Living Oracles
Find us on Facebook
  • Meditations
  • About
  • Audio
  • Contact

Jesus' Painful Prediction

2/23/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Luke 18:31-43 cf. Matt 20:17-19, Mark 10:32-34

Listen on OnePlace
Listen on Mixcloud
 
Jesus intimates his Messianic destiny to his chosen twelve as they stride forth to Jerusalem.  His resolve and physical strength are manifested in his marching ahead of the disciples who had a strong sense that the journey was somehow ominous and that Jerusalem would not be friendly toward their Master.  The Lord’s gait and perhaps stern face caused them to quiver.
 
Taking the twelve aside (there may have been others accompanying them) Jesus disclosed the purpose of his approach to the Jewish capital as forecast by the prophets.  His going up to Jerusalem was a very determined and deliberate walk of obedience.  He knew that he faced a grim prospect and he chose to confide in his closest friends.
 
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of man will be accomplished.  For he will be delivered to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon, and after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him; and the third day he will rise again” (vv 31 - 33).
 
The most significant events in Earth’s history are related so succinctly.  The mood of the Savior must have been one of deep foreboding, and yet of supreme confidence in the Father’s decreed outcome.  Jesus would be a sacrificial victim who would be raised again.  Jesus did not elaborate upon the meaning of his death and resurrection at this time.  The coming straight-forward facts through which human salvation is wrought would be sufficient at the moment for the disciples to absorb.  Clues to his atoning work were to be found in the Hebrew scrolls but the disciples were not at this stage of spiritual immaturity adept at picking them up.  The events and their essence were not intelligible to them in a twofold sense.
 
“And they understood none of these things, and this saying was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said” (v34).  Christ’s process of self-disclosure its gradual and highly personal.  It emerges from his divine sovereignty as the Word.  “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.  Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.  All things have been committed to me by my Father.  No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Matthew 11: 25-27).
 
The chosen of Jesus are first taken aside for reliable knowledge of the historical facts.  These were declared to the twelve.  But facts alone are not sufficient for saving faith.  The meaning of them was hidden from the disciples.  Human intelligence cannot discern salvation meaning in bare facts.  We are blind and it is the divine prerogative to explain the facts.  This Jesus does by his Spirit in his own good time.  He takes us aside individually and personally to illuminate both the information concerning him, and our eyes to perceive him with the eye of faith, a gift of grace.  Aptly, the incident of the blind beggar receiving his sight (vv35-42) is skillfully appended to Jesus’ prediction delivered on the road.  He speaks this command to our soul.  “Receive your sight:  your faith has healed (saved) you (v42).
 
RJS
0 Comments

      Join the mailing list.

    Subscribe

    Picture
    ...more articles.

    Archives

    January 2021
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010

    Categories

    All
    Adolescence
    Ambitions And Acquisitions
    Anglicanism
    Antinomianism
    Ascension
    Augustinianism
    Calvinism
    Celebrity
    Cheap Grace
    Christian Toy Store
    Companionship
    Confidence
    Conviction
    Death Of The Grown-up
    Desire
    Discrimination
    Electing Love
    Faith
    False Prophets
    Fellowship
    Grace
    Helplessness
    Ignorance And Inadequacy
    James Ussher
    Legalism
    Liturgy
    Longing
    Love
    Means Of Grace
    Mercy
    Moral Destitution
    Moralism
    Moses
    Pop-culture
    Prayer
    Predestination
    Pride
    Reliance
    Ritual
    Sacramentalism
    Samaritan
    Self Righteousness
    Sin And Temptation
    Social Justice
    Speech
    Thirty-Nine Articles
    Works

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.