Holy Week Devotional
This is a series of meditations on what Scripture teaches about each day of Holy Week, which goes from Palm Sunday until Easter, in which Christians everywhere mark the culmination of Jesus Christ’s ministry, His death on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
April 1st, 2023
April 2nd, 2023
April 3rd, 2023
April 4th, 2023 (Part 1)
April 4th, 2023 (Part 2)
April 5th, 2023
April 6th, 2023
April 7th, 2023
April 8th, 2023
April 9th, 2023
April 10th, 2023
April 1st, 2023
THE WORST SIN AND THE GREATEST LOVE
“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” - Psalm 2:1-6
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” - Deuteronomy 6:5
Tomorrow begins Holy Week in which all who hope in Jesus Christ commemorate the end of His ministry on earth, His atoning death, and His resurrection from the dead. In an attempt to help Christians reflect on the events of the most important week in history, I will be posting daily throughout the week. Since Scripture’s coverage of each day varies significantly, I will address the days with less coverage overall while focusing on specific events or details of days with more coverage. Many of the events of that week were prophesied beforehand—some in great detail—showing that God is sovereign over all events and people, and that nothing that happened in Holy Week—or any other time—was an accident but was planned by God before the foundation of the world as part of His plan for salvation. So for Holy Week I will open each post by citing the Old Testament, since all of the Old Testament is about Jesus (Luke 24:44). To start, we need to set the stage by addressing the events immediately before Holy Week.
Plotting the Ultimate Sin
Shortly before Holy Week, Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, which had caused many people to believe in Him. This presented a problem for the Jewish leaders, as it could lead to an uprising that would upset the delicate balance of power. The Jewish leaders at the time enjoyed a significant amount of autonomy from their Roman occupiers, who tolerated their religious differences as long as peace could be maintained. But if that peace was threatened (which was quite possible with the rise of Jesus), the Romans would respond with force, removing the Jewish leaders from power and possibly even destroying the nation as a whole.
Thus, Caiaphas the high priest said
“it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish” - John 11:50b
This seems like an expeditious (albeit cruel) way to resolve their problem, but John is quick to tell us that there was much more going on. The statement from Caiaphas was not merely his own but was actually from God:
“He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.” - John 11:51-52
Recognizing this as a prophecy, the Jewish leaders had two choices. Since the claims that Jesus was Messiah meant He was the rightful King, they should have recalled two situations in which God prophesied that someone currently in power would be replaced by someone else. When David was told He would replace Saul as king, he trusted in God’s methods and timing, not raising a hand against God’s current anointed one despite prime opportunities to do so (1 Samuel 24:6-10, 26:9-23). Conversely, Hazeal immediately used the prophecy of Elisha that he would be king as license to murder the current king of Syria and take over (2 Kings 8:9-15). The Jewish leaders chose the latter, thus committing themselves to killing Jesus, thinking that the ends would justify the means.
Yet even this heinous act—arguably the worst sin in history—was under the sovereignty of God.
“The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will” - Proverbs 21:1
In conspiring to kill Jesus, they were inadvertently fulfilling Psalm 2, raging and plotting in vain against Jesus the Messiah and therefore against God the Father (Psalm 2:1-2)—you can’t oppose one without opposing the other. But God used their wicked plot as the means by which to set King Jesus on the throne of Zion (Psalm 2:6). Still, God’s sovereignty does not absolve anyone of responsibility, especially here. For God will not hold guiltless any who oppose His Anointed (1 Samuel 26:9, Matthew 25:35).
An Incredible Act of Love
The dinner in Bethany the night before Palm Sunday stands in stark contrast to the plotting of the Jewish leaders. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus hosted Jesus at what was likely a feast in His honor following the resurrection of Lazarus. They showed how much Jesus meant to them in their own ways. Martha served the meal, displaying love for Jesus through service to Him. What she had previously seen as a duty (Luke 10:40) she now saw as a joy. Lazarus by his mere presence proclaimed the glory of Jesus by giving bodily evidence of His miracle of resurrection. He was also risking his life by showing up so publicly, as the Jews were plotting to kill him in order to stop Jesus (John 12:10). But the most astounding display of love for Jesus from these siblings came from Mary. She anointed the LORD’s Anointed with very expensive perfume, filling the house with the fragrance. She had once sat at Jesus’s feet to listen to His teaching (Luke 10:39), but now she poured perfume on them (John 12:3). She also anointed His head with the perfume (Matthew 26:7, Mark 14:3). Mark points out that this perfume was worth 300 denarii, which would have been about a year’s wages for most people at the time (Mark 14:5). This was a great sacrifice, especially considering she had narrowly avoided being left destitute not long before. This can be nothing other than an incredible expression of love for God in general and Jesus in particular. Even more incredible, the expressions of love from Lazarus, Martha, and Mary come before Christ’s work of Holy Week, so we should have even more love for Him than they did.
Jesus was moved by this selfless act and promised this story would be told wherever the Gospel is preached. So it confronts us just as the Gospel does. Do we love Jesus like that? Is the area around us filled with the fragrance of our love for Christ that attracts other to Him? We are the aroma of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:15a), but that aroma has vastly different effects on people: the fragrance of life to those whom God has chosen to draw to Himself but the stench of death to those who are rejecting Him (2 Corinthians 2:15b-16). Are we willing to give up our wealth, status, or job security for Christ as Mary did, or would we give up Christ to keep our wealth, status, and job security like the Jewish leaders did? In heaven we will joyfully declare that Jesus is infinitely worthy (Revelation 5:12), so let’s start now. What better time is there to proclaim the excellencies of Him who brought out of darkness and into His marvelous light than Holy Week?
April 2nd, 2023
THE KING COMES
“Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD.” - Psalm 118:25-26
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.” - Zechariah 9:9-10
The most important week in all of history began with the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The crowd had heard about His last and arguably greatest miracle: raising Lazarus from the dead. They thought that Messiah had finally come to establish His Kingdom. When they saw Him fulfilling Zechariah 9:9 by riding in to Jerusalem on a donkey as Solomon had a millennium earlier (1 Kings 1), their suspicions were confirmed. But they misinterpreted what the Kingdom would look like, assuming it to be a political kingdom that would overthrow Rome. This is understandable considering that Zechariah 9 describes a king ruling over a land with physical boundaries (v. 10), setting prisoners free and restoring their fortunes (v. 11-12), and specifically naming Greece as the enemy Israel would fight (v. 13).
Thus, they answered with the words of Psalm 118:25-26, saying “Hosanna”, which is literally “save us”. To them, Messiah would resurrect the glory of Israel so that it would exceed even its height in the age of David and Solomon. Their entire identity was tied up in being Jewish, so their expectation of Messiah was that He would not only free Israel from the Romans but also make it the greatest nation on earth—and by extension make them the greatest people on earth. In essence, they had placed their hope in human means and a human kingdom.
The Nature of the Kingdom
What they didn’t realize is that the Kingdom Jesus ushered in was not physical or political—at least not yet—but in fact spiritual, superseding all other kingdoms. Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2 foretold a stone not fashioned by man—the stone the builders rejected in Psalm 118:22—toppling the great powers of the world and establishing a kingdom that filled the whole earth. Jesus said the spread of His Kingdom would be a slow process, likening it to the growth of an insignificant mustard seed into a mighty tree or leaven slowly working through all of the dough (Matthew 13:31-33, Mark 4:30-32, Luke 13:18-21).
