Thursday, March 8, 2007 based on Luke 13:31-35

If there ever was a man on a mission it was Jesus. Luke relates how some Pharisees approached Jesus and said, “Go away, leave here, for Herod wants to kill you.” The Pharisees knew Jesus to be a man on a mission and wanted to get rid of him for that reason. “Warning” Jesus about Herod was their pretext for getting rid of him. They want to frighten Jesus away so he would return to Judea and stay away from Jerusalem. Despite the Pharisees, Jesus was a man on a mission and even the Pharisees weren’t going to stop him from fulfilling his mission.

Herod did not understand Jesus and his ministry and was paranoid that John the Baptist, whom he had put to death, had come back from the dead. Initially Herod was curious about Jesus, but he came to the point of feeling threatened, leading to a threat of his own. The warning of Herod’s death threat toward Jesus was undoubtedly true or Jesus would not have answered as he did - - “Go and tell that fox...” Despite Herod, Jesus was a man on a mission and even Herod was not going to stop him from fulfilling it.

Jesus was not afraid of people in opposition to him. He had a mission and a timetable for that mission. Jesus was doing his Father’s will and would fulfill that will according his Father’s schedule, despite any and all efforts to change it. Jesus was going to be crucified in Jerusalem at the Passover. He would then rise again on the third day, “The third day I reach my goal.” Jesus was a man on a mission and nothing was going to stop him.

Thank God for Jesus and his mission. Thank God Jesus died for the forgiveness of our sins and rose in victory over sin, death and Satan. Thank God Jesus was obedient in fulfilling the mission for which God sent him in love. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Do we know what our mission is, and are we on that mission? Is anyone or anything going to stop us from fulfilling our mission? God does not call us to an impossible mission. Our mission is possible because with God all things are possible, and He equips us to fulfill the mission to which He has called us. May there be no stopping us now in our mission for God.

Prayer: Mighty God, help us to choose to accept the mission you have for us and by Your power let nothing stop us from fulfilling it. Amen.


31At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, "Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you."

32He replied, "Go tell that fox, 'I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.' 33In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!

34"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 35Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'[a]"