Easter in the Garden: The Beginning of the Week to Change the World

🌿 Before the cross, there was tension, silence, and surrender.

In this first part of our Easter series, the girls walk through Monday to Wednesday of Holy Week — the days often overlooked, but filled with meaning. From Jesus cleansing the temple to the quiet tension building behind the scenes, they unpack what was happening both publicly and spiritually as the cross drew closer.

This episode leans into the weight of those in-between days — the moments where things feel uncertain, where God is still moving but not always loudly. It’s a reminder that not every part of the story is loud or visible, but every part is intentional. If you’ve ever found yourself in a waiting season, this conversation will meet you there.

Even in the quiet, God is preparing something eternal. ✨

Scriptures:

Matthew 21:1-11 NLT

Zechariah 9:9 NKJV 

Luke 19:39-44 NKJV 

Matthew 21:12-13 NLT

Luke 20:1-8 NKJV

Matthew 23:1-3 NLT

Matthew 23:2-3 ESV

Mark 14:3-9 NKJV 

Mark 14:10-11 NKJV

Numbers 6:24-26 ESV

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello and welcome back to the Armored Garden little special episode. If you haven't tell if you couldn't tell by now, we really like to like lean into the holiday spirit. We are festive in that way. I would agree. I probably hearken back to the teacher course. Oh, yeah. That's a teacher thing. We dress appropriately. We've got the whole thing. And what better than I would say not better than Christmas, but Easter is definitely, I wouldn't say festive to celebrate, but in remembrance and reverence and a day that is filled with such love, we had to make a special episode for Easter. So happy Easter. We hope that your Easter weekend is good and will be good and very blessed. But we're going to talk a little bit about what Easter is about. And we thought it'd be interesting, even for our own personal Bible study, to kind of look at each day. If you didn't know, Easter is actually comprised of an entire week of time. So we're going to look at every single day within what some refer to as the holy week. And we're going to kind of dive into that day, what went on that day, maybe some scriptures, reference for that day, and then really get a good full picture, real context of what exactly that Friday meant because of everything that happened before. And then most importantly, what that Sunday means now to us. So thank you so much for coming and growing with us. I'm Lauren.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

I'm Tony Madison.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

And we are so excited to see you wherever you are, whatever you're up to. We invite you to grab your Bible and listen to get ready to hear from our Savior Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, as we prepare for a weekend that can feel heavy and sad, maybe always remember the actual glory that comes from this day. A day that was so mournful and sorrowful on a Friday, but a lot can happen in three days. And by Sunday, with the resurrection power that you gave, Jesus, he comes back and reminds us all just of all of your character, Lord. How much you love us, how much you yearn for our presence and to dwell with us. We just thank you so much, Lord, for giving us wisdom to understand your word. May you open it and let us see it in a fresh new light today, Lord, as we look at events and things some of us might have heard our entire lives. But give us new eyes, Lord, a wider heart to understand your full picture story. And may we just come away from this time of learning about this week with a new perspective on just your great love for us, Lord. As always, we thank you so much for your presence. And as we go into this, we can't help but thank Jesus Christ for his sacrifice for our sins. And may you just come and dwell with us right now and just give us so much wisdom and understanding, Lord. In your heavenly name we pray. Amen. So, like we said, it is an entire week of time, which might honestly people not even realize. But once you start studying the gospels and you go through, that's where we're gonna be spending most of our time today is Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Which, if ever you don't have a steady spot to begin, that's probably a good one to start with. So we're gonna go through day by day kind of what the day was, what happened, what transpired, and then look at some scripture references for the day. So most people probably think of Easter and immediately think of Resurrection Sunday, like immediately. However, the truth is it actually started a week prior on a very, I would say, momentous day, especially when it comes to prophecy and Jewish history and culture, because this particular event that happens the week before on a day called referred to as Palm Sunday, is like literally walking prophecy in front of these Jewish believers. So for reference, we're gonna be like we said, be in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew kind of details this particular day a little bit more detailed. So that's where we're gonna spend a chunk of our time to start with. We're gonna be in Matthew 21. That's chapter 21, and we're going to be right there at the very beginning. So I'm gonna read a little bit and then we will kind of look at what was happening, and then maybe even get into some revelations that we've had or are getting in the moment right now. In real time. In real time. That's the kind of Bible studies we are. So Matthew 21, this will be one to about 11. As Jesus and the disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the town of Beth Page on the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent in sent two of them on a head. Go into the village over there, he said. As soon as you enter, it will you it you will see a donkey tied there with its coal beside it. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone asks what you were doing, just say, The Lord needs them, and he will immediately let you take them. This took place to fulfill the prophecy that said, Chapter or verse five. Tell the people of Jerusalem, look, your king is coming to you. He is humble, riding on a donkey, riding on a donkey's colt. The two disciples did as Jesus commanded. They brought the donkey and the colt to him and threw their garments over the colt, and he sat on it. Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Jesus was in the center of this procession, and the people all around him were shouting, Praise God, for the son of David, blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord, praise God in the highest heaven. The entire city of Jerusalem was in an uproar as he entered. Who is this? They asked. And the crowds replied, It's Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. Your version might have said Hosanna, where it said, Praise God. I love that. Hosanna.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

Hosanna to the son of David.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