The Kingdom of God also does not spread in the same manner as earthly kingdoms. As the Gospel spread throughout the Roman empire, the Holy Spirit changed people’s hearts, which slowly changed the culture. This change was so pervasive that many of the most notable contributions of the Roman Empire on the world were actually due to Christian influence on the Roman Empire. But as with all empires, Rome’s time eventually ended, but Christianity continued to spread, and has kept spreading to this day. While Christendom in certain parts of the world has certainly declined at times, Christianity overall has never not grown.
In our own day, we can be discouraged because we see so many empty churches in the West, giving the illusion that Christianity is dying. However, while the number of Christians (at least on paper) in the West is certainly declining, it is exploding in places like Africa and Asia. And many of the dying churches we see in the West compromised the Gospel long ago so thoroughly that they cannot be considered true churches, and many who attend them are not true believers in Christ. So even while many so-called churches are dying, the true Church is growing. The stone not cut by human hands is slowly and steadily filling the whole earth. This happens not by military might, political agendas, economic prosperity, or social activism, but by God transforming people from the inside out. God infuses life into people dead in sin and caused them to come alive much like the way leaven (made up of living organisms) infused into dough (made from dead materials) causes that dough to come alive and grow. Similarly, we were all dead in sin apart from Christ, who must make us alive in order to incorporate us into His Kingdom.
Where Will We Place Our Trust?
What Institutions Will We Trust? God’s Kingdom is centered on Jesus as the source of life, whereas all other institutions lack the source of life and will therefore pass away. Nations rise and fall, power dynamics shift, and ideologies come and go. But God’s Kingdom—the Church—continues to grow. Therefore, we must not ultimately trust in any political or economic power, ideology, or system. A year ago, we watched as one of the mightiest and most sophisticated militaries in the world falter when invading a foe they should have been able to dominate quickly. Instead, that military that looked so impressive on paper has proven to be all but incompetent, meaning they are now caught in a quagmire that has killed more of their soldiers in a year than they lost in all of their conflicts since World War II combined. They should therefore serve as a warning that we cannot place out trust in tanks, warplanes, and sophisticated weapons. Not even science is worthy of total trust, as even seemingly well-established theories can be overturned as our knowledge grows. While science is an incredible blessing it is also tainted by the way sin distorts our ability to think and reason. As a result, we cannot place our ultimate hope in it. The events of the last few years have proven how untrustworthy all human institutions are. All of these have introduced significant volatility in the market as well, yet again reminding us of the deceitfulness of riches. And while this past year has seen the monumental overthrow of Roe v. Wade, it has also seen increased political division, proving yet again that we cannot place our hope in politics.
Thus, all institutions are fallible and therefore not worthy of our total trust. Certainly we can and must place some level of trust in them—otherwise society could not function—but we must not place ultimate trust in them. We must trust the one institution that will last: the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, which will turn the world upside down (Acts 17:6)–or rather right side up. So this Holy Week we must trust not in military might, economic prowess, scientific advancements, or any of the other earthly blessings flowing from God’s common grace for the benefit of people. Instead, we must trust the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who is sovereign over them all and say, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD”.
April 3rd, 2023
DRIVING THE DEN OF ROBBERS FROM THE HOUSE OF PRAYER
“And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant—these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” - Isaiah 56:6-7
“Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD. Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel.” - Jeremiah 7:11-12
After the Triumphal Entry, one of the first stops for Jesus was the Temple. Throughout His life and ministry, He frequently visited the Temple. As young as twelve, He had astonished people there by His teaching and understanding. But this time was different, as He was not there merely to teach. When Jesus entered the Temple that day, it was busy with the influx of Jews from all over the known world who had travelled to Jerusalem for Passover.
To support this, the Jews had turned the outermost court of the Temple (the Court of the Gentiles) into a market to provide what these worshippers needed in order to worship God there. They needed animals to sacrifice in obedience to God, and it was much easier for those traveling long distances to purchase them at the Temple rather than transporting them from afar, so an industry sprang up to supply them. There is nothing inherently wrong with such an industry, as even David insisted on buying the land and animals for his initial sacrifice on that very spot (2 Samuel 24:21-25).
The problem was where they set up shop, since the Court of the Gentiles was the only place in the Temple complex for Gentiles to worship God. Thus, the Jews’ market set up to help people worship God was preventing non-Jews from worshipping God.
A House of Prayer for the Nations
Therefore, the Jews were dishonoring God by contradicting one of the main reason the Temple existed in the first place: to cause the Gentiles to glorify God. Because of this, Jesus was furious with them and began doing something antithetical to the docile caricature of Jesus that is so prevalent in Western Christianity today. He began flipping over tables and driving out the merchants with a whip.
The scene would have been chaotic, with coins flying everywhere and animals let loose. With the size of the crowd that would have been there, a stampede was not out of the realm of possibility. Therefore, when Jesus cleared the Temple he created chaos that significantly disrupted the business being conducted there in one of the busiest times of the year. The scene would have been shocking to everyone who witnessed it, especially those who knew Jesus. His intense anger would have bordered on derangement in their perspective. This scene was unparalleled—almost.
Since John records Jesus clearing the Temple in John 2, it is quite likely that Jesus actually cleared the Temple twice: once at the beginning of His ministry and then this time at the end of it during Holy Week. In the first incident, John notes that it reminded the disciples of Psalm 69:9, stating that zeal for God’s house would consume Jesus. Why this zeal? John records the reason for the first instance:
“Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade” - John 2:16
The Jews were misusing the Temple, the place where God had chosen to make His presence known, by using its outer court for commerce rather than worship. In the process, they were excluding the Gentiles from worshipping God. Thus, during this Holy Week cleansing of the Temple, Jesus quotes Isaiah and Jeremiah to explain His reasoning:
“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.” - Mark 11:17
The Temple, particularly the Court of the Gentiles was the place of prayer for all the nations, so by quoting Isaiah 56:7, Jesus was reminding the Jews that God’s intent all along was for foreigners who feared God to worship Him at His Temple just like the Jews (Isaiah 56:6) and experience the blessings of being part of the covenant people of God. This promise goes all the way back to God promising Abraham that all the nations of the world would be blessed through his offspring (Genesis 12:3). Israel was to point the nations to the glory of God and thus draw them to worship God much like Rahab did. But Israel missed their calling by keeping the blessings of the covenant community internal while treating foreigners with disdain, which was vividly displayed in the Temple that Monday. So the very presence of this market in the Temple (and its resulting absence of foreigners worshipping God) was an abomination to God and thus elicited the angry response from Jesus.
The Den of Robbers
The fact that Jesus said they had turned it into a “den of robbers” also suggests that those running this market were extorting the Jews who did come to worship by charging exorbitant prices, similar to how Eli’s sons extorted the faithful Israelites of their day in the Tabernacle at Shiloh by taking more of the sacrifice than they were authorized by God, thus preventing people from properly worshipping God (1 Samuel 2:12-17). This sin was so egregious to God that it actually overshadowed the fact that they were committing adultery and ultimately resulted in God killing them and removing the Tabernacle from Shiloh. Jesus was reminding the Jews of this by quoting Jeremiah 7:11, since Jeremiah 7:12 says that God would do to the Temple in Jerusalem just as He did to Shiloh. Like Eli’s sons at the Shiloh Tabernacle, the Jewish leaders of the Jerusalem Temple failed to grasp God’s purpose not only for the Temple but for Israel as a whole.
The beautiful Temple was not fulfilling its intended function, just like the fig tree Jesus cursed later that day. Therefore, Jesus cleared the courtyard by overturning the marketplace. Doubtless the market was back up and running by the next day, but by clearing it that day Jesus was foreshadowing His plan to permanently provide a way for Gentiles to worship God. While the Jews should have received this with joy, it had the opposite effect. Forgetting that God had blessed them in order to extend that blessing to the Gentiles through them, they had essentially excluded the Gentiles entirely.
