“Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.’ But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken.” Luke 18:31-34
This was now the third time in the Gospels that Jesus clearly told His disciples that He would be handed over to the Gentiles, cruelly treated and crucified (Matt. 16:21-23; 17:22-23; 20:17-19; Mark 10:32-34; Luke 9:51). But they still did not understand. In fact, it was not until after His resurrection that Jesus’ disciples finally came to understand why it was necessary for Jesus to suffer and to die and then rise again on the third day (cf. Luke 24:44-49).
And so it is with those around us in the world today. They hear that Jesus was betrayed, tortured and crucified, and they hear the accounts of His resurrection, but none of it makes sense to them. It appears only as a great injustice against the prophet Jesus of Nazareth.
And so, in their preaching and teaching about Jesus, the significance of the cross is overlooked and Jesus is held up as a mere example of loving one’s enemies and serving the needs of mankind. To many, Jesus is no more than a prophet who was ahead of His time, a prophet who sought to teach love and acceptance for all, regardless of nationality, race, sex or lifestyle.
But they miss the point! They miss what the Old Testament prophets said of the coming Messiah and Savior. They fail to understand that all the Old Testament sacrifices pointed ahead to one perfect sacrifice which the LORD Himself would provide (Gen. 22:13-14; Exo. 12:1ff.; Lev. 1:3-4).
They fail to see what the prophets said of the Messiah when they described how He would “redeem Israel from all his iniquities” (Ps. 130:8; Cf. Psalm 22 and Isa. 53).
St. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, calls the cross of Christ a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks (1 Cor. 1:23). But to those of us who have been brought to faith in Christ through the preaching of the Gospel, Christ and His atoning sacrifice on the cross are “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24).
What if Jesus had not gone to the cross? What if He had not passively obeyed the will of the Heavenly Father and permitted Himself to be arrested, mocked, scourged, beaten and crucified? What if He had demonstrated His divine power and come down from the cross? As St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 15:17-19, our faith would be futile, we would still be dead in our sins, we would have no hope of the resurrection, all who died in the faith would be lost forever, and all that we suffer in life as Christians would be for naught.
As Jesus said after His resurrection, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:46-47).
It was necessary that the Christ be true God and true man that He might take our place under God’s law and fulfill it for all men. It was necessary that Jesus, true God and true man, go to the cross and suffer and die in our stead to make full atonement for the sins of all mankind. And it was necessary that He rise again in victory that we might repent of our sinful ways, place our faith in Him and be justified, forgiven and absolved of all our sins and be given the sure hope of life everlasting (cf. 1 Cor. 15:1-4, 20-23; 1 Pet. 1:3-9).
Because Jesus went to Jerusalem to fulfill the Scriptures and suffer and die for our sins, we have through faith in Him forgiveness and life everlasting. God grant us saving faith in Him!
Dear Lord Jesus, open our hearts and minds to understand Your Word and to trust in Your atoning sacrifice on the cross as the only means of our salvation. Amen.
[Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]