The child of God is much advantaged to come to grips with the life lived by his Savior. I would suggest that the insights to be listed here are essential to a proper understanding of that most wonderful of all lives, and thus that the believer is well advised to consciously and deliberately include these realities in his conception of that life.
#9 – Throughout His ministry, but especially as His Passion approached, Jesus demonstrated Himself to be “wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove” (Mt 10:16). In at least three specific and identifiable ways, Jesus orchestrated the events of His passion so that it would unfold precisely how and when the Father intended.
a. By means of the raising of Lazarus (Jn 11:45-57) and then the route He took from the village of Ephraim (Jn 11:54) to Jerusalem (Lk 17:11), Jesus set the stage for the Triumphal Entry, exciting the city about His arrival (Jn 11:55, 56), and then alerting them as to the moment of His arrival (Jn 12:12).
b. By means of the second cleansing of the Temple on Monday of the passion week, Jesus deliberately galvanized Pharisaic and Sadducean hostility; once those two sects had united in their murderous hatred of Jesus, it took them only five days to get Him on a cross.
c. By means of His carefully maintained popularity with the masses, Jesus insured that the Sanhedrinists would have to involve the Romans in His execution, and thus that He would die not by stoning but by being “lifted up” in crucifixion (Jn 3:14; 8:28; 12:32-34; 18:32).
(Insight #10 will be posted soon!)
