Departure

“who, appearing in glory, were speaking of His departure which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem”  Luke 9:31

Departure – Too often in our English translations we are deprived of images that the authors intended us to see in their Greek words.  This is one of those times.   Luke is recounting the conversation between Jesus, Moses and Elijah during the transfiguration.  He tells us that they were conversing about a special event.  The word that he uses in Greek is exodus.  Luke’s choice of words points us to something that every Jewish reader would instantly recognize.  Jesus’ death was to be the new exodus, the new moment when the children of God were removed from the land of this world and ushered into God’s promised land. 

Salvation is intimately tied to transportation.  Peter calls us resident aliens, people who are citizens of another world but temporarily living in this one.  Paul points to our eternal home while suffering with the traumas of this life.  John uses the preposition eis to describe “believing in”.  It carries the thought of movement from one place to another (going into).  Over and over we are confronted with the imagery of moving from one realm to another.  And the first person to cross over was Jesus himself.   This is why John’s gospel constantly calls the death on the cross the glory of God.  On that cross, Jesus parted the sea of sin to let all God’s children cross over on dry land.  On the cross, Jesus became the true Passover Lamb who took away the sins of the world.  On the cross, Jesus’ blood was posted above every believer as a sign of safety.  There is no exodus without the cross.

Have you departed from this world?  Have you made your own exodus, crossing over with Jesus, through His death into the promised land of God’s kingdom?  It is not an accidental journey.  In order to travel with Jesus, you must leave your old world behind in Egypt and step where the waters have been parted. 

Exodus begins the journey that God has in mind.  Leave now.