Everything Will Be Accomplished (Luke 18:31)

 


Wednesday, April 2, 2025


Psalm 77

Exodus 3

Luke 18:31-43


Everything Will Be Accomplished (Luke 18:31)


As we get ever closer to Easter in our calendar this year, so too does Jesus in our morning readings. For the third time in this Gospel now does Jesus tell his disciples about his death and resurrection. And yet they still “understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.” (Luke 18:34)


Perhaps it is difficult for us to remember what Christ went through on the cross. We celebrate Easter every year – so we remember it at least once every 364 days. Perhaps your church celebrates Holy Communion every week – we remember it one in every seven days, then.


But do we, like the twelve in today’s reading, still find that we understand none of these things?


There is certainly plenty to know about God. We will never know him fully, even if we do know him truly. Every aspect of our lives, of how we should speak and act, and what our attitude towards everything and everyone should be, ought to be influenced by what God teaches us. So we should always be studying and praying and learning more about God’s opinion on all those things. Even still: the Son of Man was delivered over to the Gentiles, was mocked and shamefully treated and spat upon. And after flogging him, they killed him, and on the third day he rose. (vv. 32-33)


The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus is not only the starting point of our faith. It is the totality of it. Everything we think and do ought to be informed by this. And when we reach the end of our prayers and our study, we ought to be able to find Jesus there at the end as well, crucified and risen.


Christ, as the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4; Rev 13:8), is God’s inspiration for the creative design with which he has made this universe. Even from the first day in Genesis 1 there are symphonic echoes of the crucified and risen Jesus, bearing the punishment for the sins of his people, and drawing them up in his resurrection to the throne of the Father.


Before Jesus of Nazareth went to the cross, the twelve did not grasp this. Yet after Jesus of Nazareth rose from the grave, they grasped it well, and it took over their entire lives, dedicating themselves to the proclamation of this good news for the forgiveness of sins. In every age, martyrs have witnessed to Jesus’ death and resurrection, singing hymns at their own execution, for Jesus had taken away the sting of their own death.


When was the last time you meditated on Jesus’ death and resurrection? What hold over your heart and your life does this truth have?


Man of Sorrows, you lived the perfect life, yet suffered the punishment we deserve for our wickedness. Teach us the truth of this good news, so that we may grasp it tightly, and always adore you as you deserve.

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