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During Lent, we are walking with Christ to the cross, where He will voluntarily die to reconcile the world to God. As both true man and true God, Christ knew exactly what was ahead of Him as He continued to travel this road on His way to the cross. On more than one occasion, He bluntly told His disciples words to the effect that, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31). He knew exactly what was coming!
Jesus will walk the road that includes betrayal, arrest, beating, mocking, and dying the most excruciating and humiliating death known at that time. He knew every twist and every turn that He would travel down this road until He would proclaim from the cross, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). In spite of its hardships, Christ will continue on this road, step, by step, by step. Why? Because His selfless love for you and for me pushed Him forward with every step!
Christ’s resolute walk down the road leading to the cross, enduring the hardships it involved, also serves as a source of inspiration and encouragement for us. As the writer to the Hebrews writes, “Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted” (Hebrews 12:3). In the midst of hardship and hostility in our lives, we look to Christ and take heart that He traveled the same road ahead of us.
Fortunately, the road He walked did not end at the cross. It continued out and away from His tomb, leaving an empty tomb behind. It included 40 more days of post-resurrection appearances. It included His ascension to the Father, where He is seated at the right hand of God. By God’s grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, we too are walking that same road. As the well-known hymn references this journey:
Onward in His footsteps treading
Pilgrims here, our home above,
Full of faith and hope and love,
Let us do the Father’s bidding,
Faithful Lord, with me abide;
I shall follow where You guide.
Let Us Ever Walk with Jesus, LSB Hymn 685, Stanza 1
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