Justin Taylor summarizes what happened on Sunday of Holy Week (here).
Archive for the 'Holy Week' Category
Cal Thomas:
Mocking Jesus of Nazareth is nothing new. Whether it is today’s Lady Gaga or a “Hunky Jesus” contest in San Francisco, Jesus has been the subject of ridicule by those who do not know Him.
Even on the day we call Good Friday, the day he hung on a cross for the sins of others (not His own, for He had none), He was ridiculed. “Come down from the cross and then we’ll believe,” some shouted. They wouldn’t have believed if He had, because they refused to believe all the other miracles He performed before their eyes.
Lady Gaga’s latest attempt at blasphemy . . .
Read the rest here.
Dan Phillips:
The irony of the phrase “Good Friday” has been noted, probably, by all of us. “Good” for us, certainly. Without the cross-work of the Son of God on that day, all would be lost, hopelessly and forever.
But of course it was a horrid day, viewed from any other angle. Our race — Adam’s race — reached its nadir on that day. Any appalling crime you can call to mind was bottomed by the mock-trial and the mocking of God incarnate. At that point, we hit bottom, and the Gospels record it for all to see, for all time.
But the worst day, ever, for the apostles and most who loved Jesus, had to be that Saturday, which today marks.
Read the rest here.
Donald Trump has recently made a point of asking to see documentation for the President’s place of birth. While I don’t have people on the ground in Hawaii, I’m not personally persuaded this questions needs any attention. I’m not planning on reading up on the Obama-Birther discussion Saturday morning.
But, there is another “birther question” that is one that ought to concern us all: Is Jesus the Son of God?
Scripture, in many different ways tell us that Jesus is the Son of God: “The Word became flesh (John 1:14)”, “that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20). . .”
My friend Dr. Lamonte King, Jr. reminded me earlier today that Paul begins Romans by reminding his audience that “Jesus was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:4).”
If there was any question about Jesus’s Messianic qualification, if there were any Donald Trump types floating about Jerusalem in the days leading up to the Cross, the question of Jesus’ identity was solved once and for all when God made declaration of the identity of His Son in the resurrection.
Consider this profound quote from Augustine (emphasis added):
God’s love is incomprehensible and unchangeable. For it was not after we were reconciled to him through the blood of his Son that he began to love us. Rather, he has loved us before the world was created, that we also might be his sons along with his only-begotten Son—before we became anything at all.
The fact that we were reconciled through Christ’s death must not be understood as if his Son reconciled us to him that he might now begin to love those whom he had hated. Rather, we have already been reconciled to him who loves us, with whom we were enemies on account of sin. The apostle will testify whether I am speaking the truth: ‘God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us’ [Rom. 5:8]. Therefore, he loved us even when we practiced enmity toward him and committed wickedness.
Thus in a marvelous and divine way he loved us even when he hated us. For he hated us for what we were that he had not made; yet because our wickedness had not entirely consumed his handiwork, he knew how, at the same time, to hate in each one of us what he had made, and to love what he had made.
Quoted in Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1960), 506-507.
HT: Desiring God
Justin Taylor gives a biblical summary of what happened on Thursday of Holy Week (click here).
Justin Taylor gives a summary of what happened on Wednesday of Holy Week: Click here.
Justin Taylor continues his series on what happened each day of the week during Holy Week with Tuesday’s post.
The week between Palm Sunday and Easter is not intrinsically holy, except that all time is holy, since it belongs to God. But we can make it holy by setting it apart for sacred focus.
May I encourage you to do that, for the sake of seeing more of the greatness of Christ. He reveals himself through his word. Take up his word and focus your attention on him in his last hours. Set aside some time this week to fix your gaze steadily on him as he loves you to the uttermost (John 13:1).
The passages in the Gospels that record his final hours are:
- Matthew 26:17-28:20
- Mark 14:21-16:8
- Luke 22:1-24:53
- John 13:1-21:25
You may find that a volcano erupts in your soul. Like it did for me 28 years ago.
