Jesus Therefore…Went Forth

In our text the Mediator is about to enter upon His sacrificial labors. In the previous chapter we hear Him as the interceding High Priest for His Church. Now, He must as the High Priest on the Great Day of Atonement put on the holy linen coat and the linen breeches upon His flesh, be girded with the linen girdle, and with the linen mitre, go forth. He must enter into the most Holy Place to make atonement for His people. Nothing would go forth with Him or before Him. No basin with the blood of a bullock, but with His own blood the mercy seat would have to be sprinkled. He would come to the place where lay the Holy Law; He would enter into judgment with God, the supreme Judge.

In great soul agony the bloody sweat had already been pressed out of Him at this realization, but now the veil of His flesh must still be rent. “Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth.”

What reverence should fill our hearts when we consider the above words. What holy awe should settle over us! Jesus therefore…went forth. What tongue can tell that which is comprised in His going forth? Yet, we do well to consider these words, with the Lord’s help, at the commencement of Passion.

Powerfully to the enemy

Here we see Him going forth. It is in the garden of Gethsemane where we find the Lord with His disciples. Judas also knew of the place and, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, he comes to betray Him, that He may be taken into custody. The enemy comes to take Him, but He goes forth to meet them. When, some time before, another thronging multitude came to take Him by force and make Him a king, He withdrew Himself. Now, here, a mob comes to make Him a prisoner, and Jesus went forth.

He went forth to meet them with a question. He is the first to speak, “Whom seek ye?” Upon their answer and His reply, “I am He,” the whole band falls backwards to the ground. Will those mighty Roman soldiers be broken under His going forth? Would the religious Jews suddenly realize they were standing before Him of whom their prophet Micah had spoken? He “that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2b). No, they stand back up, unsavingly touched by His power. He clearly displays to them who He is. He will not leave Himself without witness to His enemies. His going forth would not only leave them without excuse but would also aggravate their condemnation if they remained in their hardened state.

Lovingly for His people

In His going forth He, at the same time, shows that He will neither succumb as one whose strength fails nor as one who is overtaken by an enemy more powerful than Himself. He maintains the power to lay down His life. This will be displayed to the disciples, but alas, neither do they have eyes to rightly behold His going forth. When His unspeakable suffering had begun, they fell asleep. When the band of men came to apprehend Him, yes, even to fulfill the Lord’s eternal good pleasure to His people (howbeit as wicked instruments), the disciples could not understand it. No, they were against it; Peter even took up the sword and went to slay the servant of the high priest.

Nevertheless, “Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth.” He would not allow the enemy to stand in the way, but neither would He allow His people to stand in His way. Oh, how His people would have ruined it, but how lovingly He went forth, “If therefore ye seek Me, let these go their way.”

Knowing all things: the suffering that still lay before Him; the shame, the spitting, the crown of thorns, and the cross with its curse; the fleeing of the disciples; and the forsaking by His Father, He went forth. He went forth for His little flock. He knew their weakness. He knew that they could not stand a moment in the judgment hall of His Father. He went forth to pay the price and to satisfy the justice of His Father for them.

Faithfully before His Father

Jesus went forth in perfect submission to His Father’s will. Already in eternity it was His desire. “Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do thy will, O My God:” (Psalm 40:7-8a). Now He steps forward in His human nature that the saying might be fulfilled which He spake, “Of them which thou gavest Me have I lost none” (John 18:9b). Oh, what an incomprehensible wonder! Zion must be redeemed with judgment. “Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth”. The sword of the Lord of Hosts had awakened against His Shepherd, but Peter’s sword of defense He commands to be put away. Why? “The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” (John 18:11b).

Jesus therefore…went forth. Oh, that this would receive value in our life and for our soul! How many of us are left unsavingly touched by His power? Has He spoken in our life with accidents or afflictions? How easily we stand up after being struck down. If ye hear His voice today, harden not your heart. Many come in our day to take Jesus by force, perhaps not as professed enemies but with much religion. They come to make Him their King, yes, they speak of Him as their Saviour. However, the fear is that they are strangers to themselves. They have not learned their need of a Saviour as one who is lost and undone. How different for those who have learned of their sinful state and nevertheless are drawn by His love. What a mysterious wonder! With a love to Him they are brought to know their own enmity to a one-sided salvation. For this they grieve; they have fled their whole life from His willingness. Yet, Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth. In spite of them He went forth to shed His own blood. When this becomes personal, then they are led a little into His going forth for them—a greater wonder when they see it stretches from eternity to eternity. How firm is the salvation of the Church! “Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth” (Hosea 6:3).

Friends, if in the Lord’s greatest humiliation, He showed such power, such love, and such faithfulness, what will be displayed when He returns in the last step of exaltation? What shall He do when He comes to judge if He did this when about to be judged? John saw Him as the Rider upon a white horse. A crown different from a crown of thorns was given unto Him; He went forth conquering, and to conquer (Revelation 6:2). He will go forth; His intercession will cease; His enemies shall then be trodden under foot. The Church which He loved will be gathered in, and the Father will be glorified (John 17:4&5).

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