Holy Monday
During this week we will briefly read about, pray about and think about
the steps of Jesus, and as we continue our seven day journey to the
resurrection of Jesus from the grave we cannot avoid Monday. JESUS' MONDAY
Monday in the last week of Jesus is marked by the word ‘conviction’. In western culture we live in a world of convenience and comfort, but Jesus had conviction. This is one of just a few times in all of Scriptures you see Him visibly angry. He goes into the Temple, the place where people were to worship God and to lift God up, and He starts turning over tables because they were not thinking rightly and their focus was distracted
Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. Matthew 21:12
As Jesus moves toward the cross and the ultimate destiny of being crucified for crimes he didn't commit he wasn't about comfort; actually quite the opposite. He lived with purpose, with passion, and with deep conviction. The dictionary defines passion as
a) Strong and barely controllable emotion.
b) A state or outburst of such emotion.
In His extremely focused journey, Monday was the day His passion confronted the apathy in the lives of those who were supposed to represent God. Our English words for passion and apathy are both derived from the same greek word ‘pathos’. They are opposites and cannot reside together. Apathy means ‘without passion’. If we can see anything in the character of Jesus it is a driving passion to build the Kingdom of God. There is no room for apathy in the life of a Christ follower.
Perhaps today ask the question. Am I passionate about what Jesus is passionate about? Have I become apathetic? The verse on my heart this morning when I woke up and posted on Facebook is Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
Passion always moves us, apathy always stops us. Passion is about conviction and apathy is about comfort. Passion is about compassion, but with apathy we simply stop caring. On 'my' Monday, I want my heart to be broken with the things that break God's heart. Let's be reminded on our journey with Jesus that passion matters.....A LOT.
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