The path

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

THE PATH

Matt 26:1-5

26:1 When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, 2 "As you know, the Passover is two days away — and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified."  3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, 4 and they plotted to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill him. 5 "But not during the Feast," they said, "or there may be a riot among the people."

NIV

We could certainly go down the rabbit hole trying to tie these words of Jesus to when exactly this Passover date was and whether Jesus ate the Seder meal during Passover which we call his last meal or anything else that the intellects wish to spend enormous amounts of research and discussion about. Yet in all reality none of that really matters. Now the Jewish Passover matters to the Jewish people who celebrate it. The date is fixed to the first full moon after the vernal equinox, which is the spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. So in order to tie this date in the time of Jesus it would have to be determined when there was a full moon in spring equinox the exact year of his crucifixion. We will leave all that to the intellects to determine as for the personal meaning for our lives, it matters not. We are not of the Jewish faith and we do not celebrate the festival. We celebrate Jesus. It is interesting however, that all the rituals of the Passover meal point to Jesus. The Jewish people miss them as they are still waiting for Messiah to come. Here, as we celebrate Jesus as one of the Godhead, we see his divine nature in that he knows the time, place and method of his redeeming mankind to himself. Yes, as he speaks these words he is fully man, but he is also fully God. Whether what he told his disciples was revealed to him by the Father or the Spirit or through his own divinity, it matters not. The point is he knew when it would take place. He came for this exact moment in time. It was his purpose, his own will based on his love for his creation to come to this place and time. It is interesting that it was not until he makes this statement that the chief priests and elders assembled in the palace of the high priest and plotted to arrest and in some sly way kill him. They may have wanted to in the past several months and might have tried to get him, but this is now the most organized full-fledged all out attempt to come up with a plan that can be completed to fulfill their hatred toward him. The fact is Jesus knew all this ahead of time. Their other attempts as weak as they were always failed because it was not yet his time. Now it is his time. This shows us that Jesus, not the chief priests and elders, were in charge of what was to happen.  It was his time and he was telling his disciples the time was now. We should learn from this. We might make our plans, but the Lord orders our footsteps.

Prov 16:9

9 In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.

NIV

We might think we have a plan for our lives, but in fact if we are believers, if we are followers of Christ, then we should be aware of the steps the Lord has determined for us. Jesus came with a divine purpose. His life and death and resurrection was all in the divine purpose to redeem us to himself. If we are his followers then we need to see our lives as having a divine purpose as well. We are not his followers to live for our own passions and desires but to live for him and for his passions and desires. We have been called to walk in the light. We have been called to share that light, to let it shine so the world may see it, not to hide it. So let us journey on the path God has set before us.