Headed to the Cross

Have you ever dreaded an upcoming event in your life?

A few years ago I was facing a deadline…( don’t you hate that word? “Dead” “Line”?)

It was a date I had expected for six years. During the years leading up to it, I rarely went through a day without thinking about it. As it approached, I would often wake up at 3: 00 AM in a cold sweat. Finally, I survived the ordeal, and am thankful it is in my past.

Since you can identify with anticipating an unpleasant event, can you imagine what it was like for Jesus, Who, from the creation of the world, knew the day would come when He would be made sin and give His life for humanity?

John wrote that Jesus was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” ( Revelation 13: 8).

Jesus knew of His coming sacrifice long before He walked the lonely path to Golgotha.

Peter wrote that Jesus “was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you” ( 1 Peter 1: 20).

His manifestation for us happened when He offered His “precious blood… as of a lamb unblemished and spotless” ( verse 19).

The writer of Hebrews adds: “For then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world has He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” ( Hebrews 9: 26).

As we draw near the holy week from Palm Sunday ( March 28) through Easter Sunday ( April 4), let’s stop to remember the life of Christ, as He approached those sacred days.

During the week before Palm Sunday— two weeks before Easter Sunday— Jesus was single- minded in His actions.

Mark wrote: “They were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were fearful.

And again He took the twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to Him” ( Mark 10: 32).

As Jesus headed to Jerusalem— He knew it was God’s will that He give His life a sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins. This week we see Jesus, heading to Jerusalem.

Next week we will see Him on Palm Sunday, heading to the cross, rejected by His people.

Then we will see Him on Easter Sunday, resurrected from the tomb.

Let us be thankful for Christ’s willingness to go to the cross!