Thus the cleansing of the Temple by Jesus threatened not only the fortunes of the Jewish leaders from the racket of their market, but also the spiritual prominence of the Jewish nation as a whole. In their minds, this was also desecrating the Temple, which was the most sacred place for them as the place where the presence of God dwelt. Therefore, the cleansing of the Temple in a very real sense kicked off the chain of events that would ultimately cause the same crowd who had hailed His entrance into Jerusalem with shouts of “hosanna” to shout “crucify him” a few days later.
The New Temple
While the Jews missed the point of the cleansing of the Temple, at least some of the Gentiles didn’t. John records that around this time some Greeks came to seek Jesus, causing Jesus to reply:
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” - John 12:23
By the end of the week, He would make the Temple obsolete by the once-for-all sacrifice of Himself. Within a couple months, the Gospel would be preached to the nations at Pentecost. And about forty years later, the Romans would destroy the Temple.
A mosque stands in its place today as a visible reminder that God’s special presence no longer dwells there. Like Shiloh, the Name of God has departed Jerusalem, but it has not moved to another geographical place. Instead, God’s special presence now dwells in the Church, which is not a place but a family of people from every nation. God’s purposes cannot be thwarted, so God is blessing all the nations through Abraham’s better offspring—Jesus Christ.
Therefore, as Gentiles we need to be thankful that we now have unrestricted access to God through Jesus Christ, which is a blessing that not even the Jews enjoyed. And since Christians—both individually and corporately—are now the temple of God, we need to make sure we are beckoning people to worship the One True God and not causing them to disregard Him due to our own selfish and sinful actions. We freely received, so we must freely give by pointing Jew and Gentile alike to the blessings of direct access to God through faith in Jesus Christ.
April 4th, 2023 (Part 1)
BAD FRUIT FROM A GOOD VINEYARD
“And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.” - Isaiah 5:3-5
“I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, “Here I am, here I am,” to a nation that was not called by my name. I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices” - Isaiah 65:1-2
Tuesday of Holy Week saw the conclusion of Jesus’ public ministry and the Olivet Discourse to the disciples. I’ll address the former here and the latter later today. The Jewish leaders were intent on killing Jesus, but they needed the Roman governor’s approval to execute anyone. The Romans cared little for Jewish controversies until they threatened the peace, so if the Jewish leaders could whip the crowd into a frenzy against Jesus, the Romans would consent to executing Him in order to keep the peace.
Therefore, it was imperative that the Jewish leaders win over the crowds. But since the crowd was “hanging on His words” (Luke 19:48), they needed to provoke Jesus into saying something incriminating in order to turn the crowd against Him. They started by questioning His authority, which He turned against them by asking them a question they could not answer about the nature of John’s baptism. He then spoke three parables centered on the Parable of the Tenants. His description of the vineyard in that parable should have reminded them of Isaiah 5, which explicitly said that the vineyard represented the Jews (v. 7) which means the master in the parable is God and the messengers were the prophets. Jesus then expands on the Isaiah parable by adding the son killed by the tenants, which clearly points to Himself. Then just as Isaiah promised judgment, so did Jesus:
“Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits” - Matthew 21:43
Just as foreshadowed by the Cleansing of the Temple, this parable predicted that the Jews would no longer be the people of God.
The Debate
Rather than see this connection and repent, Jews then doubled down. The Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians all tried to rhetorically trip Jesus up, but to no avail. The Pharisees and Herodians, who were intensely opposed to one another, both saw Jesus as a threat to them, leading them to conspire together and ask Him about paying taxes. As the most devoted adherents to the Jewish Law, the Pharisees would have claimed that paying taxes and tribute to Caesar violated the laws about firstfruits belonging to God. Conversely, the Herodians who were in favor of Rome would have viewed not paying taxes to Caesar as treasonous. After pointing out that the likeness of Caesar on the denarius meant it belonged to him, Jesus told them to give to God what belongs to Him. Since people are made in the image of God, this means that we owe ourselves to God just as we owe taxes to the government. This answer silenced them both.
The Sadducees then asked Him about the resurrection by posing a seemingly-irreconcilable scenario. They were religious liberals who denied the resurrection, all things supernatural, and all Scripture except the Pentateuch. By taking the law of levirate marriage to its extreme, they created a situation in which the only possible answer was that there could be no resurrection. If all seven fictitious brothers were at one point married to this equally fictitious woman, the only safe answer to whose wife she would be in the resurrection was to say that there would be no resurrection.
As I understand it, the Sadducees frequently used this argument, so I wonder how many Pharisees could not answer it and merely responded with “that’s stupid”. Instead, Jesus invalidates their assumption by saying that there is no marriage in the resurrection, so their impossible scenario was irrelevant. In the process, he took a jab at their disbelief in angels as well before proving the resurrection from the Pentateuch, which silenced them as well.
A lawyer then came and asked about which of the over six hundred Mosaic laws was the most important. This too should have been impossible to answer, since all of those laws came straight from God. But Jesus actually answers this question directly by combining the command to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind (Deuteronomy 6:5) with the command to love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18), stating that they sum up the entire Law. Jesus then poses a question of His own by asking how the Messiah can be both the descendant of David and Lord of David from Psalm 110:1. The Jewish leaders were unable to answer Him, so they were unable to turn the crowd against Him, which would require them to adopt a stealthier strategy in order to bring Him down.
The Fate of the Vineyard
This rejection of Jesus was so egregious that in pronouncing woes against them, Jesus said God would hold them responsible for all of the innocent blood shed in history up to that point (Matthew 23:35). The Olivet Discourse that followed was in the context of that judgment. At least some of the prophecies therein were fulfilled by the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D., which signaled the transfer of the Kingdom from the Jews to the Church that would produce the fruit that Israel failed to produce.
Ever since, the Church comprised of both Jews and Gentiles has been the chosen people of God. We Gentiles must respond to this not with pride or disdain over the Jews but humble fear, since the same God who removed them will likewise remove us if we fail to bear fruit (Romans 11:17-22). God has removed the lampstand (influence) of even the most prominent regions of the church when they failed to bear fruit for the Kingdom, meaning the church in America must repent and return to the work of the Gospel that we did at first (such as during the Great Awakenings) or we are at risk of God removing our lampstand too (Revelation 2:5). So we must pray that God would bring about a third Great Awakening, not as a mere emotional experience of God but an intense and widespread wave of repentance that leads to long-lasting devotion to God.
Finally, it is important to note that while God is finished with the Jews as His uniquely chosen people, God is not yet done with Israel in His plan of salvation. The God who cut the Jews off from Him is capable of grafting them back in (Romans 11:23-24). Paul talks of the Jews’ overall rejection of Jesus as a partial hardening “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all of Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25b). In Romans 11, Paul talks of God using the Jews’ rejection of Jesus as a way to open up salvation to the Gentiles while resting on the hope that God will similarly use the faith of the Gentiles to bring about salvation among the Jews. Ultimately, God tends His vineyard and is sovereign to make it bear the fruit He intends.
“For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” - Romans 11:30-36
April 4th, 2023 (Part 2)
THE COMING JUDGMENT OF THE SHEEP AND GOATS
“As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats….And I will judge between sheep and sheep. And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken.” - Ezekiel 34:17, 22b-24
“At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” - Daniel 12:1-3
Continuing the theme of the end of the Jewish position as God’s people, Jesus tells the disciples plainly that the Temple would be destroyed, which instigates the Olivet Discourse describing the signs of the end times and the Second Coming of Christ coming at a time no one expects. This ends with the parables of the virgins and talents, exhorting the disciples to be ready and work diligently with the gifts that God has given in order to advance His Kingdom and thus be rewarded at the Second Coming.
