Articles
Setting His Face Toward Jerusalem
Luke tells us at the end of Luke 9 that Jesus has set His face toward Jerusalem (Luke 9.51). Roughly the next ten chapters of Luke’s gospel follow Jesus on His journey to the Holy City. There is no real itinerary for this journey, no milestones, just the journey itself and its final objective, Jerusalem.
It’s clear from the context that Jesus travels to Jerusalem in order to endure the Crucifixion. Shortly before setting out, He warns His disciples, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised,” and, “Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men” (Luke 9.22, 44). He will warn them again on the way, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise” (Luke 18.32-33). He broadcasts it to others along the way: “Go and tell that fox [Herod] ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem’” (Luke 13.32-33).
What happens to Jesus in Jerusalem makes the city a symbol for persecution, much like Babylon in apocalyptic literature. (This perhaps explains why some take Jerusalem to be the antagonist of John’s Revelation rather than Rome.) The ruling authorities there harry and kill Jesus—Sadducees, scribes, priests, all alleged “holy men.” Jesus knows all of this will happen as He sets out from Galilee to the Holy City.
Jesus spends most of His journey to Jerusalem teaching His disciples. They learn about life in the Kingdom of God as they follow Him to the place of His death. The destination and what will happen there are central to the teaching; part of their discipleship is coming to terms with the death of their Master. The one they confess to be the Christ of God must suffer and die for the kingdom—and so shall they.
This is why Paul makes a similar journey to Jerusalem at the end of Acts. Addressing the Ephesian elders, he says, “And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20.22-24). Paul doesn’t die in Jerusalem, but he does give up his life—an important distinction in the life of Faith.
The Lord’s journey to Jerusalem is a prototype for the journey of all His disciples. “A servant can expect no better than his master,” Jesus tells us. If He must proclaim the kingdom as He journeys toward persecution and death, then it is our place to do likewise. The journey of our lives is a journey toward Jerusalem. When we take on Christ through baptism, we take the journey upon ourselves. We may not face execution, but we face the cross daily, as the Lord said, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” (Luke 9.24-25).
Have you denied yourself to take up the journey? Have you taken the cares of this world captive for the sake of Christ? Or are you caught up in wealth, success, and the esteem of others? Riches in this world are useless in the next. The message of Jesus is plain: “Follow me.”
It is not enough to sit in a pew in a church building and wear the name of Christ. The Pharisees sat in the best seats of the synagogues and wore the name of Abraham to no avail (Luke 11.43; 3.8). We must not “neglect justice and the love of God” (Luke 11.42) but must instead “hear the word of God and keep it” (Luke 11.28). This comes from laying down our lives daily. As Paul writes, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice…” (Rom 12.1).
The command to take up the cross daily, to join the divine journey to Jerusalem, is not a prescription for death but for life. Jesus predicts His death and His resurrection (Luke 9.22; 18.33), and He offers the same promise to His disciples. “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life” (Luke 18.29-30).
