Walking toward Jerusalem

 Walking toward Jerusalem

Taking the twelve disciples aside, Jesus said, “Listen, we’re going up to Jerusalem, where all the predictions of the prophets concerning the Son of Man will come true. He will be handed over to the Romans, and he will be mocked, treated shamefully, and spit upon. They will flog him with a whip and kill him, but on the third day he will rise again.”

LUKE 18.31-33

Should I pray, “Father, save me from this hour”? But this is the very reason I came!

JOHN 12.27

Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us.

EPHESIANS 5.2

If you knew that certain suffering and death was at the end of the road you were traveling on, would you keep going down that road? Most of us would turn around and go the opposite direction as fast as possible. But not Jesus.

As Jesus traveled the road that led him into Jerusalem, he knew exactly what was waiting for him there. He told his disciples that he would be handed over to the Romans, made fun of, spit on, whipped, and killed. But Luke 9.51 says that instead of turning and going the other direction to escape what was ahead for him, “Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.”

Jesus was not a victim who was caught by surprise by cruel people out to get him. He walked into the death trap laid for him fully aware of what was ahead. Jesus offered himself willingly as a sacrifice for sin. “No one can take my life from me,” said Jesus. “I sacrifice it voluntarily” (Jn 10.18). Jesus’ death was planned long before he was born in Bethlehem, so his death was not the failure of his plan, but the fulfilment of it.