I love that word.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Which, if you go back, like they that's who they were looking for. They were looking for a person from the lineage of King David to come and to rescue their people. But what they were thinking was very differently than what was really going to happen. Um, they the Israelites have been oppressed for so long. I mean, if you go all the way back, it just this cycle of messing up, getting oppressed, getting free. I mean, it was just the cycle of oppression for them. Um, it just kind of shows you that like sin has consequences, and you know, sometimes, but that's a whole nother tangent. So they were looking for, again, nothing new in the cycle for them. They're oppressed by Rome, and they're looking for someone to come and to set them free and to give them their independence again. So they were thinking worldly, a worldly king, a worldly person who is going to set them free from being oppressed by Rome.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

But going to talking about how like Jesus fulfilled prophecy, and so they knew these things because of the prophets that had spoken different prophecies of the coming king. So actually, when um Matthew refers back to that, it's in Zechariah 9 9, and it says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold, your king is coming to you. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a cult, the full of a donkey. So there was such symbolism in the fact that he was riding on a not just a donkey, but a cult of a donkey.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

Um it had to be that to fulfill the prophecy. Correct.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

It had to be that. So every single detail was already thought out in the different prophecies, they were they knew the details that had to happen in order for it to be this coming Messiah and this coming king. Um now, did all of them accept the way he was coming? No.

SPEAKER_02 7:43

If you have ever watched the Chosen series, I think this is one of the coolest like moments to see visually. I mean, obviously, any of it is neat, just imagine it being real people and all that. But the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and obviously the text doesn't, we can't read what's not in the text. But open-handedly, I mean, they had to be worried. Yeah, had to because first of all, they don't agree that he is what he's proclaiming to be, and that's biblically referenced over and over and over. So they go to meet him if you watch the chosen series, and they're like, You cannot do this because they know they were like, You're on a donkey, he's on a donkey, look, and he's riding in on this specific day. He they knew what was about to transpire. And the I love how the chosen, the women don't quite understand because they didn't study the Torah the way that the men do. And the men go ahead and read it. They said they know, and they read Zechariah's prophecy, and they were like, Oh, because the women didn't even understand, right? But uh, I think it was the Sons of Thunder that were like in the show that explained it, and they were like, Oh my goodness. So they were going along with the Lord, not Jesus not even completely understanding what exactly he was about to do, and he was fulfilling a very visible prophecy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

So in Luke, it actually talks about the Pharisees because it says, um Oh, it is good. Yeah, it's Luke 19, and my verses were 28 through 44. But if you most of 28 through 38, you already read in Matthew, so I don't want to re-alliterate that. But um 39 says, And some of the Pharisees called to him from the crowd, teacher, rebuke your disciples. But he answered and said to them, I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out. Now, as he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, If you had known even you, especially this your day, the things that make for your peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes, for the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embar embankment around you, surround you, and close you in on every side, and level you and your children within you to the ground, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

And then to even think like there's you know, they laid their cloaks down, like it said, and they had their palms and they're waving them and they're shouting Hosanna, which literally means save us. Right. But again, their worldly mindset is from here, save us. Like we need a political liberator. Right. And Jesus is coming in on a donkey, which is a symbolism, like the donkey is a symbol of humble because most kings, when they enter, they ride on a horse, right? Yeah, so for Jesus coming in on a donkey, he's telling like that. He's self-proclaiming to be a king, but instead of on a horse, he's coming on a donkey. So they're wanting a political liberator when Jesus is coming in as a humble king. And once they realize that, once they're like, Oh, he ain't saying what we thought he was gonna say, those same people who are shouting, Hosanna, save us, are going to be the people who are in the crowd shouting to crucify him.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Yeah, a few days later.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Like seven days later, not even. Yeah. This is also one of my like little small snippets of where the Lord spoke to me. The whole, if you're a cowboy or been around cowboys or been around anything to do with horses of any nature, you don't fiddle fart around with colts. No, you just don't. No. Unless your purpose is to break them for to be used, you don't mess around with them. And donkeys, particularly, they're a little honory.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

So not only did he tell the he said, Oh, go grab a donkey, he's like, Oh, go grab the baby.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Right. The little one. Untouched colt.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

Never been messed with, but this is the my favorite. In verse 3 in 21, it says, if anyone asks what you are doing, just say the Lord needs them and he will immediately let you take them. So not only had the sovereign lord prepared this donkey, an animal, to be used in this way, he also prepared the person who owned the animals. I would imagine that that owner probably on any other traditional person would have been like, No, you're not taking my livestock.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

Like they also don't mess with, they don't play around with their livestock. Like that's their income, that's their way of travel. That's like, it's not just their pet.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

And he didn't say here, take to whatever the currency is, take to this and pay for the no, go take the donkey. Yeah. So when I we we read this, I don't know if it was in seamless, I can't remember, but I wrote on the side because I think this for something, when you are being used by the Lord, you will not most often. I mean, sometimes every now and he gives you great revelation, you might not understand. And your not understanding worries you and makes you ill-prepared because you start thinking about what that person is going to be thinking. So I wrote on my margin on the side for this particular moment for me, the Lord prepares the hearts of others to align with your obedience. I'm not saying the person is always going to be super receptive and kind about it, but I can tell you for us three women here, more often than not, when we have chosen to be obedient and something the Lord has access to say or do, their person on the receiving end is most often like wrecked in a good way. Like, oh my gosh, I can't believe you prayed that. That's what I needed. Thank you for texting me. Thank you for calling me. Whatever that little act of obedience. Now, this was obviously very needed to fulfill prophecy, but I just love that little picture. Um, and it's again, we're always gonna connect this back to God. That's his sovereignty. How many pieces did he have to align for that? The donkey, the owner, the um, the disciples, then also the crowd. They weren't just showing up for just for the sake of it. There had to be a crowd for some reason. All of that just harkens back to his sovereignty on Palm Sunday for sure. The first day to begin a great ending week, but not so great middle of the week.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

