A WORD FOR TODAY, March 31, 2026
Peggy Hoppes
We pray you have been blessed by this daily devotion.
Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, March 31, 2026
“Therefore don’t throw away your boldness, which has a great reward. For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise. ‘In a very little while, he who comes will come and will not wait. But the righteous one will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.’ But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul.” Hebrews 10:35-39, WEB
Holy Week is a time for us to think about what this story means for us personally. Why do we bother to read it over and over again, especially in our modern age? We do so because it is still relevant to us. We remember to further understand the importance of what Jesus did, not only for those two thousand years ago, but for them personally.
Jerusalem was packed with people. It was a holy week for the Jews; the festival of Passover was just days away and many people were in town for the feast. The streets were packed; the inns were filled with people who came to worship. This was a time of remembrance, and to be cleansed in the Temple by sacrifice.
It was difficult to travel many miles and take everything needed for the festival, especially the sacrificial animals. Local merchants set up booths to offer birds, sheep, and goats for sale for the convenience of the visiting worshippers. The market was established within the walls of the Temple, in the Gentile court. Moneychangers provided the proper currency for the foreign visitors to use for their offerings.
Jesus had arrived in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to the shouts of acclamation from the crowd, but He knew there were still work to do before the Passover celebration. After His triumphal entry, Jesus went into the temple to look around. What did they see? Was the marketplace a mess of trash, booths, animal droppings, and scattered feed where the moneychangers and merchants did their business? Jesus knew what happened in that place, He had been there before, but this visit really upset Him. He went back to Bethany and had Sunday evening to consider what He would do next. On Monday of Holy Week, they went back to Jerusalem, back to the temple.
If things were quiet Sunday night, Monday evening was likely to have been rather heated. Can you imagine the response of the disciples? “Jesus, what were you thinking? We know that there is work to be done, but why did you walk into the Temple and upset things?” The work of Jesus that week was to teach the people what it meant to have true faith in God. What He saw in the Temple was not what God intended for the holy space where all the nations were welcome to worship Him.
Jesus’ teaching was not unanimously accepted, and the leaders began to plot against Him. Meanwhile, the disciples were probably trying to keep up the momentum of Palm Sunday, encouraging Jesus to be more careful. I’m sure they didn’t want Him rocking any boats. They were not excited about Jesus’ talk of death, and they surely wanted to keep Him alive long enough to accomplish what they thought He was there to do.
Of course, all these thoughts are from my own imagination. We know little about the private moments between Jesus and the disciples. We only know that Jesus was set toward a very specific goal: the cross of humiliation for our sake. We also know that the disciples did not understand the entire story until it was over. We walk with Jesus with hindsight, but I doubt any of us would have been so willing to let Jesus come to any harm if we could help it. The whole world of the disciples was being turned upside down this week. They had walked away from their lives when Jesus called them three years ago. They expected to be part of something lasting, but now their futures were in question. Where would He go tomorrow? What would He say. Who would He upset?
Tuesday of Holy Week is the most written about day in the scriptures. This was a day of controversy and stories. Jesus spent time in the temple teaching, where the leaders sent men to catch Jesus in some sort of crime so that they could arrest Him. His authority was questioned. He was set up with dangerous questions. He warned the people about false teachers and the end of the age, so that those who believed in Him would recognize the times He promised through His promises in the scriptures. As He spoke all these words, the leaders became more determined to be rid of Him, but He seemed untouchable. The people still loved Him, still believed in Him.
The Bible is silent about what Jesus did the day before Passover. While Tuesday is the most written about day, Wednesday has nothing. Jesus knew the time of His death was growing close, why wasn’t He in the Temple trying to reach those that He had not yet touched? I would have felt a desperate need to go continue the ministry until the very last moment, to reach as many as possible. Jesus knew that God would fulfill His purpose in a better way. Jesus spent the evenings during Holy Week in Bethany, at the home of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. There, on Wednesday, it is likely that Jesus and His friends spent a quiet day in prayer and fellowship.
In Jerusalem, the leaders were plotting against Jesus. They had to find a way to rid the city of this man they saw as a threat to their power. We do not know exactly when Judas went to the Temple to offer his help, however it could have been this day. We don’t understand why Judas would betray Jesus. Perhaps he thought that forcing Jesus’ hand would get Him to take his rightful place as king. Judas wanted power but did not understand the kind of power Jesus came to wield. Through the whole story, though, we are reminded that God, and Jesus, had control of every detail, even Judas’ betrayal.
Jesus rested on the Wednesday of Holy Week, and we are encouraged to take time during this busy week to rest with Him. Rest is important so that we can prepare our hearts and minds for the final days of Jesus’ journey through His passion, boldly following Jesus to the cross, knowing the struggles of the next few days will lead to a new beginning for those who have faith in Him.
A WORD FOR TODAY is posted five days a week – Monday through Friday. The devotional on Wednesday takes a look at the scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary for the upcoming Sunday. A WORD FOR TODAY is posted on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Word-for-Today-Devotional/339428839418276.