Texts:

Morning
1. Psalm 12
2. Mark 11:27-33
Evening
1. Psalm 6
2. Mark 11:27-33
Hymn
1. Christ the Lord is Risen Today, in anticipation of Easter
Prayer
1. Our Gracious God and Heavenly Father, You have loved us, even when we were dead in our sins. Your grace made us alive together with Christ. You have called us out of darkness and into your light. We confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. Forgive us, O God, and bless us by your Spirit, that we might have the courage to walk in the good works to which you have called us, to the praise of your glorious name, Amen.

Devotional: Mark 11:27-33
We have all known people who were so nice, so sugary sweet, so over the top excessively "good" that we really just wanted to punch them in the mou... er... not be friends with them. The sugary sweet goodness that never puts a foot wrong is so perfect that it starts to feel like its a goodness that isn't for others, but for themselves. Few people would ever follow that person, except for authorities who are glad to have a rule follower that makes their lives easy.

That is not the sort of person that Jesus was, although we are often tempted to imagine him that way. We are told that Jesus was so good that people hated him; so gracious that legalists killed him, so nice and sweet that our evil world couldn't let him live. Question: who would want to follow a Jesus whose virtue was being a goody two-shoes?

Holy Week gives us a very different Jesus. Mark 11 shows a Jesus who isn't sucking up to power, but is actively confronting it. The powers that be had begun to despise him, not because he was good, but because he was authoritative. When he comes to Jerusalem to clean out the Temple, he is saying something about his authority- that he speaks for God as a prophet at least, calling people to live as God calls them to. And maybe he speaks as something more. Our passage today has Jesus confounding the Temple authorities with a question about his authority. He shrouds himself in mystery- just who exactly is this wandering Galilean? Certainly no goody two-shoes- he is confronting unjust powers, not kissing up to them. The tension of Holy Week increases. This sort of thing can't be allowed to happen, for the sake of public order...

Jesus wasn't killed because he was nice. He was killed because he was a threat. He was killed because he was the King. And that would have been that, except he was a different sort of King than anybody imagined.

For reflection:
1. How domesticated is our Jesus?
2. Reflect on this quote: "Safe? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you." - Mr. Beaver, CS Lewis' Narnia
3. What would it look like to let Jesus become your authority? What wild thing might he call you into?