From One Degree to Another

Today, we have a lot to think about:

Thursday

(See Matthew 26:17-75, Mark 14:12-72, Luke 22:7-71, John 13:1-18:27.)

The Thursday prior to Jesus’ crucifixion fills many pages in Scripture. It begins with John and Peter securing the upper room. There, Jesus washes His disciples’ feet, explaining He was there to make them clean.

As they begin to eat, Jesus announces one of them is about to betray Him. Each wonders if He means them. Then He dispatches Judas to do what he intends.

During this last supper, Jesus sets apart the Passover bread and cup and reassigns—or better, perfects—their meaning. The bread is His Body. The cup, His blood. This meal will no longer primarily remind them of God’s deliverance from the external tyranny of Pharaoh, but rather from the internal tyranny of their own guilt and sin against God.

Jesus prays for these His friends and those who will come to know Christ through them—that His Father would make them one. (Jn 17) Then Jesus and His friends leave for the Mount of Olives to pray. (Mk 14:33) But He isn’t there only to pray. He is also there to wait. Soon a line of torches snake their way toward Him in the darkness. This is what He has been waiting for.

In light of this, we are encouraged to:

Grab a basin of water and a towel. Call your children over and wash their feet. After this, have someone read John 13:1-17 and Philippians 2:5-11.

Talk through these questions:

1. What did Jesus do at the last supper with His disciples?
2. Who deserved to have their feet washed? Jesus or the disciples?
3. Who was washing feet?
4. What does this show about Jesus?
5. What is Jesus’ greatest act of humility and service to sinners?
6. Did Jesus deserve to die?

As a family, spend time thanking Jesus for dying on the cross.

I hope as you think about Jesus on this Thursday, your worship would bring Him praise.

As we continue to work through this week, here’s how we can think about:

Wednesday

(See Matthew 26:6-16, Mark 14:3-11, Luke 22:3-6.)

The past several days have been a rush of tension and anger for Jesus’ opponents and of unflinching resolve for Jesus. Words have been His currency, and He has spent piles of them. But on the Wednesday before His death, Jesus was still.

He was in the home of Simon the Leper, a man known by what was wrong with him. During their meal together, Mary of Bethany, Lazarus’ sister, (Jn 12:3) came to Jesus with an alabaster flask of perfume. She had been saving this perfume, worth a year’s wages, for this very occasion. (Jn 12:7) She began to pour the perfume on Jesus’ head and feet, which required breaking open its container. (Mk 14:3) Like popping the cork on a $20,000 bottle of champagne, this was a very intentional act. She was there to deliberately offer Jesus everything she had. By giving to Jesus her most valuable possession, she was expressing that she knew what He was about to give of Himself was for her.

What Mary did was beautiful and Jesus wanted everyone to know it. She was preparing Him for burial. There was honor and kindness in her gesture. He returned the honor by saying history would never forget her act of beauty. And we haven’t.

As a practical way to continue to think through this week, TVC Children’s Blog gives this idea:

This evening: Brush your teeth. Put on your pajamas. Find a room without windows (like a bathroom).

Then gather as a family and read about Jesus predicting His death. Using a flashlight, read John 12:20-36 in the dark.

1) What is about to happen to Jesus?
2) Does Jesus know that He is about to die?
3) How does He feel?
4) What does He pray to the Father?
5) How does the Father respond?
6) What does Jesus call others to do once He, the Light, has left?
7) Who are some people you know or have heard about who are children of light?
8) What does it look like to be children of light?

Let’s continue looking to Jesus this week as we think about His work for us.

Continuing our Easter Week series, on Day 3, we read of:

Tuesday

(See Matthew 21:23-26:5, Mark 11:27-14:2, Luke 20:1-22:2, John 12:37-50.)

If Monday’s arrival in the temple was marked by Jesus’ all inclusive, living parable of cleansing God’s house, Tuesday’s entrance is marked by a direct, verbal confrontation with the appointed leadership. After Jesus makes the point that He refuses to regard these leaders as having any authority over Him, He elects to spend the rest of the day right there in the temple so that He might teach the people the word of God. But Tuesday afternoon would be the last time Jesus would publicly teach in the temple as a free man. His words on this day would be His closing argument—His manifesto.

When Jesus left the temple that Tuesday, “the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him.” (Mk 14:1) But they couldn’t take His life from Him solely on the strength of the charges they meant to bring—not if He defended Himself. But He would not. Instead, by His silence, He’d offer up His life for a world of blasphemers and traitors and liars who so desperately needed to be upset. This was what He had come to do, and as He left the temple that Tuesday afternoon, He knew He would do it soon.

