Growing up in a Baptist church, my family observed Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I remember loving the Good Friday service especially…it was dark and somber. The shades in the sanctuary were drawn. The worship team wore black. There was a black piece of crepe fabric draped across the Cross.
And every year, at the end of the service, we watched a video. I would leave the sanctuary in tears and covered in goosebumps, embodying Paul’s exhortation to “mourn as those who have hope.”
As an adult, I fell in love with Ash Wednesday for the same reasons I love Good Friday, and it made me wonder. Are there other parts of the Lent and Easter narrative that I am missing?
Insert Holy Week.
Every moment of Jesus’s life – recorded or not – was intentional. Everything He said and did had purpose and a meaning deeper than we can ever humanly comprehend. And the week leading up to His death – an event He knew was coming – is saturated with more significance than I have words to convey.
I can’t give you every event contained in the last week of Jesus’s earthly life. But I can do this for you – I can give you this guide, and pray it helps you discover more in this week than you knew existed.
So grab your Bible and a notebook, or just set aside a minute or two of time to read the Scripture here - all of it is linked for you! Each day will be published separately and early each morning. Hop onto the email list, if you want it delivered straight to your inbox!
Blessings on your Holy Week, dear one. It is meant for you.
This day is all about tearing down religion, and Jesus targets two forms of it.
The first is fruitless religion.
Read: Matthew 21.18-22
Fig trees produce leaves and figs at the same time. A fig tree with leaves and no figs is a barren fig tree, and a barren fruit tree is of no use.
Read: Galatians 5.19-26
A human being who has met God and walking in-step with the Holy Spirit produces fruit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Read: Matthew 7.15-20
How do we know if a human has fruit? We look at their life.
Love. Agape. Unconditional affection. The Hebrew translates this literally as “love feast.”
Joy. Chara. Delight. Gladness for you and over you.
Peace. Eirene. Freedom from rage and the havoc of war. Safety. Harmony and rest.
Patience. Makeothymia. Translated literally as “longsuffering.” Endurance. Steadfastness. Perseverance.
Kindness. Chrestotes. Gentleness. Excellence in character. Integrity.
Goodness. Agathosyne. Upright of heart and in life. Righteous.
Faithfulness. Pistis. Conviction of the truth in your belief. Holy fervor in relationship with God. Reliable.
Gentleness. Praotes. Meek. Wholly reliant on God and His sovereignty to defend against injustice.
Self-control. Egkrateia. One who has mastered his desires and passions. Restraint.
Together, these are our fig. Yes, fig singular. These appear together and grow together. Without evidence of them, all we have are leaves.
So what are leaves? Religion.
Church every Sunday. Church only on major religious holidays. Just enough confession to not feel guilty. Youth group every Wednesday. Baptism, first communion, confirmation. Communion monthly. Singing and lifting your hands because that’s what you’re “supposed” to do. Believing those who do not do these things are “unsaved” at best, “heathens” at worst. Confessing the same sin of “pride” every week in small group.
Building a community that looks just like you (i.e. a congregation of married white people with three or four kids, in the upper-middle class, and half whom homeschool). Starting a “read the Bible in one year plan” because your group is doing it, failing to keep up, and feeling like a failure. Drowning in shame with each occurrence of masturbation, pornography, or erotica. Never questioning the pastor or priest’s words or sermon. Talking to God and never waiting quietly for His response. Believing healing and salvation are one-time occurrences at the time of conversion. Not taking an active role in maturing as a believer.
Despite appearances, lacking spiritual fruit is a rejection of Christ Jesus as Savior.
Jesus cursed this kind of fig tree. Jesus cursed this kind of religion.
The second is corrupt religion.
Read: Mark 11.15-19
Jesus is clearing the Temple of those abusing a sacred place of worship. That’s the most commonly taught interpretation of this event. And that’s not wrong!
But it’s also not all.
See, there’s levels of consequences the marketplace in the Court of Gentiles has.
Level One: the Gentiles trying to worship God have no place or space to do so.
Level Two: the poor Jews desiring to go into the Court of Women or the Court of Israel could do so only if they could afford the animal sacrifice.
Level Three: the Jews could either go bankrupt getting right with God or provide for themselves and their families by becoming unclean outcasts from their communities.
Read: Psalm 65.1-4
Living in the Holy Courts was relationship for those who lived before the Crucifixion of Christ. To not be in them was to be apart from their Maker – a reality that resulted only in misery, sorrow, agony, anguish, and calamity.
Read: John 14.6
It doesn’t get much clearer than this. Jesus is the Gate. And on this first day of the last week of His life, He removed the gatekeepers.
See, religion becomes corrupt when religion keeps people from God Almighty.
That’s Level Four. Exclusivity. A select group of humans deciding who can and cannot meet with God.
And spoiler alert – that never ended well in the Biblical record.
Read: 1 Samuel 4:27-34
The Lord will turn His face from those who defile His place, His name, and His people. He has done it before, and He will do it again.
When we tell singles they are not as whole as married folks, when we tell unmarried men they are unfit biblical leaders, when we expel divorcees from the church, we are keeping people from Christ.
When we tell women who work that they are not Biblical women, when we demand women be subservient to men in order to obey God, when we demand men be authoritarian to be Biblical fathers, we keep people from Christ.
When we try to pray away the gay, when we exclude the Holy Spirit’s ability to sanctify our sexuality, when we ignore the teenager struggling with their gender identity, we keep people from God.
When we pray for a disabled person to function like a “normal person,” when we serve communion in ways inaccessible for a wheelchair, when we spend millions on a church building’s cosmetics without addressing accessibility issues, we are gatekeeping the sacred place of Christ.
Jesus denounced this kind of religion. Jesus condemned this gatekeeping corrupting His House and His Body.
Not a single one of us is perfect, so we all have seasons of fruitlessness and participate in moments of gatekeeping. On the day where Jesus condemned both, let us repent.
Lord God, the One Who Sees and the One who Forgives,
Thank You for coming down to humanity – to me – out of love. For desiring my soul above all else, I will praise You endlessly.
I confess to holding onto fruitless religion. I confess to propping up my image with religious activities, and I confess to going through the motions. I have put on leaves in an effort to appear like a good tree. I have put on leaves to hide from others, much like Adam in Eve put on leaves to hide from You.
Forgive me.
I confess to playing a part in corrupt religion, to believing only certain people can have access to You. I confess to supporting institutions that are built on gatekeeping Your Presence and Your Truth, and I confess to dismissing those who have named it and called it out.
Forgive me.
On this day where You condemned those who live a fruitless and corrupt Christianity, purify my heart. Teach me to seek first and always living in Your house all the days of my life, delighting in Your character and meditating in Your Temple (Psalm 27.4).
Hosanna, Lord. Come and save me!
See you tomorrow 🖤