Wednesday, April 9, 2025 – Lent Six

                The Lenten Journey: The Road less Travelled

 “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51, New Revised Standard version)

            No one ever really wants to face, head-on, the risks, perils and upsets in life. This is not to say there are no remarkable tales of courage, tenacity and perseverance in the face of calamity and tragedy. It can be amazing how some people respond to hard times and difficult situations. Regardless, I know there have been times when I have wilted under difficult circumstances. I wanted to flee and escape what was ahead. I prayed for rescue or relief or some intervention that would take the problems away. I wanted to avoid what was wrong. I wanted to pull the covers over my head and pretend that all was well with my world.

But it wasn’t going well. The problems weren’t vanishing despite my earnest prayers and pleas. One of the biblical verses which has always challenged me comes from Corinthians: “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Corinthians 13:10) I have tried to hang on to that promise as best I can, both for myself and in my pastoral care of others. But sometimes, it is easier to slip into the painfully honest language of the Psalms: “O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way?” (Psalm 13:1)

In the horrid circumstances  which  awaited Jesus in the days ahead, Jesus "set his face to go to Jerusalem.” It is not like that he wasn’t aware of what was going to happen there. “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies.” (Luke 9: 44) He understood the types of betrayal, anguish, suffering and demeaning death he would experience. Even so, he sets his sights on the road ahead to Jerusalem and that destiny.

It has never struck me that Jesus had a martyr complex. We hear his anguished prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death…. My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me.” (Matthew 26: 38, 39) We hear his cry from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Matthew 27:46) It leads me to believe that Jesus experienced fear and trepidation about the road less travelled to Jerusalem. Nevertheless, he set his face to go to Jerusalem, to walk ahead on this road which God has mapped out for him: “Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

Those are tough words in the face of threats, obstacles and hard challenges or even death itself. Sometimes, we may think that Jesus knew the final results (Resurrection) and that somehow made it more palatable or easier to undertake this journey to death. But that would make Jesus less than fully human. Yes, he had indomitable courage but he also demonstrated his vulnerable humanity in very real ways.

“Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death.  It’s obvious, of course, that he didn’t go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham. That’s why he had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people’s sins, he would have already experienced it all himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed.” (Hebrews 2: 14- 18, The Message Bible)

         Jesus identifies fully with our human nature so we may identify with him in his ultimate act of sacrifice on our behalf. It is this relationship between Jesus and us that becomes “the way out so that you may be able to endure it.”  His courage, his strength, his endurance, his obedience, his perseverance, his vulnerability are passed on to us through the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t take away our pain, suffering and hardship but it redeems us in the midst of them. It promises us that there is more yet in this story than pain and suffering. “But everyone who endures to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 10:33)

                Whatever the road that you are currently on, know this: “Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.” (Deuteronomy 31:8) 

Dale