Every few weeks Mary and I sit down with our calendars and have a time together that we affectionately call our “Calendar Date.” Mary’s technology of choice is a classic paper calendar that shows the entire month on two side by side pages. I’m far more high tech and prefer to fumble around on my laptop or iPhone, getting only small glimpses of the dates in front of me… but that’s a story for a different Fragment.
So yesterday I started to wonder whether Jesus had the equivalent “calendar date” with His disciples? I thought about the implications of a short three-year ministry run and the pressing agendas of His followers, the inquisitive, and the skeptics. Yet, it seemed quite obvious that in the ministry life of Jesus, He had only one firm date on His calendar.
This didn’t mean that He spent three years without an intentional agenda. He made it clear what His objective was. He came to extend love and grace and mercy to the outcast, to the sinful, to the lost. In this space Jesus moved with clarity and agility. Unconfined yet purposeful.
But it was the cross that rested on His calendar. It was an appointment with destiny, a meeting with cosmic altering significance… atonement. Forgiveness. Reconciliation.
When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. (Luke 9:51)
Jesus was resolute in purpose. He was focused on His mission. His calendar was set. The future of the human race rested on the miles to Jerusalem. History hinged on a betrayal, on a mock trial, on injustice and hatred, on jealousy and denial. The destiny of mankind changed at the cross. It was that day that Jesus had circled on His calendar. It was that date that Jesus had set before Him when He left His throne.
It is that date that I circle as well. Jesus, my Savior. My sacrifice. My perfect lamb. My advocate. My calendar date.
Circled on every calendar, whether paper or electronic… the cross of Jesus changed everything.
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