So I think another thing we can kind of take from you know, this kickoff of holy week of Palm Sunday is where have you wanted to like cookie cut Jesus into your life, like and to fit into your expectations rather than accepting his ways or who he really is. So really just like taking him out of the box. Um, you know, we've this is something we've been talking about through amongst the three of us, is to not throwing away everything you already know, but just kind of setting it to the side. And like Jesus has a parable about pouring new wine into old wineskins and getting rid of those old wineskins and re, you know, he talks about you have new wineskins so that the new wine, which is him, his spirit, can go into new wineskins and just kind of like examining your heart and saying, like, okay, Lord, teach me who you are so that I can know you really, instead of this little cookie cutter image of a genie in the bottle who can just fulfill all of my wants and desires. Like, no, no, no, nothing about us.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

In truth, they needed that, they needed liberation, they needed it. They did it, yeah. But what he was saying was, I want to give you more. You need that, yes. And I want you to have that, but I want to give you even. And how often is that the case? Like you're over here, like, please, please, please, rubbing your genie lamp. And he's like, if only you knew. Right. I have something. So much more. And it might be uncle right now, but trust me. Know that I am sovereign. No, believe it. The day after Sunday is Monday. What's the jingle? What's the classroom jingle?

SPEAKER_00 15:38

Are we seeing the days of the week? Days of the week. Sunday in there.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

Monday. And we're actually gonna combine Monday and Tuesday because Jesus being the dependable man he is, he did as he always does. He enters into an area, a town, wherever he's going, and he preaches, he teaches. So he's telling parables in this next, in these next couple of days. He's preaching to the public. He does begin the Monday a little differently than traditional. He was a little upset because he's obviously in Jerusalem, the place of their high holy temple, and he was a little disappointed in what he found when he came in. So each gospel references this section of uh Jesus' ministry where he enters into the temple and he finds what he considers to be blasphemous in a way, and they are using the temple to sell, and he kind of basically turns tables, New Jersey housewife style.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

And what we forgot to mention from Sunday is this is the week of the Passover, so this is a big deal. Very big deal. So Jesus entering into Jerusalem, everybody else is also coming into Jerusalem. This is something that all of the Jews travel back to Jerusalem for to celebrate the Passover. Yeah. So there's a lot of people there. So the temple is like popping. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

No matter where you lived, where you were at in that time, everyone went to this place. Like if you were Jewish, that's where you went to the home. Yeah. Passover to the whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

I don't remember if we talked about. No, I'm confusing our Bible study in this. But Passover is a hearken back to their time when they were in Egyptian slavery and the during the ten plagues, they were literally passed over. And the worst plague of all, when their firstborn sons were killed, the Jewish, all the households did not experience that plague. So that's what they come and celebrate.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

If you want your own rabbit hole to go down, or your own tangent, or you want your like, what do I study in the Bible this week? Like, what should I dig into? Start back from Exodus and read what they asked them to get, which was a spotless lamb, and to uh, you know, do the blood from side to side and up and down, which made a cross over their doors. So then just the foreshadowing and the symbolism that just continues throughout the whole Bible, which is 100% God had ordained all of that to magnify what was about to happen. It's very beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

And then when you're listening to those Easter songs and you hear those kind of same phrases or uh like visuals, you'll be like, oh my, like things will start clicking, y'all. Start clicking. Did y'all mean to read the Matthew version?

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:25

Real quick. It's not that long. This is in continuing on, kind of where we were in Matthew 21. This is in verse 12. Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice. He knocked over the tables of money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. He said to them, red letters, the scriptures declare, my temple will be called a house of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of thieves. Bum, bum, bum. Man. Hammer.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

So this is where, you know, we have talked about this multiple times where it's like, God is love, Jesus is so nice, God is so nice. God and Jesus is always, he was always kind, but he maybe isn't always nice. Whereas like these people were wrecking the temple with instead of using it as a holy, holy place, they were buying and selling and making money. And it kind of just turned into like a flea market, really. They knew that the people were coming in for the Passover, so all the vendors were like, we're about to make big money. So, like when I think of like if you have a little festival, um, like a little local festival, like we have swamp cabbage, some neighboring, you know, Chellenica Sugar Festival, all the local people get like, they're like, This money making time, baby. Like, we're gonna set up our little, and I'm we're gonna sell what we make, and all the people are coming into town. So there's like way more people, like that's what I envision kind of happening, but where we do it, it's not blasphemy because we're not doing it, you know, we're doing it at a low, they're inside of the temple doing that, right? So that's where Jesus is calling them out.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

He's being kind, and using what should be a holy, reverent time, yes, like you said, as oh, I gotta get mine too. Right. Like I gotta make money here, right? Yeah, which isn't, I mean, sacrificing at this time was necessary, is what they were supposed to be doing, but not in this place, not in this context, and not bringing your little goods into the temple and doing it in that way.

