To Jerusalem. Luke 18:31-34 The disciples had just compared what they did to follow the Lord with the ruler who would not pay the cost of being a disciple in God's kingdom. A disciple is both a learner and a follower of Jesus Christ. It is those who do that who are promised great rewards by the Lord. Only the twelve disciples whom He took aside from the others were present, and He spoke to them privately about the ongoing journey to Jerusalem. As He explained what was going to happen to Him, the cost of doing God's will that He would pay seemed so far from their reality that they could not understand His words.
He began His brief explanation of what would happen to Him by stating, “We go up to Jerusalem.” This is one of the seven scripture passages in Luke’s Gospel that mention this final journey to Jerusalem and what lay ahead for Him. The first was on the Mount of Transfiguration, where Jesus talked with Moses and Elijah about His death and its purpose [9:30]. Then the time came for Him to “be received up,” and He focused His attention on the journey ahead [9:51]. Third, although He passed through towns and villages, His destination was Jerusalem as He journeyed through them [13:22]. His journey took Him through Samaria and Galilee, as He went to Jerusalem [17:11]. In this chapter’s passage, He told His disciples that the writings of the prophets would be fulfilled by Him at Jerusalem [18:31].
Daniel referred to Him as the Son of Man, the Messiah in His glory. Psalm 41:9 tells us about His betrayal; Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 describe His crucifixion, and Psalm 16 speaks of His resurrection. The Lord Jesus provided the disciples with a clear outline of the specific ways He would suffer and the humiliation He would endure. In Luke 19:11, we are told He was “nigh to Jerusalem,” and Luke 19:28 states, “He went before, ascending up to Jerusalem.” All of these statements remind us that this was all planned by the “determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God.” His suffering and death were foretold in detail, but He also clearly stated that He would rise again on the third day.
All that would happen to Him was clearly explained to the disciples, but they didn’t understand it. What He said was very different from their expectation of God’s Chosen Messiah coming to free Israel from the bondage they had endured for generations. A Suffering Messiah was not the exalted Messiah they anticipated, one who would come in power and great glory. They believed Jesus was the Christ, so when they heard about the mockery, insults, spittle, flogging, and crucifixion, it was beyond their understanding. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ on the third day didn’t seem to make sense to them as they listened to His words.
With hindsight, we can better understand what He told them, but even from our privileged place in history, we cannot grasp the full meaning of what it meant to our Lord Jesus Christ to taste death for everyone. Only He could completely satisfy God's perfect justice, which made it necessary for Him to be the sole substitute for us when “the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
Being God Himself, He knew all that fulfilling “all righteousness” demanded so that in our place, He, “the just One,” would be able to bring us to God. All that it entailed, why it was necessary, and the final result were all known by Him. “For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross and despised the shame.” He gave everything of Himself to redeem us from the consequences of our sins. It is only right that we give ourselves to Him and hold nothing back.
Our understanding of divine purposes is very limited, but we have graciously been given enough insight from the written word of God to know what we need to understand. We can trace the Son of Man from the time it was said, “The seed of the woman will bruise your head (the serpent), and you will bruise His heel (Jesus)” in Genesis, to “The Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle” in Revelation.
Spiritual insight usually doesn’t come to us quickly. The typical process of understanding is “line upon line, precept upon precept; here a little and there a little.” To grasp the reality of spiritual truth, we must believe the scriptures in their context through faith. Then, faith makes what we read understandable so we can apply it and develop convictions about things that are unseen. Seeing something visibly gives us some sense of reality, but most of the depth of almost everything has to be accepted by faith.
I can clearly see the reality of a healthy body, but why it is healthy and how it is maintained, I have to accept by faith. We depend on and place our trust in people who know what we don’t know to understand most of what we have in life. Similarly, our trust is in God and His word to give us the understanding of how to live and walk before Him in a way that pleases Him in this life. We trust His word concerning what our Lord Jesus did for us so that He might save us from our sins. We trust Him to help us stay faithful to Him every day, and our faith in His word is the source of our hope in Him as we look into both the near and distant future.