TEXT: Luke 9:43b-45

SUBJECT: Luke #38: Let the Words Sink In!

My wife thinks I talk too much. To defend herself against the unending barrage of words, she goes about her business, nods her head now and then, and tunes me out. I don’t blame her for this because—I do talk too much and if she listened to everything I said, she would never get anything done and might well lose her mind!

Thankfully, our Lord Jesus Christ is not like me in this respect. He’s not guilty of talking for the sake of talking. No, everything He said was worth saying—and worth listening to with great care. He’s said a lot of important things thus far in Luke’s Gospel, but nothing compares to what He says here. We know that because He says so. For two years He has taught the Apostles, but now—for the first time—He says, "listen up". In fact, He goes farther than that:

He wants them to listen carefully, to think hard, and to meditate long on what He has to tell them. The Apostles were not always good listeners—they were sometimes too impatient to listen, and often their listening was muddled by preconceived ideas. But whatever they missed before, they must not miss this one. Like the Lord’s mother, they need to

What He said to the men back then, He also says to you and me. Of all the important things Jesus Christ has to say, nothing matches this one. It’s the heart of the Gospel and the centerpiece of theology. You can be wrong on a million issues and still be saved, but you cannot miss this one and have any hope for heaven.

What the Apostles did not understand then, you’ve got to understand now. And accept from the bottom of your heart. The Law of God is true and worthy of the One who gave it. But there’s only death in the Law! In the words before you, there is life. Why don’t you take it?

Christianity has its rules, to be sure, but it’s not about rules: it’s about Life! God forgive the believer who reduces it to a list of dos and don’ts! And God save the unbeliever who has been taken in by this kind of thinking!

Well, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s get to the story.

Today’s story is set somewhere in the north of Galilee, not far from where the Lord grew up, where the people knew Him well, and where they had seen all of His mighty signs and wonders.

The people were thrilled by it all. Luke says they were

Note the broad brush he’s painting: it’s not a handful of close disciples who are cheering on the Lord, but nearly everyone in Galilee—many thousands were hailing Him as a Prophet (at least) and, some of them had an inkling that He was more than that, that He was the Messiah.

There’s no wonder: In the last several months, our Lord had performed every miracle in the Book: from healing lepers to casting out demons to feeding the multitudes to raising the dead. His future was bright; the possibilities were unlimited!

Right then, at the high tide of His popularity, Jesus Christ turns to the Twelve and says, "It won’t last". As gratifying as His celebrity must be, He didn’t come for that. He didn’t come to be loved and adored by the people, but to be "despised and rejected of men". He wasn’t looking for a crown; He was heading for a cross.

The words He chose were striking in their contrast. He doesn’t say, "I must die", but something far more shocking than that,

This term, "the Son of Man" can be understood in two ways: it may be just another way of saying "man". It’s used that way at times in the Bible. But I don’t think that’s what the Lord means by it here. No, the term also a technical meaning—an Old Testament reference. Daniel 7:13-14,

If you know the Book of Daniel, you know this is at the end of the prophet’s great vision. He foresaw four great kingdoms rising in the world—the Babylonians were like a lion with the wings of an eagle, the Medo-Persians were like a hungry bear, the Greeks were a four-headed leopard with wings, and the Romans were like a hideous monster with iron teeth and ten horns, a beast so powerful that it trampled the whole world.

In the days of this appalling monster—the Roman Empire—God would break its power by sending His own King, the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s the Son of Man our Lord was talking about—He’s the one the disciples had in mind.

Yet this Son of Man, this Divine King, this Judge of the Living and the Dead is…

…Wicked men, cruel men, godless men would soon put their dirty hands on the Lord Jesus Christ and do anything they want to to Him.

The list is long and savage: betrayed by a kiss, punched, spat on, whipped, beaten with a stick, crowned with thorns, nailed to a cross, stripped, laughed at, mocked, blasphemed. On and on it goes—the six longest hours in history! There is no bottom in the cruelty of man—no grace, no decency, nothing to restrain them—the whole fury of hell unleashed on One Man.

The disciples need to know this. While others may be carried away in the excitement, they cannot be! They’ve got to know the truth. Thus far, He’s pretty much kept it from them, but He can’t do that any longer. The time is too short for that!

