The Road to Jerusalem: Grace and the Greater Sign
Setting His Face to Jerusalem, the Parables of Grace, and the Raising of Lazarus
1. He Set His Face to Jerusalem
The turning point of Unit 5 now becomes a journey. Luke marks it with a solemn sentence: "when the time had come for Him to be received up, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51). He did not drift toward the cross; He walked toward it with open eyes, deliberately, knowing what waited. From here the long road of Luke's travel narrative unfolds, and along it Jesus teaches the heart of the gospel.
He also made plain that this road is no easy one. To a man who said he would follow Him anywhere, Jesus answered, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head" (Luke 9:58). To another He said, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:60). And to a third: "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62). To follow the One who is going to a cross is no light thing; it asks the whole man, and it does not look back.
The journey's very first step taught mercy. A Samaritan village would not receive Him, and James and John wanted to call down fire from heaven to consume it; but He turned and rebuked them, for the Son of Man "did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them" (Luke 9:55–56). The road to the cross is paved with mercy, not vengeance.
2. Who Is My Neighbor? The Good Samaritan
A lawyer stood up to test Him: "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke 10:25). Jesus turned him to the law, and the man recited it well — love God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself. But then, "wanting to justify himself," he asked, "And who is my neighbor?" (Luke 10:29). It is the question of a man looking for the edge of his duty — how few may I love and still be safe?
So Jesus told of a man beaten by robbers and left half dead on the Jericho road. A priest saw him and passed by on the other side; a Levite did the same. Then a Samaritan — the despised half-breed, the very last man a Jewish lawyer would have chosen — came, "and when he saw him, he had compassion" (Luke 10:33). He bound the wounds, carried the man to an inn, and paid for his care. Then Jesus turned the lawyer's question inside out. The man had asked, "Who is my neighbor?" — whom am I obliged to love? Jesus asked instead, "Which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?" (Luke 10:36). The answer could only be, "He who showed mercy." — "Go and do likewise" (Luke 10:37). Do not ask who qualifies as your neighbor; be a neighbor, and let your mercy cross every line, as the Samaritan crossed the deepest line of all.
Yet love for the neighbor must spring from love for the Lord. In the very next scene Martha was "distracted with much serving" while her sister Mary sat at Jesus' feet to hear His word. Martha complained, but Jesus answered, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed," and said Mary had chosen "that good part, which will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:41–42). The mercy of the Samaritan and the stillness of Mary belong together: true service flows from sitting at the feet of Jesus.
3. Lost and Found: The Heart of Grace
The Pharisees grumbled: "This Man receives sinners and eats with them" (Luke 15:2). In answer Jesus told three parables of the lost being found. A shepherd leaves the ninety-nine and goes after the one lost sheep "until he finds it," and comes home rejoicing (Luke 15:4–6). A woman sweeps the house and searches until she finds her one lost coin, and calls her friends to rejoice (Luke 15:8–9). And the point of both: "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents" (Luke 15:10).
Then comes the crown of the three. A younger son demanded his inheritance, went to a far country, and wasted it all, until he was feeding pigs and longing for their food. "But when he came to himself" (Luke 15:17) he resolved, "I will arise and go to my father," rehearsing his confession. And here the parable breaks every expectation: "when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him" (Luke 15:20). In that world a grown man of standing did not run; the father's running is undignified, scandalous grace. Before the boy could finish his speech the father called for the best robe, a ring, sandals, the fatted calf — not a hired servant's place, but a son's. Grace does not wait at the door with folded arms; it runs to meet the returning sinner.
But the story does not end there. The elder brother, dutiful and cold, refused to go in: "these many years I have been serving you... yet you never gave me a young goat" (Luke 15:29). He had stayed home and still missed the father's heart, resenting the grace shown to his brother. He is the grumbling Pharisee, and the parable is left open — the father pleads with him, but we never learn whether he came in. The same heart appears in another parable: a Pharisee thanked God he was not like other men, while a tax collector beat his breast and cried, "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" Jesus said this man went home justified rather than the other, "for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 18:13–14).
4. I Am the Resurrection and the Life
Then, in Bethany, came the greatest sign of all. Lazarus, whom Jesus loved, fell sick; yet when word came, Jesus stayed two more days where He was (John 11:6), so that by the time He arrived Lazarus had been four days dead. Martha met Him: "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." Jesus answered with the fifth great I AM: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live" (John 11:25). He does not merely grant resurrection; He is it. Martha answered with her own confession: "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God" (John 11:27). He had let Lazarus die on purpose, He told the disciples, "that you may believe" (John 11:15); and at the tomb He reminded Martha, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" (John 11:40).
At the tomb came the shortest verse in Scripture: "Jesus wept" (John 11:35). He knew He would raise Lazarus within the hour, and still He wept — real tears at a real grave. As God He is the resurrection; as man He weeps with the grieving. Then He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!" (John 11:43), and the dead man came out, still bound in his graveclothes. "Loose him, and let him go."
And here is the terrible irony. Many who saw it believed; but the chief priests and Pharisees, more alarmed than ever, "plotted from that day on to put Him to death" (John 11:53) — and even planned to kill Lazarus too (John 12:10). The greatest sign of life became the trigger of the plot of death. The One who raises the dead walked on, steadily, toward His own grave.
5. The Heart of God on the Road to a Cross
The road to Jerusalem reveals two things at once. It shows the heart of God — a grace that seeks the lost sheep, sweeps for the lost coin, and runs down the road to a returning son, and that justifies the tax collector who cries for mercy. And it shows the power of the Son — the resurrection and the life, who calls the dead from the tomb. Both press straight toward the cross: the grace will be bought there, and the sign of Lazarus's life will seal the decision to kill Him.
And the divine/human pattern stands plain. He who is the resurrection wept at a grave; He who receives sinners set His face to die for them. So the road asks of us what it asked then: come home like the prodigal, cry for mercy like the tax collector, and believe in the One who is the resurrection and the life. The road runs toward a grave, but it is the road of life.