Devotions for Holy Week PALM SUNDAY John 12 : 12 19 From the Heart The week that leads up to the single most impactful event of all eternity is referred to as Holy Week. It begins with the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem and ends with His triumph over sin and death. This week contains much teaching from Jesus concerning salvation and the Kingdom of God it includes the celebration of the Passover Meal, the shocking arrest of Christ, the humiliating and fraudulent trials, the gruesome beating and ultimate crucifixion of Christ, and the amazing resurrection of our Savior. What a week! As we begin our daily focus on Holy Week, consider that in this week our Holy, Holy, Holy Father in heaven delivers His Holy Son into the hands of sinful men...the sinful men, who through His death and resurrection, now have a means of being holy as God has commanded through faith in Him. On Palm Sunday a large crowd gathers to celebrate the entry of Christ into the city of Jerusalem, one of the many prophecies that will be fulfilled this week. For Scripture says, Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey s colt! Much of this crowd has either witnessed the recent resurrection of Lazarus from the grave or heard valid testimony of it, and they have come to see the one who raised him from the dead. As they celebrate His entrance into the city they shout, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel! Of course we must ask ourselves why the very people who celebrated Him and called Him their King will within the week shout, Crucify Him! They clearly are focused on what they want in a king and not on what they need in a savior. Their shouts sound worshipful, but their actions will reveal that they shout from self-centered hearts and not hearts devoted to God. We will gather today and shout (sing) the very words of the people in Jerusalem, but we must ask God to reveal our hearts to us so that we may know if our hearts are self-centered or Christ-centered. Praise our Lord Who offers forgiveness for the sin of our hearts. As you focus on Holy Week, plan a time each day for the rest of the week to do the same. MONDAY Mark 11 : 15 19 On Mission? As Palm Sunday ends, a pattern develops that Jesus continues much of this week. He spends His nights in Bethany, traveling in and out of Jerusalem through the Kidron Valley as He shares with His disciples along the way and teaches in the temple during the day. On Monday morning we find him entering Jerusalem and going to the temple that He had briefly visited late on Sunday. He is clearly displeased at finding people selling and buying goods inside the temple, so He dramatically overturns the tables of the money-changers and prohibits anyone from carrying any goods through the temple. His response is truly shocking to us as it must have been to the disciples and all who witnessed His actions. We have not read of Him acting this way previously, and because this is so unique in what we know about Him, we must take note at what caused Him to respond in this way. His verbal response gives us insight into the issue at hand: Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations? But you have made it a den of robbers. We can conclude that Christ was adamant concerning the purpose and use of the temple. He was committed to preserving it as a house of prayer, pointing to the ultimate fulfillment of the promise that there will be, standing before the throne and the Lamb with palm branches in hand, those from every nation. All tribes and peoples and languages will be crying out, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! This is the mission of the church, to take the Gospel to all nations. As we consider His shocking response we ask ourselves, are we on mission? Are we focused on being people of prayer who are seeking the fulfillment of the mission of the church? Are we personally and corporately prioritizing this great mission or have we compromised and embraced other agendas? If so, what would be His response to us today?
