Many times I’ve wondered what I would
have said or did if I was following Jesus and He alluded once again to His
death. The followers didn’t seem to
understand the full concept behind what He was saying, but they knew the words
He spoke and what they entailed- death.
And He spoke more than once about it.
Here are two specific times:
Then Jesus said to them, When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you shall know that I AM,
and that I do nothing of Myself, but as My Father has taught Me, I speak these
things. Jh. 8:28
Now is the
judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I,
if I am lifted up from the earth, I
will draw all to Myself. But He said this, signifying what kind of death He was about to die. Jh. 12:31-33
Jesus said He
would be lifted up from the earth, an idiom that the people knew meant death
(v.34). Being lifted up signified
unnatural death, violent and public, and would symbolize Jesus’ mediation
between God and man. The mediation is
because of the reference Jesus spoke of which is found in Numbers after the
Israelites escaped Egypt .
(synopsis mostly)
Israelites were complaining once again, discouraged because of the way, and so
spoke against God and Moses. God sent
fiery serpents as judgment, the people repented and Moses prayed. God said, “Make
a fiery serpent and set it on a pole. And it shall be when everyone that is
bitten, when he looks upon it, he shall live.” Nm. 21:6-9
But even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man
be lifted up, so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life. Jh. 3:14,15
So Jesus here
prefaces His teaching on being lifted up by likening His death to Moses lifting
the pole with the serpent on it with Him.
The people looked on the statue and they were healed, thereby
saved. After we repent, we must ‘look to
the cross’ to be saved. Jesus became our
mediator between us and God, using His blood to wash away our sins, thus
opening our way to God’s presence again.
He died that we should not perish for eternity, but would be able to
have everlasting life.
At the end of
His mortal life, Jesus lost many followers who truly didn’t understand who He
was and His purpose for being. Most did
not understand He HAD to die or they could not be eternally saved. I’m sure many who watched Him actually die on
that cross didn’t quite comprehend it still, not until after His resurrection and subsequent teaching. I can’t imagine I would have been any
different than His disciples. Would you
have understood?