Monday, March 3, 2014
Luke 18:31-34 Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again." The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.
JESUS, I WILL PONDER NOW
When the Sunday School teacher points to the cross, all the students answer without hesitation, "That's where Jesus died to pay for our sins." When we look toward the altar in our churches and see a cross there, our thoughts too immediately run to Calvary and we recall how the Lord took our guilt upon Himself, freeing us from agony in hell.
Isn't it striking then that when Jesus took His own disciples aside and pointed to the cross, they had no idea what He was talking about? It's true. As He approached Jerusalem for the last time and spoke to His closest friends about His upcoming death, they answered with blank stares. Surely the disciples believed that Jesus was the Son of God and they were confident He had authority to forgive their sins, but as for just how this could be accomplished, they did not understand until some time after the resurrection, even though the hints were there for them in the prophets.
So don't count it a small thing when you look to the cross and think, "Jesus died for me." This is something that even those who were with Jesus in person did not grasp for quite awhile. You understand and cherish the cross of Christ only because God the Holy Spirit has been at work in your heart, opening your eyes to the true meaning of that death.
We therefore ask that same Spirit to keep those eyes of ours open as another Lenten season begins this week. May that image of Jesus' "suff'ring, pain, and death" always be a source of joy for us in the end, leading us to be certain of the forgiveness of our sins and the life everlasting.
Jesus, I will ponder now
On Thy holy Passion;
With Thy Spirit me endow
For such meditation.
Grant that I in love and faith
May the image cherish
Of Thy suff'ring, pain, and death
That I may not perish.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 140:1)
