Temple Tuesday was Just That
Yesterday, on Holy Monday of Holy Week, I blogged about Jesus and His righteous anger when He saw the money changers selling their wares and cheating people at the temple. Cheating is wrong but especially at this holy place set apart for the presence of God.
I love that from that scene, Jesus went into the temple and “the blind and the lame came to Him at the temple, and He healed them.” (Matthew 21:14) Don’t we bask in the glory of our Lord Who turns the negative into a positive….every time? But then there were those gnarly religious leaders who became indignant (verse 15).
Matthew goes on to tell us Jesus left the temple for Bethany to spend the night and then on this Tuesday, He returned to the temple courts. Apparently, He had unfinished business to take care of. He confirmed what God’s Holy Place should look like — a place regarded as the dwelling place of God. Tuesday of Holy Week could be called “Temple Tuesday,” because we continue to read in Matthew 21 how Jesus spent most of the day in the Temple — teaching and using parables to make His points.
Jesus was constantly confronted by religious leaders who challenged his authority to teach the people and lambasted Him with unreasonable theological questions. On this day, the religious leaders sent their very best minds to try and trap Jesus. Of course they had already made up their minds to put Jesus to death (John 11:47-53). Now they needed the evidence to do so legally. Imagine that… the verdict came in before the evidence was even there! They knew they had to catch Jesus in saying something to incriminate Him as a false teacher/prophet.
Their four challenging questions merited them four utter defeats. And, as if Jesus could have put more icing on the “truth” cake, He summed up the entire Old Testament law with the greatest and second-greatest commands: “Love God and love others!” Mic drop!
Those men just thought they could out-smart and out-think the Son of God, the One who has all knowledge, wisdom, and truth. Jesus sent the greatest theological and philosophical minds of His day home in a tail spin. But Jesus was so remarkable in His successful rebuttal to those despicable religious leaders and their devious inquisition, that “no one was able to answer Him a word. From that day forward, no one dared to ask him any more questions”. (Matthew 22:46)
How glorious is the mind of Christ. May we praise Him for His infinite wisdom in all that He was and is in our lives. This is only Tuesday and the plot starts to thicken. I’m ever thankful we know the big finale on Sunday! It’s not an ending but the beginning of the abundant life we can live because of Jesus’ resurrection. Our Champion lives. And we win in a big way. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah will soon destroy the enemy once and for all. Just hang on. God wins and those who love and believe in Him will live with Him forevermore! Oh Happy Day!