Encouraging our thinking about this is this suggestion for serving our families:

Go to the store and buy some figs. Then read Matthew 21:18-27. This happened days prior to Jesus’ death, and Jesus knew He was about to die.

Talk through the questions below as a family and let your kids look, smell, feel and even taste the figs.

1) What does it mean for Jesus to have authority?
2) What did Jesus say to the fig tree that did not have fruit on it?
3) What did the fig tree do when Jesus said those things?
4) What are other the things Jesus has authority over?

May you continue to fellowship with your God remembering Jesus’ final week.

As we think about Easter Week happening this week, consider what happened on Monday, first, from the Rabbit Room, Russ Ramsey writes:

Monday

(See Matthew 21:12-22, Mark 11:12-19, Luke 19:45-48.)

If Jerusalem was a beehive, with His triumphal entry the day before, Jesus had hit it with a stick and you could hear the buzz grow as the anger within got organized. With that kingly arrival, He made a strong declaration about His authority over all the conventions of man.

On Monday, He returns for more, this time to declare the failure of His own people to live up to the covenantal mandate God had given them to be a blessing to the world. Much of what the Gospels tell us about Monday centers on the theme of Jesus’ authority—both over the created world and in His right to pass judgment over it. Everything Jesus did He did with authority. So when He woke His disciples Monday saying He wanted go back into Jerusalem to teach, as risky as it sounded it wasn’t surprising. But everyone sensed something stirring, as if Jesus had rounded a corner and His end was coming fast. He was a marked man.

Then, the Village Church Children’s Blog, encourages us to:

In Kids’ Village we have been talking about Jesus’ authority over all things. Authority is the right to be in charge, and this week we are talking about Jesus’ authority over sin.

Jesus is stronger than sin.

When we were powerless and unable to save ourselves from sin and the punishment for sin, Jesus went to the cross. He took the punishment for sin. This is why Jesus came to live among us. This is why He left the comfort and glory of Heaven and put on flesh.

Jesus came to die.

So, the Monday before His death He knew what would happen on Friday. Take time as a family and talk through the Family Discussion Questions over dinner as your family continues to prepare their hearts for Easter Sunday.

Spend this Monday, at some point, thinking about Jesus and His movement to saving us.

Throughout this week, I will be posting from 2 helpful links to give you good things to think about. One was a post at the Rabbit Room called, Easter Week in Real Time, and the other are the helpful tips for family worship at the Village Church’s Children’s Blog.

Russ Ramsey helps us view Sunday:

In John 10, Jesus said, “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I alone have the authority to lay it down, and the authority to take it up again, and this charge I received from my Father.”

This is a statement worth testing. Does the Scriptural narrative tell the story of an inspirational man martyred because He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and simply couldn’t avoid capture? Or do the last days of His life tell the story of someone intentionally offering Himself up, on His own terms, by His own authority? As we approach Easter, have you ever taken the time to really examine what took place on each day of the week from Palm Sunday to Resurrection Sunday? Here’s a daily reading guide for each day of Easter Week.

Palm Sunday
(See Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, John 12:9-19.)

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem perched up on a colt on Palm Sunday, it was the first time since raising Lazarus from the dead that He’d shown His face in the city. The story of Lazarus’ resurrection had circulated so that even those who only heard about it later regarded Jesus as a celebrity. Everyone wanted to catch a glimpse of Jesus. They went out to meet Him and received Him like a King, because they heard He had done this. (Jn 12:18)

Jesus said Lazarus’ death would end in the faith of many, and in the “glory of God—that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (Jn 11:4) But the glory He had in mind was even more glorious than His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. In fact, He wasn’t referring to the glory these people gave Him at all. Lazarus’ resurrection would steel the resolve of the religious leaders to hand Jesus over to a death He would freely accept—a death He would conquer. That was the glory He meant. As He rode into Jerusalem, the people cried, “Your King is coming!” They praised His victory over Lazarus’ death. But the irony was that He wasn’t coming to claim His crown on account of Lazarus’ death and resurrection, but on account of His own.

And the Village Church urges families to:

Read Matthew 21:1-11 as a family. Ask your kids these questions:
What did the people call Jesus?
Hosanna means “Save us.” What was Jesus going to save His people from?
Did the people like Jesus? How can you tell?
What does it look like for you and your family to worship Jesus?

Hope you have a great Palm Sunday.