Set toward the Cross

Theme: On the Road to Jerusalem

 

 

And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”

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LESSON

Now from the little town of Ephraim, about twelve miles north of Jerusalem, Jesus left the crowds and started toward Jerusalem. As He marched ahead of them, the disciples no doubt were thinking in their hearts, “Not that road, Lord! That road leads to Jerusalem and death!” But His stride becomes longer and more rapid. There is tremendous purpose in His step; there is urgency and haste. In this moment, I think, Jesus fulfilled the prophecy made in Isaiah 50:7: “For the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been confounded; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.” Jesus has become the inflexible Christ. At least four times in the gospels He had said, “My hour has not yet come.” But now His hour has come, and as Luke 9:51 says, “When the days drew near for Him to be received up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem.”

 

When I was about eighteen years old, I worked in a construction crew that was building a skyscraper. Each floor of the skyscraper was overlaid with a grid of iron ties. Cement was poured in between the ties, and thus the floors were made of reinforced concrete. This illustrates the nature of the Lord Jesus. Tender and loving though He was, His character was also a network of steel. The concrete of His life was reinforced with a will that was unbending and inflexible. Hebrews 10 tells us that when Christ came into the world, He said, “Lo, I have come to do Thy will, O God” (Hebrews 10:7). To His disciples by the well of Sychar, He said, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work!” (John 4:34) When He arose from the throne of heaven and laid aside the robe of His majesty to become the babe of Bethlehem, He set His face toward the cross, for He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Step by step, He moved toward Calvary. There were many, beginning with Satan in the desert, who sought to turn His steps in another direction, but Jesus was always certain of His ultimate destination.

 

For three years, Jesus was comparatively at ease. There were moments of flaming denunciation of sin. Occasionally a flash of His majesty showed what He will do when He returns a second time. But for most of His earthly life, He went about doing good. The blind received their sight, the lame walked, lepers were healed, and the dead were raised. But now He takes the road to Jerusalem. His will is to do the will of God, to redeem people, to save men, to bring life to the dead. Jesus was determined to take this path.

 

However, Mark is showing us not only the inflexible Christ, but the Christ who gave Himself, for here He is pouring out His great love for you and me. He was marching to Jerusalem to die for our sins; He knew it, and spoke of it very plainly (Mark 10:33-34). There was no dawning messianic consciousness; Jesus was not astonished or surprised by what He faced. His death was planned in eternity. In John 10 He said, “I lay down My life for the sheep ... No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord” (vv.15, 18). A great English preacher of the nineteenth century said: “Neither Caiaphas nor Annas, nor Judas, nor the band of soldiers, nor priests, nor the consul, nor Pilate, nor Herod, nor soldiers, , nor nails, nor cross, nor all together killed Jesus, but Jesus died because He would.” When we understand this, we can see the fountain of love that was in His heart. As He went about doing good, He gave bits of Himself. But now He was about to give all of Himself on Calvary’s cross and take the penalty for our sins.

 

This Christ demands separation, for you must decide whether you want to take the easy way or follow Him. There must be that moment in your life when you set your face like a flint and make choices and decision. You must resolutely determine to go God’s way and not your own. In modem language, this is the showdown.

 

In the parallel passage in Luke 9, we read that as He went on His way, “He sent messengers ahead of Him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for Him; but the people would not receive Him, because His face was set toward Jerusalem” (Luke 9:52-53). Here the Baby Jesus of Bethlehem is left behind. The world will never reject the Christ of Bethlehem. But now Jerusalem lies ahead, and Christ is rejected because He is headed toward Calvary.

 

Now the disciples were obscurantists, and so James and John, angered by the Samaritans’ rejection, wanted to call down fire from heaven upon the town (Luke 9:54). This is always the easiest way to get rid of your enemies! A friend of mine who is very fond of guns said to me, “There are two things I like: theology and guns. If you can’t hit somebody with an argument, shoot him.” What my friend meant as a joke, the twelve disciples meant seriously. But Jesus, “turned and rebuked them, and said, ‘Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.’ And they went to another village” (Luke 9:55-56, KJV).

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