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Five Day Devotional – Lesson 5 – The Garden – March 30 – April 3

Monday: John the Apostle Talks About Jesus Cleansing The Temple

I am John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. On Monday of the final week before the crucifixion, we walked with Jesus into the temple in Jerusalem. God had established that place so His people could come before Him in prayer, confession, and worship. When Solomon dedicated the temple he prayed, “That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day… that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place” (1 Kings 8:29). The Lord also said through Isaiah, “My house shall be called an house of prayer for all people” (Isaiah 56:7). God wanted reverence, repentance, gratitude, and hearts that truly sought Him.

When Jesus entered the temple courts, He found merchants selling animals and men exchanging foreign coins for temple currency. Pilgrims who traveled from distant lands needed animals for sacrifice and proper coins for the temple offering, yet many of the sellers and money changers charged high prices and heavy fees because the worshipers had little choice but to pay what was demanded. The place that should have been filled with prayer had been filled with profit.

Jesus drove them out and said, “My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves” (Matthew 21:13). He showed us what God wanted from His house, and He exposed what sinful men had made of it. They were using worship for gain and taking advantage of people who came seeking God.

I want to encourage you to make sure you view church the way God intends it, a place of prayer and worship. If me and the other disciples walked into your church this Sunday with Jesus, would He start throwing things out like He did in the Temple? When you attend church service this week, make sure you are there to worship God for who He is; make sure you come to pray. Many people seem to have little endurance for prayer, but God wants us to pray to Him. As one of the disciples of Jesus and can assure you that Jesus spent a lot of time in prayer, and He wants you to do the same.

Today, take some time to consider how you can prioritize prayer and worship in your life and in your church. Isaiah 56:7 “Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.”

Tuesday: The People He Went Looking For

Yesterday, John told you about what Jesus found when He went into the temple. He showed you what God desires when people come to worship Him. Today I want to tell you about something that happened to me later that same week. It is not something I enjoy remembering, yet it is something the Lord used to change me. I am Peter. Earlier that evening, I had spoken with great confidence. I told Jesus, “Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended” (Matthew 26:33). I believed those words. I believed my loyalty would hold when the pressure came. After Judas betrayed Jesus in the garden, soldiers took Him and led Him away to the house of the high priest. The other disciples scattered into the darkness, but John and I followed from a distance. We wanted to stay near Him, yet we were also afraid of being recognized. When we reached the courtyard, servants had built a fire because the night air was cold. I stood there with them, trying to blend in while Jesus was being questioned inside. A servant girl looked at me closely and said, “Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee.” My stomach tightened. If they believed her, they might arrest me, too. The words came out quickly, and I said I did not know Him. A little later, someone else noticed me and said the same thing. Again I denied it. Then several people gathered around. One of them insisted he had seen me with Jesus. Another pointed out that my Galilean accent gave me away. I began insisting that they were wrong. I even swore that I did not know the man. At that very moment, a rooster crowed. Only hours earlie,r Jesus had warned me, “Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice” (Luke 22:34). When I heard that sound, His words came rushing back to me. Just then, Jesus turned and looked at me across the courtyard. I will never forget that moment. He did not have to say anything. I knew exactly what I had done. I had promised loyalty and failed Him in the same night. I walked out of that courtyard into the darkness and wept bitterly.

As you prepare your heart for Easter, remember what happened earlier that night in the garden. Jesus told us, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation” (Matthew 26:41). He told us how to prepare. Stay awake. Pray. We ignored Him and went to sleep. Only a short time later, I stood in that courtyard and denied Him three times. Learn from my failure. Prepare now. Build the habit of prayer before the test arrives. A heart that regularly meets with God is far more ready when the moment of testing comes. Your test is coming. Start preparing for it today.

Wednesday: He Set His Face

On Monday, you heard from John about what Jesus found in the temple. Yesterday you heard from Peter about the night he denied the Lord. Today I want to tell you what I saw the next day. I was a Roman soldier assigned to the governor’s courtyard in Jerusalem. That morning, they brought in a prisoner named Jesus of Nazareth. Pilate questioned Him while the religious leaders demanded His death. I remember Pilate saying, “I find no fault in him” (John 19:4). Stil,l the crowd kept shouting for His crucifixion, and Pilate ordered that Jesus be scourged. We stripped Him and tied Him to the post. The whip used for scourging had several leather cords with pieces of bone and metal tied into the ends. When it struck, those pieces cut into the flesh and tore it open as the whip was pulled back. The blows came one after another. His body jerked under the strikes as the cords wrapped around His back and tore into His skin. Blood ran down His sides and onto the ground beneath Him. I had seen many men go through that punishment. Some screamed from the first blow. Some cursed us. Some begged us to stop. Many collapsed before it was finished. Jesus suffered under every blow, and the punishment continued until we were ordered to stop.

When the scourging ended, we gathered around Him. Someone threw a robe over His shoulders. Another twisted together a crown of thorns and pressed it down onto His head. The thorns cut into His scalp, and blood ran down His face. We placed a reed in His hand like a scepter and knelt before Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” (Matthew 27:29). Some spat on Him. Others took the reed and struck Him with it across the head, driving the thorns deeper. Pilate then brought Him out before the crowd and said, “Behold the man!” (John 19:5). He stood there before them, His back torn open, His head bleeding, the robe across His wounded shoulders. At the time, he was just another condemned prisoner to me. Later, I understood who He was and what was actually happening in that courtyard. Isaiah 53:5 says, “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” Every blow of that whip, every thorn pressed into His scalp, every wound on His body was the consequence of sin being placed on Him. Not His sin. Ours. God the Father was settling the debt we owed, and Jesus stood in our place to pay it.

