Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem. (Lk. 13:22) Evidently, He could not get there fast enough for the Pharisees. (vs. 31) I laugh at their fear tactic. “Get out of Galilee! Herod will kill you!”
I am filled with awe at my Savior’s response. “I’ll just keep serving, I’ll just keep healing. I’ll just keep walking. Today. Tomorrow. And the next. Until My work is finished!”
Jesus knew Who He was - the Messiah. He knew where He was going - to Jerusalem. He knew why He was going there - to die.
Jesus knew what Jerusalem was - the place to perish. The place to fully be destroyed.
“…for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem .” Luke 13:33
Notoriously Jerusalem was the place that killed the prophets and stoned the messengers of God. A soon to be desolate, empty place having rejected the loving arms of God.
We Christians, or Christlike ones, sing songs like this:
“To be like Jesus, To be like Jesus, All I ask to be like Him.”
We pray prayers yielding our lives completely to God. We walk down to altars at our churches asking God to do whatever it takes in our heart. Ultimately He answers our prayers bringing us to this empty place of rejection and loss where we cry out for deliverance when we should be yielding once again to His will and giving up our own.
To be like Jesus is to be willing to go to this place of complete rejection.
“He is despised and rejected of men…” Isaiah 53:7
Do you know who you are in Christ, dear Christian? Have you set your face steadfastly to go to your Jerusalem?
(Lk. 9:51)
Have you awakened today ready to die?
Loser Bible Study Series Theme Verse:
“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.” Mark 8:35
“Lose” from the Greek word “Apollymi” means “to destroy fully.” It is translated “perish” in Luke 13:33, our verse for today.
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