Scripture Reading: Matthew 20:17-34
Jesus was setting out for Jerusalem on His last journey. Did He not know that He was going straight into danger? He was safe in Perea; why did He not stay there? Why did He leave this shelter and go straight into the den of lions at Jerusalem? He knew all that awaited Him, but He did not shrink from it; He resolutely set His face to go, because it was the way marked out for Him. The picture shows Him hastening on, striding away before the disciples, as Mark (10:32) tells us, as if He were eager to reach the city and endure what lay before Him there, and could scarcely wait for the slow steps of the disciples. Why was Jesus so eager to suffer? It was because His time had come, and He was eager to do the Father’s will. Besides, it was the receiving up to heaven which He saw, and the cross and darkness were forgotten in the triumph and glory beyond. “Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb.12:2). There ought to be wondrous inspiration in Christ’s example here for all who are called to suffer and endure for his sake. We should be eager to do God’s will however hard it may be; and we should train ourselves to look beyond the suffering and the trial to the blessing and joy that will come after.
He took the disciples apart and told them what lay before Him. “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto
the chief priests and unto the scribes.” The astronomer knows, when others do not, that the dark shadow of the eclipse is traveling toward the sun; and Jesus knew, when no others saw it, that the blackness of the cross was approaching Him and would overwhelm Him, and knew the very moment He would enter it. One of Holman Hunt’s pictures represents Jesus as a boy in the carpenter shop. It is evening, and He is weary. Stretching out His arms, the light of the setting sun, shining in from the west, casts His shadow on the floor of the shop, and lo — it is in the form of a cross fell upon Jesus, that from the beginning He was conscious of the fact that He must die by crucifixion. What a pathos it adds to the life of Christ to remember this: that all the time, in the midst of His human joys, while He was scattering blessings among others, while He was working miracles of mercy; in all the holy peace and calm of His soul, that dark shadow hung over Him continually — He was going at last to be crucified. Yet the consciousness never kept Him from speaking one gentle word, nor from doing one kindly deed, nor from being cheerful and loving. Knowing from the beginning all that lay before Him, He went on with His daily duty quietly and joyfully. This reveals something of His love for us and His joy in doing the Father’s will.
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