Passion Week: Tuesday

Jesus and the chief priests
Today begins with Jesus and the disciples walking back into Jerusalem from Bethany.  The disciples feel like champions, in their mind, with the clearing of the temple, Jesus has begun the steps to forcibly establish himself as the long awaited Messiah.  As they are walking, they pass the same tree that Jesus had cursed yesterday when He attempted to find figs.  They notice that today the tree has completely withered.  The fig tree, the symbol of God’s blessing, withered and dead, symbolic of what has now happened to the temple.

They proceed into town and head back to the temple.  Upon their arrival, the chief priests are waiting, enraged as they stand in the mess of broken tables and animal cages from the day before.  

The chief priests sharply ask Jesus, "Who gave you the authority to do this?"  Jesus halts them with a question of His own, one that they can't answer.  When they respond that they don't know the answer, Jesus leaves them dumbfounded as He tells them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things."

Jesus outwits the Pharisees  
Jesus then begins to tell the parable of the Wicked Tenants.  In this story, Jesus is obviously describing what is going to happen in just two and a half days.  He speaks of a man that rents a vineyard to some farmers while he is away on a journey.  While he is away, the master sends a number of servants to check on the vineyard.  The tenants proceed to beat and kill the servants until the man finally sends his only son, thinking the tenants would have to respect him. Instead,the tenants  decide to seize and kill the son, throwing him out of the vineyard.  When the master learns of this he returns to the vineyard, kills the tenants and gives the vineyard to others. 

The Pharisees are angered by this story because they know Jesus is talking about them.  They instead decide to try to trap Him with a political question.  They ask Him if they should pay taxes to Caesar or not?  If Jesus says "no" to this then they can report Him to the Romans for treason. If Jesus answered "yes" He would lose much of His support from the people as it would appear He supported Rome.  Once again Jesus gives a brilliant answer that leaves them silent: "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's."

Time and time again the Pharisees attempt to trip Him up with questions intended to be traps and time and time again Jesus is able to answer them. 

Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple
Finally Jesus leaves the temple area.  He and several of the disciples walk about a quarter to a half mile from the temple to the Mount of Olives.  From here they can overlook the city and the temple and Jesus begins to tell of the future.  

He foretells the eventual destruction of the temple, an event that took place almost 40 years later in 70 A.D.  Jesus concludes with this warning, "Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back - whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn.  If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping.  What I say to you, I say to everyone: 'Watch!'"

Mary and the perfume
That evening Jesus returns to Bethany where He has been invited to the house of a Pharisee named Simon.  This was not an invite for the purpose of honoring Jesus, but to continue the debates of the morning with the continued intent of trapping him.  When Jesus arrives, he is immediately humiliated culturally by the traditions of having a guest’s feet washed and head anointed ignored.  Instead he’s simply told to have a seat so the debates can continue.  While Jesus and the Pharisees are reclining at the table, Mary, the sister of Lazarus and an attendee of the gallery of people gathered in the outer audience to listen in on the discussions, appears to be mortified at the incredible social insult Jesus has received.  Moved to tears, she takes a bottle of a very expensive perfume and pours it over Jesus.  Having only her hair to work with, she attempts to fix the insult by washing his feet and anointing him, bringing great public shame and disgrace to herself in the process.....literally shifting the social shame of the moment from Jesus to her.  This perfume, known as nard, was worth a years income, $30,000 to $40,000 by today's standards.  

As she is pouring it on Jesus, Judas, now mortified himself that Jesus is allowing this to happen, complains that the perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor.  Jesus rebukes him and again eludes to His death as He says, "She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial..."  Even as Jesus gives ample hints that His death is drawing near nobody seems to catch on.  

Judas seals the fate of Jesus
After this act is performed, Judas must have been furious that in this moment of incredible social awkwardness it is he of all people who was rebuked!  Beyond that, he has also listened to Jesus make reference after reference to “his death” throughout the day.  Is it possible that Judas was the only disciple to figure out ahead of time that Jesus had no intention of becoming the kingly Messiah they had hoped for?  Perhaps the combination of fear that Jesus would get them all killed mixed with the rage of being publicly humiliated by Jesus taking the side of a woman who had cultural just acted like a prostitute is what motivated his next decisions?  History will never fully know what his motives were, but history does know what his actions were.  After the dinner, he slips away in the night to prepare a deal with the Pharisees and the Chief Priests in which he is offered 30 pieces of silver to turn Jesus over to them.


Matthew 21:18- 26:16, Mark 11: 20- 14:11, Luke 20:1 - 22:6