Tuesday of Passion Week

Tuesday of Passion Week appears to be the most action-packed from Jesus’ teaching point of view. The day seems to span some of Matthew 21 to 26, perhaps with Judas’ betrayal marking the next day. Nearly twenty-five percent of this Gospel narrative takes place this day. We should probably take good notice.

There is so much teaching in these chapters, it would be reckless to condense much in a single entry here. But read through the Tuesday events, the parables, the “discussions” Jesus has with His opposition, and then take note of the replies Jesus gives, and the questions He asks that are so simply rebuking in and of themselves.

“Did you never read in the Scriptures…?”
“Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites?”
“You are mistaken, and not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God.”
“Do you not see all these things?”

All in a day’s teaching, He clearly sums up the commandments into two: Love God, love each other. He exposes the Pharisees for the hypocrites they are, and He does so with eight “woes”, the sound you’d hear from funeral mourners. “You do the easy stuff just to look good”, He basically tells them (my loose paraphrase). He calls them sepulchers, little devils, vipers. And for these same people will He ask “Father forgive them…”

He teaches on the universality of salvation, and does so in a way that is clear to a Jewish audience, based on His word choice in “many”. In using the word “many” in the Semitic sense of “all”, Christ showed that the scope of His death and the new covenant extended beyond Israel to all peoples. (Robert L. Saucy, “The Church in God’s Program”)

He masterfully quotes Scripture, which to Him would have been what we know as the Old Testament. And then in His primary teaching on the end times, in Matthew 24 and 25, He replies to the question of “…when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?” He answers the “sign” portion, and never the “when”. If He would be pressed on the “when”, He’d point to 24:42, “Therefore, be on the alert for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.” Interesting to see that the Olivet Discourse takes place as He is leaving the temple, and His disciples are eager to point out the grandeur of the temple, so he leads them to discuss more important matters.

And in chapter 25, we see that if we wait to get ready, we will be too late, as depicted in the parable of the ten virgins. Again in verse 13, “Be on the alert…” I think Peter tells us that in his epistle, too. He was paying attention here.

Compassionate to listen and then to teach
Angry at unrighteousness and hypocrisy
A keeper of promises
Mindful of and faithful to Scripture, always applying the Word

OK, Jesus was here on earth and was still God, and yet these principles are ones that we, with His Spirit in us, can emulate, if we are willing to give it the effort required.

SO WHAT? So my question that I wrote to myself in my margin in Matthew 25, next to the parable of the talents, is this: What are we doing with our time here?