When He tells them the bad news, they greet it with…a blank stare.

How do you explain this? The Lord uses no figure of speech here, so there’s no way they missed it for that reason. No, the reason wasn’t in the Lord or in His words, but in the men who first heard them. It seems to me three things are involved:

First of all, we have to recognize where they were in the history of salvation. On our side of the cross, it’s easy to see how the crucifixion was consistent with Messiah’s never-ending kingdom. But on their side of the cross, it was very hard to see how Messiah could live forever and also die on the cross. Even a man as great as John the Baptist had to wonder if our Lord was

Secondly, we cannot discount the emotional impact of these words on the disciples. Bad news is hard to take. And this is very, very bad news. It’s hard to believe what you don’t want to believe—what seems too bad to believe. There’s a word for this: denial. Matthew says this clouded their thinking,

But the main reason they didn’t take in what the Lord was saying is not so innocent. It’s hinted at a few verses before and confirmed near the end of Luke’s Gospel. It was sheer unbelief that kept them from understanding the plain words of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In v.41, He calls the disciples, "faithless". And in 24:25, He bawls out some followers out:

These were all devout Jews and fine Christian men. Yet their faith was small and unreliable.

To compound their ignorance, Luke adds

Why do you think they were so scared to ask Him? I suspect it had something to do with the stinging rebuke they had just gotten a few minutes before. But, maybe more than that is involved: maybe they didn’t ask because they didn’t want to know.

That’s the story.

THE MESSAGE

The message is clear: Jesus Christ came into the world to die on the cross.

Our Lord did many things in life—and all of them were important. Think of His teaching, His miracles, the example He set, the men He trained to take over for Him when He left, and more. Yet, as important as these things are, they are all secondary to the one thing needful.

The one thing our Lord must do, the one thing He will not be hindered from doing, is to die on the cross. There were many obstacles in His way.

• Mary, the Lord’s dear mother, tried to keep Him from doing His Father’s business, but He would not listen to her.

• His friend, Peter, rebuked Him for talking death when He had so much to live for, but the Lord called him, "Satan" for trying to delay His appointment with death.

• The Jews would have kept Him from the cross, at one time. They offered Him a crown, but He wanted no part of that; it was a cross He reached for!

• The Samaritans were eager to show hospitality, but saw no use in offering it because "His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem".

• In the Garden, Peter drew a sword to defend Him, but was told to put it away because, "The cup that My Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?"

Even His own fears stood in the way, but He would not succumb to them: "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me, nevertheless, not My will, but Yours be done".

The Lord Jesus Christ not only overcame the obstacles between Himself and the cross, but He hustled for it.

When you read Psalm 119:32, it’s not the cross you think of. But that is what the Lord thought of!

It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it? The most painful and humiliating death known to man: yet your Savior ran to it for all He was worth!

Why was the cross so important to our Lord Jesus Christ? I’d rather be a hero than a victim, wouldn’t you? I’d rather spend my time performing miracles to everyone’s admiration than hang on a cross to the mockery of the world. Yet the Lord chose otherwise. Why?

It’s very simple: the Lord chose the cross because it was only in that way that sinners could be saved.

You see, if our deepest problem was a lack of education, then the Sermon on the Mount would have been enough. But it wasn’t. If our problem was a lack of self esteem the Lord’s loving words and deeds would have been enough. But they weren’t. If our problem was a bad example, then our Lord’s good example would have been enough. But it wasn’t. If our problem was even hunger or sickness, then His miracles of healing and feeding would have been enough. But they were not.

Man’s problem is sin. And nothing can take away its guilt but a sacrifice. And that’s what the cross stands for: the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in the place of sinners. Peter said it was

…that is, the sinless man dying in the place of sinners, taking the wrath of God upon Himself in our place.

Someone says that is unfair. I agree it, it is: if it had been imposed on Him. But that’s the whole point: it was not imposed on Him! The cross was freely chosen by the Lord Jesus Christ!

The cross results in good all around: it greatly honors God’s justice and mercy—justice in punishing sin and mercy in forgiving sinners.

It also exalts the love of Christ—I John 3:16.

It brings forgiveness and fellowship to believers.

It brings hope to the world. Let’s be very clear about all this: the cross is the only thing we have to offer the world: but that’s all right: it’s enough.