Not Far - But Not In | Holy Week Tuesday
Tuesday of Holy Week is the most packed teaching day in all four Gospels. Jesus is back in the temple, and the challenges come thick and fast.
But buried right in the middle of all that noise is one of the quietest, most haunting moments of Holy Week.
A scribe asks a genuine question - not a trap, just an honest enquiry. Jesus answers him beautifully. Love God with everything you have. Love your neighbour as yourself. And the scribe gets it. He really gets it. He even says that love like this is worth more than all the religious rituals put together.
Jesus looks at him and says: “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
Not far. But not in.
That phrase has stayed with me. It sounds like a compliment - and in one sense it is. But Jesus lets it hang there like an open question. The door is right in front of this man. He can see it. He understands the theology. He’s standing on the threshold.
And then the conversation ends. We never hear from him again.
The same day, in the same temple, a widow drops two tiny coins into the offering box. The Greek word for what she gave is bios - her whole life. Not just her money. Her life. She didn’t stand at the door weighing things up. She just walked through.
Two completely different postures at exactly the same door.
I wonder if there’s something God has been calling you into. You’re close. You understand it. You might even agree with it. But you haven’t fully stepped through yet.
The door isn’t locked. It’s still open. And that’s the hope in this passage.
Not far is not inside. But inside is still available.
Today’s video is the Tuesday instalment of my daily Holy Week devotional series. Tomorrow we reach the forgotten day of Holy Week - Spy Wednesday - and the story of someone who walked through the door and then chose to close it.
Watch on YouTube →
Read this week’s devotionals here - https://open.substack.com/pub/battledrilldevotional/p/a-different-kind-of-holy-week-starting?r=643q6o&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true