Simply Read: Day 3

The Road to Jerusalem

It's day 3 of Simply Read, an 8-day Bible reading challenge adapted from the ESV Reader’s Bible, Six-Volume Set aimed at helping us set aside time—prolonged time—to immerse ourselves in God’s Word as we enter this holiday season.

Today, we see a distinct turn in Jesus’s ministry: he sets his face toward Jerusalem, intent on completing the work the Father sent him to accomplish before the time comes for him to be “taken up.” With the ultimate test of his devotion to the Father looming large on the horizon, Jesus exhorts his disciples to “not fear those who kill the body” but instead cast all of their anxieties on God, “for life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.”

Unbeknownst to his disciples, Jesus is drawing near to the central work of his earthly ministry—the singular act that all of his teaching and healing was ultimately pointing toward. What’s more, it’s the ultimate sacrifice the Old Testament foreshadowed: “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.”

Simply Read

Download today’s reading. It should take you about 29 minutes to complete.

To follow along with today’s reading in your own copy of the ESV Reader’s Bible, Six-Volume Set, read pages 169–198.


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