Jesus then ends the Olivet Discourse with a discussion of the final judgment, describing the Son of Man (His favorite title for Himself) sitting on a throne judging everyone. He describes this like a shepherd separating sheep from goats, which references the promise of God in Ezekiel 34:17 to:
“judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats” - Ezekiel 34:17
This comes in the context of God’s rebuke of the Jewish leaders as shepherds who did not care for the sheep, instead neglecting those in need and fattening themselves off the healthy ones. While God is patient, He is also just and will thus not allow His sheep to be neglected and exploited forever, so He declares:
“Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them” - Ezekiel 34:10
even going on to say that He would be their shepherd, which Jesus repeats by calling Himself the Good Shepherd (John 10:11). This is the foundation of true leadership. Throughout Scripture, leaders are referred to metaphorically as shepherds, thus setting the example of leadership that God expects, so it should be no surprise that Jesus as the perfect leader calls Himself the Good Shepherd.
Judging Between Sheep and Goats
Jesus leads His people perfectly, which includes judging them (Ezekiel 34:20-21). Wrapping up the Olivet Discourse, Jesus expands upon by describing the criteria by which He will judge. The sheep are welcomed into heaven because they cared for God’s people (the sheep who were vulnerable) and thus cared for Jesus. Conversely, the goats are condemned to hell because they did not care for God’s people and thus did not care for Jesus. Therefore, the sheep are those who receive everlasting life and the goats are those who receive shame and everlasting contempt in Daniel 12:2.
But Daniel 12:1 describes the criteria being “everyone whose name shall be found written in the book”, which corresponds to the Lamb’s Book of Life in Revelation 20:15. However, Revelation 20:12-14 describes everyone being judged by what they had done as recorded in various other books. Eternal salvation is decided simply by whether or not your name is in the Lamb’s Book of Life as one who has received salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone apart from works. However, James 2:14-26 emphasizes the fact that such faith will naturally result in good works, so the deeds of believers recorded in the other books bear witness to that faith, whereas the deeds of unbelievers recorded in the books corroborate their lack of faith and thus just sentence to hell, since “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23b).
This is evidenced by the fact that both the sheep and goats are surprised by the ruling. The sheep asked when they had done all those good deeds, signifying that they were unaware of either the significance of their actions or even the fact that they were doing them at all. Such is the case for good works that flow naturally from the new heart gifted by the Holy Spirit that enables faith in the first place. Conversely, the goats were also surprised, thinking they had done everything required to earn God’s favor. But their works apart from faith were worthless. Therefore, it is imperative to trust in Jesus Christ alone and not in any amount of good works for salvation, even as we diligently seek the fruit of that salvation in the form of good works in our lives (Galatians 5:22-23, Philippians 2:12-13).
The Least of These
Equally important, these good works revolve around caring for the vulnerable sheep, being done “to the least of these my brothers” (Matthew 25:40) who do the Will of God (Matthew 12:50) by believing in Jesus Christ and thus receiving salvation by faith (Romans 8:29, Hebrews 2:11). This is clearly the church, which should cause us to soberly ask: “Do I love the church?”.
Clearly, saying “I love God but can’t stand His people” isn’t an option, because if we love Jesus we will love what He loves—and He loves the church so much that He died for the church and continues to nurture and cherish her! Simply put, if we don’t similarly love and care for the church, we are not doing God’s Will and thus might not be Jesus’ siblings represented by the sheep but may in fact be the goats whom He never knew. If we love Jesus we will love what Jesus loves—and Jesus loves the Church.
Certainly, even the best churches make mistakes and have practices we may not appreciate or agree with, but if mistakes and minor disagreements are not biblical grounds for divorce there are equally not grounds for deserting the church. In this way, the American consumer mentality has done great damage by causing people to view the church as a supplier to meet our preferences rather than a family to which we are committed through thick and thin.
Just as Jesus prohibited divorce apart from infidelity, we should not leave the local church unless the church is unfaithful to Scripture. Of course God does move His people as He wills—which is certainly the case with me—but even those transfers should come with the same sadness as moving away from family. So if you have not yet trusted in Christ, your works are worthless so believe and become part of His sheep. If you are one of His sheep through faith, love and care your fellow sheep in His church.
April 5th, 2023
THE PRICE OF BETRAYAL
“Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me. But you, O LORD, be gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may repay them!” - Psalms 41:9-10
“Then I said to them, ‘If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.’ And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the LORD said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’—the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter” -Zechariah 11:12-13
After being unable to sway the crowd against Jesus by challenging Him publicly, the Jews conspired to arrest and try Him secretly. But for this, they needed to know exactly where and when He would be away from the crowd, which would require collaboration with a close friend whom Jesus trusted {Psalm 41:9). Satan was glad to oblige, inciting Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus (Luke 22:3). Judas was one of the Twelve disciples, who all enjoyed close proximity and friendship with Jesus and therefore the trust of Jesus that the crowds did not (John 2:24). Judas even has a special level of trust from Jesus as the group’s treasurer, yet he was secretly not a follower of Jesus but in fact an embezzler (John 12:6). When Jesus rebuked Judas for scolding Mary the sister of Lazarus for anointing Jesus with perfume, he made up his mind to betray Jesus. He conspired with the Jewish leaders against Jesus for a measly thirty coins in the most infamous betrayal in history, making both his name and the price synonymous with betrayal. The closer the friend, the more painful the betrayal, so this was yet another way in which Jesus experienced the effects of the Fall. David reflects on just such a betrayal:
“For it is not an enemy who taunts me—then I could bear it…But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house we walked in the throng.” - Psalm 55:12-14
Jesus could have just as easily said those words to Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane.
All Part of God’s Plan
But like all wicked deeds, this betrayal neither escaped God’s gaze nor thwarted His plan. It was prophesied a thousand years prior by David in Psalm 41:9 and later by the prophet Zechariah. God told Zechariah to shepherd a doomed flock that was unwilling to submit to his leadership just as Judah was unwilling to submit to God. In the process, Zechariah predicts the price of betrayal and sarcastically points out how small it is. Ultimately, Judas would regret his treachery and attempt to return the money by throwing it into the Temple before committing suicide.
This is reminiscent of the judgment of Psalm 55:15 on such traitors:
“Let death steal over them; let them go down to Sheol alive; for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart”. - Psalm 55:15
The Jewish leaders then showed extraordinary indifference by remaining apathetic even after acknowledging it was blood money—that they had paid—and therefore refusing to put it into the Temple treasury. Instead, they ended up using it to buy the potter’s field, thus fulfilling more of Zechariah’s prophecy (Matthew 27:3-10). While Satan did influence Judas and his betrayal was a crucial component of God’s redemptive plan, Judas was still ultimately responsible for his sin. Jesus even said that it would be better for Judas if he had never existed than to sin and incur the just judgment of God for his sin (Matthew 26:14, Mark 14:21). This should cause us to soberly consider the despicable nature of sin that brings about the severity of God’s judgment.
What is Your Price?
