The Appointment

Text: Matthew 20: 17-19

Poem: The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And ¡V sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could,

To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then I took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear,

Though as for that, the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way ¡V leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I ¡V

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference

Intro: The setting of the story is this:

„X Jesus had returned to Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead. His life was already in danger, and Thomas, one of the twelve says ¡§Let us also go, that we may die with him.¡¨ (John 11:16)

„X After the raising of Lazarus, Caiaphas, the Chief Priest, gives the memorable pronouncement, ¡§¡Kit is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.¡¨ (John 11:50)

„X Then we are told, ¡§Therefore, Jesus walked no more openly among the Jews; but went thence unto a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with his disciples.¡¨

„X Because of the danger, Jesus stayed away, but because the Passover was approaching, He must needs go to Jerusalem.

„X Jesus gathers the Twelve together to give them his declaration¡K

o The disciples, straining to hear the tender words of the Master, look upon their fearless leader with expectation. Perhaps the time has come that Jesus will enter triumphantly into Jerusalem and seize the throne that is rightfully His.

o And so Jesus says, ¡§Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.¡¨

o However explicitly that Jesus foretells of His impending death, the Twelve do no understand. They have passed over the Price of Redemption, as if it was a small matter to bring about the reconciliation of mankind to God, as if the ugly stain of sin and the corruption of the human heart may be cleared by a simple show of mercy from on high, or a lamentable cry of repentance, however sincere. IT TOOK THE LIFE OF THE SON!

„X Recall Peter¡¦s rebuke of the Savior 4 chapter earlier the first time that Jesus mentions His suffering, ¡§Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.¡¨

„X Jesus¡¦ Response: ¡§Get thee behind me Satan: thou art an offense unto me¡K¡¨

F.W. Krummacher: ¡§O the mighty chasm which intervenes between their thoughts and God¡¦s thoughts! As though the restoration of fallen man were a thing of such easy accomplishment!¡¨

¡§BEHOLD, WE GO UP TO JERUSALEM¡¨

I. Observe, HOW these words speak to us of the Savior¡¦s fixed resolution.

II. Observe, WHERE these words take the Savior (Gethsemene)

III. Observe, WHAT accomplishment these words bespoke