Quinquagesima
Dear friends in Christ. We are again standing at the edge of the holy and penitential season of Lent. Already from her early days the Christian Church has set apart this period to reflect on and ponder especially the suffering and death of our Savior. During the next six weeks we will again have before our eyes Christ’s suffering from Gethsemane to the cross on Golgotha. May none of us think that this is old news and that we already know it all! May none of us think that it’s not all that vital to hear it again and reflect on it. If we do, we rob ourselves of an inexpressible blessing Lent, with its time of penitence and extra services in God’s house, provides. Christ’s suffering and death is indeed the main thing in His saving work which is why St. Paul calls the entire Gospel [1 Cor. 1.18] the message of the cross. We can never hear enough of Christ’s suffering nor ponder it sufficiently.
The fast approaching season of Lent, is a glorious time of preparation for us before we come to the great/ main events of the work of our salvation—Good Friday—and the announcement of Easter Sunday that Jesus did indeed pay for the sins of the world and reconcile all sinners to the Holy God; that He is the victorious Savior conquering and destroying sin, death, devil and hell. In our text, Jesus is leading His disciples to Jerusalem—and their hearts were filled with foreboding of what was to come. Along the way Jesus took the twelve aside and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem.” Today, let us turn our hearts and thoughts in the right direction as we go this Lent with our Lord to Jerusalem.
1. "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem.” As we are, as it were, during this upcoming season of Lent on the road to Jerusalem, let us first consider with Whom we are traveling. Of course, we are going with Jesus this Lenten season: Jesus took the twelve aside and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem”. He is the center/ focus of our thoughts and worship this season of Lent. But by what Jesus says and does in the events of our text He makes it crystal clear to His disciples that day—and to us today—just who exactly He is: He isn’t just an ordinary man, not just a good teacher of morals, not just a role-model; instead He is the very God Himself.
He does this as He shows that characteristic of God of omniscience, that is, that He knows all things! What does He tell the disciples? –He tells them exactly what is going to happen, fleshing out the details: "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be brought to completion. For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. After scourging Him they will kill Him. And the third day He will rise again." Jesus doesn’t just say in a general way that He will die in Jerusalem but gives details that only the One who knows all things before they happen knows. Jesus is the true God.
Not only does Jesus show this characteristic of God—knowing all things—but right after that He confirms to the disciples—and to us—that He is true God as He does what only God can do: By His mere word He heals the blind man. Then Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has made you well." And immediately he received his sight.
As we this upcoming season of Lent turn our hearts and minds to Jesus and go with Him to Jerusalem, let us remember that it is not just a mere man Who will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. After scourging Him they will kill Him—but that this is the very God Himself!
So, yes, Jesus is the true God. But what is even more wonderful is that Jesus is the true God who is also our Savior from sin, death, devil and hell. Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be brought to completion. For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. After scourging Him they will kill Him. And the third day He will rise again." The entire reason for the Son of God Himself to become also true man was to be our Savior. That’s why Jesus is now on the road to Jerusalem so that all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man [might] be brought to completion. Here we see the heart of Christ; here we see God’s love for us sinners.
By each and every one of our sins, we go against the holy will of God. Each sin we commit is a rebellion against God—we are placing our will above His; it is a rejection of Him and we try to make ourselves god by “dethroning” Him. By each and every sin we commit—no matter how small/ insignificant we may think it is— we cut ourselves out of heaven and earn for ourselves and make ourselves worthy of His eternal wrath and damnation. But in Christ we see the heart of God; we see His love and mercy of the sinner. We see that it is indeed true what the Lord says [Ezekiel 33.11]: I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. So what does God do? He didn’t just leave us to our own devices. But because there is no way we can save ourselves, because we sin continually and so continually earn God’s wrath and hell, because we cannot make the way back to God, God, in the Person of His Son, became man to be our Savior—Jesus. And He went to Jerusalem!
With His little phrase: Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, Jesus shows us His great love for us sinners; He shows His mercy to us. For here is Jesus—the very God Himself Who knows all things, Who knows what great misery awaits Him in Jerusalem—not just the physical suffering but what is much greater: that on the cross He would endure the very suffering of hell as God the Father would pour on Him vial after vial of His wrath over the sin of every single person ever to live.
By saying Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, Jesus is announcing to us today, just as He did the disciples then, that it is His joy and desire to suffer and die for us sinners. Jesus, the all-knowing God, who is here walking to Jerusalem to His death, teaches us by this that He willingly/ voluntarily suffered. That’s His great grace, love, and mercy for us sinners. That’s what we see this Lenten season as we go up to Jerusalem with Jesus! He goes up to Jerusalem as our Great High Priest to offer that one perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world, to reconcile us sinners with the holy God; and we see that Jesus is not only the Priest but He is that one perfect, sinless, willing Victim/ Sacrifice.
