He was on a mission.  He was headed to Jerusalem. Yet all along the way he healed, he taught, he told about His kingdom.  Eventually he had to reveal the meaning. Eventually even the healing had to make sense in a larger picture, a larger portrait.

He was headed to the cross.  The one place where it would all come together.  The one place where it would all finally make sense.  He said he was going there, but they thought He spoke in a metaphor and they did not understand.  They thought He would ride in like a king and take over, the did not know how deep their problem was and they did not know how far He would go to deliver them.

Like a disease or a disfigurement mars the body of an otherwise healthy person, sin has disfigured the entire human race.  Like a blind man who has eyes but he cannot see, we are made in the image of God, yet we have profaned Him. So he came healing and proclaiming that His kingdom was at hand.  In Heaven there will be no more disease.  In Heaven their will be no more sin.  Christ has born it all on his own body on the cross! He stood in our place so we could stand in His!

You see, that was the mission.  The mission was not to heal a few thousand people (if that many) in Palestine a few thousand years ago.  His mission was not to come and make our lives comfortable again.  His mission was to reconcile us to God by taking on our sin debt! His mission was to save and he couldn’t do that without going to Jerusalem first.  Jerusalem was the appointed place and his appointed hour was quickly approaching

Father,

So often I am eager to glean a principle for practical living as if this whole Christian walk has to do with the exercise of my will.  While I know that my will is important, I also know that you have already completed everything I need to be reconciled to you.  Today I rest in that.  Today I rest in the fact that you are God and you know what you are doing.   Thank you for all you have done to bring me to faith in you.