True Saving Grit

       The remake of the John Wayne classic “True Grit” was a masterful modern western starring Beau Bridges in the iconic role of Rooster Cogburn.  There has been much thought and discussion regarding which version was better, or maybe which one has the most grit.  As a connoisseur of the western genre I must say I found each version to have plenty of grit.  But when I consider the deepest meaning of what it is to have “true” grit I find Cogburn to be insufficient.  The ultimate sufficiency of a man with the truest grit comes to us in the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Luke.  Luke 9:51 says, “when the time had come for Jesus to be received up, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.”  

The city of Jerusalem was a dangerous city for Jesus to enter.  His fiercest opponents were there and controlled much of the city.  The Scribes and Pharisees could lie about Him and manipulate people to oppose Him in that city which was under their leadership.  Jesus and His disciples knew the danger involved with walking right into the center of the trap His enemies had laid out for Him.  And Jesus knew everything that was awaiting Him.  He knew He would be betrayed, falsely arrested, and maligned.  He knew He would be mercilessly beaten and tortured.  He knew He would be scourged and crucified.  And yet knowing that all of this awaited Him in the city of Jerusalem we see that beforehand, “He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.”  Isaiah 50:7 prophesied in the 8th century BC that this day would come.  He delivered these words from the Messiah, “I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed.”  Jesus knew all that He would face and yet He set His face like a flint toward it all.  His face was determined as He looked toward the city of Jerusalem.  His face was resolute like an impression chiseled in stone.  His mind was made up that He would fulfill the mission for which He came.  Any calculations or thoughts were already completed and could not change.  There was only one thing left for Him to do:  die to accomplish the mission.  That is true grit.

Why was Jesus so resolute?  Why was He so determined to achieve that which was so difficult?  Why did He have so much grit?  Luke tells us in verse 51, “the time had come for Him.”  This was the God-appointed moment for which Jesus was born.  He did not “come to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45) according to the plan which was made “before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4).  As a matter of fact the plan was settled in His mind before He ever came to earth in that He was the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8).  Jesus set His face toward death when He set His face toward Jerusalem.  And what Jesus did that day is not only grit but it is true saving grit.  For He “has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).