Eight Days To Easter: Whose Side Is He On?

As the sun rises the Pharisees are shrewdly setting traps.  In blind ignorance and bold opposition, they’ll question his authority and allegiance (Mth. 21:23 & 22:15) and then his orthodoxy (Luke 20:27 & Matthew 22:34). His answers are filled with the wisdom he lent to Solomon and the zeal he granted Amos.  After today no one will dare to ask him any more questions.

Read Matthew 21:23-23:39. This is a long. Read for broad narrative strokes and not the details.

This was by far the most intense day before the Crucifixion.  Our Rabbi speaks out against the hypocrisy of his people and pronounces searing woes upon their leaders.  Still not finished, he reveals his apocalyptic vision with frightening clarity (Matthew 24 & Luke 21).  He’s determined to embrace the Cross.

Reflect on Matthew 23:37-39 and read Psalm 63:7-8.  His passion and zeal were born of ancient love, the same love that shelters us in the shadow of his wings.

Prayer

O My Savior King, how you fought for my salvation, how you threw yourself upon the tree, how you loved me with excelling love!  It is too much to my mind that you would go to my cross and greater still that you went so freely. But as I watch, you have run.  Such love divine, determined, and unmovable, is too extreme to record, too magnificent to repay, too grand to reject.  Your zeal was my salvation.  Amen

Prayer Prompts

Pray in thankful wonder about how extravagantly Jesus loved you- how he cast off his glory to come to us, the shame of the Cross.

Pray for faith to overcome specific doubts you have about God’ s love, especially as they relate to your most anxious unmet needs.

Pray that his zeal, having saved you, will work deeply to sanctify you.  Ask what you need to embrace or let go of to be more like him. 

Pray for the Church in your country. Ask Jesus what needs to be cleansed and pray that we have the faith to accept his discipline.