Luke 9:58
This passage comes at the beginning of a trio of statements made by Jesus as tests of discipleship. A man approaches Him and wishes to be a follower. Jesus explains that even the animals have a place to sleep at night, but He has nowhere. We have no record as to whether this turned the man away or not, but we do get an inside look at the mind and the heart of our Savior.
While the moral of the story is that we should be prepared to give all for our Savior, even our security and comforts if necessary, the higher lesson learned is that Jesus was a man on a mission. From the beginning of time, God saw the cross as the way to save mankind, and He destined His Son to go to that cross. Long before Adam sinned, even long before Adam was created, God had predetermined that Jesus would be the sacrifice for sins. Due to this fact, it is important to remember that when we read the Gospels, there was nothing shocking to Jesus about His coming death in Jerusalem. In fact, Jesus knew it was coming from the start (John 9:39).
The phrase that Jesus uses regarding His rest is “the Son of man hath nowhere to lay His head”. The phrase, “lay” is the Greek word ‘kleno’ and it means “to recline”. Jesus is speaking in the natural, with a spiritual emphasis: He has no place to call home and He has yet to finish His work. We are often too quick to stop what we are involved in long before we finish. How many projects have you started and then life got in the way, and things didn’t get completed? We are a people that move from one thing to the next, often without finishing the thing that we are working on at the moment. Perhaps we think that the next thing will bring more pleasure, or perhaps we are just quitters.
Jesus was far from being a quitter! In fact, He teaches us the principle of never stopping until you are finished. The Apostle Paul had this in mind when from a Roman prison cell he wrote to young Timothy, “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, and I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness” (2 Timothy 4:6-8). Paul was not ready to be offered or to depart until he had “finished” the course. Finishing what he was here to do was important to Paul and it should be important to us.
Jesus suffered all of the cruelties of the cross for you and for me. So complete was His work there that He cried, “It is finished” just before He died (John 19:30). However, if you will notice, He knew that “all things were now accomplished” in the 28th verse, before He ever said, “I thirst” (John 19:29). Noticing that there was one thing left to be done, Jesus put off yelling “It is finished” until He had drank the sour wine for us, so that we could be freed from the sins of our fathers. As the old song says, “When He was on the cross, I was on His mind”.
Just after “It is finished”, the text says, “He bowed his head, and gave up the ghost” (John 19:30). The word “bowed” is the Greek word ‘kleno’; the same word used in Luke 9:58 for “lay His head”. At the cross, when He had sufficiently paid for you and me, Jesus finally found a place to lay His head. Aren’t you glad that He didn’t rest until He had said, “It is finished”?
This passage comes at the beginning of a trio of statements made by Jesus as tests of discipleship. A man approaches Him and wishes to be a follower. Jesus explains that even the animals have a place to sleep at night, but He has nowhere. We have no record as to whether this turned the man away or not, but we do get an inside look at the mind and the heart of our Savior.
While the moral of the story is that we should be prepared to give all for our Savior, even our security and comforts if necessary, the higher lesson learned is that Jesus was a man on a mission. From the beginning of time, God saw the cross as the way to save mankind, and He destined His Son to go to that cross. Long before Adam sinned, even long before Adam was created, God had predetermined that Jesus would be the sacrifice for sins. Due to this fact, it is important to remember that when we read the Gospels, there was nothing shocking to Jesus about His coming death in Jerusalem. In fact, Jesus knew it was coming from the start (John 9:39).
The phrase that Jesus uses regarding His rest is “the Son of man hath nowhere to lay His head”. The phrase, “lay” is the Greek word ‘kleno’ and it means “to recline”. Jesus is speaking in the natural, with a spiritual emphasis: He has no place to call home and He has yet to finish His work. We are often too quick to stop what we are involved in long before we finish. How many projects have you started and then life got in the way, and things didn’t get completed? We are a people that move from one thing to the next, often without finishing the thing that we are working on at the moment. Perhaps we think that the next thing will bring more pleasure, or perhaps we are just quitters.
Jesus was far from being a quitter! In fact, He teaches us the principle of never stopping until you are finished. The Apostle Paul had this in mind when from a Roman prison cell he wrote to young Timothy, “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, and I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness” (2 Timothy 4:6-8). Paul was not ready to be offered or to depart until he had “finished” the course. Finishing what he was here to do was important to Paul and it should be important to us.
Jesus suffered all of the cruelties of the cross for you and for me. So complete was His work there that He cried, “It is finished” just before He died (John 19:30). However, if you will notice, He knew that “all things were now accomplished” in the 28th verse, before He ever said, “I thirst” (John 19:29). Noticing that there was one thing left to be done, Jesus put off yelling “It is finished” until He had drank the sour wine for us, so that we could be freed from the sins of our fathers. As the old song says, “When He was on the cross, I was on His mind”.
Just after “It is finished”, the text says, “He bowed his head, and gave up the ghost” (John 19:30). The word “bowed” is the Greek word ‘kleno’; the same word used in Luke 9:58 for “lay His head”. At the cross, when He had sufficiently paid for you and me, Jesus finally found a place to lay His head. Aren’t you glad that He didn’t rest until He had said, “It is finished”?