SPEAKER_01 20:27

Yeah. So he kind of like goes and approaches these upper level um priests and different people of authority. And Tony's gonna kind of break those down for us in a minute, but like he goes and like confronts them head on. Like they've all heard about him at this point, and there's been talk and things like that, like, oh, who's this man who claims to be the son of God? And you know, they've been kind of looking for him, and so he's no longer like diverting away from them, he's now facing them head on. And so this is kind of our first place um during this time of Monday, Tuesday, where his authority is essentially questioned. Like they get to now come face to face with him and be like, all right, we've heard these things, we've seen some of these things, we don't know that we believe these things. Like, who are you? Um, so I'm gonna read in Luke 21 through 8. And it says, Now it happened on one of those days as he taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, that the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, confronted him and spoke to him, saying, Tell us by what authority you're doing these things, or who is he who gave you this authority? But he answered and said to them, these are red letters, I also will ask you one thing and answer me the baptism of John, was it from heaven or from men? And they responded among themselves, saying, If we say from heaven, he will say, Why then? Did you not believe him? But if we say from heaven, From men, all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet. So they answered that they did not know where it was from. And Jesus said to them, Ren Letters, Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. So talking about scribes, we've also on the podcast talked about like Pharisees and Sadducees and all the different people, and some of those names are a little hefty. So um, through our Bible study, actually, it gives a good little breakdown. So Tony's gonna kind of explain to those people before we move further with this.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

Um, so matchless, shout out Angie Smith. Incomparable Angie Smith. Yeah, girl. The life and love of Jesus is like the little subtitle there. So um highly recommend. She's got a very good sense of humor. She's very easy to read. Um, but actually, like where we are studying this week is the same thing. So it gave a really good breakdown. So it talks about the Pharisees and the Sadducees, where like previously, before do like I feel like not that long ago, I would just lump them all together. Yeah. Like they're all religious law people who, you know, didn't like Jesus. Yeah, who just are all about the laws and not about the relationship of Jesus. But they actually have differences. So the first, if we're gonna let's talk about the Pharisees first. They were, this is Angie, so I'm quoting her, giving her all the all the props. Yes. They were completely obsessed with making sure that everyone was obeying all of the laws, and they found great joy in correcting people who weren't. They were considered, especially by themselves, to be much holier than the average people because they were very well educated about the Old Testament. They also liked to make up laws at their own leisure, which definitely made them a good hang. Sarcasm in case you can't read that. In between the lines. Um, so the Old Testament, you know, there is all of the God's laws. Well, they kind of took that and added to it to what made it fit for them. To make it fit for them, for sure. Like, what is it that um, like, you know, there's the rule of the Sabbath. So I just heard someone say that they're not allowed to drive on the Sabbath or something. I don't know how much I'm talking about that. Unless they're on water.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

Yeah, so then they put a bottle of water underneath their seat.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

Yeah, so like, so then to just do like a little skirt around. Yeah, like that's how they're cutting corners. That's how like out of hand, which like, yes, God gave us law for a reason, but they took it and they were just like keeping adding an advantage. And what your finding is a roundabout way, a loophole, yeah. A loophole, a loophole. Then what's the point? Which like even to this day, like some Jews, they legitimate. They can't go for that in their house.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

Yeah, which they've got around in like places in big cities because they just add a line, an extension. There's a huge um area in New York where they do that. They've added a line, like an imaginary line that hangs above and that allows them to walk further than they would normally be able to.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

There was like a reason too, why they couldn't use elevators on the Sabbath. Yeah, so they haven't. So they would always take the stairs and they're and a friend who was like visiting, and they're like, he's like, but I'm not Jewish. Like he's like, Oh, the gentile elevators over there. But because he pressed the button, the others couldn't press the button, a bunch of people hopped in with him because they couldn't start a fire. And that's when it didn't connect to spark. So as long as they didn't start the fire, they hopped in the gentile elevator. Like, that's the kind of things that like just silly. They just this is that was probably, anyways, I'm not that's a rabbit hole, and I don't even know. Um, so another one would be the Sadducees. They were similar to the Pharisees, but unlike the Pharisees, they only accepted the written law from the Torah, which is the first five books of the Bible, and not the oral tradition that had developed over time. So the Pharisees were just adding in that oral tradition. The Sadducees only believe the written law, but the big difference is most of the Sadducees don't believe in resurrection or life after death. And then they talked about, like in the scripture, Madison was reading like another people who were confronting Jesus after the turning of the tables, and it's like all kind of came to a head right there, right? Like they were, anyways, um called the chief, they talked about the chief priests. So from our little bit of research we did, the chief priest, so there's the high priest, which is singular, but this is plural, chief priests. So sometimes the high priest could come out of the group of chief priests, and these chief priests were members of the Sanhedrin. This is like probably gibberish, so you may have to do a little bit. The law of school, right? The Sanhedrin was like the Sanhedrin is the highest Jewish council in the time of Jesus. It's like an elder group, it consists of 71 men, Sadducees and Pharisees, and the high priest was like the president of the Sanhedrin. He's part of the Sanhedrin. So these guys are called the elders.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:06

So Sanhedrin, big group, um who was constantly going back and forth with Jesus. Pharisees were probably, and the Sadducees were probably the ones who were meeting him. I mean, they were the ones outside of Jerusalem. Like, don't do it. The Torah says, like, we know, like, don't you can stop, like telling the people, you can stop him now. Like, this is not we this ain't gonna go down.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

Um, so all of these different people, these are the reasons why they were combating against Jesus. But after Jesus turned those tables and then all of it went into a flame, so it really kind of well then he's came to a point here.

SPEAKER_02 27:41

He's coming in trying to really out of love explain to them you're you're no one has corrected your behavior, but it needs correcting. And I'm gonna do that because I love you. Plus, he's preaching, and the everyone that's there, especially because it is Passover, there were people that would have never heard him before. Right. And now they're getting to hear him. I mean, that just and so now this Pharisees now they almost have to act. But in the example that they gave when he directly poignantly asked him a question about John's baptism, then they're like, Oh crap, like we can't answer biblically by law because the people are gonna fight. And that was the thing. They were concerned about the people. What do they think about me? What are they giving in tides for?

SPEAKER_01 28:25

Because that's how they stayed in rule, was they were like essentially kind of like voted in type of thing. Like they were the head members of um, like office type of thing.

SPEAKER_02 28:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:35

And the other thing about the John Baptism is they also conspired against John, and so they fed into that whole narrative as well, just as much as they did with Jesus. So they're like, if we go back on what we said about John, they're gonna think we had him murdered, they're gonna know essentially the truth and what happened.

SPEAKER_02 28:53

And so that's rubber was really meeting the road.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

Yeah, things would have spiraled. For the higher priesthood, we don't know, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:01

So it also, sorry, go ahead. It also mentioned the scribes in the scripture, so I wanted to give that definition. I kind of forgot about that one. The scribes were the people who studied and interpreted the law and taught others about it. They spent hours and hours copying the words of the law with incredible precision, which is why we have such wonderful copies of the Old Testament. Um, keep in mind that the general population at this time was illiterate, so they were dependent on those who could read in order to hear and understand scripture.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

That was one of my like aha moments I had not too long ago. Was that it's in that book that Lindsay got me for Christmas, that not your average study. Not just another boring Bible study. And she reminded the reader that the word press, the printing press wasn't invented until 400, whatever. So the Bible as well, we know it, right, it is still very new in its infancy of being able to be personally held and read and understood. That's why so much when you read it, it needs to be thought about in its context. Right. But for the Pharisees, this moment where Jesus is like, hey, I know who I am, I'm telling everybody else who I am. And not only am I doing that, I'm also telling them better ways. Right. You're over here getting on to them about laws and rules and all this, and I'm telling them how to really live to love the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

Yeah. Which up until this point, it was kind of hush-hush. Yeah, he was places. He would uh perform a miracle and then say, Hey, don't go tell, don't go tell him. But now this is like his big profession of like, I am the son of God. And personally, I am the seed of David.

SPEAKER_02 30:35

I am the person you have been waiting for. If I was a Jewish person sitting in the temple at this time, I would kind of be looking at people that I trust, technically. I trust these Pharisees and these Sadducees. They're telling me what the Lord says. I would want to be like, um, what do you say? He says this. What do you say? So it wasn't that it was not an option for them to just be like, ignore him. Right. No. And you can't ignore him because he literally is the word of God. Yeah. Like you can't. Yeah. Like you can't.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

Also, um, just to go back to like the Pharisees who, you know, they had their oral tradition along with the five books, the Torah, it talks about oral tradition on the side, says, also known as oral law or tradition of the elders, which was a body of laws that were added to the written law of Moses. They were only in oral form until written down in the Mishnah in the second century. They were intended to help people know God's will in specific situations, but instead ended up becoming burdensome and more overbearing than the law itself. So I to me that shows that like it was with a good intention, but kind of right, ended up being burdensome and overbearing. I mean, yeah, can't start a fire, so let's not use an elevator.

SPEAKER_02 31:53

You can't carry that water bottle.

SPEAKER_00 31:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

That's like um sounds like Pirates of the Caribbean. Got my jar of dirt, yeah, got around the rules. And Jesus directly, like Madison said, Doris, Jesus went at them. He was teaching, preaching, doing his thing, his normal thing. His disciples were going and doing as they normally would. They go into a place and all they do is just spread who Jesus was. And then he went when he came directly at them. Not only did he challenge them, he then spoke out to his everyone there, he's like, Don't listen to them. And he challenged their authority. One of my favorite ones is in mine. This is Matthew. I stay in Matthew, y'all. I don't really. I love you, Luke, Mark, John, but I like Matthew. Mine, this is in Matthew 23. Then Jesus said to the crowds and his disciples, so he's he's not just talking about this amongst his private, his private group. He is preaching, doing what really is kind but not nice.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:50

The teachers, and this is Jesus talking, the teachers of religious religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don't follow their example.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Which my ESV says, which yours just said, the teacher of the law. Mine says the scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat. So do not do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do, for they preach, but do not practice. So just it kind of gives the details of the people we just went over, the scribes and the Pharisees. And now instead of just lumping them all together, as people who are against Jesus, now you maybe know the difference between those subgroups and why that friction exists.

