“We Are Going to Jerusalem…”
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The journey to Jerusalem is not about
Jesus. It’s about you. Jesus does not go to Jerusalem for His own sake, but for yours. He’s
not out to prove anything. He’s not trying to win anyone’s affection or
demonstrate what kind of God He is. He’s not going for His benefit. Our Lord
Jesus is going up to Jerusalem
for only one reason—to bear your sin and be your Savior. To be sure, He does
all the doing in Jerusalem.
There’s nothing there for you to do. But He’s not going there alone. You are
going with Him. And so He says, “Behold,
we are going up to Jerusalem.”
Jesus is not
challenging you. He’s not out to prove anything, so He doesn’t demand or even
suggest that you must prove something to Him. He’s not saying, “Come with Me,
if you can.” He is not inviting you merely to witness what He’s going to do. Jesus
does not need an audience to suffer your death and to overcome death and hell. He
is not asking you to lend Him a hand. Our Lord Jesus Christ is quite capable of
enduring hell and taking on your demons without you cheering Him on.
So when He says,
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem,” what does
Jesus mean? He means this: “You’re coming with me.” That’s not a threat. It’s a
statement of fact. It’s not you trying to get there, you trying to somehow get
to Jerusalem or
to the cross. Rather, the Lord brings you with Him, within His very body. You
are there, but not because you somehow imagined yourself there or transported yourself
back there. You are with Him because the Holy Spirit has put you in Christ’s
very body.
Willingly and
freely our Lord unites everything that you are into everything that He is.
Jesus is sacrificed by His Father for you—for everything that you are: body,
soul, and spirit. So you are in His flesh when He goes to Jerusalem. You are in His flesh when He is
delivered to the Gentiles and mocked and insulted and spit upon and scourged
and killed. You are united to Him. And if you are united in His death, you are
also united in His resurrection. So you are also in His flesh when He rises
from the dead on the third day.
Do not lose
heart in the face of all you suffer and endure in this life. The devil, the
world, and your own sinful flesh persecuted Him; they will also persecute you. You
suffer many things for the Lord’s sake, just as He suffered the wrath of God and
hell’s fury for you. But do not lose heart. He does not say, “You are
going to Jerusalem.”
He says, “Behold, we are going up
to Jerusalem.”
You are not alone. Your Jesus is with you, taking the brunt of the blows of the
devil, the world, and your own flesh. The suffering of Christ is your blessing.
His death is your life. If you died with Him, you shall also live with Him. If you
endure, you shall also reign with Him.
All of that is
in the little word “we.” Jesus packs
all that into the sentence, “We are going
up to Jerusalem.”
It’s hard to see, impossible to imagine, and difficult to believe. Is it any
wonder, then, that when Jesus speaks these words, they didn’t understand? Yet our
Lord opens their eyes, just as He opened the eyes of the blind man. And by the
Spirit, the Lord also opens your eyes to show you that He delivers His mercy in
His flesh and blood, which He feeds into you for your strength and comfort.
In this Supper, you
are with Him and in Him as He goes to Jerusalem.
It is not by your own power. Instead, He prepares you for the journey in the
waters of Holy Baptism. He nourishes you for the journey at His holy Table. Your
bags are packed. You begin your walk to the cross with Christ on Ash Wednesday.
He will carry you with Him on this journey of salvation. Go to the cross. Go to
the tomb. You will never be the same again. In the name of the Father and
of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The
peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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