A Holy Week Devotional

One of the things I find remarkable about the events leading up to Christ’s crucifixion was the massive gap between His true identity as the Son of God and the pathetic way in which He was treated.

Here is the person with the highest status that anyone on earth has ever had. He is the creator who started everything and the judge who would preside over the end of the age. Yet He is treated like the devil himself or, perhaps worse, as a powerless person far beneath the status of those passing judgment on Him.

Jesus was never bolder or more clear about His true identity than in the final days before His death on the cross. He was bold in overturning the money tables of those selling in the temple. He was bold in His condemnation of the scribes and Pharisees, calling them blind guides, a brood of vipers, and children of the devil who were leading people to hell. He was bold in His prophecies of the coming judgement that would destroy the generation that rejected Him. He was bold in His assertion that He was the Son of God who had been sent at the end of a long line of prophets.

Jesus was being as clear as possible about the terrible consequences that awaited those who rejected Him because, in so doing, they rejected the work of the Father who sent Him. He left people no wiggle room. They had to decide. Was He from God or not? Would they stand with Him or against Him?

The words and actions of Jesus may seem harsh, but in reality they were loving. He was doing everything He could to send a wake up call to His enemies because He knew they were sealing their own doom. He knew the consequences they would have to face, not only in this age, but in the age to come. Love compelled Him to do and say things that would shock them into reconsidering their attitude toward Him. He was not willing that any should perish.

But despite fulfilled prophecy, despite public debates in the temple, despite clear prophetic condemnation, and despite countless signs and wonders, climaxing with the unimaginable act of raising Lazarus from the dead, despite it all, the blindness of His enemies was so deeply entrenched nothing could shake them out of their unbelief or the hatred that flowed from their false narratives about Jesus.

It may seem strange to think that the kindest thing Jesus could do was to publicly say to the scribes and Pharisees, “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?” (Matthew 23:33 NIV). But He was not saying these things out of blind rage or fear of what was about to happen to Him. He was saying these things out of concern for their souls. He wasn’t trying to save Himself. He was trying to save them, and it was a task that called for extreme measures.

I find it comforting to know that Jesus Christ loves us enough to get in our face and call us out when we are on a path that is heading to destruction. Being nice may seem more loving, but it really isn’t. There is a reason God sent prophets with a message of doom. It wasn’t to vent His anger (though He was angry at their hardness of heart and the evil they did to others). It was to give them a chance.

You have probably heard of tough love. Jesus was the king of tough love. But tough love isn’t for the tender-hearted who desperately want to please the Father. Tough love is for the hard-hearted who need to be broken before it’s too late. 

If you are coasting in your walk with God, or if your life has been hard and God seems distant, use this Easter season to ask God what the first step is for you in correcting the pattern. I pray this will be the start of a wonderful breakthrough in your life.