As Holy Week progresses, we see Jesus’ emotions boiling over. He cursed a fig tree because it didn’t bear fruit for him to eat even though it was out of season for figs to grow. As he entered the temple courtyard, anger boiled over as he knocked over the tables of the money changers and merchants selling doves for sacrifice. shouting that they had turned his Father’s house into a den of thieves. No doubt they were only there because the Chief Priest and Jewish religious leaders were getting a cut of the exorbitant profits.
After hurting the Jewish religious leaders’ pocket books, the same ones who attacked him for healing people on the Sabbath, Jesus began to preach and heal people right under their noses in the temple courtyard. Jesus knew that was the last straw that would cause them to plot his death.
Then Jesus’ emotions turned to the love he had for the twelve disciples he had chosen to continue his work on earth. Although he was saddened by Judas’ betrayal, Jesus lovingly tried to prepare the eleven for what was about to happen to him. He told them his body would be broken like the bread he broke and passed to them and his red blood would flow from his body like the wine he passed to them. Then he told them that as often as they eat bread and drink wine, they should remember his sacrifice for them. After the Passover meal, Jesus showed his love for them by washing their feet like a servant. After that, the eleven followed Jesus to the Mount of Olives for prayer.
It was there that another, unusual emotion bubbled up in Jesus – fear. The one who slept soundly in the boat in the storm while the disciples feared for their lives was now facing the most painful tortures and death man could devise. As Jesus prayed, his sweat dripped off of him like drops of blood. He prayed what I call the real Lord’s Prayer, “Father, take this cup from me, but never the less your Will be done.” It was then that Judas lead the high priest’s guards to arrest Jesus.