We continue our Holy Week journey:
On Tuesday morning, Jesus and his disciples leave Bethany again and return to Jerusalem. They passed the withered fig tree on the way, and Jesus talked to them about faith.
When they arrived at the Temple, the religious leaders were waiting. They were upset at Jesus for establishing himself as a spiritual authority. They organized an ambush consisting of a series of questions meant to trip him up so that they could place him under arrest. They hoped to get a crowd who supported Jesus to swing to their side, but Jesus avoided their traps and even pronounced judgment on them:
“Blind guides! ... For you are like whitewashed tombs — beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly, you look like righteous people, but inwardly, your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness. Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?” (Matthew 23:24–33)
Mount of Olives
That afternoon, Jesus left the city and went to the Mount of Olives, east of the Temple overlooking Jerusalem. It is here that Jesus gives us what is called the Olivet Discourse. This concise set of teachings is an elaborate prophecy and His most complete teaching about the end of the age. There is talk of cosmic disruption and the destruction of the Temple. He speaks, in parables, using symbolic language, which has led to a wide variety of interpretations concerning what he meant about the end times events, His Second Coming, and the final judgment. One thing is certain: it is coming, and it will not be a happy time.
Perhaps it was because of the difficulty of the day or the future destruction of Jerusalem, but Tuesday was also the day Judas Iscariot decided he had had enough. He left the group at some point and negotiated with the Sanhedrin to betray Jesus (Matthew 26:14–16).
I am sure that the disciples were convinced that it was all uphill after Palm Sunday, but after a tiring day of confrontation and warnings about the future, they may be rethinking this idea. As night draws near, Jesus and the disciples return to Bethany.
Tuesday and the Olivet Discourse events are recorded in Matthew 21:23–24:51, Mark 11:20–13:37, Luke 20:1–21:36, and John 12:20–38.
We get ever closer. See you, Tomorrow.
Jeff