SPEAKER_02 33:35

And this is exactly what we've talked about before where it is amazing to come and consume from a podcaster, from a preacher, from your own preacher, from friends of yours. But you then have to take that and do it yourself. Pharisees and Sadducees knew things because they were privy to scrolls and all that kind of stuff, and they gave it out. But what really what would have been amazing for the Jewish people to be able to do is then take in their own prayer time and talk to the Lord, which obviously this is a way different time. But he's saying what they say is not wrong for the most part. Yeah. The mo the core of what they're talking about is Mosaic law. It's true. It's you can quote it, you can see it in the Torah and the Pentateuch. But he said they don't live, they do not live what they preach.

SPEAKER_00 34:17

They don't practice what they preach, they do not. And so that just kind of like is a performative faith. Yeah. Right. So like that might be a reflection question in our own lives. I'm not gonna say your life, I'm gonna say on all of our own lives. Where do we feel like our faith might be performative? And that might be like something that we need to be in prayer about for the Lord for Him to, if there is an area in your life where you're performing while your heart might feel distant or um kind of doing it, we talk about this, to a place, which is to a place of trying to reach something for yourself instead of from a place of um of service for our father. What do I get?

SPEAKER_01 34:56

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. So think about like Tony said, like reflect. Is there any tables that Jesus needs to overturn in your life right now? Like, is there something that you didn't realize, like maybe you're still struggling with, or something you might have thought you dealt with, but you didn't wholeheartedly? And so that roots kind of been sitting there, or that I'm gonna talk that fruit's been sitting there rotten away a little bit. And so it just needs some pruning um of the bad branches or whatever it may be. So because we talked about that in our fruits of the flesh, like they're not practicing with their preaching, they're not, they're not, they're not bearing good fruit. So, and that's essentially what he was saying.

SPEAKER_02 35:33

Well, and from what core are they really doing all this? Like, right, you're right, great, you know the role, you know the rules, like great, but why are you doing it? And really, if they had an opportunity to look, they would be like, Well, it's for me. I want to be powerful, I want to have the fancy garments and walk around and people see me being holy. And and it might have started with a really sweet fruit, sweet seed, right, but it then became what it is now, right? Which I'm sure for a lot of them that was. When they were little, they probably did think that all I love the Lord and I love hearing the Torah, and then it became power and climbing up the ladder, and being the most powerful being better than more than others, and which I mean that I'm like, that's a whole nother tangent we could go down to.

SPEAKER_00 36:16

Yeah, well, and I think that's pride is a serious trap, flaming dart, yeah, huge. So hold that shield up, y'all.

SPEAKER_02 36:26

Yeah, call your turtles as we follow Jesus through this holy week. We've now experienced the jubilant entry into Jerusalem on the donkey as prophesized, gone through a couple of days, and let me also say there is so much more that happens in these days. We're kind of giving y'all a airplane. Yeah, please take this time, especially during this time where I think people are around Christmas and Easter, is just one of those times where everyone is a little more willing to be like hear Jesus' name or whatever. Go and start looking through these and read every gospel. Well, that's what we're doing in between takes, is checking like what does this one say versus this one? Because, and go through different translations. That's a really hard, really important note, too. So we have come to Wednesday, which might seem like a non-so important day because nothing I would say big necessarily happens, but it is kind of the stepping stone and the setup for the next couple of days.

SPEAKER_01 37:27

It's like the turning point.

SPEAKER_02 37:28

Definitely. Where we we were going uphill and we're kind of now at the hill and it's about to go down real quick.

unknown 37:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:35

Wednesday is the day where Jesus kind of um leaves Jerusalem and he goes to a town that he's very comfortable in, which is Bethany, a town where I feel like he always goes for rest. It's kind of where he knows a lot of people there. It's where his good friends Mary Martha and Lazarus live. He is not at Mary Martha's at their house this time. He's at his friend's Simon's house. So he's in Bethany, kind of just enjoying the Passover celebration, but outside of Jerusalem. And on that day is also the day where Judas decides, okay, we're gonna, I'm gonna help the Pharisees and Sadducees out here. So Madison's gonna read what we thought was the better translation of this little section where he goes, he, like I said, he's at his friend Simon's house, and he's really just kind of hanging out through this week.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

One of them it says like he's got his feet up, like he's really just the temple really we're just need a little rest break. He did his storm there.

SPEAKER_01 38:33

I'm done.

SPEAKER_00 38:34

Take a break.

