You paint a graphic picture of this moment in time, with the backdrop of Alexander the Great, of when Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem in Luke 9:51. It was as if at that time He was set on a schedule to fulfill all the prophecies that were made concerning His death and resurrection to be in Jerusalem at the precise time of the Passover and the events leading up to it. He was set on a mission that would accomplish the greatest event in the universe. There was no turning back now. He must move forward without hesitation and with intensification.
He sent messengers before His face into the village of the Samaritans but they would not receive Him because His face was set to go to Jerusalem. It was also at this point that He said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:61). He was One who put His hand to the plow and did not look back; not like Lot’s wife who looked back to the city of Sodom and became a pillar of salt. The footnote on the plow in verse 61 in the Recovery Version is helpful.
“To plow, one must concentrate all his attention on the line being plowed. Being distracted just a little, to say nothing of looking back, may lead the plower off the straight line. To follow the Savior, we must forget everything else and press straight ahead for the kingdom of God.”
Another outstanding footnote regarding the intensity with which the Lord moved forward to Jerusalem is seen in a cross reference to Luke 9:51 in Mark 10:1 which reads:
“The Slave-Savior ministered in His gospel service for over three years in the despised region of Galilee (see note 141, par. 2, in ch. 1), far from the holy temple and the holy city, the place where He had to die for the accomplishing of God’s eternal plan. As the Lamb of God (John 1:29), He had to be offered to God at Mount Moriah, where Abraham offered Isaac and enjoyed God’s provision of a ram as a substitute for his son (Gen. 22:2, 9-14) and where the temple was built in Jerusalem (2 Chron. 3:1). It had to be there that He would be delivered, according to the counsel determined by the Trinity of the Godhead (Acts 2:23), to the Jewish leaders (9:31; 10:33) and be rejected by them as the builders of God’s building (8:31; Acts 4:11). It had to be there that He would be crucified according to the Roman form of capital punishment (John 18:31-32 and note; 19:6, 14-15) to fulfill the type concerning the kind of death He would die (Num. 21:8-9; John 3:14). Moreover, according to Daniel’s prophecy (Dan. 9:24-26), that very year was the year that Messiah (Christ) was to be cut off (killed). Furthermore, as the Passover lamb (1 Cor. 5:7), He had to be killed in the month of the Passover (Exo. 12:1-11). Hence, He had to go to Jerusalem (v. 33; 11:1, 11, 15, 27; John 12:12) before the Passover (John 12:1; Mark 14:1) that He might die there on the day of the Passover (14:12-17; John 18:28) at the place and the time foreordained by God.”
I was very touched by Luke 9:51, as a new believer when I was spending my morning watch time reading the Gospel of Luke during a five week Summer College Training in Toronto with a campus group called The Navigators back in the late ‘70s.
At that time I was beginning to have a feeling about moving to Toronto and somehow when Jerusalem was mentioned in my reading, I had the feeling that Jerusalem was Toronto to me. So this verse was one of the outstanding verses to me in the Gospel of Luke, although the Lord used many more to eventually lead me to make the move to Toronto that summer. “Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it” (1 Thes. 5:24).
You paint a graphic picture of this moment in time, with the backdrop of Alexander the Great, of when Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem in Luke 9:51. It was as if at that time He was set on a schedule to fulfill all the prophecies that were made concerning His death and resurrection to be in Jerusalem at the precise time of the Passover and the events leading up to it. He was set on a mission that would accomplish the greatest event in the universe. There was no turning back now. He must move forward without hesitation and with intensification.
He sent messengers before His face into the village of the Samaritans but they would not receive Him because His face was set to go to Jerusalem. It was also at this point that He said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:61). He was One who put His hand to the plow and did not look back; not like Lot’s wife who looked back to the city of Sodom and became a pillar of salt. The footnote on the plow in verse 61 in the Recovery Version is helpful.
“To plow, one must concentrate all his attention on the line being plowed. Being distracted just a little, to say nothing of looking back, may lead the plower off the straight line. To follow the Savior, we must forget everything else and press straight ahead for the kingdom of God.”
Another outstanding footnote regarding the intensity with which the Lord moved forward to Jerusalem is seen in a cross reference to Luke 9:51 in Mark 10:1 which reads:
“The Slave-Savior ministered in His gospel service for over three years in the despised region of Galilee (see note 141, par. 2, in ch. 1), far from the holy temple and the holy city, the place where He had to die for the accomplishing of God’s eternal plan. As the Lamb of God (John 1:29), He had to be offered to God at Mount Moriah, where Abraham offered Isaac and enjoyed God’s provision of a ram as a substitute for his son (Gen. 22:2, 9-14) and where the temple was built in Jerusalem (2 Chron. 3:1). It had to be there that He would be delivered, according to the counsel determined by the Trinity of the Godhead (Acts 2:23), to the Jewish leaders (9:31; 10:33) and be rejected by them as the builders of God’s building (8:31; Acts 4:11). It had to be there that He would be crucified according to the Roman form of capital punishment (John 18:31-32 and note; 19:6, 14-15) to fulfill the type concerning the kind of death He would die (Num. 21:8-9; John 3:14). Moreover, according to Daniel’s prophecy (Dan. 9:24-26), that very year was the year that Messiah (Christ) was to be cut off (killed). Furthermore, as the Passover lamb (1 Cor. 5:7), He had to be killed in the month of the Passover (Exo. 12:1-11). Hence, He had to go to Jerusalem (v. 33; 11:1, 11, 15, 27; John 12:12) before the Passover (John 12:1; Mark 14:1) that He might die there on the day of the Passover (14:12-17; John 18:28) at the place and the time foreordained by God.”
I was very touched by Luke 9:51, as a new believer when I was spending my morning watch time reading the Gospel of Luke during a five week Summer College Training in Toronto with a campus group called The Navigators back in the late ‘70s.
At that time I was beginning to have a feeling about moving to Toronto and somehow when Jerusalem was mentioned in my reading, I had the feeling that Jerusalem was Toronto to me. So this verse was one of the outstanding verses to me in the Gospel of Luke, although the Lord used many more to eventually lead me to make the move to Toronto that summer. “Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it” (1 Thes. 5:24).
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