Good Friday 

John 3:16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

Maundy Thursday – Command

Read John 13:1-17, 31-35

Holy Thursday is also called Maundy Thursday. “Maundy” is the Latin term for “Command.” The Palm Sunday Parade is over. The joyous Celebration is now just a memory. The Palms are gone and Jerusalem is quiet. Thursday night is remembered for Jesus washing his disciples feet, one last meal and his conversation with Peter about his denial. Today we are going to focus on the Command. Jesus tells us to love each other. This isn’t just lip service. He gets down on his knees, he pours water into a basin and begins washing His Disciples feet. This is the love He is talking about. Humble, lowly devotion. It’s not a glamorous love, it gives you nothing back. It is a costly love, it is a holy love. It is how we identify ourselves as followers of Christ.

As we enter into the great three days of Christ’s Death and Resurrection, let us hear this last lesson about our identity as Children of God and Followers of Christ. People will know us by how we love each other and those who are lowly. People will see where our hearts and values are by how we fall to our knees and reach out in service to our neighbors.

Our eternity is secured in heaven and our call is clear, “Love Each Other” is our command.

Today reflect on how you can love others well.

The Two Sinners

Read Matthew 26:1-16

It’s hard to imagine a greater contrast between these two sinners: Judas Iscariot and Mary Magdalene. While Mary wept for her sins, and then lavished Jesus with her love, Judas complained of her extravagance, and then went to betray his Lord. Each fulfilling prophecy by their actions.

Here we see the heart of Judas turning dark. Jesus is not going to be the Messiah that he had hoped for. He hoped for a King of Worldly Glory with all of its riches and honors. He acts like a disciple saying the money Mary spent should have gone to the poor. But, Jesus knows Judas’s true desire is not for the poor but for himself. Judas is incapable of understanding the love that urged Mary. Jesus recognizes true worship with false worship. Money was what a Judas worshiped. Jesus was who Mary worshipped. Jesus brought Mary’s act of love into the brightest light by saying, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done what she could; she has done a beautiful thing to me.” Perfect love is at work, it does everything it can. And where it does, the Lord himself adds to it far more than we can imagine or understand. He accepts Mary’s loving deed as the anointing of his holy body for its burial and resurrection, and declares that this will be proclaimed by every tongue as long as the world exists.

Today we are halfway through Holy Week. Consider today the acts and intentions of the “Two Sinners.” Mary’s act of Worship and Judas being filled with greed and hatred which led to his betrayal hours later. Are we so filled with worship that we would be willing to do it at any cost? Are we willing to give our money, our time, our energy to love our God and others well? How are we “spending” our lives?

The Prediction/Repentance Matthew 21:23-25:4

Tuesday of Holy Week is often called “Busy Tuesday” because Jesus did a lot of speaking. The morning of Tuesday he spoke to his disciples. Many of his parables are about repentance. He also had some conversations with the Pharisees and Sadducees. They were trying to trap Jesus and expose him as a hoax. But Jesus kept pointing to the truth that he was the Messiah. His evening was spent talking about the End Times and the End of the Earth and that He was going to come back again and for his followers to be prepared at all times. He truly was busy.

As you read through Jesus’s Tuesday pay attention to his selfless, wondrous love. Consider how he spent his last days offering his loving forgiveness to those who were orchestrating his murder.

Reflect on how, because of Jesus, we have the forgiveness we desperately need to face our Judgment Day with confidence and consider areas in your own heart that need repentance and reflect of the parables about “being ready” for His return. Are we ready for his return?

Matthew 21:12 Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.”

One of the first things Jesus did when he entered Jerusalem was go to the temple and clean it out. Just like he does when he enters a persons life. He goes straight to the temple, to the things we worship above him. He cleans out whatever is not Gods plan. This process is sanctification which simply put is getting right with God. Jesus knows what stands between us and God. It could be sin, prejudice or grudges, old hurts, feelings of inferiority, unforgiveness, etc. Whatever blocks our relationships with Him must go.

Consider today what in your life needs to be cleansed. What is Jesus asking you to get rid of? What is keeping you from your Heavenly Father?