TUESDAY Mark 12 : 28 34 The Greatest Commandment? As Jesus taught each day in the temple, He was repeatedly challenged by different groups and leaders such as the Sadducees and the Pharisees. Often the Tuesday of Holy Week is referred to as the Day of Controversies to describe the questions that Jesus encountered. There was one question and answer in particular that caused the challengers to stop their questions. After His response to this one question no one dared to ask Him any more questions. The question came from one of the scribes, well-versed in the law who by Jesus own declaration was not far from the Kingdom of God. He asked Jesus, Which commandment is the most important of all? So in front of all of these religious leaders who were trying to catch Jesus in violation of the law, this scribe asks what is the most important of all things that we must do (commandments). Jesus replies saying, The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The scribe acknowledges Jesus answer to be correct and adds that these two commandments are more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. Why did this cause the leaders to stop their questions? Clearly Jesus just changed the focus from outward acts of religion to the issue of the heart. This presents us with a healthy challenge today. We often fall into the trap of being consumed with what we must do to be right with God, when in reality the primary issue is loving Him with ALL of our hearts, souls, minds and strength. Praise God that He sent us His Spirit, Who loves Him fully and Who leads us to love Him more and more by convicting us of loving other things, then granting to us full love for Him. Let this question cause us to pause as well: Do I love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind and strength? Let s ask the Lord to reveal our hearts to us that we may know when we are falling in love with the things of this earth and not loving Him fully. Then we can destroy these idols and passions in our lives, and in the Spirit of God, love our neighbors as well. WEDNESDAY Matthew 22 : 1 14 Few Are Chosen As we look through the Gospels for a timeline of Holy Week events, it is challenging to determine specifically what happens on Wednesday. It is often referred to as Spy Wednesday in reference to Judas agreeing to betray Jesus, or Silent Wednesday because many Bible scholars have concluded that Jesus rested in Bethany on this day. This gives us an opportunity to look back at an overview of what Jesus has been teaching this week. In the last week of His life we hear parables about the two sons working in the vineyard, the tenants who beat the servants, the wedding feast, the ten virgins and the talents. Each of these are parables concerning the Kingdom of God. In the parable of the wedding feast, a king invites people to the feast, but they would not come. So he sent his servants to tell the invited guests the feast was ready, and they still would not come and even turned on the servants and killed them. Therefore the king took vengeance on the murderers and told his servants to go to the main roads and gather people to come to the feast. At the feast the king confronts one attendant about not wearing the proper wedding garment and he sends him to the place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. The summation of the parable: many are called, few are chosen is challenging and revealing. Our God has extended the Gospel to the world, which has rejected it, and persecuted and killed His servants. So God brings the least of men into His Kingdom. Having the proper wedding garment is a reference that we must be clothed with Christ to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. When I read this parable I am overwhelmed that God would choose me and by His Spirit irresistibly draw me unto Himself for salvation by providing for me the wedding garment that I do not own being clothed with Christ. Take some time today to read in Matthew 21, 22 and 25 the parables that Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God. Thank Him that He has not only chosen you but He has also given you what you need to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and that is the righteousness of Christ.
MAUNDY THURSDAY John 13 : 31 35 Love One Another We call this day Maundy Thursday based on one of the statements that Jesus made to his disciples during the celebration of the Passover meal. It is recorded in John 13 that after Jesus washed the feet of the disciples and taught them to serve one another as He has served them, He then told them of a betrayer among them. The disciples are shocked and amazed that any of them would do such a thing. After Judas leaves, Jesus declares to them that He will only be with them a little while longer. So He gives them a new command, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. This is where we get the word Maundy which means mandate (mandatom in Latin). This new commandment (mandate) to love one another as He has loved us is followed up with a powerful statement, By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. The most powerful testimony we have to the world of our relationship with Christ is not our church membership or attendance or giving amount, but our love for one another. Loving one another as Christ loved us is beyond our ability, but praise God that we have the Holy Spirit living within us, and the fruit of His presence in our life is love. May we not grieve the Spirit and inhibit ourselves from loving one another as Christ loved us. May the world know that we are His by our love for one another, and all that is written in Scripture of Him is true. Today is one of the few days in our year that we can literally celebrate and do what Christ did and taught us to do...celebrate communion in remembrance of Him. As we prepare to gather this evening for communion, ask God to reveal to you where you may not be loving others as Christ loves you. In keeping with scriptural preparation for communion, be reconciled to all your brothers and sisters as you come to the table. GOOD FRIDAY Matthew 27 : 45 56 Why Have You Forsaken Me? There is a part of me that has always struggled with calling the day Christ was beaten and crucified Good Friday. We will gather together at noon today for one of my favorite services where we will read and hear the events of the day as well as the last words of Christ. As much as I cherish this service and these Scriptures, I am always grieved and saddened by what my Savior went through. It just doesn t feel good. Don t get me wrong, I certainly understand why we call it Good Friday and it is absolutely good. However, as we read the encounter of what happened that day, it just feels inconsistent and confusing. I believe part of that confusion comes from my man-centered temporal perspective as opposed to a God-centered eternal perspective. I wish He didn t have to die and certainly not in that manner. All the alternatives I come up with in my mind ref lect my failure to fully understand sin. For He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed. Our sin demanded such a sacrifice, our sin required the defeat of death. God had to lay on Him, the only just and righteous One, our iniquity. When we hear the words of our Lord, My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me? we realize that the true pain and anguish of the cross was not due to the cruel physical punishment He was willingly receiving, but that for the first (and last) time Christ was separated from His Father. He not only paid the penalty for our sins, He became sin and thus He was forsaken by our God. God made Him who knew no sin to be sin so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Becoming the righteousness of God and receiving peace with God for all eternity is truly good. So we praise God and thank Christ that all was sacrificed and fulfilled for His glory, making it Good Friday. Can you even begin to imagine what Christ felt when He became sin for you and was therefore forsaken by His Father and our God? Although not directly comparable, shouldn t each of us have such an understanding of our sin and its impact on our lives and on God that we, too, appropriately grieve? Thank God that we, through Christ, receive full and complete forgiveness, as well as His righteousness. Now, that is Good Friday!
