He Couldn't Be Held
No one had more understanding of purpose, dedication to mission, or resolve to see it through than Jesus. Seven centuries before he was born it was written, “But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame” (Isa. 50:7, ESV). With face “like a flint,” consider what could not hold him back.
Heaven wouldn’t hold him from helping us. “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38). Word became flesh, Creator invaded creation, the divine came down because “he helps the offspring of Abraham” (Heb. 2:16).
His mother couldn’t hold him for long. “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger…” (Luke 2:7). Humanity was in uncharted waters. Never before had a woman given birth to God’s Son. Never had a baby arrived with the promise that “he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). She watched her Son “pierced for our transgressions” (Isa. 53:5) and, in Simeon’s haunting words, felt a sword’s piercing her own soul (Luke 2:35). Jesus had one mother, but she had to let him go so he could become “the firstborn among many brothers” (Rom. 8:29).
The devil couldn’t hold him from destiny. Jesus told his people he was headed to Jerusalem to suffer, die, and be raised and, when Peter denied it, replied, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (Matt. 16:21-23). Satan couldn’t kill him in Bethlehem, destroy him by temptation in the wilderness, or prevent his rendezvous with suffering in Jerusalem. Jesus came to beat the devil, not bow to him, and therein lies our own ambition.
A physical body couldn’t hold him from willful leaving. “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord…” (John 10:17-18). No man ever said such a thing. No mortal could do such a thing.
The tomb couldn’t hold him past three days. “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it” (Acts 2:24). Friends and enemies knew he was dead, but neither knew resurrection was coming. His death was unavoidable, his resurrection inevitable, and the fact of it incontrovertible. Joseph’s tomb could not hold Jehovah’s Son. Because of that, Jesus’ resurrection guarantees our own (Acts 17:31).
Earth couldn’t hold him after he was raised. Outside the grave, Jesus told Mary Magdalene, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” (John 20:17). Thanks to Calvary, Jesus’ Father can now be our Father. No power, whether measured in gigawatts, kilotons, or demon screeches could prevent Jesus’ return home. He “has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him” (1 Pet. 3:22). Strategy sent him to earth for a cross; victory sent him to heaven for a crown.
Heaven won’t hold him from coming back. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3). “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God…” (1 Thess. 4:16). “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen” (Rev. 1:7). Because he couldn’t be held from saving us, we can be held in the security of his salvation, who said, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28).