A WORD FOR TODAY, March 30, 2021
Peggy Hoppes
We pray you have been blessed by this daily devotion. If you received it from a friend, you can see other devotions and studies by visiting our website at www.awordfortoday.org.
Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, March 30, 2021
“They came again to Jerusalem, and as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him, and they began saying to him, ‘By what authority do you do these things? Or who gave you this authority to do these things?’ Jesus said to them, ‘I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John—was it from heaven, or from men? Answer me.’ They reasoned with themselves, saying, ‘If we should say, “From heaven;” he will say, “Why then did you not believe him?” If we should say, “From men”’—they feared the people, for all held John to really be a prophet. They answered Jesus, ‘We don’t know.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.’” Mark 11:27-33, WEB
Jesus had shown Himself to be the Messiah by doing the very things that the Jews believed only the Messiah could do. He healed a Jewish leper. He gave sight to a man born blind. He cast a demon out of a man who was deaf and dumb. Then He raised Lazarus who was dead for four days. The Triumphant Entry made them even more desperate to prove Jesus was not the One because they saw how the people were getting caught up in the excitement of His coming. They were afraid that it would lead to rebellion, that it would be dangerous for the Jews. They questioned Him repeatedly from the first messianic miracle; they were going to through a process to prove or disprove His claims, though they didn’t really believe He was the One. Despite fulfilling all their expectations, Jesus did not fit into their understanding of the Messiah and they sought a way to be rid of Him.
Jesus didn’t make it any easier for them to believe. He was controversial. Whenever He breezed through a town or village, many would follow and listen. However, there were those who did not believe Jesus came from God. His own village rejected Him. Many claimed He was of Satan. Some tried to stone Him for the things He said and did. The teachers in the temple as well as other religious leaders began to fear his power over people.
The life and ministry of our Lord Jesus was filled with incredible signs, wonders and teachings. From the first miracle at Canaan when he changed water into wine, to the raising of Lazarus from the dead, and everything in between, Jesus showed Himself to be different from anyone the world had ever seen. When He taught in the temple and on the hillsides, people were amazed at the Word as it came alive before them. Jesus helped people understand that there was a better way of living and that there was a deeper meaning to the scriptures.
The people saw Jesus as the answer to their prayers. They sought a Messiah, someone who would set them free from the oppression of the Roman invaders of their land. They wanted to be a free nation again and live as they did during the Golden Age of Solomon their king. As Jesus gained in fame and following, His disciples pleaded with Him to go to Jerusalem and claim His place. They knew that there were enough people to support Him, and that they would fight to give Him the position they felt He had come to fill. However, Jesus did not go to Jerusalem until it was the right time. As the Passover of His third year of ministry approached, Jesus knew the time had come for Him to fulfill the promise of His Father.
Jesus entered Jerusalem to shouts of “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!” The people were excited, pulling palms from the trees to wave and throwing cloaks in the path of the donkey on which He rode. Some of the Pharisees rebuked Jesus, telling Him to quiet the crowd. Jesus answered, “I tell you that if these were silent, the stones would cry out.” These words made the Jewish leaders more upset about the work Jesus Christ was doing in their town. The plot thickened as they sought ways to remove Jesus not only from Jerusalem, but also from the hearts and minds of the people.
Jesus’ answers had a way of cutting right to the heart of a situation. Unfortunately, the Pharisees did not understand the kingdom of God, so they were not seeing Jesus for who He was. Jesus was upset by the state of the Temple. It was a holy week, Passover. The temple courts were filled with merchants selling animals to the pilgrims so they could offer their sacrifices. Certainly some of the merchants were less than honorable about their products, their weights and conversions. Sin after sin was causing disgrace in God’s house. The worst was that the Temple was no longer a place to come to know God, but rather to attend to the works of men.
Jesus was a great storyteller. The people sat mesmerized when He spoke the word of God in ways that touched their life and experience. He used examples of their everyday life: vineyards, yeast, animals, clothes, building, treasures, farming, friends and money. He used the things in this world that they knew to share the Kingdom of God. The crowds were drawn to Him and the children delighted in His presence. These parables of Jesus always had a spiritual message, but were presented in a tangible way so that the people who heard them with a heart of faith understood the promise of God for their life.
The bible shares more words about the Tuesday of Holy Week than any other day in the history of the world. It was a day of controversy and stories. Jesus spent time in the temple teaching, and the leaders sent men to catch Jesus in some sort of crime so that they might have him arrested. His authority was questioned and He was set up with the question about taxes. He warned of false teachers and the end of the age, so that we could recognize the times prophesied throughout God’s Word. As He spoke these words, the leaders became more determined to be rid of Him, but He seemed untouchable.
Not everyone received His words with a heart of faith. The leadership often heard the stories of Jesus as condemnation of them. They were threatened by Jesus’ focus on submission, poverty and forgiveness. They were offended by His insinuation that their obedience was not righteousness, but rather was the act of self-righteous hypocrites. With every word, they became angrier at what they heard and their hearts hardened even more. It is said that the same sun that melts ice hardens clay. Those who had the heart to believe understood that the Kingdom of God was about power in our weakness, hope in our affliction and repentance from our old ways of life. Many did not hear the grace of Jesus’ message and they sought a way to end His ministry.
While Tuesday is the most written about day, the Bible is silent about what Jesus did the Wednesday before Passover. 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 reached? I would have felt a desperate need to continue the ministry until the very last moment, to reach as many as possible. Jesus knew a better way. He spent the evenings during Holy Week in Bethany, at the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha. It is likely that Jesus and His friends spent a quiet day in prayer and fellowship on Wednesday at that place.
Jesus may have rested on Wednesday after a busy Tuesday, but the rest of the world was in tumult. In Jerusalem, the leaders were plotting against Jesus. We do not know exactly when Judas went to the Temple to offer to help, however it could have been on Wednesday. The leaders were already hardened against the message, but at this point the people were also beginning to turn away from Jesus. He was no longer fulfilling their desires. He was preparing them to accept the ultimate sacrifice.
Through it all, Jesus remained calm and in control, preparing His heart for that moment when He would take all our sins, including those committed against Him in these final moments, on His shoulders. This week is often busy as we make our own preparations for Easter Sunday, with extra worship and dozens of errands. Jesus reminds us, however, to take time during these final days of Lent to rest and to pray, to open our hearts to the incredible gift of life that Jesus won for us by taking our sin to the cross.
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. Like the page to receive the devotion through Facebook. For information and to access our archives, visit http://www.awordfortoday.org.
Blessings. Peg