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SUNDAY and MONDAY studies are posted together on Mondays

Day 306 – Reading – Luke 19

Day 307 – Reading – Mark 11 and John 12

Read and believe in Jesus!

SUNDAY – Day 306 – Luke 19.

Today’s chapter in Luke will revisit some of the events from yesterday’s reading in Matthew.  We will go back to Jericho and meet another Tax Collector named Zacchaeus.  He was a chief tax collector, and as such, he was very wealthy and very disliked. Not only did he collect taxes, but he also oversaw others and probably got a “cut” of their money. 

But Zacchaeus was different from that rich young ruler in the previous chapter.  We will see that his money meant little to him, and he was very eager to see Jesus. 

He was a “wee little man,” or so the children’s song goes, and he could not see Him over the heads of the crowd that followed Jesus as he walked through the city.  Quickly, the enterprising tax collector climbed up in a nearby sycamore tree and spotted Jesus.  Jesus saw him in the tree, knew the thoughts and intents of his heart, and stopped.  

“Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.”

As he scrambled down from the tree, did Zacchaeus wonder how Jesus knew his name? The crowd parted, and the short tax collector pushed through, joyfully leading the way to his house. 

Of course, the crowd grumbled when they saw Jesus go into “that sinner” Zacchaeus’ house.

Before Zacchaeus even called for lunch, he confessed to Jesus, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything (of course, he had!), I will restore it fourfold.”

How different from that rich young ruler, who went away from Jesus sorrowfully, because he didn’t want to give away even a penny. Zacchaeus offered much more.  The law required only 20% restitution (not half), and replacement of twice the value, not four times.  His heart was truly repentant. 

“Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.  For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

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Then Jesus told a parable, perhaps even as they all reclined around Zacchaeus’ meal.  It was to remind His followers that Jesus was NOT (right then) going to establish His Kingdom on earth. (He had to suffer and die first, but they seemed deaf to that message.)  So … Perhaps a parable would get them thinking.

He told a story about a nobleman who planned to claim his kingdom and then return.   While he was gone, his servants were to conduct business and make a profit for him. He gave them each 10 minas to work with. He went, received his kingdom, and returned home.  He asked each of his servants what they had gained for him.

One made a tenfold profit. “Good job. You shall have authority over ten cities in my kingdom.”

One made a fivefold profit. “Good job as well. You will be over five cities.”

One made zero profit. He said, “I put the ten mina in my handkerchief, for I was afraid of you. Here is your minas.”  “You wicked servant. Why did you not put my money in the bank so I might have at least collected the interest? Take that mina from him and give it to the one who earned a 10X profit.”

Perhaps the disciples scratched their heads at this, but probably Zacchaeus understood well about profit and loss and nodded his head in understanding.

 But did they all understand that He, the nobleman in the parable, was going away to claim his Kingdom, not seizing it in Jerusalem?

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Then, as we read yesterday, Jesus proceeded to Bethphage, where the disciples procured a donkey-colt for him to ride on. And as he rode down toward the gate of Jerusalem, the crowd began waving palm branches and strewing them and their cloaks on the ground for Jesus to ride over. 

“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” they shouted.

Some Pharisees were in the crowd and shouted at Jesus. “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”

“I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out,” He answered.

Then at one point, Jesus wept over the Holy City, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!  But now they are hidden from your eyes.” And He predicted the time when Jerusalem would fall with not one stone left on another … because they didn’t recognize the “day of their visitation.”  (His time with them.)

Inside the city, the chief priests and scribe sought to destroy Him, but they did not find anything they could do … because all the people were hanging on  His Words.

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MONDAY – Day 307 – Mark 11.

Mark repeats the account of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the brief time in the Temple court.

He tells of Jesus cleansing the temple from those who sold and bought there.  He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.  He ferociously quoted the passage in Isaiah about them making his Father’s house into a den of robbers, when it was supposed to be a place of prayer. 

Jesus left the city and spent the night in Bethany.  The next day, Mark also tells of Jesus cursing the barren fig tree because it had no fruit, perhaps indicating how, when He came to “His own,” He found Israel barren of “good” fruit, and not looking for their Messiah.

Inside, the Jewish leaders again challenge Jesus’ authority to do the things He did (cleansing the temple, etc.).  Of course, Jesus met their challenge with one of His own and they left.

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John 12.

John’s account backs up a little too, to the night they spent in Bethany before getting the donkey & colt at Bethphage the next day. 

It was at the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, Jesus’s beloved home, about 2 miles from Jerusalem. They gave a dinner from Him, Martha served, and Lazarus reclined at the table near Jesus.  Mary, whose heart was wound up in her Lord, came with an expensive jar of ointment and anointed Jesus’s feet, wiping them with her hair.  The whole house was filled with the amazing aroma of the perfume.

“WHY was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”  

Judas Iscariot just could not keep it in.  He saw Mary’s act of extreme love and worship as a big waste.  (Of course, he was the treasurer of the group and kept the money bag, pilfering some from time to time for himself.  If that 300 denarii had been in his pouch, he could have stolen quite a bit.)

“Leave her alone,” Jesus said. “She has kept it for the day of my burial.  YOU always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

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When the large crowd discovered that Jesus was staying there, they crowded around to see Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.  So the chief priests and scribes made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because the miracle turned many Jews to believe in Jesus.

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Jesus then rode into Jerusalem the next day to the praises and blessings from the crowd. “Hosannah…the King of Israel,”  The Pharisees grumbled to each other, “You see that we are gaining nothing.  Look!  The world has gone after Him.”

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“The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified,” Jesus says. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

At one point, Jesus stops and prays to His father in growing anguish. “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.”

A voice thundered from Heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again!”

“This voice has come for your sake, not mine,” Jesus told the people. “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (He said this, indicating how he would die.)

But the people responded that they read in the Law that the Messiah would live forever.  What was this about Him dying? Who is this Son of Man, anyway?

‘Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. While you have the Light, believe in the light.”   “Whoever believes in me believes in Him who sent me.   I have come into the world as Light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness,” said Jesus, the Holy One of God, among many other things. 

Many of the authorities believed in Him, but for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it.  They loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.