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 all 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 intent 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 – it’s all 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.
The drama of Holy Tuesday amounts to a small novella, but I’m going to do my best to keep it condensed without missing the depth.
If Jesus’s actions on Monday were about making His Temple accessible for all people, His mission on Tuesday was to hold the authority who defiled His name accountable.
In the Temple
Read: Matthew 21.23-27
This entire confrontation was an attempt to put Jesus in His place. A place that denied His personhood, His Divinity, and had no Biblical grounds. It was an attempt to make Jesus yield to their command and accept their ideology.
The pastors questioned His motives. The elders attempted to intimidate by outnumbering Him. The staff supposed to minister to others tried to discredit His ministry.
And they failed. Miserably and hilariously.
See, Jesus responded to their accusations with questions, and in the process, He exposed their hearts. He did not back down or capitulate. He spoke Truth to power, turned their evil aside, and continued teaching. He revealed that the Temple authorities only wanted the truth if it supported their views.
The spiritual authority for the Jewish people had lied, and they had no choice but to look their deception in the face because Jesus did all this seated and surrounded by those He had healed the day before – witnesses and testaments to the power spiritual transformation has in a person’s life. Day-to-day, Jesus remained consistent.
Read: Matthew 21.43-46
Jesus shared three parables that morning (the Parable of the Two Sons, the Parable of the Wicked Tenants, and the Parable of the Wedding Feast), and when questioned by the priests and elders, what you just read was His response.
The religious leaders then asked Jesus a series of questions in another attempt to trap Him and discredit His life, His identity, and His experience. He named their behavior, and then said, “You do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”
Read: Matthew 23.1-15
Jesus warns the people about the religious leaders, and then Jesus condemns those religious leaders. Yesterday, Jesus condemned actions. Today, He condemns the one doing it.
There’s much more to Chapter 23 than what I have above, and I’d encourage you to read it! Here’s the gist, though.
“You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead man’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”
It is easy to read this, and shrug. “I’m not a teacher, an elder, a pastor, or on church staff,” we say. “Surely Jesus cannot be talking about me.”
Read: Luke 10.17-21
The moment we invited Jesus into our heart, we were given authority over evil and the power of the Godhead in the name of Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit.
We might not have a title, position, or platform. But if we claim to follow Jesus Christ, if we claim to be a Christian, then we are claiming His authority, and we are also held to the standard of those Jesus so harshly criticized, corrected, and condemned.
On the Mount
When Jesus was finished with those abusing power in His name in His Temple, He headed for the Mount of Olives.
Read: Matthew 24.1-8
Most of Jesus’s teachings on Tuesday evening concern the End Times. It reflects what is written in Daniel and parallels what John would see in Revelation.
It was a fulfillment of Zachariah’s prophecies, and it is no accident that Jesus encouraged His disciples – the ones about to becomes leaders of His Church – to be consistent in how they lived.
See, Jesus required the foundations of His Church to be undivided in their devotion to Him. That is how they lived prepared for the day Jesus would come back in glory. That is how we are to live as we wait for Jesus to return and claim us as His own.
A leader with no integrity has no authority.
That was the problem with the Temple leaders and the popular Jewish teachers and writers of the day. They had no soundness of theology. No incorruptibility of character. Integrity did not exist in the religious leaders.
Jesus took time in His final days to explicitly exhort His disciples to be different.
Jesus ended His discourse with Four Parables. I’ll summarize them for us – feel free to read the whole passage, though!
A faithful servant takes good care of the other servants in the household, and the house flourishes because the servants expect the master to return the next day. When the master returns, the faithful servant is rewarded.
False security will result in our destruction. Doing nothing as we wait is living irresponsibly.
A wise woman takes oil with her lamp, so she is always ready when her bridegroom arrives, no matter the hour. She knows that to miss him is to miss everything.
We are each responsible for our own spiritual condition, and we must each choose a relationship with God. Our faith walk belongs to no one but us.
A good and faithful servant knows that he must give an account of himself one day to his master, so he works hard with what has been entrusted to him.
God has given us each ability and talent that will not overwhelm us, and we are responsible for using it well. Failure comes either from laziness or rejection of God.
The sheep have used their life to freely give and freely receive. They obeyed God’s command to be personally involved in caring for the needs of others, and they gave their time, talent, and resources to do so. The goats, however, have no heart for the work of the Kingdom, and they bore no fruit. The goats, though they grazed with the sheep, are pretenders and unbelievers, neglecting those with deep needs.
We are caretakers of time, money, energy, food, and talents – not owners. We were designed to give it away for the glory of God.
Conclusion about the Olivet Discourse?
The End is coming, and it is our responsibility to remain ready and watchful, refusing partitions and living with intention. Every. Single. Moment.
Keeping our attention on one thing every day is a big ask for the American with an attention span of 7 seconds and dwindling. It’s a big ask for a generation unwilling to commit for fear of better options. It’s a big ask for a people that has idolized “overwhelm,” and it’s a big ask for a world trained to hoard their time, money, talents, and energy.
And then I remember the power and authority at my fingertips. At the fingertips of any of us who follow Jesus! And I chuckle.
Lord Jesus, Inventor of Character and Justice,
Thank You for accountability. Thank You for protecting those of us who are maimed by the misuse of Your Name by leadership with no integrity. Thank You for using the last days of Your life to reveal Your heart for our hearts.
I confess to doubting that You will hold pastors in the pulpit accountable. I confess to wondering if You care about the falsehoods on the shelves written in Your name. I confess to believing at times that You do not even care.
Forgive me.
You hold humanity accountable. For each one who claims Your Name, calls themselves ‘Christian,’ or decides to teach, speak, or write in Your Name, You hold us accountable.
Forgive us, Lord, for we know not what we do.
You have shown me what it looks like to value Your Words and to treat others through that lens. You have exhorted me to live differently than the religious leaders. You spent the last few days of Your life dismantling their work and preparing Your people to build the Church on Truth.
Forgive us for failing the Church. For hurting Your Body.
Remind me, though, Lord. You did not leave me to fail in Your instructions!
You have given me Your authority and Your power, each and every single day of my life. You desire me to remain ready and watchful, taking ownership of my relationship with You, and giving away what You have given me.
Forgive me for both my inability and my unwillingness. Create in me a new heart, and do not take Your Presence or Spirit from me. Restore in me the desire to build Your Church and care for Your Body. Sustain a willing and undivided spirit within me, Lord.
On this day where You condemned those who lead others astray in Your name, purify my heart. Show me where I have done this, and teach me to seek first and always You. Keep me from searching and listening to only that which matches my view.
I’m another day closer to Your Return, Lord. Hosanna, save me!
See you tomorrow 🖤