Headed to Easter - Wednesday

Headed to Easter – Wednesday

Judas Takes a Bribe

He was good at handling money.  Why else would the Master put him in charge of the purse-strings.  He could keep a good set of books, make them balance any way he chose, if he chose, and nobody was any the wiser.

And that is how Judas’ life was turning.  He had already been pilfering a bit here and there from their stash of cash.  And he always wanted more.

He had caught wind of a bribe being offered to anyone who could deliver this “Messiah” into their hands.  It was easy money, he thought.  And so, late one night he slipped away to a secret meeting. (Matthew 26:14) He met with the chief priests.

“Ah, you’re here,” the leader said.  The others in the room just grunted, and looked at Judas with suspicions and skepticism.

“Well, up, yeah.”

“Did anyone see you slip out.”

“No, I don’t think so.  They seemed caught up in what HE was saying.  Well, anyway, I’m here.  So, what’s the deal?”

“What’s the deal?”  They laughed, they sneered, and laughed some more.

“Yeah, I want to know what I’m getting into.  And I wanna make sure this is worth my while, and my risk.”

“Never you mind about that, youngster.  We’ll make it worth any risk you may take.”

Judas was perspiring.  Great beads of sweat formed on his brow.  He wiped at them with his sleeve.

“So, if I can pull this off, how much?”

“We’ve got to be sure you can pull this off?”  They looked at each other as if some kind of consensus was in play, and finally the leader spoke again.

“Okay.  Here’s what we need.”

Judas replied, voice thick, wishing he could have one long pull from whatever was in that flask on the table.  “I’m listening.”

“We need to find a good time and place when we can take him with the least amount of trouble.  We will have our men in place and you will give us a signal when you see its all clear.  Got it?”

Judas blinked.  He was breathing heavily.  He thought of five signals to give and finally settled on one.

“Okay, I’ve got it.  Most of us will be going with him up into the mountains Thursday night.  He likes to go off alone.  That’s probably the best time.  It will be dark, and most of the men in our band are not armed, so no problem.”

The high priests were listening and nodding in agreement. 

“Sounds good.  Dark you say?”

“Dark, darker than dark,” replied Judas 

“Okay, we’ll have a few torches.  Now, about that signal?”

“When I see your men coming around that big outcropping of rocks I’ll move in place and be standing next to him.  Get your men and torches in there as quick as you can, cause ... cause he’s the one I’ll kiss.”

“Good.  Good.”

And Judas grew anxious, and nervous, for he had one more part of this agreement to settle.

“Ah, one more thing.”  He paused.  “You haven’t told me how much I’m to get paid?”

And with one simple toss from somewhere off to his right, a bag of coins was thrown.  It

landed at his feet.  He bent, picked it up, and moved swiftly for the door.  He was so glad to be out of that room.

As he made his way, he felt of the bag – and knew.  The price was thirty pieces of silver.  Easy money - or was it?

And thus, ends Wednesday before Sunday.

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Headed to Easter - Tuesday

Headed to Easter – Tuesday

Tuesday:

Jesus spent Monday night in Bethany.  Early on Tuesday, as he made his way back to Jerusalem, he was hungry.  He saw a fig tree by the side of the road and went up to it.  There was nothing on it except leaves – no figs at all. 

He spoke to the tree: “May you never bear fruit again.”  It immediately withered.

When the disciples, who were with him, caught up to him they noted the dead fig tree were amazed.  “How did this tree wither so quickly?”

Ah, a teaching moment from the Master: “I tell you this, if you have faith and do not doubt, you too can do to the fig tree what was done, and even larger acts, like saying to the mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and you can do it.  If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for, through prayer.”

He continued on to the temple and began teaching.  The religious leaders of the temple stopped him and asked, “Who gives you the authority to do these things? 

Jesus replied with a question of his own.  “John’s baptism – where did it come from – heaven or of human origin?”

These temple leaders wouldn’t answer.  They knew the answer, but deferred instead by saying, “We don’t know.”

Christ’s response: “Neither will I tell you on whose authority I am doing these things.”  They wanted to play games with their answer.  He knew without a shadow of doubt from where his authority came.

He also told a couple of parables that day.  The first was the parable of two sons – one the father asked to go and work the vineyard.  He said yes and then never showed up. 

The second son said no and later changed his mind and went to work.

And then he told of the parable of the tenants.  A landowner planted a vineyard, put up a wall, dug a winepress and built a watchtower.  He then rented the land and went away. 

Harvest time came and he sent his servant to collect his owner’s share.  The tenants beat and killed the servants. 

It happened a second time and the same thing happened again.

The third time he sent his son; they threw him out and killed him too. 

He then asked what would happen if the landowner himself showed up.

The temple leaders knew the answer and they knew he was talking about them. 

This only made them angrier.  They looked for a way to arrest him, but knew the crowd held him up as a prophet and stopped short of that for this moment in time.

But they never let up.  They kept at him.  After the Pharisees had their shot, the Sadducees took over.  They bantered, questions, tried to trap him and trip him up, looking for any reliable excuse they could use in order to carry out their scheme.  Finally, at the end of Mathew 22, we read:

“… and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.”

That was how Tuesday played out

Please read Matthew 21-22 for more of the back story.

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Headed to Easter - Sunday/Monday

Headed to Easter – Sunday/Monday

On Sunday, we had Palm Sunday.  The palm waving was mostly about welcoming a conquering hero.  They thought Christ was coming to deliver them from the harsh Roman rule. 

It was a large crowd on that day.  Some estimate the crowd at over 2 million people in all.  That is HUGE!  Oh, there were a lot of spectators along too.  They were there to see this spectacle – the ‘man’ who had raised Lazarus from the dead. 

The palm waving crowd were quoting from the Psalms.  “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”  “Hosanna” (meaning save now).  They were greeting Jesus as conqueror.  They were desperate for relief from the oppression.  They wanted a Savior and they wanted him now.

Interesting note – most conquerors come riding in on the finest horse around.  Hollywood makes us believe it would have been a white horse, finest leather and all other trimmings to perfection.

Christ came riding in on a donkey.  Note this:  If a king came riding in on a horse, he was bent on war.  But a king riding on a donkey – he was coming in peace.  This gives a new meaning to “Christ – the prince of peace.”

So, you had a mixed crowd. 

The Jewish leaders were nervous, but with such a large crowd there was nothing they could do.  They would have to bide their time and wait for a more opportune moment.  They had murderous intent in their hearts and on their minds, never forget that.  They would just have to wait for things to settle down a bit.  

Monday

On Monday, Jesus went to the temple courts.  He saw all of the buying and selling, the money changers and the dove sellers, and he got angry.  He caused what you might call a ‘disruption to the trade of the day’.

He overturned their tables, scattered money everywhere, threw the dove cages to the ground and said: “It is written, my house will be called a ‘house of prayer’, but you have made it a den of thieves.”

Stay tuned.   We’ll talk about Tuesday and beyond on Tuesday.

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Hope Encouragement Inspiration