Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”
The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.
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From our vantage point Jesus’ statement here seems so clear, so explicit. But we’re on this side of the cross. The disciples didn’t understand at all. It was “hidden from them.” They had no conception of the fact that Jesus was heading to his death.
But Jesus knew.
“I set my face like flint” (Isaiah 50:7). This phrase from Isaiah’s prophecy of Messiah keeps coming to mind as the Gospels portray Jesus’ determined, relentless progression to the cross. He knows where he’s going. He knows what’s coming. Yet, he perseveres, eyes on the goal, never diverting.
This is the third major prediction in Luke’s Gospel of Jesus’ approaching fate, each emphasizing rejection and suffering and death (9:22, 44). Luke also includes a number of more veiled statements from Jesus’ own lips (5:35, 12:50, 13:32-33), but here he explicitly confirms where it will all transpire: Jerusalem, the geographic heart of all things for Israel. Already Luke has recorded Jesus’ heart-aching lament over the city: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together …” (Luke 13:34). Such heartbreak – yet he presses forward with knowing determination.
But the other thing Jesus makes clear for the first time is that the full breadth of humanity will be involved in his rejection and execution – Jesus reveals “he will be handed over to the Gentiles.”The Son of Man – who is the Christ and the Son of God – will be condemned to death by both the religious authorities and the secular. It will be those who have ethnic affiliation and those who don’t. It will include those privileged to receive revelation written in history and in scripture, and those who have simply received the knowledge of God from what has been created. The full range of humanity will symbolically raise their hands in condemnation of the One who created them. As John would later reflect:
“He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (John 1:10-11).
Yet, he pressed on. Knowing where he was going, he pressed on.
He did so, for the joy set before him. So, his prediction of his death concludes with triumph.“On the third day he will rise again.” Simple. Succinct. Bursting with hope.
As the old preacher used to say, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s comin’!”
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Lord Jesus, thank you for your relentless progression to the cross – for me. Thank you for your willingness to endure rejection by the hand of those you came to save. Thank you for submitting yourself to death. Praise you that you triumphed over it. Praise your name.
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Give thanks:
Throughout the day, pause to remember his persistence, and give thanks.
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Photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash
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