Chapter 9
Jesus in Jerusalem and the Olivet Discourse
We will explore Jesus ministry in
Jerusalem just before the Passion narratives along with the Olivet Discourse,
the message He gave the disciples about the end in the Mount of Olives. We
begin the story with his entrance into Jerusalem. For the reader this is a
curious story. Why would He ride in on a donkey? The donkey story is important
in several ways and is repeated but all four Gospel writers. Donkeys were used
by conquering leaders to denote that they come in peace, not war. This story is
also important in that it is another fulfillment of prophecy (Zechariah 9:9).
All four accounts are basically the same, there were great crowds singing and
waving palms and placing in His path. This was an ancient custom done to
welcome hero’s into the city and is the reason we now have Palm Sunday. There
is one curious exception in that Luke remarks that Jesus weeps over the city
and what is to come of it.
This narrative immediately finds
Jesus seeking His way into the city and into the Temple where He has an angry confrontation
with the Temple money changers. In that day and time, your money must be
exchanged for Temple money and your sacrifice had to be with Temple bought
birds and animals, a way for the leadership to make money from the people.
Jesus overturns the tables and in the Gospel of Mark and Luke makes the remark
that His house is intended to be a house of prayer. John has this story early
in his narrative in the 2nd chapter will the three synoptic writers
include in towards the end. Did it happen? Wrong question! Since all four
gospel writers account for it there is high likelihood that the story is true.
Why is it important? For all four writers it sets the stage for the leadership
of the Jewish religion to be against Jesus and sets up the passion narrative.
Matthew and Mark have a strange story
of the fig tree withering. One can only wonder why Jesus would be angry at a
tree that did not have fruit to the point of condemning it forever. More than
likely the story is simply a pretext for the statement on faith that follows.
Oddly, Luke does not include it at all.
All three writers again include the
story where the Jewish leaders question Jesus on what authority He speaks. All
three use almost the same words in telling the story, which leads us to believe
the story is true and probably came from the same source. Interestingly enough,
Jesus never answers their question but leaves them in a quandary over His question
about whether John the Baptizer was sent by God. The conclusion of Mark and
Matthew’s narrative on Jesus ministry in Jerusalem ends with the question posed
to Him by the Jewish leaders, what is the greatest commandment. They had hoped
to set Him up to accuse Him. However, He responds with the Shema, the Jewish
prayer from Deuteronomy (6:4-9) and the message from Leviticus (19:18) to Love
God and love neighbor. Again, Luke diverges from this in that this story comes
much earlier in his narrative and it is the lawyer who responds with the
answer. Jesus then leads us into the
Good Samaritan parable in Luke’s Gospel.
We come now to what is known as the
Olivet Discourse. It is not in the Gospel of John. It is prefaced as the disciples
wanting to know when the end of days of coming and what will be the signs. Curiously,
Mark tells us that Peter, James, John and Andrew request the telling while
Matthew and Luke tell us that all the disciples are involved in the
conversation. It starts with the prophetic message that the Temple will be torn
down with no stone still resting on top of another. This in fact happens in 70
AD when the army of Rome destroys Jerusalem. Historians remark on the fact that
much of the Temple was wrapped in gold and the stones were likely taken down to
recover it.
Jesus words are repeated by all three
writers that in the end there will be rumors of wars, nation against nation and
many will come saying that they are the Messiah (in Matthew) or from God.
Famines and earthquakes will be prevalent, persecution of the disciples and
followers of Jesus will happen. Jesus gives hope in that the Kingdom will be
preached in all the world before the end comes. Several things to note, all
three writers discuss being persecuted while Luke in chapter 12 and 21 says not
to prepare an answer but let the Holy Spirit speak through them. All of this
leads to the destruction, which comes after the desolating sacrilege in Matthew
and Mark and the surrounding armies in Luke. Some suggest that this is a future
event yet to happen while others point to the battles between 40 AD and 70 AD
where Antiochus IV set up a statue of Zeus and Emperor Caliqula in the Temple.
Emperor Hadrian set up a statue of Jupiter on top of the rubble of the Temple
following its destruction in 70 AD.
Matthew and Mark talk about the false
prophets that will try and pervert the followers. Luke does as well but has it
much earlier in the conversation in chapter 17. We end with Jesus telling us in
all three Gospel accounts that we are to be alert, diligent and prepared for
the end. Matthew and Mark tell us that no one knows the hour of the end while
Luke uses a parable of the buds on a fig tree.
Is this Olivet discourse events that
are yet to happen or those that already have passed us in the ancient past?
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