***Editor's Note: our writers have blessed us with a bounty of Connect Devotionals this Holy Week! Please enjoy two pieces to start this Monday; one from the Emmets and one immediately following from Heidi Lee.***

This One Week

Brian and Kathy Emmet

Matthew 21-27

How we love the Christmas season!  Gifts, trees, decorations, traditions, cookies, beloved carols, parties: the most wonderful time of the year!

The Easter season is … different.

There are some chocolate bunnies and eggs in stores; candy, of course.  But nothing like the crammed displays and sales of Christmas.  No “Black Friday” anywhere in the vicinity of Good Friday. The stores may still try to sell us some new “Easter finery,” but it feels a bit half-hearted.  We’ve long since forgotten what an Easter parade was about or why we might want or need a new kind of clothing to march in one.  No Easter carols.  No new cars with bright bows on their roofs.  Maybe church – and maybe not; spring is a busy time of year.  And all that crown of thorns and crucified “King of the Jews” stuff: what’s to celebrate in that?  

An entire angelic choir sang at Jesus’s birth!  For his resurrection, just an angel or two in attendance.  Kings from the East came to worship at the birth; on Good Friday, we disciples fled.  A birth is about new life, hope, the future, possibilities.  Good Friday is the end of all of those.  

This week we want to encourage us all to step into: this one week.  We want to follow Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, who among them spend just two or three chapters on Jesus’s birth, and more than twenty-five chapters focused on this one week.  We want to do what they do: when they get to this one week, they   slow   down.  

This week began with a joyful celebration on Palm Sunday, saw Jesus “clean house” at the Temple, reported on hostile questions and parabolic answers, witnessed betrayal even as a new covenant was being created, culminated in the catastrophe of Good Friday and ended in the terrible silence of Saturday.  

“Oh, please, pay attention!” the Gospel writers cry to us.  “This is the week that changes everything, including you!  Without this week, your Christmases will collapse into mere sentiment and nostalgia.  It is during this week, and this week alone, that all that you celebrate at Christmas comes to its fruition and fulfillment!    Oh, please – please: pay attention!”

This week, several of our writers have chosen an aspect of this week to write on.  Our hope is that their words will invite you to enter a fresh and deep encounter with God’s super-abundant Word.  

Of course: Easter is ahead.  But the way there runs through this one week.

Step into the story this week: on Monday, read Matthew 21; Tuesday, Matthew 22-23; Wednesday, Matthew 24-25; Thursday, Matthew 26; Friday, Matthew 27:1-56; Saturday, Matthew 27:57-66.  Don’t get lost in what you don’t understand; notice what captures your attention.

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Passion for Holiness

 Heidi Lee

Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.  “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”
(Matthew 21:12-13)

While living in South Korea, I attended a massive church of about 30,000 people. There were always tons of people selling items in the church courtyard, usually to raise money for missions or causes church groups were supporting. Even though this marketplace of sorts was for a good cause, It often made me feel uncomfortable. I felt like it was distracting people from the purpose of going to church. I wondered if Jesus would be ok with it. It reminded me of a time He wasn’t.

The story of Jesus driving the money changers from the temple seems a bit uncharacteristic of Him at first. The person overturning the tables and seats of those selling doves doesn’t sound like the peaceful, loving, healing Jesus that we usually think about. He must have been incredibly passionate to drive away all of those sellers. He wouldn’t even allow merchandise to be carried into the temple.

However, Jesus had righteous anger. Jesus had a passion for honoring God, his Father. He also had a passion for doing what was right- a passion for holiness.  Jesus called the temple, “My house” and said it was meant to be a house of prayer. If you are like me, you may wonder why the traders in front of the temple were such an important issue to Jesus.

This was Passover week. It was a time when people came from all regions and countries to visit Jerusalem to pay their yearly temple tax and to make a sacrifice.  Because they were required, by Jewish law, to make an animal sacrifice (usually a dove), they couldn’t just bring it from home. They needed to purchase one that was without blemish. In addition, many of the travelers needed to exchange money for their temple tax. 

The money changers and those selling doves were sinning because they set up in front of the temple to take advantage of people visiting.  They were cheating them out of their money and were using the temple to benefit themselves, not honor God. We know this because Jesus said that they were making the temple “a den of robbers.” 

Jesus is the great protector and defender. He saw all of those Pilgrims traveling for many days to worship God, but there were wolves waiting for them upon their arrival. It makes sense why Jesus was angry.  Jesus has such a passion for holiness. He gets angry when people are blocked from coming to see Him. He takes action when people are trying to exploit the church.

 I’m convicted by His passion. How many times have I turned a blind eye to sin when I should have spoken up or taken action? Jesus isn’t calling us to be lukewarm Christians. He wants our whole hearts- full of passion- ready to make a difference in the world.

Our lives are like temples and are therefore also to be “houses of prayer” -- but we so easily allow things in our life that block us from God. How often do we monitor what we watch on TV or read online? When we see sinful situations happening around us, do we take action or sit back and ignore it?  Perhaps this week is a good time to pray, “Lord, please do a ‘spring cleaning’ in my soul and life. Help me to have a passion for holiness too. Stir up a spirit of repentance in me, so that I can honor you.”