Stone Hard, Dead Set, Arrow Straight, Unwavering and Undeterred Pursuit

 I’m wondering if determination is something I have ever had.  Has there ever been a moment or season of stone hard, dead set, arrow straight, unwavering and undeterred pursuit in my life?  It seems to me that level of determination is born out of clear purpose; knowing with absolute certainty where I am headed; even where I'll end up.  And here I am wondering if I have ever known determination.

 

When I read the gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry, it appears sometimes Jesus was determined and sometimes he wasn't.  Sometimes he is clearly going someplace or looking for someone.  Other times he's walking about allowing place and people to come to him.  Often that is the course of ministry in general, not just Jesus’ ministry.  To be sure, that has been the course of ministry in Galilee for some time.  Now, however, all at once, things shift...

 

“When the days were coming to a close for [Jesus] to be taken up, he determined to journey to Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51, CSB throughout)

 

The scene is clearer and more dramatic in my minds-eye.  I imagine Jesus pacing his way up a rocky trail that wraps around a craggy uneven mound – ancient angled stones jutting out like the jaw of a strong man – finally to stand atop the rugged hill.  Without warning, the wind shifts and gusts in from the south.  The sun disappears behind a stretch of clouds now casting a shadow of gray hues over the land.  Jesus turns sharply and peers into the southern horizon, eyes squinting to see beyond what anyone around him can humanly see.  The wind swirls around his feet as if to quicken his stride by some divine effort.  Course rerouted.  The day of his ascension – “to be taken up” – was nearer now than ever before.  Of course much must happen before then though.  Most know the storyline and the cross that stabs its way in.  It was time to go to Jerusalem.

 

Jesus, putting all other tasks aside, “determined” to make the journey, with his disciples.  Some translations imagine Isaiah 50:7 in Jesus' mind:  “I have set my face like flint.”  Most folks don’t even know what flint is, but we can all still picture that face.  The best wording might be that Jesus "stiffened his face to go."

 

No matter the words used, the point is Jesus is stone hard, dead set, arrow straight, unwavering and undeterred in his pursuit toward the right hand of his Father in heaven. 

 

Jesus is returning to glory. 

 

Jesus is returning to the presence of all that was his before he “emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity” (Philippians 2:7). 

 

Jesus is returning to the abundance of eternal existence; infinite reality, where he will be “highly exalted” and given “the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow…and every tongue confess that [he] is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).

 

And if anything should stand in his way between here, where he stands in Galilee, and there, where he’ll be “taken up” in Jerusalem, he will go through it…

 

“For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2, emphasis mine)

 

Jesus set his gaze and fixed his eyes on Jerusalem.  He determined to go through the searing sacrifice and suffering of the cross, through the cold dark night of the grave, to get to where he will be taken up to the glory of the Father.

 

How determined am I in my days?

 

I know my inheritance and my reward; my eternal abundant life in the presence of my God and King.  How fixed am I?  Like flirt?  Stiffened and unmoving?  Ready to go through anything and everything to receive what lies beyond it all?

 

Listen, friend, if you follow Jesus with utter abandon, like I try to, my sense is the days ahead aren’t getting any easier for us.  My sense is the importance of being determined – Jesus-level determined – will only increase.  Perhaps overwhelmingly so.

 

But I think the author of Hebrews helps us out with an important key to staying determined on this progressively strident pursuit of living out our faith in Jesus Christ, and I’ll wrap up here.  Just before the verse I quoted above, the author tells you and me to…

 

“…lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us” and “run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)