And lest we are too critical of Judas, we must remember that but for the grace of God we too would betray Jesus—and in lesser ways sometimes do. This brings up a sobering question for all of us: what is our price to betray Jesus? We would love to say like Peter that we are ready to go to prison and even die for Jesus (Luke 22:33), but may “Christians” in America are quick to sell Jesus out merely to avoid being “cancelled”, forgetting that Jesus promised He would deny in heaven those who denied Him on earth (Matthew 10:33). Will we deny Jesus to escape ridicule for not going celebrating and actively supporting society’s warped understanding of sexuality? Will we deny Jesus under threat of losing our jobs for not using pronouns clearly inconsistent with biology? Will we deny Jesus to preserve our relationships with family and friends (which Jesus said was tantamount to not loving Him)? Will we shy away from preaching the Gospel because of what others may think? Will we dilute the Gospel that sees all people as valuable creatures made in the image of God, no matter how much others may call us hateful and bigoted for challenging their “reproductive rights”?
And in case you will accuse me of only picking on the Left, will we adulterate the Gospel by mixing it with Americanism that causes us to trust in a particular political party and nation that will one day pass away instead of the God who is sovereign over all? In the same vein, will we deny the power of our King of Kings by compromising Kingdom priorities to support politicians whose character is contrary to the Kingdom and agendas that are antithetical to it? While Zechariah pointed out how small a price it took for Judas to betray Jesus, I think if we are honest we have to admit that our price would likely be even less.
Ultimately, Judas betrayed Jesus because following Jesus threatened the lordship of self in his life. He valued himself and being on what he perceived to be “the right side of history” more than Jesus. He was likely motivated by fear, which often motivates our own betrayals. The ultimate question we must ask is whether we will trust God to sustain us or give in to fear.
At the end of the day, the “right side of history” is the side of Jesus Christ. Everyone else, whether left wing or right wing, is on the wrong side of history, no matter how right they may appear at the time. This means that if they will not repent and trust in Christ, they will be the goats condemned to hell. The woke mob will one day pass away along with every other political party and agenda, but Jesus reigns forever and is the righteous Judge.
Psalm 41 continues:
“But you, O LORD, be gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may repay them!” - Psalm 41:10
Jesus Christ will judge all who have betrayed Him—a judgement which we all deserve! Therefore, all of the myriad of ways we could deny Christ should remind us that we are ever dependent on His grace. It is only by the atonement of His blood that we escape His judgment for our treachery against Him. So let us not shrink away ashamed of the Gospel but remember it is the very power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16).
April 6th, 2023
THE SHEPHERD STRUCT, THE SHEEP SCATTERED
“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,” declares the LORD of hosts. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones. In the whole land, declares the LORD, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive. And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’” -Zechariah 13:7-9
Maundy Thursday was quite busy. The synoptic Gospels focus on the Last Supper, Jesus’ arrest, and the trial before the Sanhedrin. John writes more about this day than any other, spending more than five chapters on it, including Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, His last two I AM statements, His teaching about the Holy Spirit, and His High Priestly Prayer before recounting many of the same events that the synoptic Gospels do. All of this shows that Jesus made the most of His last evening before death. He focused His teaching on preparing His disciples for His absence. This teaching focused on their need to rely on Him, the promise of both the Holy Spirit to help them in this life, and their future joy with Him in eternity, culminating with what might be the greatest prayer ever prayed.
Then, the ministry of Jesus was abruptly ended as He was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was then taken to the Sanhedrin, who subjected Him to an overnight trial that was illegal in its conduct and replete with false witnesses so that they would have an excuse to ask Pilate to kill Him the following day. Volumes could be written on the Last Supper and what Jesus taught in the Upper Room that night, but I will focus on the disciples.
The Sheep are Scattered
When Jesus was arrested, all of the disciples fled. Only John seemed to follow relatively closely while Peter followed at a distance. Of the myriads of people who had followed Him, none were there for His defense. The disciples’ bold declarations of loyalty in the Upper Room proved false at the first sign of adversity. His closest disciple denied Him when confronted when the most minimal opposition—a servant girl. Indeed, the shepherd (Jesus) was struck and the sheep (disciples) were scattered (Zechariah 13:7b).
In an instant, all of Jesus’ earthly companions left him to face the rage of the Jewish authorities alone. His trial can only be described as a kangaroo court, complete with all manner of false witnesses and accusations. It is no exaggeration to call it the worst perversion of justice ever.
The Jewish leaders ultimately declared Him guilty based solely on His declaration that He was the Christ. This indeed would be blasphemy if it were not true, but the authorities were not interested in examining the claim to see if it was true. They were only interested in establishing an excuse to kill Him. There was no trace of justice in this trial, so the resulting condemnation of Jesus was invalid. Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, so a just court would have no choice but to declare Him innocent. The fact that this court delivered a guilty verdict indicts the court and not the Christ. Regardless, by dawn on Friday morning the Jews were well on their way to killing Jesus.
Consumed or Refined?
Zechariah goes on to describe a grisly scene in which two thirds of the people die and the rest are put in the fire and refined. Thus Zechariah describes the people we encounter in the Gospels that night as facing two possible fates. All will face the fire of intense affliction, but while most will be consumed and die by it, some will be refined by it.
For the former, we have been discussing all week how Jesus was repeatedly speaking throughout Holy Week of the downfall of the Jews and their replacement by the Church as the people of God. Thus in condemning Jesus, the Jews were identifying themselves as part of the group to be consumed. This would ultimately occur in 70 A.D. with the destruction of Jerusalem in general and the Temple in particular. Thus the fire of affliction consumed them, proving that they were not the true people of God. Throughout Scripture, fire is used to reveal the true nature of a substance. That which is false is consumed, but that which is true is purified.
Zechariah said that while the larger group would perish in affliction, the smaller group would actually be refined (improved) by it. The imagery of God testing and refining His people in this manner is seen throughout the Old Testament (Proverbs 17:3, 27:21, Isaiah 48:10, Jeremiah 9:7, Daniel 11:35, Malachi 3:2-3). Gold and silver are refined by heating them to the point of melting so the impurities can float to the top and be scraped off. God similarly refines us: “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction” (Isaiah 48:10). This is echoed in the New Testament as well (Romans 5:3-5, James 1:2-4, 1 Peter 1:6-7, 4:12-14).
The furnace also plays an important role in various stages of metal forming, particularly forging. This is the longest and most involved of the metal forming methods. Throughout this process, the temperature, times, heating and cooling rates, and “percussive shaping” must be strictly controlled, requiring considerable skill. When done right, this process produces the strongest possible parts because at a microscopic level their strength is aligned with the loads they must carry. I can think of no better analogy for how God uses afflictions to shape us in the Christian life. For the disciples, the night of Maundy Thursday brought just such affliction—and they would face much more affliction throughout their lives.
They were all tested and found wanting—especially Peter. On the evening of Maundy Thursday, they were all self-reliant men who were confident in their own abilities. By the time the rooster crowed before dawn on Good Friday, they had discovered the limits of themselves and were nearly ready to humbly rely on God and be mightily used for His purposes. They all fell away, but ultimately they would all return—never to fall away again. The same Peter who denied Jesus to a weak servant girl ultimately faced the entire Sanhedrin and confidently told then that he would obey God and not them (Acts 4:19 and 5:29). He would later ask to be crucified upside down since he did not consider himself worthy to die as Jesus did. The rest of the disciples likewise boldly maintained their faith, unwavering even unto brutal death.
Since God is the master smith, Jesus was confident enough to say that though Satan was heavily involved in this test, God would cause the disciples—specifically Peter—to endure the trial and be ready to strengthen the other believers (Luke 22:31-32). They therefore proved to be part of the smaller group refined by affliction and not the larger group destroyed by it. That night proved to be the undoing of the Jewish leaders but a crucial step in refinement for the disciples.
Trust the Refiner
If we consider our suffering is like this, it means that God is perfectly orchestrating our suffering with incredible care and skill for His greater purpose, precisely controlling the process to form us into the image of Christ. Looking back now, we can see that this is exactly what God was doing to the disciples that night. God’s refining and forging work in their lives would turn them from cowardly sheep who were scattered to bold lions who would face the same Sanhedrin that Jesus did and proclaim, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29), and He similarly refines His people today. So hope in God and His perfect plan, knowing that He is sovereign over our trials and is using them to shape us for His use and glory as the perfect Father (Hebrews 12:5-11)—and He always knows what He is doing!
April 7th, 2023 (Good Friday)
THE SON FORSAKEN AND CRUSHED
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest….But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads: ‘He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!’ Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts. On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God….I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death. For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet—I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” - Psalms 22:1-2, 6-10, 14-18
I sometimes wonder what thoughts were running through David’s mind when he finished Psalm 22. He had just received the Davidic Covenant, a glorious promise of God that his offspring would rule forever. Psalm 110 is clearly a response to this, with David describing his Lord sitting at God’s right hand and crushing His enemies, but the tone of Psalm 22 is vastly different. Instead of a reigning king, this psalm depicts immense suffering and agony. Could both of these psalms really be talking about the same person?
We have the advantage of being on the other side of the cross and seeing the true meaning that the Holy Spirit intended by inspiring David to write the words of Psalm 22. Other than Isaiah 52-53 I know of no passage with such a density of Messianic prophecies as Psalm 22. In just the first 18 verses, we see predictions of Jesus being rejected (v. 6), mocked (v. 7), trusting in God the Father from birth (v. 9), surrounded by bloodthirsty enemies (v. 12-13), exposed to significant injury (v. 14) causing great agony that leads to bodily failure (v. 14-15, 17), having His hands and feet pierced (v. 16), and the soldiers casting lots for His clothes (v. 18). Therefore Psalm 22 was fulfilled on Good Friday.
The Servant Suffers
This darkest day in history started out with Jesus being taken from His mock trial before the Sanhedrin to Pontius Pilate the Roman governor. Pilate saw right through the Jews’ plot and did not go along with it at first. He tried Jesus and found Him innocent, but the Jews began to stir up the crowd against Him. Pilate tried to absolve himself of the situation by sending Jesus to Herod, but when Herod refused to try Him the problem ended up right back in Pilate’s lap. Finally, the Jewish leaders were able to do what they had failed to do before, whipping the crowd into a frenzy against Jesus such that it threatened the peace. As a result, Pilate ultimately went along with the Jews and allowed them to crucify Jesus. After being beaten beyond human semblance (Isaiah 52:14), Jesus was led to Golgotha and crucified along with two others.
Since crucifixion involves death by suffocation, it would have been very difficult for Jesus to even breathe—and even more difficult to speak. Therefore, He chose His words very carefully. So as the prophecies of Psalm 22 were being fulfilled all around Him, it should come as no surprise that He quoted Psalm 22:1 by saying, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (v. 1) to show everyone that He was fulfilling it. Then, they unknowingly fulfilled verse 8 by mockingly calling on Him to save Himself.
He most certainly could have, as He told His disciples He could summon twelve legions of angels (72,000 angels if we take the statement literally) if He so desired (Matthew 26:53)—an army more than adequate for the task. And that’s not even considering the fact that according to the interpretation of the Old Testament “Angel of the LORD” as a Christophany—to which I subscribe—it was pre-incarnate Jesus who killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night during the days of Hezekiah (2 Kings 19:35, Isaiah 37:36). He could have easily not only climbed down from the cross but also instantly killed every Jew and Roman that stood against Him, so why didn’t He?
God’s Will to Crush Him
Clearly no one could kill Jesus without His express permission (John 10:17-18), so His death was both willing and necessary. First, it was completely voluntary. This was not “cosmic child abuse” as is so often charged, but was part of the complete desire and will of Jesus Himself. It was also necessary. If Jesus had physically saved Himself, He could not have saved us by taking the wrath of God for our sin on our behalf and dying the death we deserve. Saving Himself would have also been disobedient to the Father, thus erasing the perfect life of obedience He had lived on our behalf so that God could justly declare us righteous in His sight.
Jesus’ death wasn’t a deviation from the original plan or some grotesque but necessary plan B. Jesus’ death WAS the plan! It was first told all the way back in Genesis 3:15 with the promise that He would be wounded but would crush Satan’s head in the process and it is the plan Paul tells us God had before the world was even created (Eph 1:4).
His life of sorrow and grief on our behalf (Isaiah 53:3) reached its climax on a cross at Golgotha where Jesus was marred beyond recognition (Isaiah 52:14) and faced the worst oppression and affliction (Isaiah 53:7), pierced for OUR transgressions and crushed for OUR iniquities (Isaiah 53:5-6) because WE had gone our own way and not God’s (Isaiah 53:6a). Jesus bore our griefs and sorrows (Isaiah 53:4) because God put the burden of our sins on Him (Isaiah 53:6b) such that He was killed for OUR transgression (Isaiah 53:8). Our sin caused all of Jesus’ agony, from the physical pain of the worst execution method ever devised to the full weight of God’s wrath for sin that caused Him to be cut off from God the Father. While Jesus in His divinity could not be parted from the invisible God, Jesus in His humanity was cut off from God as He bore our sin, which in a way meant the temporary severing of the perfect relationship of the Trinity. Just as Jesus endured the agony of being crushed for our sin, God the Father endured the agony of having to crush His beloved Son for our sin. Yes, our sin is that bad!
Good Friday
But God is also that good! It was God’s Will to crush Jesus (Isaiah 53:10a) so that He could be the offering for guilt (Isaiah 53:10b) that would sprinkle clean from sin people from many nations (Isaiah 52:15). In this way, Jesus accomplished salvation so comprehensively that He died crying “it is finished!” (John 19:30). When they laid the body of Jesus in the tomb of a rich man as prophesied (Isaiah 53:9), no one really knew all that had been accomplished that day. After living a life just like ours yet so different in that He was without sin, Jesus died a death like ours yet so different in all that it accomplished. His body laid lifeless in the tomb like ours awaiting the resurrection that would reunite body and soul to make Him the firstborn from the dead (Colossians 1:18, Revelation 1:5). So let us remember just how bad our sin is and how it made this a gory and ugly Friday. But the utter darkness of that day should make the light shine all the brighter, leading us to worship the God who accomplished the salvation that makes this grotesque Friday truly Good Friday.
“Guilty, vile and helpless, we; Spotless Lamb of God was He; Full atonement! Can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior!” - P.P. Bliss, “Man of Sorrows, What A Name”, 1875
And of course, I would be remiss if I failed end by quoting Tony Campolo and S.M. Lockridge:
“It’s Friday, but Sunday’s comin’!” - Tony Campolo
April 8th, 2023
REST BEFORE RECREATION
“And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” - Genesis 2:2-3
“I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.” - Jonah 2:2-7
Just as God rested on the first Sabbath after finishing His work of Creation, the body of Jesus rested in the ground on this Sabbath after Jesus finished His work of redemption. Still not grasping the significance of what had just transpired, the disciples externally rested according to the fourth commandment, but internally they were quite anxious for fear of suffering a similar fate. It was not a restful Sabbath for the Jewish leaders either. While you would think they would have every reason to rest without worry having eliminated their problem—or so they thought—rest eluded them. For all the times they rebuked Jesus for not resting on the Sabbath according to their traditions, it is a bit ironic and more than a bit hypocritical that on this Sabbath they were busy conspiring.
