Holy Week

     JESUS THROUGHOUT HOLY WEEK

(You may perhaps enjoy using these Scriptures and
thoughts day-by-by day this Holy Week
while we walk with Jesus
His last week upon the earth.)

Keep Your Mind On Jesus

My name really doesn’t matter.
As a Levite I am used to doing
the task assigned
by the Priests;
I am trained to do their bidding
while I serve as a scribe writing
down their lofty
opinions.

But this one time I am writing
about Someone more important—
I am simply
writing down
this Holy Week what I have
seen and what I have heard
in tribute to the Lord.

Zechariah 9:9

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.

************
On Sunday He entered on a donkey
as solemn and as grand as the grandest
of kings, as the
Prophet Zechariah
had written prophesying how Messiah
would come into holy Jerusalem
in God’s Timing—
His Kingdom Come.

Mark 11:15-17

And they came to Jerusalem.
And he entered the temple
and began to drive out those
who sold and those who bought in the temple,
and he overturned the tables of the money-changers
and the seats of those who sold pigeons.
And he would not allow anyone to carry
anything through the temple.
And he was teaching them and saying to them,
“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.”

Psalm 69:9

For zeal for your house has consumed me,
and the reproaches of those who
reproach you have fallen on me.

************

Oh, He looked like a mighty champion
for our people when, with the whip
in His hand as He
drove out the thieves
who had turned our sacrificial system
into no more than a scheme to grab
our coins for the
powerful.

And though they were my betters, so-to-speak,
in the Temple, I knew they would
hold His attack
against Him,
for they profited from the sacrilege
going on all all around us as
money changers
did their business.

Mark 11:27-33

And they came again to Jerusalem.
And as he was walking in the temple,
the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him,
and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” Jesus said to them,
“I will ask you one question; answer me,
and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.
Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?
Answer me.” And they discussed it with one another,
saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say,
‘Why then did you not believe him?’
But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people,
for they all held that John really was a prophet.
So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.”
And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you
by what authority I do these things.”

************

I must confess I rejoiced in my heart
as Jesus stood toe-to-toe in arguing
about His actions
in the Temple;
they demanded where He got His
authority, and then He proved His
wisdom when
He asked them;
”Where did John get his authority
for his baptizing for baptizing?”
Well, what could
they say?
For they had clearly doubted John
had Heaven’s blessing as he did,
but the people
admired him;
so they could not question John
as if he were some charlatan—
so they could not
answer Jesus.
Then He would not answer their
question for they had refused
to answer his—
He had them,
and these proud and pompous men
had to leave him with the people
who knew He won
this battle.

 

Matthew 26:6-13

Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,
a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment,
and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table.
And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant,
saying, “Why this waste? For this could have been sold
for a large sum and given to the poor.”
But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman?
For she has done a beautiful thing to me.
For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.
In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world,
what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

Matthew 26:14-15

Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot,
went to the chief priests and said,
“What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?”
And they paid him thirty pieces of silver.

************

As the days passed by I marveled at all
that Jesus did and said, and at the
refusal of some to
see His Glory;
even His disciples seemed worried
and confused as He continued
to demonstrate His
Love for His own—
for when Mary overcome with her
great love and her gratitude
anointed His blessed
feet at Simon’s house,
they reacted to the price she paid
rather than precious love she
demonstrated
for our Lord.

And on this very day Judas, among
His twelve made his deal, selling
His Master for
twenty pieces;
I cannot imagine such a darkened
heart that would barter with such
enemies
for his Lord.

 

John 13: 2-9

During supper, when the devil
had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot,
Simon’s son, to betray him,
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands,
and that he had come from God and was going back to God,
rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments,
and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.
Then he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples’ feet
and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,
“Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him,
“What I am doing you do not understand now,
but afterward you will understand.”
Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you,
you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him,
“Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”

John 13: 34-35

“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.
By this all people will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.”

************

Such a beautiful setting for such an extraordinary
commandment for the Master to give to HIs disciples:
He began by washing
their feet,
and then He  challenged them to love each other
even as He had shown them a servant’s love;
acting  in love
as He served them.
John never forgot that powerful parable
(as He explained much later to me)
as his own
actions proved.

Indeed, God’s Kingdom being established
through the shocking events of this
week that would
change the world
would continue conquering nations through
perfect, sacrificial love, but not
in the ways
of our world.

 

John 19: 4-6

Pilate went out again and said to them,
“See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.
Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”
When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out,
“Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them,
“Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.”

John 19: 12

From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out,
“If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend.
Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”

John 19:14-16

Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover.
It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!”
 They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!”
Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?”
The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”
So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.

John 19:30

When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said,
“It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

************

It is almost too much to bear, the horror of it all:
As the trial proceeded I could not believe it.
The Governor
tried to save Him,
but His very people demanded His death—
How could they not see He was our
Messiah Promised
by our God.

Even Pilate could see He was no guilty man,
He was an extraordinary person like no other
he had ever
met before.
But our leaders acted like an ugly mob and
even proclaimed Caesar their king while
screeching
“Crucify Jesus!”

Pilate, the pagan, somehow recognized
the nobility of this persecuted man,
but it did Him
no good,
for the governor did not have the strength
to stand against this rioting mob—
He surrendered
to their demand.

But Jesus knew, He knew why He bore this
burden for all these people, good and bad
and He finished
God’s task for Him.
He knew the weight of our sin.
He knew the penalty for our sin.
So He took it
upon Himself.

 

Luke 23: 55-56

The women who had come with him from Galilee
followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid.
Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments.
On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment

************

The Apostle  John told me about these faithful women,
faithful in love for our Lord, and in obedience
to the Sabbath
Law of God;
they were looking forward to the first day of the week,
even from the day of preparation in the midst
of their greatest,
harshest grief,
for they had stayed and watched with His mother
and the Apostle John until the very end when
He surrendered
at last to death.

Ironically His chosen disciples were gathered
hidden, terrified in their grief and shock,
together alone
without Jesus;
focused upon the danger they sensed since
they were known to be His followers
who had best
known Him.

I recall myself how I felt the agony
of wondering how it seemed so wrong,
the opposite of
my hopes
now that the One who appeared so fully
the Messiah, promised for our people
lay now dead and cold
in Joseph’s tomb.

 

Luke 24: 1-12

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb,
taking the spices they had prepared.
And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
While they were perplexed about this, behold,
two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.
And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground,
the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?
He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you,
while he was still in Galilee,
that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men
and be crucified and on the third day rise.”
And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb
they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.
Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James
and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles,
but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.
But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in,
he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home
marveling at what had happened.

***********

”He is not here, but has risen.” Here is joy
I believe with all my heart. Here is joy
bursting forth
like sunrise
filling up and overflowing all my soul:
here is joy that seemed too good
to be true,
but it’s real . . .
He is risen! Jesus my Lord and my Savior,
He is risen! I have seen Him! He is risen indeed!
And because He lives,
I live!
I live inspired by His loving power
bursting out from His borrowed tomb,
and because He lives,
I live.
Death could not hold Him, death could
not keep Him from His eternal glory,
and because He lives,
I live.