Bible Verse of the Day Sunday June 11th, 2023

Matthew 20:17-19 Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. On the way, he took the Twelve aside and said to them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!”

This verse of Scripture speaks of Jesus "going up" to Jerusalem, which has created a debate about where Jesus traveled from. The term in this verse, "going up to Jerusalem," had nothing to do with any physical direction. This trip would be the final journey of Jesus with his disciples to Jerusalem. The account of Jesus' last trip to Jerusalem in the gospels teaches that the Crucifixion of Jesus was not an accident or a spur-of-the-moment decision of some Roman official. Jesus was aware of the danger that awaited Him in Jerusalem, and He freely and joyfully walked there to deliver us from the same fate. The disloyalty and death on the Cross of Jesus were in no way a miscalculation; Jesus voluntarily, freely, and joyfully went to the Cross (Hebrews 12:2; John 10:18). As Christians, we should always be aware of the sacrifice Jesus made on the Cross for our benefit, and our lives should reflect the love of Jesus, to a lost, dark and dying world.  

The closest followers of Jesus were not listening when Jesus spoke these words in their hearing. Their expectations were still entirely focused on Jesus being a political Messiah, freeing them from the iron clutches of the Roman Government. The words Jesus spoke to them were so contrary to their anticipation of the most profound biblical meaning of the Messiah that they missed the true message altogether. When Jesus informed His disciples that He would be handed over to the Romans to die, they must have seen this as a parable filled with some deep mysterious meaning. They may have looked at each other, attempting to discover the true meaning of what He was saying when there was no deeper meaning to His message; the truth was right there on the surface before their eyes.

Jesus was captured by the Jewish leaders that were threatened by His earthly ministry. He did not arrange His betrayal; however, He did tell His followers not only that it would happen but told them in precise detail how it would come about, step by step. The anticipation of future pain or suffering is sometimes more unbearable than the actual agony or misery itself. Jesus contemplated how the entire day would occur, minute by minute, where He would carry out the Father's plan of salvation of all that would accept Him as their master and savior. The significance of Jesus looking at the betrayal, the trial, and the Crucifixion was to say that He would complete the mission that the Father had sent Him on. He must have said to Himself, "I will complete what my Father has sent me to do; I will obey to the end."