A Word about Determination on the Road to the Cross

Today I want to share a word about determination on the road to the Cross as I comment on passages from Luke, Matthew, and John. Let’s begin by reading Luke 18:31-34:

And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon.  And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

Introduction:

We often live in dread of our fate. For example, I once received an e-mail from a man which told a tale from years past that illustrates this: 

“I was sitting in the waiting room of the hospital after my wife had gone into labor and then the nurse walked out and said to the man sitting next to me, ‘Congratulations sir, you're the new father of twins!’ The man replied, ‘How about that, I work for the Doublemint Chewing Gum Company.’ The man then followed the nurse to his wife's room. 

About an hour later, the same nurse entered the waiting room and announced that Mr. Smith's wife has just had triplets. Mr. Smith stood up and said, ‘Well, how do you like that, I work for the 3M Company.’ The man then followed the nurse to his wife's room. 

The gentleman that was sitting on the other side of me then got up and started to leave. When I asked him why he was leaving, he remarked, ‘I think I need a breath of fresh air.’ The man continued, ‘I work for 7-UP.’”

Jesus’s human fate was nothing less than gruesome.  He was beaten, and abused, and He was whipped until His flesh was flayed.  He was hung from a Roman cross which was the means for a cruel, lingering, and horrible death.  Who would choose such a fate as this?

Jesus. Only Jesus.

As we continue to see Jesus as the masterful person that He is, we will see clearly that not only did Jesus allow this fate, but He also actually chose it.  We’ll begin to see why as we review our first text for today.

Jesus Predicted His Fate: 

Jesus came to the Earth with a purpose. From the beginning of human sin, God had a purpose: to redeem the world. Satan’s rebellion and sin had ruined God’s perfect creation, and this was something God could not abide, and so Jesus had come to redeem a lost, dying, and decaying world. In Luke 19:10 Jesus said, “for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."  Therefore, His whole mission was focused on this purpose, and He, as always, was still on task.

The Disciples, however, were distracted by other things. They had just come into Jerusalem. Now they felt as is if they were in the “big leagues.” They had just experienced the Triumphal Entry, but they didn’t know yet how fickle the crowd can be. They were also looking forward to Passover in Jerusalem, which emotionally, was like attending the Super Bowl or celebrating Christmas in Bethlehem. Trouble was far from their minds!

As we see in the passage from Luke 18, Jesus was focused on His purpose, and He reminded them of it. This was the third time He’d done so, and both times before were near in time to an exciting event. The first time was just after Peter’s profession of faith in Matthew 16, and the second time was just after the Transfiguration in Matthew 17.  Each of these (Peter’s Confession, Transfiguration, and Triumphal Entry) were important, but . . . they would be meaningless unless Jesus went all the way.

Jesus, of course, intended to go the distance and do what needed to be done!

Jesus Attracted His Fate: 

Let’s continue by reading Matthew 21:10-16:

And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”

In Jerusalem, Jesus was a threat to the establishment:

• He threatened the traditional way of interpreting the Word of God.
• He threatened the political power of the Sanhedrin.
• He threatened the bankrupt fundamentalism of the Pharisees.
• He threatened the bankrupt liberalism of the Sadducees.
• He threatened the security concerns of the Romans.

Jesus was like a thunderstorm: you couldn’t ignore him, and no one could predict where He would go and what He would do.

Jesus was no different in Jerusalem than He was in the Galilee or in Samaria. The difference is that in Jerusalem, He brought a disruption to the power structure of that day that they did not expect or desire. 

The snobby people of Judah expected there to be disturbances in Galilee.  What more could you expect from low-class people? Likewise, nobody cared much about what happened in Samaria, either.  Those “half-breeds” were beneath the notice of the elite. Now, however, like the attack on Pearl Harbor or the attack on 9/11, Jesus brought the threat home. Something had to be done!

In response to this threat to their power, the forces of evil were going to strike back: They were going to kill this “man” if it was the last thing they did.  Just like when David was caught with Bathsheba, they were caught in their sin. They were going to cover it up with a murder conspiracy, just like David. And Jesus, being God, knew exactly what they were doing. What do you think He did?

Jesus Embraced His Fate: 

As we read in John 18:33-38, Jesus embraced His fate:

So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him . . .”

People have different reactions when they are confronted by their fate. For example, Adolph Hitler committed suicide, while Saddam Hussein fled and wound up hiding in a hole in the ground. Saddam Hussein’s sons died in a shoot-out with the US Army, but others try to plea-bargain their way out of trouble. A few will trust in God, like the teenaged girl asked by the shooters at Columbine High School, “Do you believe in God?”  When she said “Yes,” she was shot and killed. One thing is certain, however: all of them would rather be somewhere else, doing something else. Not Jesus, however.

• He embraced His arrest.
• He embraced an illegal, night-time trial to take place.
• He embraced the experienced of being brutalized and killed.
• He embraced the fact that in all these things there was a purpose.

What Jesus did was literally, out of this world! What Jesus did was based on a different reality than the one that humans embrace. Only in God’s economy could defeat be victory. Only in the spiritual realms could this suffering bring succor!

Jesus came to give us what we couldn’t give ourselves. To do this, He had to be crowned King with a crown of thorns. He embraced this fate without reservation!

Jesus Allowed His Fate: 

Finally, John 19:5-11 tells us that Jesus allowed His fate:

So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” The Jews[a] answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”

Those in power thought that they had Jesus right where they wanted Him. The Romans had Him in custody, so He was contained. The Sanhedrin were going to kill Him and so He would be out of their hair. The Disciples had been scattered to the winds and so they could threaten neither the Roman nor the Jewish establishments. Satan had manipulated it all, or so he thought. 

In truth, they had all been caught in Jesus’ trap. In fact, Jesus was right where He wanted to be, with the same attitude that the legendary Marine, Lewis “Chesty” Puller once expressed when surrounded by the enemy, “All right. They’re on our left, they’re on our right, they’re in front of us, they’re behind us … They can’t get away this time.”

Jesus had come for this purpose and in an example of spiritual Jujitsu, He was using His enemies’ own actions against them. Jesus was in control, not the Romans, nor the Jews, nor Satan. He could have had armies of angels come release Him. He could have spoken and rained fire down on His captors. He did not, not because He couldn’t, but because He wouldn’t. He was right where He wanted to be.

Why would Jesus knowingly, willingly, and determinedly, inflict the trauma He experienced upon Himself? Because He loves us, and He wants to save us. Because He wants to give us righteousness, and He wants to have a relationship with us. Because He wants to give us a relationship with God that we need, and that God desires.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10

Conclusion:  

Jesus embraced His fate on our behalf. Have you embraced what Jesus did for you? Don’t you think you should? 

Does your life honor what Jesus did for you? Don’t you think it should?

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt