Living Faithfully Under Sentence of Death

The events of Holy Tuesday follow directly from Monday’s temple clearing, during which, among much else, Jesus manifest his messianic claims. Questioning his right to do such things, the Pharisees strove to discredit his authority. Holy Tuesday depicts the multiple conspiracies to entangle Jesus, efforts to find him in contempt of legal, theological, or scriptural norms. Jesus dealt deftly with each. On the question of to whom allegiance is owed—Caesar or God—Jesus reminded his challengers that spheres of authority, both political and spiritual, had long been established by God thereby giving the people of God duo obligations, concrete responsibilities in each sphere. On other questions touching doctrinal issues, Jesus turned the tables to reveal his challengers’ own lack of theological understanding and their basic ignorance of scripture. At every turn, Jesus established that it was these Pharisees, and not himself, who were the baddies, peddling a false faith focused on individual piety and privilege to the neglect of loving God and neighbor.