And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day. – Matthew 20:17-19
Imagine yourself walking with the Savior. You, and a small group of like-minded friends, have been granted the privilege of accompanying Jesus on a walk upon a country, unpaved road. You see his humanity, yet sense his divinity. He speaks ever-so-softly, but it is as if the mountains tremble as the words are pronounced. You recognize your weakness even as you recognize his undeniable strength.
But now Jesus goes and messes everything up. Just as you begin to glimpse his sovereignty he begins to speak of his suffering and death. You feel his power, yet he talks about a coming powerlessness. You see his regal qualities, but he speaks of his lowly humiliation. The Lord has a habit of doing this throughout the Gospels. Just when things are going pretty good, he sneaks in a side comment foretelling the coming terror. We wish to live on the spiritual mountaintop, but Jesus sometimes pulls down to the hellish valley.
Perhaps the reason for this is that Jesus recognizes that mountains can only be scaled by first walking through the valley floor. We can only receive spiritual hope and encouragement by joining Jesus as the foot of the cross. David Dickson, the 17th century Puritan preacher and expositor, said that the Gospels’ “often fortelling of our Lord’s passion, doth serve to confirme us of the resolute willingnes of the Redeemer to suffer for us.”1 In other words, a Christian never “gets beyond” the cross. In Jesus day he was constantly pointing his disciples forward to the cross, just as now Scripture constantly points us backward towards it. There, in the death & resurrection, we find assurance. There we find salvation. There we find strength. There we find hope. And, most importantly, there we see the Redeemer accomplishing our redemption.
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1 Spelling original. David Dickson, A Brief Exposition of the Euangel of Jesus Christ According to Matthew, 1647.
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