In grace upon grace, Jesus announces to His disciples in great detail everything that would happen to Him—His betrayal, suffering, shame, beating and death. Not only should this have strengthened them to endure all questions and doubts when they saw this happening to Him—He after all “called it”—but all that would happen to Him was in fulfilment of Scripture.In other words, precisely in Jesus’ sufferings they should recognize Him as the long promised Messiah—because everything that He would endure was exactly and precisely foretold by the prophets. Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be brought to completion.
The betrayal and suffering of Christ was all part and parcel of His work, a work that God announced beforehand through the prophets and on top of that, not only was the suffering announced and thus certain to happen but so was the resurrection, Jesus’ victory and thus the defeat of sin, death, devil and hell! And the third day He will rise again. In Lent we go to Jerusalem with the definite certainty of the resurrection.
2. Now that we know that in Lent we, together with our fellow Christians, go with Jesus to Jerusalem, that raises the question how do we go up to Jerusalem with Him? May we not be like the disciples when Jesus announced beforehand exactly what would happen. But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they continued not to know the things which were spoken. The disciples indeed believed that Jesus was the long promised Savior that the prophets spoke about. But what Jesus said about betrayal, suffering and death did not fit with their preconceived notions of who/ what the Messiah would be. They imagined good days and pure joy in the Messiah’s kingdom—physically. They were children of their day [Acts 1.6]: Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
Dear Christian, we are children of our age. We breathe its air; we unwittingly take in and adopt its thoughts/ ways/ attitudes. That’s why it’s vital for us that we use this time of going up to Jerusalem this Lenten season to examine our hearts and attitudes. We hold up God’s holy word and examine what we think, hear and what’s all around us in light of it. What is contrary to God’s word is so easily accepted because it’s all around us; it “makes sense”; it may seem so “loving and tolerant;” but what does God’s word say? Lent is a good time to do this, lest we become children of our age and God and His word seem so foreign, strange and unacceptable to us; lest we judge God’s word in light of what society around us says and so reject God’s word. If we do that, we reject our salvation.
Also, as we go up to Jerusalem with Jesus and our fellow Christians this Lent, we can learn from the blind man in Jericho: And hearing a multitude passing by, he kept asking what it meant. So they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he cried out, saying, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Then those who went before began warning him that he should be quiet; but he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" Here we learn to ask Jesus for mercy.
This blind man was very much aware of His need. He was blind and was reminded of it all day, every day. When he heard that Jesus was there, he cried out for Jesus to help him in pure grace and undeserved mercy. As we go up to Jerusalem this Lenten season, let us use it as a time that we may come to recognize/ feel our need for a Savior from sin. That’s why the Church has historically used Lent as a time of repentance: to examine our hearts and lives in the light of God’s holy Law, to recognize our sin, to see that by our sin we earn only God’s wrath and hell. This flies flat in the face of today’s “I’m ok/ you’re ok”/“we dare not do anything that might damage a person’s ever so fragile self-esteem” and tolerance of every sort of deviance mentality. On the Lenten road to Jerusalem let us recognize and admit it: I’m a sinner. But also remember that that road to Jerusalem leads to the cross and the empty tomb! It leads to forgiveness of sin and life.
That was the faith of the blind man. Although he was blind, he recognized Jesus as the Savior. He had heard reports about Him and through that word that others had told him about Jesus, the Holy Spirit worked faith in His heart; he had gained the right/ saving knowledge of Christ and in faith looked to Him as the only one who in mercy could/ would heal him. What do you want Me to do for you?" He said, "Lord, that I may receive my sight." Then Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has made you well." And immediately he received his sight.
May that be us this Lenten season! May we recognize and feel our sin, but let us not stop there; instead let us recognize Jesus as our Savior from that sin. Faith looks to and trusts in Jesus and His work and calls to Him: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! and that faith is the receiving hand that receives Jesus’ mercy—the forgiveness of sin, life, peace with God, etc.—as Jesus gives it in the word, the absolution, and sacrament. And strengthened by the Lord’s mercy—forgiveness—we then continue on, like the formerly blind man follow[ing Jesus], glorifying God.
The blessed season of Lent awaits us once again giving us opportunity to go up with Jesus to Jerusalem to see and ponder and reflect on Him and His saving work for us. INJ Amen