This week, ask yourself what that substitution means for the way you live. He bore your sin so you would not have to. That deserves more than a moment of appreciation. It deserves a life that reflects it.

Thursday: The Week Everything Changed

Monday, you heard from John. Tuesday, you heard from Peter. Yesterday, you heard from the Roman soldier who witnessed the scourging of Jesus. Today, you hear from me. I was one of the criminals crucified beside Him that day. The Romans drove nails through my hands and feet and raised the cross into place. The weight of my body pulled against the nails and sent pain through my arms and legs. Breathing was a battle. Each breath required pushing my body upward against the iron, then sinking back down when my strength failed. I was there because of the life I had lived. My crimes had brought me to that hill. Another criminal hung on the other side of Jesus. The three of us were nailed to crosses within a few steps of each other, feeling the same burning pain and fighting the same struggle for breath. Yet the man between us had done nothing wrong. I could see the wounds from the beating across His back. Blood ran down His face from the thorns pressed into His head. The crowd gathered below and mocked Him. Some shouted for Him to come down if He really had power. Others laughed and treated His suffering like a show. At first, I joined them. Anger and bitterness filled my heart, and I used the little breath I had left to throw insults at the man dying beside me. Then the other criminal turned toward me and rebuked me. Between strained breaths he said we deserved what was happening to us but the man in the middle had done nothing wrong. With the strength he had left, he turned toward Jesus and asked to be remembered. I watched it happen. I heard the answer Jesus gave him. In that moment, the difference between us was clear. Two criminals hung beside the same Savior. One admitted he was wrong and asked Jesus for mercy. Jesus promised he would be with Him in paradise. I heard that promise with my own ears. I could have said those same words. I could have asked for that same mercy. But I did not. I held on to my pride. I held on to my anger. I stayed silent when I should have asked Him to forgive me. My life ended beside the Son of Go,d and I wasted the moment that could have changed everything. As you prepare your heart for Easter, learn from my mistake. Deal with the sin you know God has been convicting you about. Stop holding on to what Christ died to free you from. Obey what He has already shown you in His Word. Follow Him fully so that when your life is over you will not look back with regret over the times you knew what Jesus wanted and chose not to do it.

Friday: The Garden

Hi, it’s me, Jesus. Earlier this week you heard the witnesses who stood near the cross and saw these events unfold: John who walked with me in the temple, Peter who learned the danger of failing to pray, the Roman soldier who watched the scourging, and the criminal who hung on the cross beside me. Today, I will walk you through the seven things I said while I was dying. The first words I spoke were these: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” I looked down from the cross and saw the soldiers who drove the nails, the leaders who demanded my death, and the crowd that mocked me. I also saw people who were lost and needed mercy. I came to save them because they were blinded by sin. I interceded for them with My Father, that He would forgive them.

Soon after that, the criminal hanging beside me said, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” He knew the life he had lived and the punishment he deserved, yet in that moment, he turned to me in faith. Even while I was suffering, my heart was filled with joy because a sinner was reaching for the mercy I came to give. I answered him, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.”

I saw my mother standing there with John, the disciple who loved me, and I said to her, “Woman, behold thy son,” and to John, “Behold thy mother.” My mother was losing her son, and I made sure she would not be left alone. I entrusted her to John so she would be cared for after I was gone.

Later, I cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” because I was carrying the weight of sin and the judgment it deserves so that those who trust in me would never face that separation from God.

I then said, “I thirst.” My body had lost blood, my mouth was dry, and my strength was nearly gone after hours on the cross. I spoke those words knowing the Scripture that said, “In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (Psalm 69:21) was being fulfilled, and the soldiers lifted sour wine to my lips just as it had been written.

The next words I spoke were deeply satisfying: “It is finished.” In that moment, I could declare that the work my Father sent me to accomplish had been completed. I had obeyed Him in everything, endured the suffering required, and now the sacrifice for sin had been offered and the debt of sin had been paid. The promises spoken through the Scriptures about the suffering of the Messiah had been fulfilled, and the work of redemption was complete.

The last words I said were, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” I was quoting the words of Scripture, “Into thine hand I commit my spirit” (Psalm 31:5), a prayer of complete trust in God. The work I came to accomplish was finished, and I placed my life back into the hands of the Father who had sent me. No one was taking my life from me; I was giving it willingly. I trusted my Father to receive me, to accomplish everything His plan required, and to raise me again just as I had promised my disciples.

You have walked through this whole week with people who were there. You heard from John, Peter, a Roman soldier, and a man who hung beside me on a cross. You know what happened. You know what it cost.

Now come celebrate with me.

Death could not hold me. Sin no longer has to hold you. The debt is gone. The separation is over. What Adam lost in the garden I restored on that cross and proved it when I walked out of that tomb.

The same power that raised me from the dead is alive in you. Go enjoy Easter this Sunday with a full heart. You know what we are celebrating. Let that joy show.