Special Lenten Series From Women of Faith
We hope this special 7-week series will help deepen your relationship with Jesus and prepare your heart and mind for the celebration of His resurrection.

Week 1: The Plot to Kill Jesus

For many months, storm clouds had been gathering over Jerusalem. Jesus focused His attention on Galilee during the early part of His ministry, but He regularly traveled to the Holy City in Judea to celebrate the more than half-dozen Jewish feasts throughout the year. And each visit intensified the growing tension between Jesus and the religious establishment—the Sadducees, with their control of the temple, and the Pharisees, who had a grip on the people.

The disciples could sense the danger mounting. So when Jesus announced that they would travel to visit Martha and Mary in the village of Bethany, just two miles from Jerusalem, Thomas turned to the other disciples and shrugged.“Let us also go, that we may die with him”(John 11:16). The disciples’ fear was not unfounded. On their last visit, an angry mob sought to stone their Master.

After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, He won a new assembly of followers. However, several friends of the Pharisees saw His growing popularity as a threat and scurried to Jerusalem with the news.

So the chief priests [Sadducees] and the Pharisees called the council together and said, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many miraculous signs. If we allow him to go on in this way, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away our sanctuary and our nation.” Then one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is more to your advantage to have one man die for the people than for the whole nation to perish.”
—John 11:47–50 NET

With that, the plot to kill Jesus began.

Week 2: The Battle Line Between Good and Evil

Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” —John 6:32–33, 35

The battle line between good and evil doesn’t run along borders or around races or even across thresholds. The cosmic battle between good and evil divides heart from heart without discrimination, for each person chooses his or her side. Oddly, it is not a choice between truth and untruth—God would never require a darkened mind to make such a choice. That would be crueler than requiring a paralytic to drag himself to a pool in a race for healing. We choose by how we respond to the Redeemer, who holds out something we innately know to be missing within. Those who push it away do so knowingly. At some point in every life, ignorance ceases to be the issue, and we either choose to heed the voice resonating in the hollows of our soul or we opt for willful disobedience.

That’s why Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’” (Matthew 10:34–36). Obviously God wants families together, but, unfortunately, the truth of Jesus Christ is a divider. On most issues, there are many shades of gray, but not this one. And the whole world—right down to the individual households—has been partitioned into realms, that of light and darkness.

What must we do to accomplish the deeds God requires? Jesus said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” (John 6:29).With the arrival of Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God ceased to be one defined by geography, but one established in the hearts of those who choose to believe.

Week 3: The Blind Guides

The division between Jesus and the Pharisees had never been anything less than a canyon. He came to speak truth; they desired control. And one thing will always be true of controllers: what they cannot control, they destroy.

While Jesus was still ministering in Galilee, an envoy of Pharisees traveled from Jerusalem to meet with Jesus on a matter of grave concern to them. They likely felt it was a mission of mercy in which they would redeem a wayward rabbi. Of course, people who seek control don’t see the world in terms of conformity with truth or untruth, but in terms of agreement with them.

Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. —Matthew 15:2

This body of strict traditions eventually supplanted the very Law it was intended to uphold. And by the time of Jesus, failure to observe this tradition was regarded as disobedience to the law of God. Furthermore, this man-made religiosity became the means by which the Pharisees maintained the illusion of moral superiority. Ironically, their religious zeal put them at odds with God. Not only were they motivated by lust for power, but their traditions very often violated the very Law they supposedly cherished.

[Jesus] answered them, “And why do you disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Whoever insults his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say, ‘If someone tells his father or mother, “Whatever help you would have received from me is given to God,” he does not need to honor his father.’ You have nullified the word of God on account of tradition. Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”—Matthew 15:3–9 NET

The sword of truth has but one target: the heart. And when the heart of a hypocrite is pierced, it bleeds resentment...ultimately, hatred. Jesus concluded His rebuke with a clarification.“Hear and understand: Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man” (Matthew15:10–11).

Week 4: In the Garden

They left the Upper Room and made their way to a familiar retreat, a private garden called Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives, just across the Kidron Valley from Jerusalem. Soon after passing through the entrance of the little garden, Jesus asked His disciples to pray for Him while He sought comfort from His Father. He asked Peter, James, and John to follow Him a little farther, then said, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me” (Matthew 26:38).Then He disappeared into the darkness.

Jesus wrestled with temptation. The terror of His coming ordeal gripped Him mercilessly. His blood dripped like sweat through the pores of His skin. As He stumbled through the darkness at Gethsemane, occasionally staggering and falling, thoughts kept returning to challenge His resolve.

Why should He have to suffer on behalf of humanity? No moral imperative required God to sacrifice His Son. He would be no less holy or righteous if He allowed the race of sin-sick humans to suffer the just consequences of their own rebellion. Nothing compelled Jesus to complete the mission—nothing, that is, except love for the people He had made and obedience to His Father.

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.”And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
—Matthew 26:36–39

But no sooner would Jesus submit to the plan of the Father than the temptation would seize Him again. No fewer than three distinct times would He have to submit. Each temptation was met with the same resolve: “Not as I will, but as You will.”

