Jesus Stays On The Road To His Death

In some prisons in America there is an area known as Death Row. It’s where those who have been sentenced to die go to wait for the time of their execution. Every day on Death Row is a day closer to death. So for a prisoner, after five or ten years, there might be only 30 days left. Then only 20. Then 5 days. Suddenly it’s down to 24 hours. He wonders, “Is this my last meal? Will I be granted a reprieve?” Until the hour comes, and it’s time to go.

Jesus didn’t sit on Death Row. Yet his life was always moving toward that certain and terrible end: He’d be killed on the cross. He knew this, because the Scriptures pointed to it. He knew this, and He predicted it himself more than once during his ministry—He told his disciples very plainly what was going to happen at Jerusalem.

So it has been a long countdown, and the countdown has come to this, the last few days. In John’s Gospel we notice the seconds ticking away. For example, at the close of John 11, the leaders get together to plot his murder. Then in chapter 12, Jesus is anointed with expensive perfume—and Jesus says that it’s an anointing for his burial! Then on Palm Sunday He is received with praise, which makes his haters only more angry.

With the growing tension, there is no mistake that the moment is near, the countdown to death is almost at zero. Notice how Jesus keeps saying “now” in our text: “Now my soul is troubled… Now is the judgment of this world… Now the ruler of this world will be cast out” (vv 27, 31). Christ will soon be betrayed and arrested, judged and sentenced to death. So if our Saviour could run at this moment, would He? If He could find a different way, would He have done it? This is what we see in John 12,

In his final hours, Jesus stays on the road to death. It means:

1) great suffering for Jesus

2) more glory for the Father

3) full salvation for sinners

1) great suffering for Jesus: As the Lord stood on the edge of his deepest suffering, He understood what was about to happen. Sometimes people portray Jesus as if He stepped blindly into a trap, got caught up in something He never intended. But Jesus knew what lay around the corner. And it caused him deep suffering.

“Now my soul is troubled,” He declares (v 27). Here is the first “now” of our text. The full meaning of his mission is striking home: “Now my soul is troubled.” Of course, Jesus had been troubled before. He suffered all throughout his ministry. He endured the frailties of being human. He was troubled when people misunderstood why He’d come. There’d always been trouble. But now all that pain was getting worse.

Jesus had just spoken of what was going to happen to him: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain” (v 24). You might wonder, “Why is Jesus talking about farming at a time like this?” But this is a principle—very simply—of life coming through death.

Some of us enjoy gardening, planting seeds, cultivating and nurturing. And whenever we put seeds into the ground, in a sense those seeds need to die. It’s only if a seed gets buried in the ground that it can begin the process of growth—only by burial does there come a new plant and more life. Jesus found this lesson in the world of horticulture, a lesson which was just as true for him and his calling on earth. He, one man, had to die and be buried. And through this event, many people could begin to live for God.

But He had to die. And looking his death in the face, Jesus says, “My soul is troubled” (v 27). What Jesus is facing is no small obstacle, but something that affects him to the centre of his being. He’s no superhero, pain-free and iron-clad. He was human, like any of us, so the thought of his execution was a heavy weight in his heart. Only three days now… Now two…

And the death He was waiting for was a death like no other. Think about how there were two other men sitting in prison somewhere in Jerusalem—those two criminals who were to be executed alongside Jesus. As they sat on their own Death Row, probably they too had troubled hearts, worried and anxious. They too, might’ve felt sick to the stomach as they thought about the agony of being crucified. This wasn’t a quick way to die, not like the hangings they used to do at Fremantle Prison.