I HAVE COME TO SAVE

 

The three years of the Saviour’s ministry would have been the most physically taxing years of His life. Imagine traversing the vast area of Galilee and Judea on foot and such primitive transport as donkeys. Add to that, being continuously thronged by people so that He was hard pressed for time to eat and sleep.

 

A week prior to His death, Jesus communed daily between the town of Bethany, where He lodged, and the temple in Jerusalem. On one such day, He passed with His apostles a village near the Mount of Olives, called Bethphage (Matthew 21:1), which means ‘house of figs’ (Talmage, Jesus the Christ, p 526). Being hungry, Jesus approached a fig tree full of leafage but found no fruit on it. The tree, with all its showy leaves, was deceptively barren, much like the religion of Israel that had degenerated into pretentious show and hypocrisy yielding no fruit. Jesus cursed the tree and it withered immediately (Matthew 21:19). To the astonishment of the Twelve, He delivered a lesson on faith, the medium of all miracles (v 21,22). 

 

Here is something very interesting about the barren fig tree. Up to this moment, the Saviour’s power was only used to heal, restore, and build up but now He demonstrated His power to smite and destroy. Imagine how the Twelve felt when just a few days later they saw Him in the hands of His blood thirsty enemies. If He could smite the fig tree, how much more could He have done to them? Instead Jesus chose to climb the hill of Calvary and submitted to the gruesome treatment of Golgotha’s atrocities. And here is a little story that says why. Whilst traveling toward Jerusalem from Galilee, Jesus and the Twelve passed through Samaria and requested hospitality from one village, which was denied. The zealous ‘Sons of Thunder’ (John and James) asked Jesus if they should call fire down from heaven to consume the offenders. Jesus forbade them by saying: “For the Son of Man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them” (Luke 9:56). And this He would do at any cost, with heart, body and soul, surrendering His power, and voluntarily laying down His life that He might save every one of us, in every way.

 

You did not falter

As you carried me up Calvary’s hill,

Golgotha had no claim on Thee.

I sit now, light upon Thy shoulders,

As you carry me into eternity. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Light Upon His Shoulders by Yongsung Kim)