Week 5: Before the Trial of Jesus

Jesus was too popular to assassinate. One word from the disciples might have ignited the powder keg of popular resentment that lay beneath Jerusalem. And the leaders dared not turn Him into a martyr for fear of making Him even more influential in death than in life. So they hatched a plan to discredit Him as a blaspheming kook and have Him publicly executed in the most shameful manner possible.

They needed to do everything out of the public eye, but that proved difficult. Jesus stopped traveling in public except when protected by the adoration of the multitudes. And no one except His closest companions knew where He would be most vulnerable to attack. So, when Judas approached them with his scheme, they quickly struck a bargain. They signed on to a nighttime arrest of Jesus in exchange for thirty silver coins—roughly four months’ wages for an unskilled worker or the redemption price of a common slave.

From the first moment of His arrest, Jesus conducted Himself with utmost dignity yet never backed away from speaking the truth with gentle candor. “Have you come out, as against a robber, with swords and clubs? When I was with you daily in the temple, you did not try to seize Me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:52–53). Of course, they all knew what they had chosen to do was wrong or they would have done it by day and in full view of the multitudes. Nevertheless, Jesus understood His mission and that truth has its consequences. He never wavered. Looking at Peter, He said, “Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?” (John 18:11).

Week 6: Encouragement Through Suffering

Very few situations in life are more frustrating than suffering injustice alone and unnoticed. Feelings of outrage demand justice. Bitterness demands revenge. Hopelessness begs heaven for relief. Loneliness screams to be heard as a watching world stands aloof. During those dark, painful, lonely times, the silence from heaven can be deafening.

If this is presently your experience, rest assured, you are not alone. The Lord does see your suffering, and He will not allow it to go unanswered. He will see justice done, though perhaps not at the time or in the manner you would prefer. Nevertheless, the agony you suffer, though it feels overwhelming, will not go to waste. If you allow it, this experience can be the means by which God brings you His greatest blessings.

The apostle Peter stood at a distance watching his Master endure the greatest injustice ever suffered. No one was ever more innocent than Jesus. Few were ever more hypocritical and corrupt than Annas and Caiaphas. Perhaps reflecting on how Jesus conducted Himself during that awful time, Peter later wrote to persecuted Christians, “For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God” (1 Peter 2:20).

What are the messages in that to us twenty centuries later? Stop trying to be heard. Stop hoping for vindication. Speak the truth, in love and without apology, to whoever will listen. Expect to suffer for doing so. Then quietly and calmly submit yourself to the sovereign will of God.

Jesus accepted that He would not receive justice from men. He knew that the world was then—as it is now—dominated by sin and governed by fallen people. So He did not look to the courts for justice or to the approval of people for affirmation. He instead submitted Himself to the will of the Father. He spoke the truth and refused to allow anger or bitterness to distract anyone from seeing it—should anyone truly desire to see. Throughout the ordeal, He entrusted Himself to the One who will ultimately and inevitably judge every soul righteously.

What a magnificent model to follow!

Week 7: The Crucifixion

Shortly after nine o’clock Friday morning, Jesus hung a few feet above the earth between two robbers—probably accomplices of Barabbas, who were surprised to see another man hanging on his cross. They had no doubt heard of Jesus and could guess what had happened by listening to the taunts of the religious leaders.

And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself, and come down from the cross!” Likewise the chief priests also, mocking among themselves with the scribes, said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Even those who were crucified with Him reviled Him. —Mark 15:29–32

The brigands on either side of Jesus joined the others taunting Him while the soldiers helped themselves to what few possessions the prisoners had. When they came to Jesus’ clothing, they noticed that His tunic was unique in that it had been woven as one piece. Rather than ruin the garment, the men cast lots—rolled dice as it were—to determine who should keep it.

Then, as the soldiers gambled and the religious leaders mocked, something changed within one of the robbers.

Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.”Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” —Luke 23:39–43

The religious leaders continued their taunts, quoting Scripture as they watched their Messiah suffer.“He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God’” (Matthew 27:43).

At about noon, roughly three hours after the crucifixion began and when the sun should have been high overhead, an eerie darkness enveloped the entire region until three in the afternoon. As the darkness began to lift, Jesus drew a deep breath and shouted in Aramaic, His native tongue, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46).Those who only spoke Greek or Latin struggled to make sense of His words, but the chief priests and scribes understood completely. Jesus was quoting a psalm written by the prophet-king, David, centuries before crucifixion had been invented.

The taunts continued as blood seeped from Jesus’ wounds and ran down the cross to mingle with the soil. When He called for something to drink, someone put a sponge on the end of a branch of hyssop, dipped it in a jar of “sour wine,” the drink “given with meals to soldiers and workers”6 as an aid in reducing fever and giving refreshment. After drinking from the sponge, Jesus decided the work He came to do had been completed. He tilted His head back, pulled up one last time to draw a deep breath, and cried, “Tetelestai!”

With Jesus’ last breath on the cross, He declared the debt of sin canceled, completely satisfied. Nothing else required. Not good deeds. Not generous donations. Not penance or confession or baptism or...or...or...nothing. The penalty for sin is death, and we were all born hopelessly in debt. He paid our debt in full by giving His life so that we might live forever.

What a magnificent model to follow!