April 1st, 2026
Wednesday, April 1
“Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’ “But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
~Luke 20:13-15
“Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’ “But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
~Luke 20:13-15
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By this point during Jesus’ final week, several things have been set in motion. Most importantly, Jesus wasn’t turning out to be the sort of character people wanted or expected. He wasn’t affirming the status quo, he challenged taken for granted ideas about how God should look and act, and he foolheartedly associated with groups of people whom others found to be not worth the time, the ones who didn’t look the part of good, clean citizens. He spoke as if God welcomed them. In other words, Jesus was messing with everyone’s standards, comforts, and lifestyles.
The week begins with Jesus’ ‘triumphant’ entry into Jerusalem (Matthew 21; Mark 11; Luke 19). I don’t know why it’s called this, because it honestly probably looked silly. Yes, there were crowds of people there. Yes, they were raising their voices and singing. Yes, they were announcing Jesus was God’s king. But if you were looking on, say, from Herod’s temple, you might have thought it was cute. A peasant on a donkey trying to look like or act like a triumphant ruler entering into his city. Doesn’t look the part at all. Or he’s mocking the Roman triumph model, in which case it wouldn’t have been all that funny.
For Jewish observers, it was fulfillment of the prophets claim once a long time ago that God's king would be humble, riding on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9). But they would still have wanted a "kingly" figure on that donkey. Jesus' wasn't. But they were so wrapped up in the idea of God's king that how Jesus presented himself didn't register to them. The form is the message.
Either way, the colloquial response would have been, “This guy’s different.”
Then Jesus goes into the temple and shows frustration. Sometimes Christians use this to legitimize “holy anger.” Jesus was angry, to be sure. But this is no license to become unglued and throw things around and be violent. We have no business. Jesus was God in flesh demonstrating his disgust at the ways those who should have known better were turning worship of God into a circus. He had every right. We do not. Mostly because we're more likely to be those in the temple than the "righteous" one to play the role of Jesus.
Jesus' actions recall the prophets who chastised God’s people – particularly the faith leaders – of misleading the people away from God’s heart. Those in the temple that day were doing things all for show, to draw a crowd, trying to be like everyone else. Other temples are selling meat and religious and sacrifice related things, and it seems to be working. Let’s do it, too. No harm. It will bring more people in. Yeah, Jesus wasn’t a fan of that.
Everything Jesus was doing was the climax of a long storyline. It’s the storyline of God showing up to undo our human mess. Since Adam & Eve, humanity has staged a human takeover of God’s world. The problem is that our pursuits and our loves are disordered and misguided. But we’re so used to our ways that when God shows up to reorder things, we object. So much so that we’ll put the Son of God on a cross so we can keep our ways as we want, with all of our pride, violence, and religious show. “Sin” is an abstract idea. This is what it looks like when we live it out.
This is the point of the parable Jesus tells during his final week in Jerusalem. It’s in Luke 20, Mark 12, and Matthew 22. It’s a parable filled with meaning. A landowner builds a great vineyard and puts his servants in charge of it. But the servants stage a takeover, thinking they should be in charge. Except it's not their vineyard. When the landowner sends his son to gather the harvest, they don’t want to give up control. So they kill him.
It can be difficult to put ourselves in the final week of Jesus’ life. It’s been 2000 years. That’s a significant removal of time and culture. And there’s been a lot of time for Christianity to get familiar with the story, to make it our own, to make it comfortable for us. The challenge of holy week is to make the story strange again.
When Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, imagine being a little curious about it. Maybe you’re wondering now if he’s going to bring the national freedom you and your family and your friends have been praying for. Take Israel back for God. Get rid of the evil Romans who are leading the world astray. Maybe you’re cheering for Jesus, not knowing how his death on the cross would be a huge disappointment. Your ideas for what God should do is not what Jesus does.
When Jesus overturned the tables in the temple, maybe imagine you were among those offended. He just thrashed the way you and your worshipping community had set things up for worship, as if it was a waste of time. Imagine Jesus tearing down the sound system and all the musical instruments. Imagine Jesus saying "no" to the choir or tearing up the LBW. Or calling out one of your “ministries” because it’s more of a show than about real following. Like the Pharisees, you’d want him out, too.
Maybe you’re among the ones on the outside watching. You see something different going on. Jesus is not one of the typical Messiahs or kings. Something IS different. You’re intrigued, but you’re skeptical, too. You’ve been disappointed by the false Messiahs who have come and gone. But the way this one seems to genuinely care for the poor, the sinners, and the marginalized makes you reconsider. Could God finally be among us?
Holy Week invites us to pause and consider who we think Jesus really is. It invites us to consider how we have made Christianity into something that suits us. It invites us to consider how Jesus comes to undo the ways in which we’ve participated in the human takeover of God’s world. Will we reject him like the servants in the parable? We think, "Of course we wouldn't." Maybe we're too confident.
We need a savior, make no mistake. And it’s not to save us from the evil in the world around us. It’s to save us from the mess WE have made, from OUR wrongheaded ideas about God and the world. Jesus, as God’s humble king, comes to clean house and make it beautiful again. If only we could let go of our own ideas, and let Jesus show us who God is and how God intended for us to live. How he enters Jerusalem is a big clue.
God of mercy, we too often are married to our human ways and ideas. Even our ideas of who you are tend to reflect our own preferences. Soften our hearts, Lord. Undo our human mess. Draw us to truly follow you, rather than to just celebrate the idea of what we want you to be. Amen.
