First of all, let's summarize what has just happened Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.
On Sunday morning Jesus presented Himself as Israel's King and Messiah by entering into Jerusalem riding on a donkey according to the Scriptures. Several Jews gave Him praise as they cried out, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" As He approached Jerusalem, He stopped and wept over the city of God because they did not recognize the time of their visitation. When He entered Jerusalem, He went directly to the Temple, looked around, and left to go back to Bethany where they were staying for Passover.
On the next day (Monday), Christ cursed a fig tree alongside their path because He was hungry but it had no fruit. This was an illustration of the condition of Israel's spiritually. They re-entered the Temple and Jesus cast everyone out who was buying and selling for business. He flipped over the money-changers' tables, chased away people who were using the Temple as a short-cut across town, and began to teach them what was wrong with this situation. Namely, people were not using the Temple as a house of prayer for the nations to come to their heavenly Father. The multitudes were astonished and the religious leaders were outraged at His teaching.
Tuesday, when they were walking from Bethany on the Mount of Olives back into Jerusalem, the disciples saw the fig tree that was cursed the day before and it was completely withered. Jesus took the opportunity to teach His disciples what it means to have a living faith in God. The rest of this day had to do with lengthy, heated confrontations between Christ and the scribes and Pharisees (Jewish leaders). Jesus not only strictly warned the religious leaders of their hypocrisy and messed up religion, but He also lamented over Jerusalem again because He knew their destruction was coming. He took His disciples out of Jerusalem and taught them on the Mount of Olives that the time that the Kingdom will be restored to Israel will not be until the Tribulation Period. Before the Son of Man returns in glory, Israel will be saved and will finally (nationally) receive Him as their Messiah and King. Until then, they must all be ready.
WEDNESDAY:
1. Jesus Continued to Teach Daily in the Temple
Luke 21:37–38 alone tells us that every day Jesus was teaching in the Temple, but that at night He would leave with His disciples and go back to where they lodged in Bethany (only about 2 miles away). Early in the morning all the people would come to hear Him teach in the Temple, while the religious leaders of Israel boiled with hatred that He was stealing the people away from them.
2. Arrangements are Made for Jesus' Betrayal
Read Matthew 26:1–5 first because it covers the most on the arrangements that the Sanhedrin (the Jewish "council") made to arrest and kill Jesus. Mark 14:1–2 and Luke 22:1–2 also record this account. John is silent on the matter.
Since it is Wednesday and Matthew said that it was two days before Passover, then that makes Passover land on Friday of Passion Week. That was the day the Son of Man was to be delivered up as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
The chief priests and the scribes were gathered at the court of the high priest named Caiaphas. At this meeting, the religious leaders of Israel were plotting how to seize Jesus by stealth and kill Him. The only reason they did not act right away was because nearly all of Israel had gathered for the Passover feast and ceremonies in Jerusalem and they did not want a riot on their hands. They were afraid of the people, desiring their approval, but at the same time scheming about how to put to death the Messiah whom so many had come to put their faith in. They had already reached their verdict: the death penalty. They only needed to figure out how to do it that would not make them look bad.
3. Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus
Matthew 26:14–16, Mark 14:10–11, and Luke 22:3–6 all account for Judas' actions. Again, John is silent on these matters.
According to Luke, Satan himself entered into Judas (similar to how we have the Holy Spirit controlling/influencing us). Whatever it was that motivated Judas to pull away from the Twelve Disciples, he found himself before the blood-thirsty spiritual leaders who were willing to pay him Temple money to do their dirty work. Judas made his intentions clear when he approached them; he wanted to betray Jesus. They were filled with gladness because now they had an insider, a mole. They paid Judas 30 pieces of silver, which is the amount the Old Testament Law set as the price of buying a slave. He gladly took the blood money and began looking for the next opportunity to betray Jesus when He was apart from the multitudes.
Although Satan was having his way with Judas, Judas was entirely responsible for his actions. In fact, none of Judas' life was spent in actual obedience to Jesus Christ. He followed Jesus with the other disciples and blended in with them just fine, but it was all a show. The moment of his condemnation was fast approaching as he willingly gave himself not to the Lordship of Christ but to Satan.
Wednesday's Prayer:
"Lord, be our Teacher, our Master, and our Guide into all truth. Teach us through your Word with Your Holy Spirit despite the many unbelievers around us in life. Teach us because false teachers fill our world. Show us the truth that has set us free. Keep us in Your truth by Your Spirit.
Warn us as to the corruption of false teachers. Help us to discern truth from error. Lead us in the way of everlasting life and keep our foot from turning to the left or to the right after ear-tickling teachers who only condone hypocrisy. Convict us of any hypocrisy in our lives that we might confess and turn humbly to You. May we feel very comfortable with admitting we are not perfect. We are not righteous in Your eyes. Our self-righteousness is a disease to the pure righteousness of Christ given to us. If we are honest, we will tell others that we have areas of inconsistency, but that we are broken by our short-comings. We need mending. We need you Jesus.
We give our lives to Your service. Your work of building Your church must prevail, against Satan's defenses! No matter what amount of effort Satan exerts and what he accomplishes, he has never taken one step outside of Your ultimate and sovereign will. He does not have control of our lives, you do. Thank you for conquering Satan through our Messiah, removing his power of death and his work of deception. Thank you for filling us with Your Holy Spirit so that we might resist Satan and that he must flee from us. Your promises are true and can never be thwarted or overturned. Thank you, Lord!"
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