Matthew 26:18

“My appointed time is near.”

I wonder what the disciples thought when Jesus said, “My appointed time is near?” The hallelujah of the children announced him as a triumphant warrior, it appears.  Is that what the disciples were thinking, and hoping?  Was it the time for him to mount the throne and rule Israel like King David had done?  Was Jesus was about to announce his court officials, with the disciples as the chief rulers in his promised kingdom?

They soon realized that Jesus had no intention at all of sitting on an earthly throne in Palestine.  That was not what the new Kingdom of God was about.  As the hours unfolded this dream of an earthly kingdom was shattered.  Imagine their utter disappointment!  Instead of their king claiming the throne of Israel, they saw their “King Jesus” beaten, reviled, spit upon and wounded without a word of complaint from him, dying helplessly on a Roman cross outside the city.  Jesus looked like the most pathetic man ever, let alone as a supposed “king.”  What did he mean when he said his kingdom was not of this world?

Jesus confided that his appointed time had come – the reason he came to earth and lived among mankind.  Jesus knew that the disciples were confused bundles of hope and despair, mostly the latter.  He had left them with one parable after another, one story after another in which he planted nuggets of kingdom reality. They could not piece things together, no matter how hard they tried. Everything was coming apart!

The time had come when Jesus’ parable and stories were soon to be not stories and parables but The Story itself.  All parables are about to be illuminated. Jesus is moving from shadow to substance, from similitude to hard soul exposing facts. He is none other than “The Lamb of God.”  He is about to take upon himself all the sin of the world and nail it to his cross so that every person can live with God.  Dear disciples, you will understand as the real story is revealed.