SPEAKER_01 38:35

He flipped the tables, he needed to relax. So I'm in Mark 14, and this is verse um three through nine. I'm gonna stop there for a second so we can chat, and then we'll continue through 11, I believe. It says, And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on his head. But there were some who were indignant among themselves and said, Why was this fragrant oil wasted? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denary and given to the poor. And they criticized her sharply. But Jesus said, red letters, let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for me, for you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish, you may do them good, but me you do not always have. She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her. So, really quickly, I do want to touch on who we're talking about. This woman is. This is Mary, this is Lazarus' sister. Um, if you ever have heard about the story um of Mary and Martha, there's a contrasting um sister situation in the Bible that they talk about earlier on. And um, she's one that's known for like sitting at Jesus' feet. So for her to be the woman that honestly was obedient to the Lord's calling of um going and buying this oil, taking a lot of years worth of wages, years worth of wages and buying this specific oil because that's what was used in burials. And I think it was even, it wasn't just like willy-nilly used either. It was like in kingship. Um I have to look into that a little bit more, but like it was higher-up burials is who got to use this. It wasn't just oh, someone died, and we went and buy a you know, in the whole flask. Like, maybe it was that they only used a few drops, but like this was the whole flask, and she went and shattered it. And I heard something, I forget where exactly I heard it, but they said that the significance of just her shattering the jar alone was the breaking that was representation represented in the coming of the breaking of Jesus' body, and also the fact that she was pouring all of this oil out, and that's essentially this other. Um we talk about phrases sometimes, this Christian-y phrase of pouring my oil out, that's essentially where this comes from. Is she is giving her everything to him because she knows who he is. This is something that she's wrapped her mind around. It is she knows he is the son of God walking in the flesh, and she knows his divine appointment on that earth is coming to an end. And the significance on why he is doing that, because she was the one that sat at his feet and listened with everything she had, because back then women weren't allowed to go into synagogues and learn, and um, they weren't allowed to learn how to read, they didn't know, so she had such a privilege to sit at his feet and be taught by the teacher of them all, and she took everything in and essentially like he spoke directly to her, right? And just like Jesus speaks directly to us through his word, she sat at his feet and received all that. So she, whereas some of the men were not comprehending what he was saying and teaching in these parables, she comprehended, she knew the gravity of the situation. So she took this oil, uh broke it, uh, poured it over him, and um going forth after that is where we hear about Judas, and it says in verse 10, then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priest to betray him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray him. Judas, one of the twelve disciples, he was the the holder of money. I forget what um, I forget what his treasurer kind of yeah. So his whole, you know, purpose for and one of the 12 disciples in that dynamic was he was the one who was keeping track because remember, they weren't out, you know, getting paid for things, they were just um gifted money or gifted possessions to go sell to keep this ministry going. And so he was the one who had to keep track to make sure they had enough food or they could rent a hotel to stay or whatever their needs were, they were met. So to him, this was so wasteful. And essentially he was one of the ones that was mainly questioning her as far as John called him out in the Gospel of John. Yeah, Gospel of John. Everyone else just said they calls him by name. Yeah, no dudes. Um he was really questioning, and at the time, I think he was the one that kind of also being um such a man of money, and we know, you know, people say money is root of all evil. That's in one of the parables. Um He had it very black and white in his mind, and how we talked about in earlier days that they were looking for this, you know, knight in shining armor kind of king to come in and just slash away the Romans and get them out of there and all the things. And have, and I think they even said like having armies behind them and all the um all the such, but he couldn't wrap his mind around someone being so humble and yet a king to serve in that manner. So he really struggled with that. And unfortunately, he is the one of the 12 out of the 12 disciples, not of, but out of the 12 disciples, he is the one that we later find out is the one that betrays him. And this is just his first steps to essentially turning his back on Jesus and God and the things, and essentially opening that door for the enemy to use him.

SPEAKER_02 44:50

So while Judas's decision was, I think, out of like, like you said, not totally understanding, and like maybe he isn't who he says he is. Like, if he is who he says he is, it's probably one of those. I'm not gonna read what's not in the text, but I will say he for sure was the catalyst to the timeline. Right. The Pharisees and the Sadducees already decided we cannot do this at Passover. Like that is a bad look.

SPEAKER_01 45:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:14

That's said. And mine says in Matthew 26. They had already said, we're gonna hold down, yeah, we'll deal with him after Passover. And Judas, right after they visit Bethany, decides, you know what? I'ma go. Yeah, I'm gonna go see. In Matthew's records, he actually gives the amount, which I thought this is really cool. So my Bible is a study Bible, and it made his is the only one that gives the exact amount. And it's for the cost, it's 30 silver coins, is what he's traded, and that's the cost of their time of a slave.

SPEAKER_03 45:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:47

He literally pays the amount that a, and not saying people don't have value, but you're talking about the son of God.

SPEAKER_00 45:55

Yeah. Well, and to go for him to have just been complaining about Mary wasting this extremely expensive alabaster jar of that's too much, but then for you know, cost of a slave.

SPEAKER_01 46:10

A slave's wage for Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 46:11

For this man that he's been literally eating, sleeping, traveling, doing life with for three years. Three years at this point. Um the alabaster jar also makes me think like I don't know, like when you're like she literally gave her all to Jesus, right? Yeah. Like how easy would it have been for her to just, like you said, like uh, yeah, right. A little splash, and that's that's like that's good. Like I I hope I was obedient, but then I can keep this for this. She could have easily just done a little splash, like a little coffee milk splash. You get anointed at church now, that's what we do. Yeah, and we just a little dip. Yeah. But for her to completely obey what she felt like he deserved, which was everything. All every not just everything in that jar, but that everything in the jar was probably all that she had. And the jar. Yeah. And the jar. Let me break the, I'm gonna give you the jar too. Like it just reminds me of like the way that we might halfway obey the Lord sometimes. Like, Lord, I want, I hear you telling me to give you all of it, but I can give you half. And I was still obedient. I'm gonna keep my half. And that's not what he's asking us to do. Um, and the truth is he says, okay. Yeah, he does. You want to give okay. And that's like um talking about like the Israelites coming into the promised land, like they halfway obeyed the Lord. The Lord said, take them all, all the heights, they gotta go. Not because they don't love the pe it's because of I know, but it's because of their gods and they're gonna corrupt you guys. And he's like, We'll take out some of them. We conquered the land, we took out some of them, but they're gonna be really good neighbors. So because we halfway obey, we did a half truth here, but then how that just rotted out everything else, and they continued on this sin cycle when that could have been the end of it.

