Matthew 21:17-22 - Passion Week: Our Spiritual Life Exposed

This week we are going to take a break from the book of Psalms and share the events in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ in what is called “Passion Week”. It is in these eight days that the greatest event in the course of human history takes place, and that is, the suffering, the death, the burial, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t ever forget that Jesus suffered like no man ever suffered as He lays down His life as God’s perfect sacrifice for our sins! Because the four Gospels are not written in chronological order the Biblical scholars debate the exact order of events that took place each day of this week. I have chosen to use Dr. Harold Willington’s Guide to the Bible for our study this week. Dr. Willington was a dear friend of mine and I had to privilege to sit under his teaching during my time at Lynchburg Baptist College and even travel to the Holy Land with him on two occasions. It appears that after the events on Palm Sunday the Lord and His disciples spent the night in Bethany, a town about two miles east of Jerusalem just on the other side of the Mount of Olives (Matthew 21:17). This is where Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead, and his two sisters, Mary and Martha, lived. They were close friends of Jesus, and probably hosted Him and His disciples during their final days in Jerusalem. On Monday morning as Jesus and His disciples were crossing over the Mount of Olives Jesus saw a fig tree, and being hungry He stopped to eat some fruit from it but found only leaves (Mark 11:12-14).  He cursed it and immediately it withered away. Some scholars believe this cursing of the fig tree represented God's judgment on the spiritually dead religious leaders of Israel. But the truth is the symbolism of this event could extend to all believers, demonstrating that genuine faith is more than just outward religiosity; true, living faith must bear spiritual fruit in a person's life. Mark’s Gospel continues to tell us after that they continued to go up to Jerusalem. It was then that Jesus cleansed the temple. “So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. Then He taught, saying to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it a 'den of thieves.' " (Mark 11:15-17). It is so sad that many of our churches today have become places of entertainment and religious commercialism rather than houses of prayer. The thing we should do the most in our churches is the thing we do the least! I have a feeling that the Lord would be cleansing a host of our churches today as we promote everything but the Word of God and prayer! According to John’s Gospel it is possible that another event might have happened on this Monday in Jerusalem. “Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast. Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus. But Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” (John 12:20-36) Jesus was of course speaking of His own death on the cross which would bear much fruit! He also added that the same truth can be applied to us. If will lose our life for His sake and we live for Him and not the world and ourselves, we will enjoy eternal life that will bring others to life in Christ too! This will glorify Jesus! (John 12:28) How healthy is your Spiritual life? God bless!