Usually we think of Lent as a time for looking backward rather than forward. It's a time for looking back at Jesus and simultaneously looking inward at ourselves. How intently we look at Jesus depends on how earnestly we first look within ourselves. We need to know how desperate our need for Jesus is before we can fully appreciate what He has done for us. We can't really move forward with Christ until we realize how far we have moved backward from Him.

In a word, we're talking about repentance. And that's what Lent is about. It's a season that calls us to repentance. The entire life of a Christian is one of repentance. It's impossible for anyone whose entire life is not one of repentance to follow Jesus! That is why each sermon in this series will couple an encouragement to follow Christ with a call to repentance. We begin with an episode from Jesus' life in which He announces his firm resolve to go up to Jerusalem. Lent extends an invitation to us to follow Him as He makes his way to the cross. We want to do that in a firm resolve similar to his. So let's make that the focus of our attention today: FOLLOW JESUS - As Resolute Followers.

Jesus explained to his disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, must suffer there, must be killed and raised to life again. For Jesus there was no other option. It wasn't a "maybe" situation; it was a "must" situation. This is why He had come; "to give his life as a ransom for many." He knew exactly what that meant for Him in the weeks ahead if He persisted with his plan to go up to Jerusalem - his friends forsaking Him, his own people rejecting Him, elders of the people mocking Him, chief priests accusing Him of blasphemy, a Roman governor finding Him innocent but condemning Him anyway, and Roman soldiers executing Him. Jesus knew all that as though it were history already. Yet He told his disciples He must proceed. His resolve was unshakable. When Peter said: "Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you," Jesus responded: "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me."

In Luke's account of this same event, it says: "As the time approached for Him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem." Resolutely - my dictionary says it means "with a firm determination." Think about that for a moment. When I have to go to the dentist for a root canal, I don't go there resolutely. Or, if a captain orders me to lead a platoon on a reconnaissance mission into enemy territory, I wouldn't set out resolutely to go where minefields and snipers await me. I go with misgivings and apprehension - reluctantly, not resolutely.

So what does this firm resolve tell us about Jesus? What does He expect to accomplish? He explained that to his disciples. He was going to Jerusalem to suffer, be killed, and to be raised to life again. In other words, He was determined to finish what He had started with his birth. Galatians 4:4 says: "when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons." "Born under law," Paul says. Jesus' Father made Him responsible for doing what you and I can't do, not in a million years. And that is to meet all the demands of the law perfectly. Up to this point in his ministry, Jesus had met those demands perfectly. His Father testified to that at Jesus' Baptism and Transfiguration when He said: "This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased."

That was a good start. But there was more to be done "to redeem those under law." There was a penalty to be paid for every failure on our part to meet God's expectations. Jesus knew what that penalty was to be: He would have to suffer, experience hell in our place, and then die the most horrible death sinister minds have ever devised. He was determined to let all that happen to Him for one purpose - to get us out from under the obligations and curses of the law. He was determined to finish what He started so that St. Paul could tell us, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us," and that now "Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes."

Notice that Jesus didn't set out resolutely to go to Jerusalem to finish what He started for his own sake. He did it for your sake and mine. His purpose was not to bring glory to Himself but to earn God's favor for you. And because He finished what He started, we can now go forward in Christ as resolute followers. We can do that with the confidence that we share in all that He achieved!

When Jesus explained to his disciples that He must go up to Jerusalem, He spoke about his death and resurrection. You share in that death and resurrection through your baptism, according to St. Paul. "We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death," Paul writes, "in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." Let me restate what Paul says. When Jesus died, you died with Him. When Jesus was buried, you were buried with Him. When Jesus came out of his grave alive again, so did you. God made all of that happen to you in your baptism. He crucified your sinful nature with Christ, and He gave you a new life in Christ. To be in Christ means to be linked with Him in such a way that we share in all that He achieved from start to finish!

You can't know that and believe it in your heart of hearts without wanting to go forward in Christ as a resolute follower. You will want your life to show what has happened to you in Christ - that you are inseparably linked to Him. So when Jesus says, "Follow me," you don't ask why; you ask where. You don't act as though following Him is a burden you have to endure for Christ. It is an honor you share with Christ! You do it with single-minded purpose with Jesus as your inspiration and your guide.

Imagine a field covered with freshly fallen snow. You see a father and his son enter the field. As they walk across the field, you notice that the father pays no particular attention to where he is going, but his son, on the other hand, follows directly behind, making a special effort to step in his father's footprints. After the two pass by, you notice that there is only one set of tracks in the field, even though two people had walked across it. In our daily walk we ought to be following Christ's example, particularly in times when we are suffering. If someone were to observe the snow-covered fields of your life, would there be one set of tracks, those of Christ? Or would he see two sets, one belonging to Christ and the other distinctly yours?

Now remember, when Jesus calls you to follow Him, He doesn't say, "I'll show you where easy street is." He said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." That means we too must suffer at the hands of his enemies. Suffering comes in all shapes and sizes. It may mean ridicule from coworkers whose consciences are pricked because of your commitment to Christ. It may come as peer pressure from classmates who entice you to follow them instead of your Savior. For some, the suffering is mental. For others, it will be physical, like St. Paul's thorn in the flesh. Whether mental or physical or both, it will often be severe.

But if Jesus already endured all the suffering for sin, then why does He tell you you're going to have to endure more? It's not because He didn't finish what He started. He did, and He said so on the cross. Rather, it's because Jesus knows that suffering is an essential part of God's refining process. No cross, no crown; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory. Listen to Peter's perspective on this: "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed."

Jesus knew that He was about to suffer greatly at the hands of his enemies. But He didn't focus on the personal hurt. He focused on the purpose and the final outcome. We are reminded over and over again to do the same. Romans 8:18: "Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." First comes the cross, then the crown; now the thorns, then the throne; now the gall, then the glory. That's the confidence we have in Christ. We know that already we share in all that He achieved for us. His finished work makes our salvation a finished product. You are perfect through Him. Perfectly forgiven! You can count on that! He does not hold against you the times that your footsteps have left his. That confidence impels us to follow Jesus, always repentant when we stray, yet always resolute in our determination to follow wherever Jesus leads. Amen.

Back to the Lent page
Back to the Pastor's Messages page