SATURDAY Matthew 27 : 62 66 A Day of Soul Searching There is not much told to us in Scripture about the events that took place on the Saturday following Good Friday, but it is safe to assume that the events of the previous day are reverberating throughout the crowded city and dominating the thoughts and conversations of all. Just yesterday the sky turned dark, the earth shook, the rocks were split, the curtain tore in the temple, tombs opened and bodies of saints were raised and appeared to many. Some who witnessed the death of Christ declared that truly this was the Son of God, and many went away in grief. Can you recall what a day was like following a tornado or a hurricane? Do you remember the day after a loved one or famous person died a tragic death? The day after such shocking events are days of reflection, bewilderment and soul searching. What has happened and what does it mean? Some are numb by events such as these and some take action, but all are impacted. In the Gospel of Matthew, we learn that the chief priests and the Pharisees request that Pilate order the tomb be made secure until the third day because the impostor (Jesus) had said, After three days I will rise. They tell Pilate they are not concerned He will rise, but that His disciples will steal His body and say He rose from the dead. They are scared because they underestimated what the death of Christ would mean. Others are most assuredly trying to process such amazing events. This was their Sabbath, and so we are told they rested, and as they rested I am sure they pondered what the death of Christ meant to them personally. Today is not our Sabbath, but it is our day of preparation for our Sabbath Resurrection Day! Spend some time today reading back over the events of Good Friday asking God to give you insight into the cross and the death of Christ. Ponder not only the implications on all mankind, but primarily what this means to you personally. Prepare for gathered worship tomorrow with His children. For tomorrow we gather together and worship our Risen Savior! EASTER SUNDAY Luke 24 : 13 35 Slow of Heart to Believe? Is there a better day in all the earth? Has there ever been a day like it before, and will there ever be a day to come that can equal the power and majesty of Resurrection Day? He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said! With these few words we learn that Christ has defeated sin and death and we conclude that we can trust in all He has said. Our greatest fear (death) has been defeated and our greatest problem (the eternal penalty of death in sin) has been resolved. Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? There are several testimonies of Christ risen from the grave and appearing to His followers on this day. One of these testimonies in Luke describes how He met with two of them on their way to Emmaus. Their eyes were kept from recognizing Him as He walked and talked with them. They shared with Him that they had hoped Christ would be the one to redeem Israel but that He had been crucified. Even though they had heard testimonies already that day of His resurrection, they just couldn t believe or understand what was going on. We read that Christ said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe... He then shared with them why His crucifixion was necessary, and He interpreted to them all the Scriptures concerning Himself. These words ring true in my mind as I often sense that the Spirit says to me, O foolish one and slow of heart to believe. On this Resurrection Day, do my heart, my words, and my life ref lect I have been redeemed by a living Savior, or do I go through the motions as these disciples did, sharing testimony of a risen Christ but not embracing, understanding or reflecting the power of His resurrection? Praise God that He does for us what Christ did for them. By His Spirit He opens our hearts and minds and, beginning with Moses and the prophets, He interprets to us all the Scriptures concerning Himself. May He continue to teach us this morning as we gather to worship Him! While there has never been a day like this before, there will be a day to come that also displays the power and majesty of Resurrection Day. That is the day that He returns and takes us home to be with Him for all eternity. Ask the Lord to open your heart and mind today to a deeper understanding of our Savior and to grant you a deep longing and expectation of that glorious day to come. Come quickly, Lord Jesus!