Day 9: The Way of Suffering

Day #8 Jerusalem and the Cross

During Jesus’ last Passover week, everybody was looking for something. Religious Jews sought forgiveness from sin. Zealots searched for the revolutionary who would lead them to freedom. Rome’s representatives just wanted crowd control. And every Jew longed for the Messiah.

As we enter these last week’s events, let us be looking, too. Let us, “Fix our eyes on Jesus  . . . who for the joy set before Him endured the cross . . .

Sunday:  Follow Jesus’ arrival on a donkey, entering Jerusalem from the east, as prophets said the Messiah would.

Monday: Watch out! Jesus drives the merchants from the Temple. Jesus’ actions made the Sadducees so furious they begin to plot to kill Him.

Tuesday:  Listen today as Jesus teaches in the Temple courts. Notice the widow giving everything she owned.

Wednesday: Scripture is silent as to how Jesus spends today.

Thursday:  Come with Jesus to the Upper City as He eats His Last Supper with His disciples. After the meal, follow them down the Southern Steps, through the Kidron Valley to the Garden of Gethsemane. Later, Jesus is arrested in the Garden and taken to Caiaphas’s house. After questioning before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, soldiers take Jesus to Pontius Pilate in the Antonia fortress.

Friday:  You’re weary and heart-broken as you watch Jesus drug through the narrow market streets, half naked and bleeding with a hundred-pound crossbeam strapped to His arms. You follow them out the most traveled city gate, the Damascus Gate, to Golgotha, where Jesus is crucified. Along its busy road you see an abandoned quarry with tombs and gardens nearby. Jesus is pronounced dead at three in the afternoon, the same time the Passover lambs are sacrificed in the Temple. Friends remove Jesus from the crossbeams and lay His body in a nearby tomb.

Saturday: Jesus remains buried in the tomb.

Sunday: Run with Peter and John back to the upper room. The tomb is empty!  He’s alive! Jesus has risen from the dead! .Read all about it: Matthew 21, 26-28, Mark 14-18, Luke 19-24, John 18-19

Today’s Memory Maker:

Remember our Lord’s sacrifice on your behalf today during our private communion time at the Garden Tomb.