Lift Up Your Eyes and See Your Destiny :: Luke 18:31-43
Then having taken the twelve aside, he said to them, Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all the things that were written about the Son of Man through the prophets will be completed, for he will be betrayed to the Gentiles and will be mocked and will be shamed and will be spit upon, and after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise. But they, in no way, understood these things (vv 31-34a).
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How could they?
God is on his way to suffer and to die on a cross for you (vv 31-33). And he’s taking you with him. That’s the bottom line truth in our Gospel reading today.
Is it any wonder the disciples didn’t understand these things? Think about it ... We bristle at the thought that God would do this. We bristle at the thought that God would not only die,but do it for us. We don’t understand what it actually means to be crucified. We can’t even imagine that suffering. But this is why God came from Heaven to Earth ... He was born to die. And in Luke chapter 18, the fulfillment of that promise is in sight.
After reaching a low point in his ministry on earth ... literally, because the lowest city on earth is the city of Jericho, some 846 feet below sea level ... Jesus looked up at the mountain of God in front of him ... and saw his destiny. We’re going to Jerusalem, he told the disciples. There, the Son of Man, which is another title for True Man and True God … there he will face betrayal, shame, a flogging, death, and the grave. Then on the third day, he will be raised (vv 31-33).
God loved you in this way: He sent Jesus to die for you (Jn 3:16).
God loved you in this way: He poured out all of his fiery wrath upon his only son. Jesus was born to pay the ultimate price for your sin ... his righteous life for your sinful one so that you could receive what you don’t deserve, a judicial declaration of innocence. Jesus was born to fulfill all the scriptures, all of which point us to and reveal Jesus as savior.
Now all who look up at the cross and see their sin in Jesus and hear this Gospel will receive his righteousness and the eternal life that comes through his resurrection on the third day.
Behold, this is why we are going to Jerusalem.
Behold, this is why God became flesh to dwell amongst us.
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At this point in our journey, you’d think we would all understand this. But we can’t. We can’t because the truth is, there are two kinds of blindness in our reading, physical and spiritual. And the disciples of Christ certainly prove that point today.
They were blind to this truth. As Luke tells it, this Word of God had been hidden from them (v 34), even though Jesus had told us that he was True God and True Man (Lk 8:39) and that this would happen not once ... not twice ... but now a third time (v 34). The son of Man must suffer, Jesus said. He must be rejected. He must be killed. He must be raised (Lk 9:22). ... Let these words be placed in your ears, he said. The Son of Man is about to be betrayed (9:44). ... And behold, it will happen in Jerusalem. There, the Son of Man ... will be mocked and shamed and spit upon and flogged and killed, and on the third day he will rise (vv 31-33).
Brothers and sisters in Christ, too many people in our world don’t understand this. They preach only the Law. They don’t understand why Jesus came to us. He came to give us the Gospel. The world doesn’t understand what he has been teaching us. They are blind to the truth.
No matter how many times and how many different ways Jesus tells the world what he is doing ... and why ... they still think that Jesus is just one way to heaven. But I am the way, he said (Jn 14:6). They think they can make themselves holy, but it was Jesus who suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood (Hb 13:12). They think that God will use scales of justice to separate the good from the bad and ultimately will ignore your sin. But it was Jesus who said, I tell you if you do not repent, you will surely die in your sin. They think ... like the makers of that Super Bowl commercial called “He Gets Us” ... that Jesus taught us to ignore each other’s sin.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the world thinks too much ... and they try to silence the Gospel too often with their reason and rationalism.
But don’t listen to them. Hear the Gospel: Jesus is going toward the cross, and he’s taking you with him. Lift up your eyes and see our destiny: the death of sin. As Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians ... the Word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God.
Because those who know they are being saved know all sin dies with Jesus on the cross. As the prophet Isaiah told us: Behold, you God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy.
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Do you hear and see the Gospel now?
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, lived for you, died for you, and rose from the grave for you. Lift up your eyes, and recognize this truth, persistently crying out: Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy, knowing in faith that he will.
Jesus is taking us to the cross, where we will see the perfect intersection between the Law and the Gospel. Through the cross, He enables you to mourn the sin that is destroying your lives, and at the same time, provides you with the peace knowing that he atoned for your sin.Through the cross, God enables you to acknowledge your idolatry ... that is, your reliance on yourselves ... your belief that you can make yourselves better people. On account of the cross, you can admit to your adulteries and immoralities. You can confess that you are in bondage and blind to even more sin in your lives. You can because on account of the cross of Christ, we can see that God who is faithful and just actually did forgive our sins and has cleansed us.
Repent.
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As we prepare to enter into the holy season of Lent ... as we prepare to follow Jesus to the cross ... You can now fix your eyes on ... the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising its shame (Hb 12:2). Jesus entered the darkness of our world to lead us to paradise where the water of life flows. When he returns again, he will raise the living and the dead and give eternal life to all who believe this. He has carried you through the flood of baptism, in which your sin has been washed away so that with the robes of his righteousness you can receive in faith his body and blood that proclaims his death on the cross and his resurrection on the third day.
It is on account of the Word of the Cross that Baptism and the Lord’s supper find glorious meaning. It is on account of the Word of the Cross that we are able to forgive each other. Your God and Lord has lived and died for you. He is coming to you, holding out his blood-bought gifts of redemption in His Word and his blessed sacraments that give you the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.
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Lift up your eyes and see now what God is doing here. He is speaking a better word of the cross. He is filling us with good things. This is your reality now!
Lift up your eyes and see what Christ has done. As Paul told us through his epistle to the Galatians: [We] have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer [we] who live, but Christ who lives in [us]; and the life [we] live [we] live by the faith of the Son of God who loved [us] and gave himself for [us] (Gal 2:20).
Lift up your eyes and recognize he has given you ... like the blind man ... a faith that saves.
Lift up your eyes and believe you have received the amazing and undeserved grace of Christ, how he is showing us the sanctified life that flows from justification.
Lift up your eyes and discover that we have been given the privilege and opportunity to serve and thank God by serving the neighbor, tending to his needs, bearing each other's crosses, forgiving each other, and making the joy and peace of Christ known, devoting ourselves to the apostles’ teaching, the breaking of the bread, fellowship and the prayers (Acts 2:42).
LIFT UP OUR EYES: WE CAN NOW SEE OUR DESTINY IN PARADISE
Thanks be to God, he has had mercy on you, in Christ, through Christ, and because of Christ.