Word of Salvation – Vol.13 No.11 – March 1967
And He Steadfastly Set His Face…!
Sermon by Rev. G. de Ruiter on Luke 9:51 & 23
Scripture Reading: Luke 9:23–28 & 51–62
Psalter Hymnal: 193:1,2,3; 76:1; 440:1,4; 436; 443
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
The face takes its expression, as the flower takes its colour, from within. The soul looks out through the eyes. The hidden man of the heart finds language in a look. A furtive glance, a twitching eyebrow, a blushing cheek, a dirty look, a nervous lip may reveal hidden thoughts and emotions.
There are faces that betray weakness and instability. There are other faces that show resolution, strength, firmness, resistance. A face often is a mirror of the soul.
The world holds no portrait of Jesus. We cannot tell what manner of man He was, but His look left itself impressed upon the memory of His disciples. When they wrote of Him in the years after His ascension they remembered how He looked as His eyes lighted upon the rich young man, and love glowed upon His face.
He fixed His eyes upon Peter and the disciple went out and wept bitterly. No looks ever possessed such affecting power: His face was kindly, children were attracted to Him, and broken and bruised lives sought shelter by His side.
But on the other hand His face could be severe and stern, even in such a way that rude soldiers could not stand its power, and shrank back, frightened, powerless.
And that’s what we find here in our text: ‘He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem;’ – ‘He firmly fixed His face’; – ‘He set His face resolutely’. In this way the translators have tried to explain the firmness of His look.
It is the portrait of a resolute countenance. He does not speak of His resolve. He does not need to speak. His face reveals His purpose. The firmness of His look expresses Jesus’ decision to take the rough road.
We always look for the broad and pleasant roads, for joyful journeys for easy ways. Our Lord went on the road to Jerusalem, knowing everything that was waiting for Him. He knew the worst would happen. He saw the roughness of the track, outward circumstances were already threatening. His own disciples were too busy with that human question of all ages: which of them was the greatest, the most important, and when they found out the direction of Jesus’ journey, they protested passionately: ‘the Jews sought to stone Thee lately, and goest Thou back again?’
But Jesus went on steadfastly. He foresaw the tempest of stormy insult and anger, the scorn, the mockery, the jeers and sneers of His enemies, their blows and kicks, the cowardice, the betrayal of His friend, the blood-drops of torturing nails, the terrible loneliness of a devilish cross.
But He steadfastly set His face to go.
There were many things to weaken His intention, but His purpose remained unshaken. It was the resolute acceptance of His fore-ordained mission: ‘the Son of man came not to be ministered to, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many.
And now He definitely and resolutely takes the last turn in the appointed road. In the volume of God’s book it was written of Him that He would accomplish the whole will of God, the plan of salvation of mankind, and so He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. No more for Him the big crowds hanging on His words; no more for Him circuits from village to village, returning to His quiet Capernaum home; no more the sermons on the green hills and the golden beaches, healing sick people, comforting the discouraged ones. Now only in front of Him the lengthening shadow of the cross. Flesh and blood cried: ‘stay a little longer! But Jesus knew the answer: No, I have to go.’ And He steadfastly set His face. He saw His disciples, He saw His enemies, He saw mankind of all ages, He saw you… and you… and you. And He knew: ‘I must go, otherwise no future, no salvation for anybody in the whole universe’.
That is the only reason for His steadfastness: His love, His faithfulness and loyalty to a lost mankind, to you and me, people without any possibility to save ourselves from eternal disaster.
In this hour of solemn crisis He faced the consequences of His work and life on earth, and He went to meet them for your and my sake. The last journey had begun, and nothing will keep Him from accomplishing it.
Forth into the stormy tempest went our Lord,
In His heart a stony firmness,
On His face a deep, warm love.
Here is the good shepherd who goes out into a frightening, horrible wilderness, to save millions of lost sheep. And so going on His way to Jerusalem, steadfastly going on, to the cross, to death and hell, the good shepherd sang His song:
‘Although the road be rough and steep
I go to the desert to find my sheep.’
But none of the ransomed ever knew how deep were the waters crossed nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through ere He found His sheep that were lost.
And so the Lord did not wait for love and faith, for gratitude and appreciation, before He went to the cross. Loving us while we were still sinners, Paul said, the Lord went into death to cleanse us from all our sins. It was His marvellous love for us that brought Him to the cross.
And now and therefore: salvation, atonement, propitiation, redemption, reconciliation, re-creation – there are not words enough to make clear the mighty result of Jesus’ steadfastness for you and me.
Big words, you say?
Oh no, just small words for a tremendously big thing. A place in heaven for you and me, a place in God’s eternal kingdom, a mercy seat, a place of forgiveness. Jesus’ Father your Father, His Holy Spirit in your heart, and all this, thanks to Jesus’ steadfastness. How great a reason we have to be thankful for that holy and immovable resoluteness of our Lord. If there had been failure, if our Lord had shrunk back, had stood down, had not finished the road up till Golgotha, then no Father in heaven, no redemption, no forgiveness, no new world for you and me.
But now thanks to our Lord’s steadfastness, new possibilities, each new day again, and at the end eternal peace.
What reason we have to be thankful!
