Good Morning Friends,
“As the time approached for him to be taken up
to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 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 includes a phrase that is one of
the most impressive descriptions of how Jesus acted on earth … “Jesus
resolutely set out for Jerusalem.”
Remember that Jesus knew exactly what was going
to happen to Him when He arrived in Jerusalem. Just a few verses earlier Jesus
had reminded the disciples, “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 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. He was going to Jerusalem, not just to die, but to carry the sins of the
world to the cross. He would be rejected by the Romans and by the Jews. He
would be deserted by His followers. He would be betrayed by one of the apostles
and denied by another. 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. There was
no dragging His feet to delay the inevitable. Jesus moved with intentionality.
He 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
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