There was one more loose end to tie up with this Jesus. While the disciples had missed His various declarations of rising from the dead after three days, the Jewish leaders had not. They assumed the disciples also understood this and would therefore steal the body and claim that He rose from the dead. To prevent that from happening, they placed soldiers at the tomb and sealed it with Pilate’s seal. Considering the disciples’ lackluster combat performance at the Garden of Gethsemane a couple days prior, these precautions should have been more than adequate. And they would have been, had Jesus been merely human. But being fully divine, Jesus couldn’t stay in the grave for long.
Jesus Was Dead
Nevertheless, on that Sabbath the body of Jesus laid dead in the tomb, in the belly of Sheol (the place of the dead) as if in the depths of the sea (which also represented death to the non-seafaring Jews) just as Jonah observed from the belly of the fish (Jonah 2:2-5). Death had swallowed Jesus and would not let go, just as the fish had swallowed Jonah (Jonah 2:6a). Jesus was really, truly dead.
I wonder if His body experienced decay. While we think of decay as simply a natural process, it is mostly the work of living organisms. Every organism that causes decay—and every inorganic substance too for that matter—was created by God and is thus subordinate to God. Therefore, those organisms would have had to attack their Maker. They had been allowed under God’s sovereign hand to attack Him as they would any other person during His life so that He could experience life in this fallen world in the same way that we do. However, His perfect life and atoning death were done at this point, so it is quite possible that these organisms therefore did not attack the dead body of Jesus, therefore meaning His body did not experience any physical decay.
I like to envision them standing by reverently in worship of their Creator. However, since Jesus was to be the firstfruits of the dead, it is also possible that God did allow His body to decay somewhat normally as a pattern for how our bodies decay but will one day be restored by God. Either way, any decay would have had to have been minimal, since God would not only not abandon Jesus to Sheol but would also not allow Him to see corruption (Psalm 16:10).
Explaining this at Antioch of Pisidia, Paul says “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, but he whom God raised up did not see corruption” (Acts 13:36-37). It can be debated whether or not this means that the body of Jesus did not undergo any decay, but one thing cannot be debated: Jesus could not stay dead.
Jesus Couldn’t Stay Dead
God is sovereign over death just as He was sovereign over the fish and would therefore cause the tomb to expel Jesus as He caused the fish to expel Jonah—after three days. God would raise Jesus up from death literally just as He had brought Jonah up from death figuratively (Jonah 2:6b). Jesus pointed out this connection, likening Jonah’s three-day stay in the fish to His upcoming three-day stay in the tomb (Matthew 12:39-40, 16:4, Luke 11:29).
Thus Jesus became the greater Jonah (Matthew 12:41, Luke 11:30-32). Death still reigned as the sun set on that Sabbath, but no one could have known just how tenuous the grip of death has become. So that night the body of Jesus waited for what would be the dawn not only of a new day but of an entirely new Creation. Oblivious to this, His disciples waited too, not knowing that a new era was about to dawn. So on this Saturday, after remembering all that Jesus accomplished through His life and death, we wait to celebrate all that was accomplished with His resurrection. As we wait for tomorrow, we also wait along with the entire Creation for the final destruction of death and the freedom from decay and corruption that will come with the resurrection of our bodies (Romans 8:19-25).
April 9th, 2023 (Easter Sunday)
GO AND TELL THE GOSPEL
“I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol; I shall redeem them from Death. O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes.” - Hosea 13:14
“On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, ‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.’” - Isaiah 25:6-9“I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”- Psalms 16:8-11
Easter Sunday began like any other day for the Jews, but it was unlike any other day. Before dawn, while the disciples were still cowering in fear, the tomb of Jesus became no longer occupied. The guards and seal that were more than adequate to prevent any human efforts to remove Jesus from the tomb were powerless against Jesus Himself.
The world changed when Jesus Christ rose from the dead, walking out of His own grave under His own power. This had to happen, since it would have been unjust for the righteous Jesus to remain dead, just as David prophesied a thousand years prior: “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption” (Psalm 16:10). Jesus had always obeyed God (Psalm 16:8) and so God justly raised Him and welcomed Him back to His Right Hand (Psalm 16:11, 110:1). The doom that overshadows everyone had swallowed Jesus, but Jesus had slain death from the inside and emerged victorious to turn the tables and swallow death instead (Isaiah 25:6-7) by proving His dominion over death. So by rising from the dead, Jesus redeems people from the power and fear of death (Hosea 13:14a, Hebrews 2:14-15).
As a result, those who are in Christ are not doomed to fear death but can instead taunt death: “O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting?” (Hosea 13:14b). After the resurrection, death while still potent is defanged and defeated. Subservient to Christ, death becomes for the believer the usher that will one day guide us into the presence of God, who will wipe away every tear (Isaiah 25:8).
The Tomb is Empty
But the women were unaware of this as they walked to the tomb early that morning. For the women, it made perfect sense to go on Sunday morning to the place they had left the body of Jesus on Friday evening and continue the work of burial that they had begun at that time. I’m not sure if it was out of immense dedication or distraction from fear of the Jews that they made this journey without figuring out how they would move the large stone. But as soon as they arrived, they found a scene very different from the one they had left less than 48 hours prior.
Instead of a sealed tomb, the stone was rolled aside and the tomb was empty. Instead of standing guard, the soldiers were lying on the ground unconscious with two angels standing there instead. One of those angels then told them their search for the body of Jesus was futile. Jesus had to rise from the dead on Easter Sunday, so the angel pointed out the absurdity of women’s quest by rhetorically asking why they were seeking the living among the dead. They still didn’t fully grasp it, since the women ask where the body of Jesus has been moved to. Even with the empty tomb, they did not immediately realize that Jesus had to rise from the dead, so it was not their immediate and obvious conclusion. But He had to rise, and it had to be on the third day, not logically but biblically. Since the prophets and Jesus Himself had said that He would rise on the third day, it was absurd to think that the tomb would not be empty on the third day.
Still, it is surprising that the Easter Sunday narrative begins this way in all four Gospels. There have been many comments as to why God chose to reveal the resurrection to these women first, but we often forget about what is not being described in this narrative: the resurrection itself. Every other resurrection in Scripture is described as it happens, but we have no description of the actual resurrection of Jesus. All we have is an occupied tomb on Saturday that is empty by Sunday morning, with angels declaring that the tomb was empty because of the resurrection. No one witnessed this resurrection, expect perhaps the soldiers. However, since the soldiers became unconscious, it is safe to say that if they did witness it, they only saw the first split second of it, so no one witnessed the full event. Was there a bright and dazzling light as the spirit of Jesus was reunited with His body? How was the stone rolled away? Did the Holy Spirit descend into the open tomb as a dove and rest on the body of Jesus there? Did Jesus walk out of the tomb physically or did He just disappear? If He walked out, did He strut victoriously then stand for bit to savor this moment of triumph? We don’t know because no one saw it. Since God orchestrated all of the events of Holy Week, we can conclude that for whatever reason God meant for no one to see the resurrection itself. Thus, the actual event of the resurrection will remain a mystery to us just as our ultimate resurrection is mysterious (1 Corinthians 15:35-56).
Go and Tell
While we cannot know the reason why God chose that the resurrection of Jesus would be witnessed by no one, one major reason may be so that we would rely not on testimony of a certain event but on Scripture itself. If anyone had seen the resurrection happen, it would have been valuable for that person but no one else. Everyone else would have had to depend on their testimony. Instead, we must depend on Scripture and then tell others what Scripture says, since God promises that Scripture will be effective for everyone (2 Timothy 3:16-17, Hebrews 4:12-13). Therefore, as soon as the angel told the women that Jesus had risen, he gave them a mission: go and tell. Jesus Himself didn’t appear to any of them until they had already told the disciples, and even then He only appeared to Mary Magdalene. This means that Jesus chose to use their testimony rather than physical appearance to spread the good news of the resurrection. That in essence is the Gospel, going and telling people that Jesus has risen from the dead, so we should obey the angels and follow the example of these women: we should go and tell.
