Today you will be with Me in paradise… (Luk 23:34)

After the Southern Highway through Africa, as we were preparing for the first part of the Northern Highway, some-one suggested that I look at the seven things Jesus said on the cross before he died and see if there might be some correlation with the character of the different highways.

In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark Jesus is quoted only as saying: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mat 27:46 & Mar 15:34) For me there was a clear parallel between these words and what we witnessed on the two journeys through Africa. In many places we felt that Africa was echoing this very call as it was groaning under the curse of corruption, poverty and disease.

The Northern Highway Part One similarly bore a lot of relation to the first cross word of Jesus in Luke 23:34: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” This was personified in the fateful encounter with the biting lemming at the northern tip of Europe, and the theme could be traced al the way to the corrupt Russian border officials and the cheating Turkish hotel mongers.

The second part of the Northern Highway starting from Greenland was characterized by relationship and the unity of the body of Christ. This reminded a lot of when Jesus told Mary and John that they were to regard one another as son and mother (John 19:26-27).

On praying about the Western Highway I felt the cross word for the Americas is found in Luke 23:43 where Jesus tells the criminal that is crucified with Him: “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Again this word forms a central theme in the mandate for this specific Highway. In this word Jesus essentially told the Good News to the sinner who was about to die with Him: “today I am becoming the Way for you to go to the Father with Me”. As has been the mandate for the Northern Highway Part 2, where I told the Gospel to all creation at the Ends of the Earth in the North, the Good News about the Highway that is Jesus has to be told to the Western End of the Earth. Based on this I feel led to read at least the Gospel of John aloud in every country and territory, and to read other parts of the New Testament as the opportunity arises. I also feel this might be the most evangelistic highway so far, and that we should be open to share the good news with people we meet along the way.