Holy Week: Tuesday
Jesus’ Warnings
Matthew 23:1-5
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. 4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others.
Jesus is not finished exposing what is broken.
After cleansing the temple, He now turns His attention directly to the temple leaders—the scribes and Pharisees. These are the respected voices. The teachers. The examples.
“They preach, but do not practice.”
They know the truth. Often, they even teach the truth.
But their lives do not reflect it.
They place heavy burdens on others—expectations, rules, standards—yet do nothing to help.
They perform their religion, but their motivation is clear: “They do all their deeds to be seen by others.”
Jesus doesn’t soften His words.
In the rest of Matthew 23, He delivers a series of sharp warnings (seven in total). In essence, He says:
You deny entry to God.
You lead others—but toward the wrong things.
You are consumed with gain rather than God
You major on the minor and ignore the majors.
You look good on the outside but neglect your inner life
You appear alive, but are spiritually dead
You claim to be better than past failures, but you are no different.
Jesus is clear: You are missing what matters.
Reflection
It’s easy to read this and think of them.
But Jesus is inviting us to examine ourselves.
Where has your faith become more about appearance than reality?
Where are you going through the motions without true surrender?
Holy Week: Monday
Jesus in the Temple
Matthew 21:12-17
12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, 16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,
“‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”
17And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.
For a long time, Jesus has been set on Jerusalem. He enters the city to celebration—welcomed like a king. But the tone shifts quickly.
Instead of heading to a palace, Jesus goes to the temple—the very place meant for worship, sacrifice, and prayer. What he finds is something else entirely. Commerce. Noise. Exploitation.
What may have begun as a helpful system—providing animals for sacrifice—has become corrupted. The temple courts now resemble a marketplace more than a place of worship.
And so Jesus acts.He overturns tables. He drives people out. He declares:
“My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.”
This isn’t random anger—it’s righteousness on display.
The space meant for God has been overtaken by the priorities of man.
And then comes the contrast.
The blind and the lame come to him—and he heals them.
Children cry out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
Worship is restored. Praise returns.
But the religious leaders? They see all of it—the healings, the praise, the undeniable work of God—and they are indignant.
Matthew even highlights the irony:
“When they saw the wonderful things that he did… they were indignant.”
They don’t miss what Jesus is doing—they reject it.
Why? When we become more concerned with the things of man rather than the things of God, we miss the messiah and focus on what is mine.
Reflection
Jesus didn’t just cleanse the temple then—he still exposes what doesn’t belong.
Where has attention on God been replaced with something else in your life?
What has subtly taken over what should belong to Him?
What needs to be overturned in your life?
Loving Temptation
In Mark 8:32, Peter takes Jesus aside to rebuke Him.
On Sunday, I clarified that this rebuke of Peter was simply an outpouring of love. Because Peter loved Jesus so much, he could not stand even considering that Jesus would suffer. Peter could not stand for it!
There are a lot of things that we do out of love. We help, care, serve, listen, and offer advice. We clean dishes, make beds, fold laundry, run errands, and buy gifts for those we love.
There can also be danger in loving that can actually be harmful.
You know the old proverb: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” If you have ever tried to teach someone, you know that in that moment they would much prefer you to give than teach.
I catch myself in parenting giving more fish than teaching to fish. It is easier for me and Cooper. It is less messy and takes less time. But he must learn to fish.
Furthermore, it is easier to protect him from any danger, pain, or disappointment. I am working on this as well. Rather than constantly warning about the consequences of jumping on the bed, not wearing a helmet, or why to hold a plate with two hands, I am giving him space to goof around and find out. I could bubble wrap him for 18 years, but eventually he will be released into the world. If I protect him from every challenge or problem now, he will never be prepared to handle issues then.
In the book When Helping Hurts, Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett argue that at times loving others is not doing for them or giving them money to handle it. In fact, we can do more damage when we never expect anyone to lift a finger on their own.
Peter loved Jesus, but his help was not helpful. Peter was, in fact, tempting Jesus to deny God’s plan for a choice of peace. Sometimes love tempts people away from obedience because we want to spare them pain.
Consider today:
Are you loving those in your life for their benefit or for your benefit?
Is your love helping them or delaying the inevitable?
How can you help someone in a way that helps them not only in the moment but for days and years to come? This help will take more time, energy, and thought, but it is for the best.
The Will of God and The Way of the Cross
Mark 8:31–33
31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
How will I respond when the will of God is the way of the cross?
This is a challenging question for everyone reading this email. What will I do when God allows suffering, struggle, heartache, and heartbreak to enter my path? How will I respond when life gets hard and obedience actually makes it harder?
Jesus is clear over and over again that following Him means denying self, taking up the cross daily, and following (Mark 8:34–36; Luke 9:23–25). Jesus never made it sound easy, and yet all we want is ease. Sure, Jesus will call us to come to Him when we are weary and heavy laden, but that doesn’t excuse us from a journey of obedience that at times includes the valley of the shadow of death.
Today, I want to urge you to simply pray this:
God, help me to be faithful even when life is hard. Help me to trust you even when it is not the path I would choose.
Help me to obey even when obstacles exist.
You can be assured of this: There will be times in your life when the will of God will look like the way of the cross. Hold fast. The God who leads you to the cross is the same God who brings resurrection on the other side.
The Jesus I Want
In the Galleria Mall, there is a Build-A-Bear store. In this store, you get to fully customize whatever type of stuffed animal you would like. You get to pick the color, the name, and even what it says. You get to individualize this stuffed animal however you like.
Customizing a stuffed animal is fun.
Customizing a Savior is dangerous.
If we are not careful, we create in our minds the Jesus we want to follow—a Jesus that looks like us, lives like us, and chooses who to love like us. We create a picture of Jesus that conforms to our desired way of life. This is dangerous!
I asked on Sunday, “Is the Jesus you follow shaped more by Scripture or by your preference?”
What does that mean? Are you like Peter who says to Jesus, “You will be safe under my watch! I will protect you!”?
Or maybe you have created a Jesus that affirms every choice you make. You can justify failing to love others because of the way they treated you. You manipulate Scripture or ignore it altogether to sleep well at night with your choices.
It is a dangerous proposition when we prefer the Jesus of our creation over the Jesus of the sacred text—when we trust in a God we have manufactured rather than the God who made the world. Why is this dangerous? Our invented Jesus cannot save. Only the real Jesus can!
The real Jesus is not the one we design.
He is the one revealed in Scripture — the crucified and risen Son of God.
Where are you prone to veer away from the Jesus of the Bible to believe a Jesus of your own creation?