Lent Devotionals Week 7 – Holy Week
Monday
Read Matthew 21:1-11 and focus on verse 10, where everyone asks, who is this man who enters Jerusalem as a king and a messiah? Who is this? It is a critically important question for us to ask ourselves today as well. Who is Jesus? The common response in our world today is that Jesus was a good man, a good moral teacher, set a good example for us to follow, but is certainly not God and didn’t perform all of the miracles and stuff.
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
As we enter this Holy Week, if you are not settled on who Jesus is, take this week to come to an answer to that question. And if you do believe that Jesus is who he says he is, then ask the Lord today how you can fully follow Jesus, your Savior, and Lord, as we look towards Easter.
Tuesday
Read Matthew 21:1-11 and focus on verse 9. As Jesus enters Jerusalem the crowds are crying out Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! This is a clear reference to the promised Messiah from Psalm 118. However, the problem for many in that crowd, including Jesus’ disciples, is that even if they believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah, they were looking for the wrong kind of Messiah. They were looking for a Messiah who was a military ruler, who would come and liberate Jerusalem and kick the Roman Empire to the curb. They were looking for a warrior, like King David, dressed in battle gear and ready to go. However, Jesus came as the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, one who came not to make war, but to die for the sins of his people. So while the crowd recognized Jesus as the Messiah, he was not the Messiah they wanted him to be. This may be why so many turned on Jesus to chant “Crucify him!” only a few days later.
It is easy today to make the same mistake, and try to make Jesus into someone he is not. We cannot fit Jesus into our box of expectations, we must come to him as he is, our Savior and King. Jesus is not a genii, prosperity guru, or a reflection of our own wants and desires. Jesus does not come to help us with our agenda, Jesus becomes our agenda!
Take some time today and think about who Jesus is. What are ways that you look to Jesus to fit into your plans and goals for your life, instead of submitting all of your life to his will and purpose for you? Ask the Lord to help you surrender your plans and goals to Jesus, and to follow his plan for your life.
Wednesday
Read Matthew 21:1-11 and focus on verses 1-8. The triumphal entry makes clear, both through visual demonstration and prophecy fulfillment, that Jesus is not only the promised Messiah, he is the promised Davidic king. And the question every one of us must ask is this: Is Jesus truly my king? Not just in my words, but in my heart?
We don’t do very well with the concept of submitting to a king in this country. The only king we let have free reign in our lives is the king of our own individuality. We are afraid that having a king rule over us would bring oppression, burdens, and that we would lose our sense of individual freedom.
However Jesus as king does not come to make oppress and make war in Matthew 21:1-11, he comes to make peace. He is riding on a colt, an animal that kings rode in peacetime in the ancient world. King Jesus comes not to punish, but to be punished for our sin. So this is a king who brings freedom, and liberation, and peace. If we want to find true joy and true peace, it will be through following Jesus as our king.
Take some time today and consider who Jesus is as your king, and how the peace and joy that we crave is found only in him. Ask the Lord to help you experience the joy and peace that comes only through following Jesus as King. Think about areas in your life where you are sitting on the throne of your life, and ask the Lord to help you get off the throne so that Jesus can have his rightful place in your life. And watch as your king gives you the peace and joy you are seeking.
Thursday
Read Luke 22:7-23. This passage is one of the accounts of the Last Supper, which took place on Thursday evening of Holy Week. The Last Supper is rich in symbolism; the bread representing Jesus’ body, the cup representing Jesus’ blood, and a new covenant, a new intimate relationship with God, brought about through Jesus’ sacrifice. It sets the pattern for how we celebrate Communion together as a church. It is clearly designed to point us to the cross, to Jesus’ love for us, and to his atoning sacrifice for our sins, in our place.
On this Maundy Thursday, take some time to reflect on the Last Supper. How does the visual symbolism of Jesus’ body and blood encourage you in your faith? How does it challenge you? Ask the Lord to do some spiritual house cleaning in your heart today to prepare you for Good Friday tomorrow.
Friday
Read Mark 15:21-41, and Isaiah 53:4-6. Good Friday marks the day of Jesus’ crucifixion. What is so good about Good Friday? Only the blood of Jesus covers our sins. Jesus died in our place, he bore our punishment, he bore God’s wrath towards our sin. That is good news! But one can only imagine the despair of Jesus, never having experienced any separation from God the Father, now to be completely cut off from him because of our sin. The words of Jesus in Mark 15:34, “My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?” are painful to listen to when we understand that Jesus is bearing what we deserve.
On this Friday, do we see our sin holding Jesus on the cross? Jesus did not die for sin in general, but for my sin. For your sin. On this Good Friday, is there any sin in your life that needs to be confessed before the Lord? Ask the Lord to help you get rid of that sin, and even tell a trusted friend about the sin so that they can pray for you and encourage you. Let this Good Friday be a day both of repentance from sin as well as healing from that sin, as we see that Jesus’ blood has washed our sins away, made us clean, and given us a new life and a new righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Saturday
Take some time today to review the devotionals from this week and ask the Lord to prepare your heart for Sunday morning. How can you prepare spiritually to celebrate that Jesus is alive? Read Luke 24:13-35, and ask the Lord to help you walk in the disciples’ shoes from that first Easter Sunday, as we prepare to celebrate tomorrow.
Finally, take some time this Saturday to think about what the Lord has been teaching you during this season of Lent. Write down ways you have seen yourself grow spiritually during this season, and share them with a friend. Then invite someone you know to join us for our celebration on Easter Sunday!
Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!