And how poor your and my thankfulness often is!
For Jesus said: ‘If any man wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself and day by day let him take up his cross and follow Me.’ And here our failures have their starting point, here where we have the possibility to show our gratitude, in bearing our cross, following Jesus; for again and again, and day by day we prove with words and deed that we don’t like it at all to deny ourselves, in taking up our cross following our Lord.
We don’t like it to ignore the very existence of ourselves, as Jesus did; to treat ourselves as if we did not exist, as Jesus did; this means in every moment of life to say ‘no’ to self and to say ‘yes’ to God, as Jesus did. It means to dethrone our self, and to enthrone our Lord, and we don’t like to do so. Usually we treat ourselves as if our little self was far and away the most important thing in the world. But now we have to take up the burden of sacrifice. The Christian life is the life of sacrificial service.
The Christian may have to abandon personal ambition to serve Christ. It may be that he will discover that the place where he can render the greatest service to the Lord is somewhere where the reward will be small and where the prestige will be nil. He will certainly have to sacrifice time and money and pleasure in order to serve God through the service of fellowmen. To put it quite simply: the comfort of the own home, maybe the development of your business, may well have to be sacrificed for the duties of eldership, the visit to the home of some sad or lonely soul. The pleasure of the visit to a place of entertainment could be the sacrifice you have to bring, young people, in order to visit the youth-club.
But we have to go further. Now you know what to do with your desires and longings which did not become reality, with your sorrows, with the fact that life did not give what you expected: deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus. Once again: the Christian life is a sacrificial life.
Luke, with a flash of sheer insight, gives one word more than Matthew and Mark: ‘take up your cross DAILY.’
The really important thing is not the great moments of sacrifice, some pious thoughts about this matter during a divine service, in a quiet and devout moment of meditation, but rather the LIFE lived in the constant hourly awareness of the demands of God and the need of others, following Jesus Christ, rendering to the Lord a perfect obedience as a clear proof of a cordial gratitude, walking in His footsteps where ever Christ might lead, as a daily blessing for fellowmen.
A native of the Congo once prayed: “Dear Lord, you be the needle and I will be the thread, you go first and I will follow wherever you may lead.”
Young people, have YOU seen and understood something of this part of Christianity? Also close to you – very close – is the danger of selfishness and egoism: ‘I want to have a good job… I wish to have a good time… I wish to make a lot of fun… I… with MY money, MY spare time, MY car, MY healthy body!’
But Jesus your Lord says: ‘you are wrong my boy; please change your mind, dear girl; where is the place of your fellowman in your life? Where is place for Me in your heart? Don’t you forget My cross?’ Deny yourself. It means: use all God’s presents to you in the right way. So listen and please do deny your selfish longings and give way to real Christianity and warm hearty fellowship. If you will not carry the cross you’ll never wear the crown. Surrender yourself entirely to God, all of you, and accept the way He wants you to go, and let all this be token of your deep gratitude for Christ’s wonderful steadfastness in behalf of you, for your eternal happiness.
And let it be no trial to carry your cross. Didn’t your Lord carry a much heavier cross, just for you? Don’t lose sight of that cross – of Jesus’ cross, and pray the Lord whether He’ll save you from disobedience and egoism, and give you the courage of faith to deny yourself and to take up your cross day by day.
With Christ you’ll be able to do so. Heavy as your cross may be, Jesus will give you grace to bear it. ‘I can do all things through Jesus who gives me power’, Paul once wrote. So do not lose sight of Jesus’ cross.
In some parts of New Guinea Christians have a wooden cross in their homes, a big cross, Jesus’ cross, and on its arms a small cross, their own cross; it reminds us of Thomas a Kempis’ words: ‘if you bear your cross cheerfully, with faith, Jesus will bear you.’
If you would give your life the highest inspiration, if you would endure disappointment and steadfastly pursue your appointed course, keep Jesus in view, and His cross and love for you, His self-denial and self-sacrifice for you, take up your cross and follow Him and the roughest road leads home.
The Bible Society Canvassers in Japan and China have to do a hard job and often their pathways are across rugged mountains, in lonely isolated places. And that’s why they made this song:
As up the high mount I climb
my track overstrewn with stone;
my hand is firm clasped in the hand of my Lord,
I know I am not alone.
The pine trees bow to the wind,
the stream rushes down below,
but the song of my heart is still unchanged,
although there be gale or snow.
There are times when the road is hard,
and the goal seems so far away;
and I never can know when I shall arrive,
for sometimes there comes delay.
Yet I do not, o Lord, make plea
that my travelling soon shall cease;
so long as I know that I follow Thee
my heart is at inward peace.
And in this song you can hear something of human, Christian steadfastness as an answer of gratitude to Jesus’ mighty steadfastness on the road to Golgotha in order to finish His work of salvation.
In this song you can hear something of human cross-bearing, in response to Christ’s death on the cross:
‘…for so long as I know that I follow Thee
my heart is at inward peace.’
So Jesus, who set His face steadfastly to the cross in order to save you, to be able to give you eternal life, He says to you: ‘Come on, deny yourself, take up your cross, in real Christianity, and follow Me, follow Me daily!’
And what is your daily answer now?
Amen.