Holy Week in Real Time: Tuesday
Open Your Bible
Luke 21:1-38, Luke 22:1-2, Daniel 7:13-14
BY Guest Writer
Text: Luke 21:1-38, Luke 22:1-2, Daniel 7:13-14
Today is the third day of the portion of the church calendar commonly known as Holy Week.
In the coming days, we will slow our pace, walking through the events that took place between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. Rather than offer personal, written responses to each day’s Scripture reading, we’ve asked our friend, Pastor Russ Ramsey, to provide a real-time summary of the week’s events. Our prayer is that this more descriptive approach will usher you into the narrative and allow space for you to fully engage the beauty and ache of Holy Week.
Take this week slowly and reverently. It is a somber time, but let us never forget: Sunday is coming.
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The Tuesday of Holy Week was filled with drama.
If Monday’s arrival in the temple was marked by Jesus’ living parable of cleansing God’s house, Tuesday’s entrance was marked by a direct, verbal confrontation from the religious leadership, the Sanhedrin. They demanded to know who gave Jesus the right to behave as He has in their temple (Mark 11:27-33).
This entire confrontation was an attempt to put Jesus in His place by forcing Him to yield to the Sanhedrin’s authority. But when they tried, they failed. Jesus asked smarter questions and gave clearer answers than they did (Matthew 21:23-27). When they tried to question His motives, He exposed their hearts. When they attempted to intimidate Him by coming to Him in numbers, He never showed the slightest sign of backing down. They tried to discredit His ministry, but there were people walking around in the temple who, only days earlier, had been blind and lame (Matthew 21:14).
Jesus had literally turned the tables on the Sanhedrin the day before (Matthew 21:12), but today He had done it again—only this time with further-reaching implications. When they demanded that He submit to their authority, He exposed them as liars. If they had no integrity, they held no real authority.
This forced the religious leaders’ hand. If they wanted to contain Jesus’ influence among the people, they would have to rely on more than warnings and bravado. They would have to remove Him—because it was clear that He would not yield.
After Jesus ended the confrontation on Tuesday by refusing to regard these leaders as having any authority over Him, He elected to spend the rest of the day right there in the temple—His Father’s house—so that He might teach the people the Word of God (Matthew 21:28-23:39). Consider for a moment the strength and resolve that standing His ground would have required.
But Tuesday afternoon would be the last time Jesus would publicly teach in the temple as a free man. His words on that day would be His closing argument—His manifesto.
When Jesus left the temple that Tuesday, the chief priests and the scribes sought how to arrest Him by stealth and kill Him (Mark 14:1). They knew they couldn’t take His life from Him solely on the strength of the charges they meant to bring—not if He defended Himself, anyway.
But He would not. Instead, by His silence, He would offer up His life for a world of blasphemers, traitors, and liars who so desperately needed to be opposed and upset. This was what Jesus had come to do.
As He left the temple that Tuesday afternoon, He knew it would happen soon.
written by Russ Ramsey
adapted from Behold the King of Glory
54 thoughts on "Holy Week in Real Time: Tuesday"
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hello!,I love your writing very much! share we keep up a correspondence extra approximately your post on AOL? I require an expert in this area to resolve my problem. May be that is you! Having a look forward to see you.
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Truly,Christ did not have his Life.Yet he purposed and completed the Will of our Father.
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14 Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer,
How many times do I prepare an argument or Christian apology in a vacuum? I love that this vision of evangelism requires more than rote recitation or tracts: Jesus is requiring 1) we have faith that he will give us words and wisdom and 2) that we actually listen to the people we are interacting with.
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I love this thought that Russ brings out:
“They tried to discredit His ministry, but there were people walking around in the temple who, only days earlier, had been blind and lame (Matthew 21:14).”
Just like Jesus, there are people who may call us foolish and try to discredit our testimony (ministry). BUT as long as the Risen Savior is alive in us (the healed blind and lame of our day), the Truth will be in plain view allowing a watching world to see the Hope of Jesus’ death and resurrection for them today.
Thank you, Russ, for your thoughts during Holy Week. You’ve given us a lot to think about!
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This part of scripture seems so fitting today with the things that happend in Brussel this morning. Im living in the Netherlands and you can feel and see the fear by people. Im trying not to be afraid but it is hard. Can you please pray? Its so clear that we are living in the end times
Of the world and that the world so desperately needs the Cross of Jesus!-
Anna, thank you for transparently sharing your fear and reaching out for prayer support. Calling on the Lord for your comfort, peace, safety specifically.
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Hi Anna, my sister is living in Amsterdam and I feel the anxiety too, even from as far away as New Zealand. Absolutely I am praying over these end times – knowing that I trust in the hope of our resurrected Saviour. He alone is the Prince of Peace, and He alone is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is above and sovereign over all. Come Lord Jesus, come quickly. Christ have mercy on our fallen world.
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Praying for you, sweet sister. That you will seek Him for comfort and that He will fill you with peace.
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Praying for you
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Hi Anna,
I am praying that God blesses and comforts you in this difficult time and that you feel his everlasting love and safety amongst you and your family. In the midst of all this terror I hope that those around the world turn to God and see him as their hope and savior. I will be praying for you.
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A scandal of grace, He died in our place so our souls will live!
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Is it just me or does it seem like the reading is supposed to be from chapter 20 of Luke instead of 21…?
Love that Jesus is so powerful and yet so personal too!-
Yes, now that you point that out. Was a bit confused as I didn’t feel like the response went along with the passages. Was wondering if I had missed something.
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