SPEAKER_01 47:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:57

So just like it's very easy to to kind of argue with the Lord, like, I'll give you this, but I'll keep this. Right. But like Mary did not do that, she gave him everything.

SPEAKER_02 48:06

What a pretty picture, too, of like again, visuals for me. Mary on her knees, hands doing anointing him. And I have to, I'm again, not in the text, but the way Mary loves him, she's proven that time and time and time again. And the way she lets her heart focus on him. What a beautiful picture of heart posture. Mary versus Judas. Right. Judas, who, like you said, spent time, dinner, everything, like all of his time was with Jesus. His heart posture was exact opposite of what Jesus asks us to do. And here's Mary, who he only gets to visit every now and again. She would have been a great disciple. Yeah. And here she is pouring everything. And she's a you deserve it all.

SPEAKER_01 48:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:53

Every bit of it.

SPEAKER_01 48:56

So essentially, Wednesday is talking about just themes here, is like that is the cost of loyalty versus like the tragedy of betrayal. The two of those, those two people in itself in this story, like that's what that looks like. So we are going to um actually split this up into a two-piece section.

SPEAKER_03 49:18

Two-parter.

SPEAKER_01 49:19

Two-parter. And there's too much, y'all. We're gonna leave y'all on a little bit of a cliffhanger here. And so before um we do wrap up here, I do want to kind of ask you because I feel like we've kind of asked a question after each day, but um, I want to ask, ask you, challenge you right now to kind of check your heart posture of like, when have you ever held up back your best? Like, I know that we've kind of had those conversations amongst um each other, and there's been times, you know, when when we're kind of struggling with that, and we're like, oh, I knew, I knew I should have done this, but I didn't, or I knew I should have given this to him, but I didn't. And, you know, even if you, even if you have one of those moments and you're like, oh, I should have just given this to the Lord and I didn't, or I did give it, but I picked it back up, go back to him, run back to his feet and pour it all out. Um, I was just telling them earlier, like, I like to write it all out on piece of paper and just tuck it away and give it to him. So if you need to physically give it to him or just spiritually give it to him, um, hypothetically, or whatever it may look like for you, then I would highly suggest doing it.

SPEAKER_02 50:24

If you're feeling super theatrical, go buy a jar. Yeah. Break that sucker. Yeah. That'd be a fun little activity. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:32

Dangerous.

SPEAKER_02 50:33

Yeah, fun. Yeah, no kids.

SPEAKER_01 50:35

It's kind of like one it's kind of like a piggy bank. Go get you a piggy bank that don't have a rubber opening on the bottom and start writing down and shoving it in there. That way you can't get to it. You can't go pick it back up. That's true. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:49

So this will be the end of part one, but I would say the best is yet to come, truthfully. Yes. While these are the next days are very sad and the beginning, the you cannot just you cannot deny the glory of a Sunday, of a resurrection Sunday. So on part two, we will dive real deeply into those days as we have these. This was really good for us. We were so giddy during trying to like look up scripture and all that. We're like, this is a time where we just always gloss over and do not understand the depth of like all of Jesus' three years of ministry was for this week. Everything was into this week. All the preparation and the people and in alignment, everything had to be just so. And we'd see it written out in black and white and red in our Bibles. Thank you so much for coming and growing with us in the garden today. I hope your either Easter was great or is great wherever you are watching this. We thank you so much for joining us once again. Please be sure to like and subscribe so you get that Wednesday alert of a new Armored Garden time. And you can come and hang out with us again. And also be sure to check out our socials. We have an Instagram and a TikTok at Armored Garden. And be sure to send us any prayers, praises, maybe something exciting that happened on Easter. It's not only about Easter egg hunts, but about hunting down Jesus. So let's keep that on their focus. And we thank you so much for coming and joining us. Madison, will you pray us out?

SPEAKER_01 52:09

Sure will, dear Lord. I just come to you right now, Lord, and I thank you for an amazing time together this morning, Lord. Just really deep diving into what this week is meant to be about, Lord, and what this looked like for you here on earth, Lord. And I just, even though we don't even have every single detail, Lord, but the details that we have are enough, Lord. I thank you for the fact that we get to come and sit at your feet and learn exactly who you are, Lord, and pour out all of our oil, Lord. Not not just some of it, not just a few drops, but that we just get to smash the jar wide open and give you our all, Lord. And even in the times of feeling like we're in a valley or feeling like we're on top of a hill, Lord, that you just meet us exactly where we're at, where our two feet are planted, Lord. I thank you for this time together, Lord. And I just pray that supernatural wisdom and understanding comes about from this time together, and that revelation meets those that are listening to this or watching this on the other side, Lord, that you have been in the midst of all of it, Lord, that this has been detailed out from the very beginning, Lord, and that just because their names aren't written in it, that you've thought of them, Lord. And I just thank you and I praise you. I ask you all this in your holy, mighty, and matchless name. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 53:28

I'm gonna read numbers over you guys. Numbers 6, 24 through 26, in case you forgot. The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen. See you next week. Come back for part two.

SPEAKER_02 53:47

Yeah. That's a good way to start.