Easter: Daily Meditations On Holy WeekÀpẹrẹ

Holy Tuesday: Temple

INTRODUCTION

Text: Today we pause to engage with Holy Tuesday, remembering the day Jesus entered the Temple.  

Reading: Read and consider this verse:  "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. He said to them, 'It is written, "My house shall be called a house of prayer," but you make it a den of robbers.'" (Matthew 21:12-13 ESV)

Text: Take a few moments to let your imagination fill your mind with images of what you already know and can picture about this day. 

Prayer: Pray this prayer and consider its words: “Zealous God, I marvel that you are jealous for my praise. Not that it would add anything to you, but that it would grant everything to me. I rejoice that you would place yourself within the crowded and greedy courts of my heart to drive out that which seeks to replace you. You alone are my salvation and my joy.” 

BACKGROUND

Text: Israel’s massive celebration of the Passover was drawing near and the temple courts would have been busting at their seams. Jews would have been streaming in from pilgrimages to offer their sacrifices and purchase the goods they required for the festivities. 

Verse: Read about the beginning of Passover. Notice what God commands: “... on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb…without blemish, a male a year old…you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.” (Exodus 12:3-6 ESV)

Text: This was God’s command before the final plague on Egypt and Israel’s Exodus. The blood from the lambs would be painted over the doorways of every Israelite’s house. The judgment that was coming into Egypt would pass over the houses covered with the blood, saving those inside. During the time in which Jesus entered the temple, all Israel would be celebrating this day by offering their sacrifices and partaking in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but Jesus was going to reveal the sacrifice and salvation to which Passover truly pointed. 

Verse: Read this verse where God commands the continued observation of Passover: “...keep the Passover to the Lord your God…you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God…You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread…that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 16:1-3 ESV)

RESPONSE

Text: The people of Israel were engaging in a commanded celebration in order that they might remember the day of their salvation and that salvation requires a sacrifice. But when Jesus entered the temple during the preparations for Passover, he temporarily halted all the sacrifices and preparations. 

Verse: Read Hebrew’s description of how Jesus replaces the old sacrificial system: “... every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,” (Hebrews 10:11-12 ESV)

Text: Jesus brought the entire temple system to a halt during its busiest week in order to say, “The true sacrifice is here.” Jesus disrupted the preparations for Passover in order to say, “The true Passover lamb is here.” 

Prayer: Take the next few minutes to pray your own prayer of thanks to Jesus for being our perfect sacrifice and our Passover lamb. Thank him for lowering himself to the station of a slaughtered farm animal. Thank him that, well before the first Passover, he knew he would be the firstborn son slain by the wrath of God, he would be the lamb sacrificed for the sins of his people. 

CONFESSION

Text: The real offense in the temple was not economic but spiritual. The people had replaced their dependence on God with a dependence on a religious system. It was their good deeds and privileged position that functioned as their savior. How regularly do we replace our dependence on Jesus with the sacrifices of our own good deeds? Don’t we still try to earn God’s favor with our actions instead of looking to the final sacrifice? Take a moment to consider, lament, confess and repent of the ways you have sought to replace Jesus with works and how inadequate all your works are to save you.  

Prayer: Pray this prayer: “Jesus, my Passover lamb, thank you for being the unblemished sacrifice I need. No matter how many sacrifices I offer, no matter how many deeds I perform, nothing will be adequate to save me from my own evil heart and deserved punishment. I look to you alone Jesus to clear the temple of my heart and stand as its only trust.” 

GOSPEL

Text: Jesus is the sacrificial lamb, but he is also the clearer of the temple. Jesus does not just stand in the temple as the sacrifice for our sin, he clears the temple itself of sin. 

Verse: See the amazing connection Paul makes between the Passover and Jesus: “Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch – as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” (1 Corinthians 5:7 NIV)

Prayer: Spend a few minutes in prayer inviting Jesus into the temple of your heart as its clearer. Ask him to turn over your tables of self-reliance. Beg him to be the one who drives out every last robber of joy in the den of your soul. 

Text: Jesus is the cleanser and the clearer of our souls. May we let our assurance in his completed work as our sacrifice build our confidence in the fact that he will complete his work as our sanctifier. Let us never lose sight of this mighty image: Jesus standing in the temple as the replacement of all sacrifices. In order for us to be passed over, he had to die. To cleanse the temple, he had to offer himself as the final unblemished lamb. 

Verse: Read this verse: “Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.” (Hebrews 7:27 NIV)

Prayer: Spend these remaining moments in joyful prayer, thanking Jesus for becoming the only sacrifice that could cause the penalty of our sin to pass us over.