The unifying thread in the last part of Luke's gospel is Christ's final journey to the royal city, to Jerusa­lem. There he, the Son of David, will be arrested, tried, condemned, and crucified. Everything from now on is recorded in the context of Jesus' de­liberate movement in the direction of Jerusalem, where his "departure" or "exodus" will take place. That's clear from 9:51, "As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem."

These words give us a glimpse of the heart of Christ. It pictures his steadfast resolve to accomplish the purpose of his ministry. It's the ful­filment of the prophecy of Isaiah 50. "The Servant of the Lord," the com­ing Messiah, will redeem his people from their sin. He speaks about being exposed to the deepest humiliation and suffering: the hairs of his beard yanked out, insults hurled at him, spit on, and flogged. Yet there's majesty in the description, as though the servant were in full control of the situation. Instead of saying that men grabbed him and beat him, he declares that he willingly yielded himself,

I offered my back to those who beat me; my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.

The prophet makes clear how completely obedi­ent the Messiah would be. Through all the shame he maintains a spirit of meekness. He's determined to face the suffering that lies before him. No temptation will sidetrack him from his God-appointed course. Obedi­ence to the Lord God is paramount. He says, "I have set my face like a flint," like a hard rock which cannot be broken. He won't be distracted by anything or anyone from obtaining the goal. Those words, "I have set my face like a flint" find their fulfilment in Luke 9:51, which reads literally, "He set his face to go to Jerusalem." This truth makes more real the sac­rifice which our Saviour made, and shows the depth of his love for us.

What does it mean "to be taken up?" Luke is using a comprehensive word here. It's not limited to one step in Christ's exaltation, namely, his as­cension. Luke has in mind much more: the consummation of Jesus' work in the crucifixion, resurrection, ascen­sion, and sitting down at God's right hand. The Father's elevation of him upon the throne must be preceded by man's elevation of him upon the ac­cursed tree. Yes, Christ's agonizing death is also in view! He spoke in a similar way to Nicodemus,

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

The two – cross and crown – aren't in conflict. Jesus showed his glory not in spite of his earthly humiliations, but in the way of those humiliations. That was most evident on Golgotha. To the outward eye this was the ul­timate degradation, a form of punish­ment and death reserved for the worst criminal. To the eye of faith, how­ever, it was and is the supreme glory. The cross lifted him up, for through the cross he receives the crown. Only in this divinely prescribed way of suffering does he come to share in the glory he had with the Father before the world was made. The stone must first be rejected by the builders before it becomes the cornerstone.

Christ was fully aware of that ne­cessity and was determined to endure it, as evident in the expression, "He set his face." This is a Hebrew idiom, about the resolve and willingness to accomplish a task. Nothing and no one will deter our Saviour. Neither his mother, his brothers, his disciples, the people he came to serve, his ene­mies bent upon his destruction, nor Satan with all his temptations, could stop him from going to Jerusalem.

He went there in order to make his crucifixion certain, to precipitate the collision that would result in his arrest. He was already a marked man by the authorities. He could've hid in the Galilean hills, out of reach, but he set his face to go to Jerusalem. Be­cause he chose to die! From the be­ginning he knew that was the work for which he'd come. Christ is saying, as it were,

The cross is my path. On it I shall bring justice to the nations. There in Jerusalem, the city which is always killing and stoning the proph­ets, I will do the very thing for which I left heaven and my Father.

His death is not an incident of his life – it is the aim of it. He does not die and thereby seal his faithful life by a heroic death. No, when he dies he puts his shoulders under the weight of the sin of the whole human race, and stumbles away with that enormous load into the torment of hell, removing our sins as far as the east is from the west. The principle that governs his every thought, word, and deed is expressed so beautifully by Christ himself in John 10:18,

No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

What he did, he came to do. He set out resolutely for Jerusalem because He wanted to ful­fil the purpose of the Father, to rec­oncile all creation to him, to bring life and communion and peace to his people. His hour of weakness was his hour of strength. They lifted him on a cross and it became his throne. In the moment when death seemed to conquer him, he was using it so he might abolish death.

Understand and believe that all Christ's firmness of resolve and will­ing surrender to the death of the cross was for you. Through the power of his sacrifice and the grace of his Spirit, set your face to do his will.