The Resurrection IS the Gospel
So often we reduce the Gospel to “Jesus died for our sins”. This both ignores the necessity of Christ’s life of active obedience and downplays the fact that Jesus didn’t stay dead. The resurrection is so crucial to the Gospel that Paul says if it didn’t occur our faith is futile and we are still dead in sin (1 Corinthians 15:17), making us worthy of utmost pity for betting our eternity on false hope (1 Corinthians 15:19). But since Christ has been raised as the firstfruits of the dead, we have assurance not only of our salvation—since the resurrection is a symbol of God’s acceptance of Christ’s redeeming work—but also of our eventual resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20-22).
Just as Adam’s death was imputed to all in the human race, Jesus’ resurrection is imputed to all who by faith are welcomed into His regenerated human race. Because our resurrection is assured in Christ, our mortal bodies must put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:53), giving us the confidence to taunt death with Isaiah 25:8 and Hosea 13:14—which Paul quotes in 1 Corinthians 15:54-55. Where is death’s victory? Swallowed up by the fact that we are hidden in Christ and thus died with Him and rose with Him (Colossians 3:2-4). Where is death’s sting? “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:56-57). Death is dead because Jesus is alive, so we say “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation” (Isaiah 25:9).
CHRIST IS RISEN…HE IS RISEN INDEED!
April 10th, 2023
FOLLOWING THE RISEN AND REIGNING GOOD SHEPHERD
“The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’ The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies! Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments; from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.’ The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head.”- Psalms 110
“Thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them….I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.” - Ezekiel 34:10, 15-16
Easter Sunday is not merely the end of Holy Week but also the beginning of a new age: the age of the church. A key event in the establishment of the church between the time of Jesus’ resurrection and ascension was the reinstatement of Peter. Three times Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him—just as Peter had denied Him three times. Each time, Peter responded that He did, becoming more concerned and more emphatic each time. Jesus simply responded each time with some variation of “feed my sheep”. Jesus identified Himself as the Good Shepherd leading His people as the sheep in John 10, so He was calling Peter to lead and care for His people.
He was also officially handing over the reins of care for God’s people from the Jewish leaders to the leaders of the church—starting with the apostles. Jesus called Himself the Good Shepherd in the context of identifying the Jewish leaders as the wicked shepherds in Ezekiel 34. They had not cared for the sheep but taken advantage of them (Ezekiel 34:1-9), so God required His sheep from them and turned them over to Jesus Christ who promised to feed and care for the sheep (Ezekiel 34:10-16). Now, He was telling Peter to join Him in feeding and caring for the sheep. Peter passed this admonition along to later pastors:
“So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.” - 1 Peter 5:1-4
Pastors, FEED THE SHEEP!
This is an important reminder for pastors everywhere, especially here in America. So I conclude my Holy Week posts by imploring pastors everywhere: FEED. THE. SHEEP! Don’t focus on flashy programs and high-tech delivery, FEED THE SHEEP! Don’t get distracted with fog machines or concert-style music, FEED THE SHEEP! Don’t go astray after political agendas, FEED THE SHEEP! All of those alternatives are empty carbs with no lasting substance, so feed the sheep with the only life-giving protein: Scripture–every word proceeding from the mouth of God (Deuteronomy 8:3b).
Preach the Word, not generic moral lessons or tangential personal anecdotes. Teach the Word, not some barely-biblical topical study or vaguely “Christian” book. Counsel the Word, not self-centered secular psychology that denies the power of the Word. Equip the Saints for the work of ministry with the Word, not enneagrams or tests that foolishly seek to identify spiritual gifts apart from the context of the church. Instruct the sheep on how to study the Word so they won’t cherry-pick verses out of context but will understand the story line of Scripture. Help the sheep rely on the Word to persevere through trials, not to lean on the foolishness of worldly wisdom. Pastors, FEED THE SHEEP WITH THE WORD!
If you are not feeding the sheep with the Word, you are not following the Good Shepherd. Furthermore, anything other than the Word is ultimately doomed to failure, which will cause your efforts to be in vain. Since Scripture is more valuable than gold (Psalm 19:7-10), Scripture is not only the sole foundation upon which the wise pastor builds a church (Ephesians 2:20) but also the only effective building material for which to build on that foundation—the only “gold, silver, and precious stones” that will survive the fire (1 Corinthians 3:10-15). Everything else is “wood, hay, and straw” that will be consumed by the fire such that any pastor that builds with it will find that he has labored in vain. Pastors, everything you do in your church should be so thoroughly saturated with Scripture and completely reliant on Scripture such that if you would lose everything but Scripture you would have lost nothing.
Christians, Follow the Shepherds
Fellow sheep, joyfully submit to pastors who do this and make their job a joy and not a burden (Hebrews 13:17). We need to honor our pastors and not criticize them. We need to pray for them and not entertain baseless accusations against them. Otherwise, we are in league with the devil against them (and therefore against ourselves, since they labor for our good). I am thankful that now and throughout my life I have had pastors who did this. And since it’s hard and thankless work, encourage them to keep feeding the sheep.
But I realize that in many ways I am the exception and not the rule in this case. Many American churches have all but abandoned Scripture—and some have abandoned it entirely. In these churches, any miniscule remnant of the true Gospel is so distorted that it is unrecognizable. As a result, true sheep are not fed and therefore spiritually starve in these churches. So if you are in one of those churches, you should probably leave it and seek out a church where the full Gospel is clear and undefiled, where everything is built upon and with Scripture. In other churches, the Gospel still present and recognizable, but is watered down by various distractions such as flashy programs, fog machines, and various “ministries” not aligned with Scripture.
True sheep in these churches may be fed, but they are not fed well. So if you are in one of these churches, use discernment as to whether you should stay or leave. While that church may descend further into distractions and away from the Gospel, it is possible that since the Holy Spirit builds up the Church, He will restore that church to a proper emphasis on the Gospel—and He may use you as part of that work. Regardless, prioritize being fed with the Word!
No matter what church you are in, you can read and study Scripture. Since people have been studying Scripture for two thousand years, their writings can be very helpful as well, so study theology. But, remember, when using any resource other than Scripture, you must be vigilant to ensure it aligns with Scripture. Still, there are a vast number of wonderful resources that do, so the modern American Christian has so much good spiritual food available that we have no excuse for going hungry spiritually. So eat up the Scriptures as if your spiritual life depends on it…because it does!
All, Follow the Chief Shepherd
Finally, always remember you are not alone but are in fact following and working under the power of the Chief Shepherd. Not long after reinstating Peter, Jesus ascended to heaven and sat down at God’s right hand from where He reigns, steadily defeating all of His enemies (Psalm 110:1-2), interceding for us as the Great High Priest (Psalm 110:4), and preparing to shatter kings and execute judgment (Psalm 110:5-6). So shepherds, feed the sheep with the Word in following the Chief Shepherd. And sheep, follow the Chief Shepherd and the under-shepherds He has appointed until faith becomes sight. Holy Week marks the end of the age of the Jewish nation as the people of God and the beginning of the age of the Church, so going forward from Holy Week, let us go forth and make disciples of all nations.
“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” - Hebrews 13:20-21
