactic act. Jesus was going to Jerusalem to die. He had told the disciples that was going to happen several times already.

The disciples didn’t believe what Jesus had told them, but Jesus knew it was true and He knew the kind of torture that it meant for Him. He was going to Jerusalem, not just to die, but to carry to the cross the sins of the world. He would be rejected by the Romans. He would be rejected by the Jews. He would be deserted by His followers, even those closest to Him. He would be betrayed by one of the apostles. He would be denied by another, one very close to Him. And most painfully of all, He would be abandoned by His Father.

Unimaginable pain awaited Jesus … and He knew it. Yet, He “resolutely set out for Jerusalem.” There was no hesitation in Jesus. There was no dragging of His feet to delay the inevitable. Jesus with intentionality, Jesus headed toward the fate that had been planned for Him before the foundation of the world.

That is the extent of the willingness of Jesus to do what He and the Father had planned. That is the extent of His love for you and me.

His, by Grace,

Steve