Infinitum Lent JourneySample

Today we consider Jesus & Mission in the context of Lent.

Welcome to Jesus & Mission, following the Infinitum Lent Journey.

From our first week together, you’ll remember the three Lenten features—fasting, penitence, and preparation for baptism—roughly correspond with the Infinitum foci of surrender, generosity, and mission, and we are matching them in our reading plans through the Infinitum Lent Collection. And now, Jesus & Mission.

Jesus & Mission! What was Jesus’ mission?

Goal?

Well, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10 NIV).

How?

“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3:8 NIV).

Forensically?

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:13-15).

How does one do that?

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19 NIV).

And in our reading today, Jesus functionally completes his mission on earth, demonstrating the extreme length to which he was willing to go to effect reconciliation with all of us.

Even in this section of Scripture, Jesus fulfills heaps of Old Testament prophecies, underlining in bold ink his divinity and the authenticity of his mission. And in the climactic verse, 30, Jesus simply gasps, “It is finished.” And that’s it (well, until Sunday morning!). Mission accomplished.

Jesus was deliberate and focused, not to be rushed or slowed down in his mission. In the heat of enemy pressures, Jesus set his face with determination for Jerusalem, where he would fulfill His mission (Luke 9:51). Even that act fulfilled Scripture, the colorfully worded prophetic ‘Servant Song,’ Isaiah 50:7—I set my face like flint!

Takeaways for us today? Many. But they include this:

• None of this was an accident.
• From this, we can infer that God is not surprised by our challenges and struggles today, and …
• He continues to seek and save those who are lost. He perseveres in destroying the works of the devil, and He plows away in restoring and reconciling his loved ones—you and me—to himself. Hallelujah.