Songs for today:
"Deliver Us"
"Salvation Song"
"Ring the Bells"
By this point during Jesus’ final week, several things have been set in motion. Most importantly, Jesus wasn’t turning out to be the sort of character people wanted or expected. He wasn’t affirming the status quo, he challenged taken for granted ideas about how God should look and act, and he foolheartedly associated with groups of people whom others found to be not worth the time, the ones who didn’t look the part of good, clean citizens. He spoke as if God welcomed them. In other words, Jesus was messing with everyone’s standards, comforts, and lifestyles.
The week begins with Jesus’ ‘triumphant’ entry into Jerusalem (Matthew 21; Mark 11; Luke 19). I don’t know why it’s called this, because it honestly probably looked silly. Yes, there were crowds of people there. Yes, they were raising their voices and singing. Yes, they were announcing Jesus was God’s king. But if you were looking on, say, from Herod’s temple, you might have thought it was cute. A peasant on a donkey trying to look like or act like a triumphant ruler entering into his city. Doesn’t look the part at all. Or he’s mocking the Roman triumph model, in which case it wouldn’t have been all that funny.
For Jewish observers, it was fulfillment of the prophets claim once a long time ago that God's king would be humble, riding on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9). But they would still have wanted a "kingly" figure on that donkey. Jesus' wasn't. But they were so wrapped up in the idea of God's king that how Jesus presented himself didn't register to them. The form is the message.
Either way, the colloquial response would have been, “This guy’s different.”
Then Jesus goes into the temple and shows frustration. Sometimes Christians use this to legitimize “holy anger.” Jesus was angry, to be sure. But this is no license to become unglued and throw things around and be violent. We have no business. Jesus was God in flesh demonstrating his disgust at the ways those who should have known better were turning worship of God into a circus. He had every right. We do not. Mostly because we're more likely to be those in the temple than the "righteous" one to play the role of Jesus.
Jesus' actions recall the prophets who chastised God’s people – particularly the faith leaders – of misleading the people away from God’s heart. Those in the temple that day were doing things all for show, to draw a crowd, trying to be like everyone else. Other temples are selling meat and religious and sacrifice related things, and it seems to be working. Let’s do it, too. No harm. It will bring more people in. Yeah, Jesus wasn’t a fan of that.
Everything Jesus was doing was the climax of a long storyline. It’s the storyline of God showing up to undo our human mess. Since Adam & Eve, humanity has staged a human takeover of God’s world. The problem is that our pursuits and our loves are disordered and misguided. But we’re so used to our ways that when God shows up to reorder things, we object. So much so that we’ll put the Son of God on a cross so we can keep our ways as we want, with all of our pride, violence, and religious show. “Sin” is an abstract idea. This is what it looks like when we live it out.
This is the point of the parable Jesus tells during his final week in Jerusalem. It’s in Luke 20, Mark 12, and Matthew 22. It’s a parable filled with meaning. A landowner builds a great vineyard and puts his servants in charge of it. But the servants stage a takeover, thinking they should be in charge. Except it's not their vineyard. When the landowner sends his son to gather the harvest, they don’t want to give up control. So they kill him.
It can be difficult to put ourselves in the final week of Jesus’ life. It’s been 2000 years. That’s a significant removal of time and culture. And there’s been a lot of time for Christianity to get familiar with the story, to make it our own, to make it comfortable for us. The challenge of holy week is to make the story strange again.
When Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, imagine being a little curious about it. Maybe you’re wondering now if he’s going to bring the national freedom you and your family and your friends have been praying for. Take Israel back for God. Get rid of the evil Romans who are leading the world astray. Maybe you’re cheering for Jesus, not knowing how his death on the cross would be a huge disappointment. Your ideas for what God should do is not what Jesus does.
When Jesus overturned the tables in the temple, maybe imagine you were among those offended. He just thrashed the way you and your worshipping community had set things up for worship, as if it was a waste of time. Imagine Jesus tearing down the sound system and all the musical instruments. Imagine Jesus saying "no" to the choir or tearing up the LBW. Or calling out one of your “ministries” because it’s more of a show than about real following. Like the Pharisees, you’d want him out, too.
Maybe you’re among the ones on the outside watching. You see something different going on. Jesus is not one of the typical Messiahs or kings. Something IS different. You’re intrigued, but you’re skeptical, too. You’ve been disappointed by the false Messiahs who have come and gone. But the way this one seems to genuinely care for the poor, the sinners, and the marginalized makes you reconsider. Could God finally be among us?
Holy Week invites us to pause and consider who we think Jesus really is. It invites us to consider how we have made Christianity into something that suits us. It invites us to consider how Jesus comes to undo the ways in which we’ve participated in the human takeover of God’s world. Will we reject him like the servants in the parable? We think, "Of course we wouldn't." Maybe we're too confident.
We need a savior, make no mistake. And it’s not to save us from the evil in the world around us. It’s to save us from the mess WE have made, from OUR wrongheaded ideas about God and the world. Jesus, as God’s humble king, comes to clean house and make it beautiful again. If only we could let go of our own ideas, and let Jesus show us who God is and how God intended for us to live. How he enters Jerusalem is a big clue.
God of mercy, we too often are married to our human ways and ideas. Even our ideas of who you are tend to reflect our own preferences. Soften our hearts, Lord. Undo our human mess. Draw us to truly follow you, rather than to just celebrate the idea of what we want you to be. Amen.
Songs for today:
"Deliver Us"
"Salvation Song"
"Ring the Bells"
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