Onward to Jerusalem

Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again."

Jesus knew the prophecies about his coming. In fact, he knew the prophets. He was their inspiration. He knew each letter in each word in each prophecy they spoke because he was there. It was all about him.

To speak just before his own death about the fulfillment of prophecy was to continue the prophetic chain that began hundreds of years before and would culminate with his death, burial and resurrection.

Oswald Chambers, in My Utmost For His Highest, talks about the essence of Jerusalem in our own lives. Jerusalem represents God’s plan, His will. How many of us would go on to Jerusalem knowing what waits there? Only Jesus knew precisely what would happen in each day of his life. He knew what Jerusalem meant.

We see our entire existence “as through a glass darkly,” vaguely recognizing some of what we see through the mists, but not knowing with any certainty. Still, as believers, we press on. But would we go if we knew that Jerusalem was the end of this life?

Faith has an incredible property of calmness that secures the faithful in the promise of an outcome. The positive outcome for every follower of Jesus Christ is eternity with the Father. A return to home. The end of a pilgrimage that began at birth through this foreign land, this alien existence.

The danger for many of us is that we get settled. We aren’t passing through. We move in, take up residence, take on an alien identity, assimilate with the foreign population, pick up the attributes and language and culture and style, and become indistinguishable from the myriads of others who have similarly assumed the lifestyle. We settle in. This is it. There isn’t anything more.

All the while our Father is watching our shallowness and trying to get us to listen. “There is so much more that I have for you. I have plans for you. I want to give you hope and a future. I want to prosper you and not harm you.” Jerusalem is waiting.

He has it all worked out. Has had it all worked out since before time began. We’re part of it. It’s beautiful. It includes Jerusalem. In every aspect. It will be glorious, and triumphant, and intense, and contrary to foreign culture. And if we have settled in and become one with the culture we will be against going to Jerusalem because we are comfortable. Feeling safe in our comfort zones we will ignore His words and plans and eternal glory for our safe, and benign and oh so temporary. The amazing plan for our life will be curtailed because of what our human, assimilated vision can see.

Let us move on to Jerusalem.