Monday 25 August, 2014

17 Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. On the way, he took the 12 disciples to one side to talk to them. 18 “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said. “The Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will sentence him to death. 19 Then they will turn him over to people who are not Jews. The people will make fun of him and whip him. They will nail him to a cross. On the third day, he will rise from the dead!”

This is a very short passage, yet is profound in what it says. It touches me in three ways.

The first is the intentionality of Jesus. He chose to go to Jerusalem, knowing that the chief priests and leaders there were looking for an opportunity to get him, and knowing exactly what would happen there. Sometimes I feel stressed about something I am facing. For me the stress of knowing it is coming is as bad or worse than the event itself. Jesus would have suffered enormous stress, but he did not waver in his choice to go.

The second way this touches me is Jesus’ care and concern for his disciples. Despite what he was facing himself he took time to warn them and care for them, because he knew the distress and depression they would suffer when he died. Jesus love was so sacrificial for his disciples and I know he has the same love for me.

Thirdly, I am always excited by prophecy in the Bible. I love the way the Bible fits together, with prophecies from hundreds of years earlier spoken again by Jesus and then fulfilled. I think this also shows God’s care for those of us who live many years after these events, because it explains the fact that Jesus chose to die for us and because it shows God’s hand at work through the ages.

Lord Jesus, I can’t thank you enough for the choice that you made to continue up that road to Jerusalem, and everything that would happen to you there. Thank you for loving us so much!

Written by Megan Cornell