Passion Week in the Holy LandSample

Tuesday and Wednesday of Passion Week

Tuesday of Passion Week was a busy day for Jesus. He spent the bulk of His time at the Temple, debating with the Jewish leaders. He told a parable of a vineyard owner who has tenants who aren’t producing fruit with the vineyard. In fact, Jesus’ parable has overtones from Isaiah 5:1–7 where the Lord uses a vineyard as a metaphor for Israel—a context in which God did all He could to make it fruitful and He expected it to bear fruit—but it didn’t.

Jesus, of course, knew full well the implication of using this parable. (In fact, Jesus implied the same thing the day before with the fruitless fig tree.) Jesus asked the obvious question: “What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others” (Mark 12:9). Rejecting Christ results in loss of life and privilege of participation. The word for “owner” is literally “lord” in Greek. That word can be translated a number of ways depending on the context. But Jesus goes on to quote from Psalm 118, where “Lord” clearly means God. Putting it all together, the “stone which the builders rejected” is the “beloved son” that was killed by the vine growers. The rejected stone became the chief cornerstone. Once rejected, but later made most prominent.

Did the religious leaders rejoice at Christ’s wonderful, true words that Tuesday of Passion Week? Hardly! The religious leaders were looking to get rid of Jesus because He spoke the parable against them (Mark 12:12). In other words, because He spoke the truth about them. In fact, the whole of the next day, Wednesday of Passion Week, is summed up by the religious leaders plotting to murder Jesus (Matthew 26:1-5, Mark 14:1-2, Luke 22:1-2; John 11:47-53).

Present rejection. Future vindication. The same is true of us who follow Christ. Are you struggling with an incident that demands vindication? Right now, of course, it doesn’t seem to be a wonderful outcome. But it will one day be “marvelous in our eyes” (Mark 12:11). And it will be a full vindication. Remember Jesus. It was the resurrection of Jesus that vindicated Him (Acts 4:8–12). The same will be true of us.

Want to experience more of Passion Week? View additional Passion Week tours with Dr. Wayne Stiles here.