Holy Week Devotional | Tuesday

Tuesday of Holy Week

On this day, Jesus faces opposition from the religious and political leaders in the temple courts. They are united in their desire to stop him. They want him killed.

"But the crowds are astonished at his teaching and hang onto his every word." 
- Luke 19:47

The first group to confront Jesus was the chief priests, the experts in the law, and elders who ask, “By what authority are you doing these things?” He answered with a question, “Was John’s baptism from heaven or people?” The tables are turned. They are caught in Jesus’ trap. If they answer heaven, then why don’t they believe. If they answer people, they lose the support of the multitude who saw John as a true prophet from God. They refuse to answer, and Jesus does not answer their question. Jesus tells parables that picture the rejection of Jesus by the religious establishment – and they recognize themselves in the parables. They want to arrest Jesus on the spot but fear of the crowds’ reaction prevents them. The confrontations escalate as the day goes on as Jesus faces questions about taxes, “Is it right to pay them to Caesar?”, about a woman who married seven brothers, “Whose wife is she after the resurrection?”, and “What is the greatest commandment?” Jesus has an answer each time that avoids the trap and leaves the crowds astonished at his wisdom and insight. He had answered the initial question, “By what authority are you doing these things?” with a living demonstration revealed in the deftness and depth of his answers. 

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record Jesus’ inditement of the Scribes and Pharisees. Matthew’s account has the longest – the seven woes, seven specific rebukes about the way these leaders lived out their faith. Jesus wraps up his time in the temple courts talking about future coming events – the destruction of Herod’s great temple, wars, famines, earthquakes, and his return in glory.

This day full of controversy ends in a meal at Simon the leper’s house in Bethany (Matt. 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9, John 12:1-8). The disciples are present, Simon, Mary of Bethany, Lazarus, and Martha as well. Something remarkable happens toward the end of the meal. Jesus is fully aware of what awaits him on Thursday and Friday, and the disciples do not fully grasp what Jesus has said will happen in Jerusalem (Matt. 20:17-19). Mary comes with an expensive alabaster jar of perfumed oil, nard. After breaking open the jar, she poured it over his head (Matt., Mark) and his feet (John). She wiped his feet with her hair. The fragrance filled the room. Judas and others questioned the use of the expensive oil so extravagantly when it could have been sold and the money given to the poor. It was worth the equivalent of a years’ wage. But Jesus defends her. He says, “Leave her alone. She has kept it for the day of my burial. For you will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.” (John 12:8) At some level, Mary recognized what Jesus was facing in the coming days as she anointed his head and his feet with that costly oil. He was not totally alone as he said “Yes” to the cross and to the mission his Father had given him. Judas would betray him, and Peter would deny him.