Holy Week Devotional 2022Sample

When you read the gospels, one thing is very clear: the people are seriously confused. Despite healing lepers and the blind, casting out demons with a word, and even raising the decomposing Lazarus to life, the people remain unconvinced that he was the promised Messiah. John the Baptist even begins to wonder, sending his disciples to question Jesus as to whether or not he was the anointed one (Luke 7:20).

His disciples weren’t much better than the crowds, often baffled by Jesus’ words. Jesus warned them that the Pharisees are “blind guides,” leading those who follow them to fall into a pit right along with them. Yet his disciples don’t get it and Jesus asks, “Are you also still without understanding?” (Matt. 15:16). Later, Jesus again warns them to beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, referring to their way of life and teaching. What animates the Pharisees and Sadducees is the opposite of what should animate God’s people. But they turn to one another saying, “We brought no bread” (Matt. 16:7). It isn’t their understanding that was impressive, but their willingness to remain despite the difficulty of Jesus’ teaching. When many of Jesus’ followers abandon him due to his hard sayings, Peter speaks for the twelve, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). They remained because they knew Jesus was their only hope, even if he left them perplexed more often than not.

Sin is a blinding power. The false gods and idols of the nations “have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear” (Psa. 115:5-6). We become what we worship. When God’s people turn away from the living God to the blind and deaf gods of their neighbors, they become blind and deaf themselves (Isa. 42:18). At the cross, we see the darkness of the world at its deepest. As Jesus said to his captors, “This is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53). But in their blindness, this act of evil men results in their own downfall, and the redemption of the world.

Knowing who he is, we look at this scene rightly with horror. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob came to walk in our midst and we killed him. But what appears to the eyes of the world to be the greatest humiliation and defeat, Jesus says is the hour when when “the Son of man [will] be glorified” (John 12:23). What appears to be Satan’s greatest victory is the very thing that resulted in him being cast out of the heavens, never to appear before God to accuse us again (John 12:31, cf. Rev. 12:5, 7-10). On the cross, Jesus does pays for sin, but his crucifixion is also the moment where he makes a mockery of all demonic powers that seek to deceive and blind the world: “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them” (Col. 2:15). They too were blind to the truth. None of the rulers of this age understood what Christ was going to accomplish, Paul says, “for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8).

Yet, on the cross, we do not see a boastful Christ, reveling over his enemies, but a humble redeemer. He came not to destroy, but to give life. To reject him is to stand condemned, for there is no life to be found anywhere else, but he came to give mercy to all who call upon his name. Even in his last moments, Jesus exemplifies an unearthly kind of love—the love of enemies—saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” The love of Jesus is a reconciling love. In sin, we display hatred for God, but it is “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

We cannot stand at a distance from the cross, nor pretend we played no part. He went there for us and it was our sin that held him. But he goes for the sake of love and forgiveness. Though we were once enemies, we become beloved children. Though we were once those who hated one another, in Christ we become family. We can rest assured, because of Christ’s work on our behalf, the accuser has been cast out. Now it is Christ, the Lord of glory, who sits at God’s right hand, pleading mercy for us all saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”