The Way of the Master
By Larry D. Kettle January 1, 2017
John 13 It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and
go to the Father.
It had been a long and tiring day filled with the usual
conflicts and controversies among the disciples as well as the diversity of
response that Jesus had experienced from the crowds that He taught and
ministered to. He had experienced many days like this but He knew it was
getting close to His time to leave the world and return to the Father so there
wouldn’t be many days left. This day had
been usual in many ways but unusual in the fact that there was fever pitched
response to His ride on the donkey both positive and negative. He had fulfilled Isaiah and Zechariah’s
prophesy concerning the Messiah’s entry into Jerusalem. It wasn’t what His followers were expecting
and it certainly wasn’t what the Zealots of the city were hoping for.
Jesus
was longing to complete the mission that He had been sent to accomplish and He
missed His heavenly Father and was excited to return to Him. He knew however, that the road that he would
be traveling for that next four days would be the hardest he had ever gone
through or would ever go through again!
It would be the final fulfillment of the Passover Feast. This would be a New Year that would mark a
new era! Jesus knew that He was the true Passover Lamb and that this Passover
would be the one that Israel had looked for, ever since the exodus from
Egypt! Trouble was they didn’t even know
it, as they were so fixated on being delivered from their current and temporary
situation with the Romans. Every Passover they had observed since the times of
Moses, David, and Hezekiah were precious pictures of the hope that Israel would
bring to the world through the Messiah!
He had wept over the city as He entered it knowing that none of them
including his disciples had eyes to see what was truly happening. Even though crowds surrounded him it could
have been a bit lonely but he kept his eyes and heart focused on the joy that
was set before Him. His true joy was that after the suffering of His soul, he
would see the light of life and be satisfied, as Isaiah had said long ago. He knew that those innocent sheep could only
cover sins from year to year and from one religious ritual to another. These rituals were a reminder of the
continual guilt that the people that He loved were oppressed by! He knew that
now the cup and the bread of the new covenant would not be a reminder of guilt
but would instead be a reminder of the sacrifice he would make to cleanse sin
away just as if it had never happened!
He knew that the blood that He would shed would cleanse those who would
believe in him from the inside out!
Their consciences would be clean and they would have hope and assurance
that they could be with Him forever. And now it was the beginning of the end of
the old covenant. It was a New Year and a new book was about to be written!
Comments
Post a Comment