Friends, I am a little bit late for our Easter Holy Week live, but thank you for bearing with me. But today I want to teach a little bit on Tuesday during Holy Week and what was actually happening on that day. So yesterday, if you didn't watch, we talked a little bit about Palm Sunday, what happened on Sunday. We talked about what was happening on Holy Monday. Today we're talking about what was actually happening on Holy Tuesday. And you know, one of the reasons I want to teach about this is because sometimes people go through this whole week and they go to church all week or they do all these things getting ready, getting their hearts ready for Easter, but they don't actually make the connection to what was actually happening in Scripture. And so today we're going to be in Matthew, probably chapters 21 through 24, 25-ish. But I want to talk about this because I think a lot of us have been here. Have you ever read something that Jesus said and it made you feel a little uncomfortable? Like, maybe I don't know if I like how direct that is. Well, that example is what the Tuesday of Holy Week is. Jesus is very direct. And so to set the scene, by Tuesday everything has shifted. So Jesus has already entered Jerusalem as king. We saw that on Sunday. He has gone in and he has cleansed the temple. We saw that yesterday. And now on Tuesday, he's back in the temple and the tension is really high. The religious leaders are questioning him. They're asking him, what authority, by what authority are you doing these things? And you know, there's a lot to be said for that question. It's not coming from a place of curiosity. It's coming from a place of feeling threatened. Now, remember, the temple leaders were the center of that culture. They were the ones that had the power. They were the ones that had the influence. They had control even with Rome. They had a lot of that. And now Jesus is coming in and he is disrupting all of it. I think sometimes when I call people a disrupt, when I tell people that Jesus was a disruptor, they get upset with that. But that's exactly the picture that we're seeing here. And Jesus doesn't even answer them directly. He tells parables. Why? Why does Jesus tell parables? Well, because parables did a number of things. It's one of the favorite ways that Jesus had for teaching. But what parables do is they reveal the truth to people whose hearts are open that are really listening to him, that are seeking him. And they actually conceal the truth from people whose hearts are hardened. And so what I want to do is I want to read a key moment of what was happening on that day. And I'm going to be in Matthew 21. I'm going to start at verse 33. And this is a parable that Jesus actually was telling in the temple to the religious leaders. And so this was on Holy Tuesday, Matthew 21, starting at verse 33. I'm reading from the NIV. It says, Now listen to another story. A certain landowner planted a vineyard, built a wall around it, dug a pit for pressing out the grape juice and built a lookout tower. Then he leased the vineyard to tenant farmers and moved to another country. At the time of the great harvest, he sent his servants to collect his share of the crop. But the farmers grabbed his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. So the landowner sent a larger group of his servants to collect for him, but the results were the same. Finally, the owner sent his son, thinking, Surely, they will respect my son. But when the tenant farmers saw his son coming, they said to one another, Here comes the heir to this estate. Come on, let's kill him and get the estate for ourselves. So they grabbed him, dragged him out of the vineyard and murdered him. When the owner of the vineyard returns, Jesus asked, What do you think he will do to those farmers? The religious leaders replied, He will put the wicked men to a horrible death and lease the vineyard to others who will give them his share of the crop after each harvest. Then Jesus asked them, Didn't you ever read this in the scriptures? The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing, and it is wonderful to see. I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will produce the proper fruit. Anyone who stumbles over that stone will be broken to pieces and it will crush anyone it falls on. When the leading priests and Pharisees heard this parable, they realized he was telling the story against them. They were the wicked farmers. They wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowds who considered Jesus to be a prophet. So in this parable that Jesus is telling, remember, he's in the temple. He's speaking this to the religious leaders. And in this parable, the owner sends servants and they're rejected. So finally, the owner sends his son and they kill the son. This is actually a direct picture of Israel rejecting the messages that God has sent and ultimately rejecting Jesus. The leaders know that Jesus is talking about them, but here's the kicker. Instead of repenting, they double down. It gets pretty intense. Jesus goes on in chapter 23 to start calling them out publicly. Some examples in verse three, he says, these guys don't practice what they preach or what they teach. In verse four, he says they crush people with their religious demands and they don't lift a finger to even help people. In verse five, he says everything they do is for show. In verse 17, he says they are blind fools. And what Jesus is saying is that these guys look like they got it all together on the outside. They look like they're righteous on the outside, but inside their hearts are corrupt. And instead of helping people get to God, they are preventing people from getting to God. Does that sound familiar? It does to me. See, Jesus isn't being harsh for no reason. He's trying to protect people from this false leadership that is keeping people from God. Jesus is loving, but he's not passive. He's going to confront anything that keeps people from God, even if those people are religious leaders. And I think sometimes we can unknowingly become people who keep other people from God. And listen, I'm not saying that to shame you. I want to say that to free you. And the truth isn't always comfortable, but that's how we get through to the other side. We have to confront the things that we're doing in our own lives. And so this week, as we are facing what's going to happen on Friday and what's going to happen on Sunday, I want us to take a look into our own hearts. Number one, are we doing anything that is keeping other people from Jesus? Or in number two, are we keeping ourselves from Jesus because of religion? Because truth be told, that's a story the enemy has been telling for a long, long time. See, by the end of Holy Tuesday, Jesus had drawn some lines. People had to decide what they really believed about who he was, who he said he was. And so what happens next, behind the scenes, these religious leaders, they start making plans to kill him. We're going to pack more of that tomorrow, but just let me pray for you. Jesus, thank you that you don't want for us what's false. You don't want hearts that look like they have it all together, but inside are actually falling apart. That you would rather have us messy and transparent and vulnerable than pretending like we have it all together. So Lord, today, as we just meditate for a little bit about what you're doing in the temple and the way that you're confronting the religious leaders, God, help us to be convicted of any areas of our lives where we may have been stumbling blocks to you, or that we've been allowing religion to be a stumbling block to you. God, help us to lay it all on the line as we decide what we truly believe about who you are and who you said you are. Jesus, thank you, we pray. Amen. This week, every day, I'm hoping to be a little bit closer to lunchtime, but I want to just pop on during lunchtime to just teach you about what was actually happening in scripture during Holy Week. If today helped you understand the scripture in a deeper way, or this whole week, I would love for you to follow along and come back tomorrow and maybe even share this with someone who also wants to grow in their faith. Tomorrow, we're going to talk about the day that everything goes quiet, but something major is happening behind the scenes. Don't miss it. Thanks for watching, friends.
