Days 307 and 308—We are in the ELEVENTH month of Bible reading and studying the New Testament Gospels.

NOTE:  Both Sunday and Monday studies are posted on MONDAY.

Day 307 – Mark 11, John 12. (triumphal entry cleanses the temple, about His death and the reason foretold)

Six days before Passover, when Jesus will be crucified, he visits His friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus (whom He had raised). As usual, Martha was serving, Lazarus was reclining at the table with Jesus, and Mary – quite unusually – took a jar of expensive ointment and anointed Jesus’ feet, wiping the excess with her hair (a sublime gesture of love, and as Jesus says, a sign of his upcoming burial).  The fragrance from the perfume and her act of love “filled the house.”

All the disciples objected, but Judas spoke aloud. “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to…. the poor? (He didn’t care about the poor. He had charge of the moneybag and was a thief. He wanted to help himself to some of the hard cash the ointment would have brought.)

Jesus rebuked his words (and the other disciples’ thoughts). “Leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.  You always have the poor (Judas!), but you do not always have me.”  (Later, we will see that Judas used this rebuke as a final excuse to go to the Jewish leaders and “sell” Jesus to them in betrayal.  He WOULD get some money one way or another!!)

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The next day, a large crowd heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. They took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him.  Meanwhile, Jesus sent two of His disciples into the village, where they found a donkey colt tied up (Matthew says the colt’s mother was there, too) They were to bring it to Jesus. If anyone questioned their actions, they were to simply say that the Lord needed it (and that it would be returned).

They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it. Jesus mounted it and started into the city, where the waiting crowds cheered. They waved palm branches and threw them on the street so He could ride over them.

(NOTE: Remember, this young donkey had never been ridden before, and from one who has owned horses, I can tell you cloaks thrown over his back, wild cheering, and palm leaves waved and strewn in front of it would – typically – have caused him to “spook” and buck and try to run away out of fear.  But just as Jesus had calmed the wild, bucking waves and wind with a word, this young cold remained calm in its master and creator’s hands.)

Jesus’s actions were later recognized by His disciples as fulfillments of scripture, although at the time, they were probably caught up in the excitement and thought Jesus’ crowning day had come.

“Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father, David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel! Hosanna in the highest!” (Psalm 118:25-26)

(From Zechariah 9:9) “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.”

Meanwhile, the Pharisees simmered in their hatred and jealousy and said to one another. “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him.”  They went after Jesus, indignant, and asked Him if he HEARD what the people were saying.  “Yep, have you never read (a jab at the very ones who knew the law), ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies, You have prepared praise?'”

Jesus then, in righteous anger, cleans out the Temple of cheating moneychangers and animal merchants.  “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”  Seeing their profit disintegrate, the chief priests and scribes sought all the more to DESTROY Jesus, but they didn’t act for fear of the people.

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Jesus then gives some heavy-duty teaching about His upcoming death and its reason. “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” 

And then an astonishing incident. “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this purpose, I have come to this hour. Father, glorify Your name!”  And a voice from heaven came, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”  The crowd heard thunder but not the words of the Father to the Son.

Jesus continued, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.  (This indicated that He would be lifted up on a cross to die.)

“We heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever,” the crowds say. “How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who IS this Son of Man?”  And Jesus answers that He, as the light, will be among them only a little while longer. It’s time to WALK in that Light and BELIEVE in that Light that they too, might become sons of Light.

But the people did not believe in Him, although He had done so many signs before them. This also fulfilled the prophecy in Isaiah 53:1 and 6:1.   Interestingly, MANY of the authorities did believe in Him, but for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it.  (This puts in mind silent believer Nicodemus, who later openly sided with the Lord Jesus.)

Jesus then retires back to Bethany for the night.

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 Day 308 – Matthew 22, Mark 12. (Parables, paying taxes, questions answered)

Jesus returns to Jerusalem the next day and is continually confronted by religious leaders who try to trap him. He continues to teach in parables.  He compares the kingdom of heaven to a king who gives a wedding feast for his son. He sent out servants to call those who’d received invitations to come now, for the feast was ready. But, one after another, those invited guests came up with an excuse, sometimes even abusing the king’s servants. This angered the king, and he sent more servants to go to the main roads and invite as many as they could find to come to the prepared wedding feast. And so they did, bringing good and bad people alike and filling the wedding hall.  (First likely meaning – God’s chosen people were “invited” to come to their Messiah, but when they refused, God opened the doors to sinners and Gentiles.)

The second part of the wedding parable involved a man who had snuck into the feast without the proper wedding garment, which was given to everyone asked to come. This man was tossed out of the wedding feast “into outer darkness, where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Second likely meaning – only those whom God gives the robe of righteousness through faith in His Son – 2 Corinthians 5:21 – will be allowed into the kingdom of heaven. All others who try to sneak in by any other means will end up in hell.)

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Okay, that didn’t end well for the Pharisees, so they plotted to test Jesus in another way. They tried to schmooze him with 1. “we know you are true and teach the way of God truthfully,” and 2. “you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances…..”  Then, the clincher — “Tell us what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”  (They had tested Jesus before about paying the Temple Tax, and Jesus had sent Peter to get the coin from a fish’s mouth to pay it.)

Jesus now asked to see a Denarius coin.  “Whose image is on this?” He asked.  “Caesar’s,” they replied.  “Well, give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”   I think the Pharisees must have stomped their foot at that.  “Darn! Foiled again!” (As Christians, we are obligated to live lawful lives under the government over us, so far as it doesn’t defy God’s law.)

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Next, a group of Sadducees (who do NOT believe in the resurrection of a person after death) came to test Jesus. They tell him a “hypothetical” story of a woman married to one man. He dies without her giving him offspring.  According to Jewish tradition and Moses’ ok (so that a tribe’s or person’s inheritance in the land of Israel didn’t go out of existence), a brother would then marry the woman and the first son would carry on the first husband’s legacy. In this story, the Sadducees said the woman was married over and over without producing a child.  So…. they grinned slyly, “In the “resurrection,” whose husband would she be?”  (Ha-ha, we got Him now!)

Jesus looks straight at them and says, “You are wrong because you know neither 1. the Scriptures nor 2. the power of God. In the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels in heaven. (So the woman would be wife to NONE of them.)

Then Jesus confronted their unbelief about the resurrection (the power of God) by saying that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  “Is,” not was. He is the God of the living.  Even the crowds understood that one and were amazed at his teaching. The Sadducees slunk away, disgruntled.

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One more test loomed, but this challenge seemed to be asked by a sincere Pharisee, who inquired of Jesus which of God’s laws was the “greatest.”  Jesus, of course, recited Deuteronomy 6:4.  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  THIS is the great and first commandment.” Then Jesus added a two-for-one answer that was not asked. “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these TWO commandments depend ALL the law and Prophets.”

“You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that He is the one, and there is no other besides Him. And to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. (Note, that the religious leaders would not say the Holy Name of God from Deuteronomy.)

Jesus saw this Scribe’s heart and said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” (Hopefully, this man took the final step and believed in Jesus.)

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Later, Jesus told his followers, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces, and have the best seats in the synagogues, and places of honor in the feasts, who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  They will receive the greater condemnation.”

Then, Jesus looked across at the treasury, where people were putting money in the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums with a great show, but a poor widow came and slipped in two small copper coins, which together made up one penny.  “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box.  THEY all contributed out of their abundance, but SHE, out of her poverty, has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

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In all this teaching in parables and testing, the chief priests and Pharisees “perceived that He was speaking about THEM.  And although they were seeking to arrest Jesus, they feared the crowds because the people held Him to be a prophet.”