Holy Week – Part 2 – Do you play with Passion? Jesus did!
On Monday and Tuesday of Holy Week, also known as Passion Week, Jesus demonstrated the passion that I believe set the bar for how we are to play. On Palm Sunday with cheers from the crowd, Jesus rode the donkey colt into Jerusalem through the Eastern Gate. This gate also called the Golden or Beautiful Gate was sealed shut in AD 1540–41 by order of Suleiman the Magnificent, a sultan of the Ottoman Empire. It’s believed that the reason for the closing of the Eastern Gate was to prevent the Jewish Messiah from gaining entrance to Jerusalem. Jewish tradition states that the Messiah will pass through the Eastern Gate when He comes to rule. The Muslim Suleiman was attempting to thwart the Messiah’s plans with sixteen feet of cement.
The Eastern Gate has remained sealed for nearly the past 500 years. During my trip to Jerusalem last summer, I found it heartbreaking how so many Jewish people can be so blind and lost to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah. I laugh when I think that someone might think that simply cementing up the gate opening somehow will prevent the Savior off the World to enter.
Sunday night, Jesus leaves Jerusalem and spends the night in Bethany. For the next few days, Jesus demonstrates an extraordinary heart of passion. While returning to Jerusalem on Monday, Jesus sees a fig tree which has leaves, but is not producing any fruit. Jesus curses the tree, because it is fruitless and the tree withers away. In Luke 21:20 Jesus rejects a generation that rejected him.
One of the most passionate demonstrations of the Passion of Christ also took place on Monday when Jesus chose to clean out the Temple one last time overturning the money-changers’ tables and benches. Don’t bring that trash into My Father’s house!
On Tuesday the trend continues as Jesus passionately confronts the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders.
I have always loved players who play with passion. Those players that will dive for loose balls or take a charge. We celebrate an offensive rebound or a hustle play like most do a 360 dunk. Are you as passionate about our savior as you are about sports? If you struggle answering that question, then I challenge you to find your passion today. Better than that, find Jesus today!