It isn't my practice, and I suspect it isn't your desire, for me to offer in this editorial section a pastoral pontification of some kind. I have ordinarily resisted the temptation to do so. But, during Holy Week, in preparation for public and private worship, I find myself thinking of this final week before Jesus' crucifixion. No doubt, you are doing the same.
I find myself thinking about the people and groups of people who made brief but significant appearances. The religious leaders, for example. The chief priests, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians and scribes were not known for their cooperative spirits. Yet, Jesus enabled them to be able to sit down together and work toward a common goal. Unfortunately, their goal was his death.
Jim White
Like wrestlers in a tag-team match, each took a turn in the ring before withdrawing in humiliation and infuriation. Each then tagged the other to have a go at him.
“By what authority do you do what you do?” the Pharisees queried intending to land the first blow. “Tell me first,” Jesus answered “whether John the Baptist's authority was from God or men?”
He had successfully turned the tables. If they said “from God,” Jesus would ask why they did not pay attention to him. If they said “from men” they would lose influence with the people. They refused to answer. And so did Jesus.
Tag. The Herodians jumped into the ring. They could hardly wait. They had rehearsed their moves. “Is it lawful,” they began smugly “to pay taxes to Caesar?” If he said, “Yes,” the people would get angry and he would lose his influence with the people. Strangely, ancient peoples didn't like to pay taxes. If he said, “No,” they would tell the governor on him and he would get in big trouble. Either way, Jesus comes out the loser.
“Show me a coin” Jesus countered. “Whose picture is this?”
“Caesar's” came a chorus of replies.
“Then give Caesar what is his and give to God what belongs to God.” Jesus had pinned them with a spin move they didn't even see coming. They crawled out of the ring.
Tag. Enter the Sadducees who did not believe in a resurrection. “According to the law of Moses if a man dies without leaving a child, the man's brother is obligated to marry his widow and produce offspring by her for his brother. A man had seven sons. The first married a woman and died without having a child. The second brother married the woman and also died without having a child and likewise until the 7th also married her and died without leaving an heir. In the resurrection, whose wife would she be?” Did they envision that Jesus would collapse in confusion?
Jesus replied in heaven there is no need for earthly applications. Our relationships there are of a different kind. Heavenly inhabitants are neither married or given in marriage. Not only did Jesus not surrender to their self-supposed superior intellect, he left them wondering about their own position.
The Pharisees tried again with a question designed to completely confuse an unschooled, unprofessional, unordained layperson like Jesus. Out of the hundreds of laws “Which is the greatest?” The question had confused event great scholars. But, Jesus knew.
“Love the Lord your God — and, though you didn't ask — as a bonus, I'll give you the second. Love each other as you love yourselves.”
Deflated and humbled, they left to plan his death.
Speaking to the crowd, Jesus must have surprised them with his first words. “Do what the Pharisees tell you to do.” It wasn't that they didn't know what the scriptures said, they simply didn't apply it to themselves. Their time and energies were spent finding applications for other people. But, Jesus went on. “But, don't do what they do.” He called them hypocrites. Actors. Pretenders.
He then listed a series of complaints against them, representative of which was the charge that they were like white-washed tombs. Impressive on the outside. Corrupt and stinking on the inside. Not what they seemed to be.
As a “religious leader.” I must take special care. Like the Pharisees, I often read the sacred scriptures looking for a sermon. On many occasions, I search holy writ not for personal edification but for next Sunday's sermon or lesson. I seek to find in them applications to the lives of those to whom I minister.
If I am not careful, I can play my part without engaging my heart.
Who were some of the others in Jesus' last week? Consider the disciples. Jesus announced his plans to go to Bethany because Lazarus, his friend, had died. Knowing that Jerusalem was near Bethany and that the religious leaders intended Jesus harm, Thomas said to the others “Let us go and die with him.” They went. Give them high marks for courage.
Yet somewhere along the way, despite their boasts to the contrary, they shed their courage as surely as they did the cloaks they spread on the donkey's back for Jesus us sit on. Judas betrayed him. Peter, James and John failed him in sleeping through their prayer time in the garden. All the disciples except Peter abandoned him. And when it came time to stand up and be identified as a Christ-follower, Peter denied even knowing him.
I, too, have opportunity to stand up and be clearly identified as a Christ-follower. There have been times when I was called upon to open my mouth to utter a word of witness and I was struck dumb with fear. How often I have slept through my prayer and Bible-reading appointments with God. I have the best of intentions, though.
There are others to consider in Jesus' final week, and although Luke and John place this earlier in Jesus' ministry, in the gospels of Matthew and Mark Jesus' anointing by a sinful woman appears in his final week.
Jesus was invited to the home of Simon the Leper, a Pharisee, and as they reclined at the table eating, a woman known to have a sordid past appeared at Jesus' feet. Weeping a flood upon his feet, she washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. Breaking open an alabaster jar containing expensive perfume, she poured it all over him.
Jesus knew what Simon was thinking. Pharisees are so predictable. “Why would he allow a sinful woman to touch him?”
Who loves more? One forgiven much or one forgiven little? Jesus wanted to know. Simon guessed the one who has been forgiven much. He was right. So this woman who was forgiven much, loved much.
That's what I want to take from this holy week. I want to be aware of how costly my sin is — and that Jesus bore the cost. I want to be aware that I am a great sinner who has been forgiven much. And I want, more than anything in my life, to love Jesus much.
Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe.