PASSION PT 1 – Where are you headed?
As we approach Passion Week, I felt compelled to write about Passion Himself, Jesus Christ.
David, the anointed shepherd boy, had just took a giant step in fulfilling his destiny by killing Goliath. What does he do next? Well, according to 1 Samuel 17:54, David took the head of Goliath to Jerusalem. Why? Because all roads that matter go to Jerusalem. I wonder if the phrase, “Where are you headed?” Came from David taking Goliath’s head to Jerusalem.
Let me prove it to you. Yesterday, April 10th on our calendar, was the 10th day Nisan, which is the day that the Israelites led by Joshua (Yeshua) passed over the Jordan River into the Promised Land. What is the significance of this you ask? This was the arrival of Jesus’ descendants to the location where our King would one day die for us. It is always about Jesus.
Years later, after killing Goliath, David took Goliath’s skull and was be led by the Holy Spirit to a city called Jebus (1 Chronicles 11:4). How could a young boy know to go to a city that was not even named Jerusalem yet? A city that someday this city would also be called the City of David?
The two thoughts really stick out to me when considering this are passion and direction. Let’s take a minute and look at both.
When I googled the word ‘passion’, things like “follow your passion” and “find your passion” came up. I found quotes like “Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.” – George Hegel, “Our passion is our strength.” – Billie Joe Armstrong, and“Passion will move men beyond themselves, beyond their shortcomings, beyond their failures.” – Joseph Campbell.
People are searching far and wide for their passion. They will never find true passion, unless they search and find Jesus. He is able to help us accomplish greater things than we can dream or imagine, he is our strength, and he will help us overcome all our failures.
Direction on the other hand is just as important, because you will never find Jesus unless you choose to follow Him. God gave us the incredible, but potential destructive power of choice. Direction is so much more important than speed, effort, or even ability. None of those will have the final say in you reaching Passion. John F. Kennedy said, “Effort and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” Jesus is the way. John 14:6-7, “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
So, Joshua led the Israelites to the Promise Land and David found and conquered Jerusalem, but what about Jesus?
Jesus was on a mission from the moment He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary. His mission – GET TO JERUSALEM & FULFILL PROPHECY! You need proof?
Isaiah 50:4-7 is a prophecy of the coming Messiah. Jesus knew this prophecy was for him. “I turned My back to those who strike Me, And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard;
I did not hide My face from insults and spitting. For the Lord God helps Me, Therefore, I have not been ashamed or humiliated. Therefore, I have made My face like flint, And I know that I shall not be put to shame.”
Jesus turned his face towards Jerusalem, and on Passion week, Jesus began His final trek to Jerusalem. Weeks before the Cross, Christ began feeling the pressure of what was coming. When He said, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62), Jesus was thinking of Himself. The passage begins by saying, “Jesus let nothing distract him from departing for Jerusalem because the time for him to be lifted up drew near, and he was full of passion to complete his mission there.” (Luke 9:51 TPT)
Jesus was having to stay very focused in order to deal with this pressure. Eleven times after the above verse (9:51), Luke mentions that Christ was journeying toward Jerusalem, and therefore, the Cross. He was on a mission and wouldn’t waver. In Chapter 12, Luke quotes Him as saying, “I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished”.
His face set like a flint, He journeyed on – moving toward His destiny. “And He was passing through from one village to another, teaching, and proceeding on His way to Jerusalem,” (Luke 13:22).
As this mix of emotions rose to the surface, Yeshua let it all out. And He did more than cry. Again, quoting from Wuest’s New Testament “…having caught sight of the city, He burst into tears, weeping audibly over it,” (Luke 19:41).
After composing Himself, Christ went straight to the Temple and drove out those who were selling their wares, making His “house of prayer…a robber’s den,” (Luke 19:45-46).
This was indeed anger, but it wasn’t a temporary loss of self-control. The Temple pictured we humans, made to be the dwelling place/temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16). The defilement Jesus was seeing reminded Him of the defilement in us, which He was about to cleanse, just days from now. He was symbolically showing what He had come to do: cleanse His temple – US! And Christ was intense about it.
I know I want deep today, but sometimes you have to set your face like flint in the direction you are going with Passion (JESUS) in your heart to reach your destination. I know where I am headed!
Reference: Dutch Sheets – Give us 15
Photo by Jonny Gios on Unsplash