LIFE OF CHRIST
A Harmony of the Gospels

LESSON  TWENTY

THE PASSION WEEK
THE FIRST DAY

Bethphage

Literally,  "house of  figs."

A village on the Mount of  Olives,  on the road going east from Jerusalem to Jericho.
The traditional site is North West of Bethany (About a mile from Jerusalem).

A colt ... on which no one has ever sat

No animal was allowed to be employed in sacred uses,  even among the heathen,  which had previously been
used for any domestic or agricultural purpose;  and those that had never been yoked were considered as sacred.

The foal was unbroken,  as befitted an animal consecrated to such a sacred purpose:

Spread their clothes on the road

These were the outer garments.

Thus acknowledging Him to be their King,  for this was a custom observed by the people when they found that God had appointed a man to the kingdom.  Observe,  for example,  when Jehu was anointed king over Israel:

Cut down branches...and spread them on the road

Matthew, Mark, and John use a different word for "branches:"

Matthew		kládous	Speaks of a young slip or shoot, a twig
Mark		stibádas	Speaks of a mass of straw, rushes, or leaves beaten together or strewed (thrown) loose,  so as to form a bed or carpeted way
John		baía	Speaks of palm-branches,  the feathery fronds forming the tufted crown of the tree

Robertson says that the deliberate conduct of Jesus here could have but one meaning,  namely,  that this was His formal presentation of  Himself as the Messiah.

The crowds realized this and entered into the spirit of the occasion.

Those that went before and those that followed

Hosanna!

Aramaic for  "save"  or  "help now."
It is from the Hebrew  "hoshiah na!"  which means basically the same.

This was a plea for help from oppression,  and redress of grievances.
The  "Hosanna"  was said once daily for 7 days at the Feast of  Tabernacles as they marched with palm and other branches around the altar.  On the 8th day they marched 7 times,  which was the  "great Hosanna,"  corresponding to the  "hosanna in the highest" here.

Thus both the words and actions of  the people prove that they acknowledged Christ as their King, and looked to Him for deliverance.

The stones would immediately cry out

"Master,  rebuke Your disciples!"
This from the Pharisees.
But He would not do so. Of such importance was His present conduct,  being expressly predicted by one of their very own prophets (Zech. 9:9) that if this multitude was silent,  even the stones would immediately cry out:

The words may have recalled to them the threats which occur, amid denunciations against covetousness and cruelty, and the utter destruction by which they should be avenged, in the prophet Habakkuk  (Habakkuk 2:11-14):

AND THEY  WERE  POWERLESS  TO  STOP  IT ! ! !

He saw the city and wept over it

The road slopes by a gradual ascent up the Mount of Olives,  through green fields and under shady trees,  till it suddenly sweeps round to the northward.  It is at this angle of the road that Jerusalem,  which hitherto has been hidden by the shoulder of the hill,  bursts full upon the view.  There,  through the clear atmosphere,  rising out of the deep valleys that surrounded it,  the city of  ten thousand memories stood clear before Him and the morning sunlight,  as it blazed on the marble pinnacles and gilded roofs of the Temple buildings,  was reflected in a very fiery splendor which forced the spectator to avert his glance.

The Jerusalem of that day,  with  "its imperial mantle of proud towers,"  was regarded as one of the wonders of the world,  and was a spectacle incomparably magnificent.
Who can interpret,  who can enter into the mighty rush of  divine compassion that,  at that spectacle,  shook the Savior's soul?  As He gazed on that  "mass of gold and snow,"  there was no pride,  no exultation in the heart of  its true King.  He had dropped SILENT tears at the grave of Lazarus;  here HE WEPT ALOUD.
All the shame of His mockery,  all the anguish of His torture,  was powerless,  five days afterwards,  to extort from Him a single groan,  or to wet His eyelids with one trickling tear;  but here,  all the pity that was within Him overmastered His human spirit and He not only wept,  but broke into a passion of lamentation

The days will come

Because you did not know the time

And as He approached, He saw the city, and He wept [audibly] over it,  exclaiming,  "Would that you had known personally,  even at least in this your day,  the things that make for peace (for freedom from all the distresses that are experienced as the result of sin and upon which your peace--your security,  safety,  prosperity,  and happiness--depends)!  But now they are hidden from your eyes.
For a time is coming upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank [with pointed stakes] about you and surround you and shut you in on every side. [Isaiah 29:3; Jeremiah 6:6; Ezek 4:2.]
And they will dash you down to the ground, you [Jerusalem] and your children within you;  and they will not leave in you one stone upon another,  [all] because you did not come progressively to recognize and know and understand [from observation and experience] the time of your visitation [that is, when God was visiting you, the time in which God showed Himself gracious toward you and offered you salvation through Christ]".
Luke 19:41-44 (AMP)

Isaiah 29:3-4
I will encamp against you all around,  I will lay siege against you with a mound,  and I will raise siegeworks against you.  You shall be brought down,  you shall speak out of the ground;  your speech shall be low, out of the dust;  your voice shall be like a medium's, out of the ground;  and your speech shall whisper out of the dust.    (NKJV)

Jeremiah 6:6-8
"Cut down trees,  and build a mound against Jerusalem.  This is the city to be punished.  She is full of oppression in her midst.  As a fountain wells up with water, so she wells up with her wickedness.  Violence and plundering are heard in her.  Before Me continually are grief and wounds.   Be instructed, O Jerusalem,   lest My soul depart from you;  lest I make you desolate,  a land not inhabited."    (NKJV)

Ezekiel 4:1-3
Lay siege against it, build a siege wall against it, and heap up a mound against it; set camps against it also, and place battering rams against it all around.  Moreover take for yourself an iron plate, and set it as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face against it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.    (NKJV)

Daniel 9:24-26

"Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city,  to finish the transgression,  to make an end of sins,  to make reconciliation for iniquity,  to bring in everlasting righteousness,  to seal up vision and  prophecy,  and to anoint the Most Holy.

"Know therefore and understand,  that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince,  there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;  the street shall be built again, and the wall,  even in troublesome times.

"And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;  and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.  The end of it shall be with a flood,  and till the end of the war desolations are determined."

The knowledge of all this brought Jesus,

Ezekiel 33:11
Say to them: 'As I live,' says the Lord GOD, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways!  For why should you die, O house of Israel?'    (NKJV)

2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.    (NKJV)
 

THE  CURSING  OF  THE  FIG  TREE

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THE SECOND DAY

Nothing but leaves ... not the season for figs

It was not as yet the time for the gathering in the fruits.
Figs were ripe in Judea as early as the Passover. Clark says that he has seen trees in that climate with fruit on them all year round.

Also,  the fig tree puts forth its fruit first, and afterwards its leaves.
It was reasonable to expect to find ripe figs on the tree.

This tree was intended to point out the state of the Jewish nation.

His conduct towards this tree was emblematical of the treatment and final perdition that was to come upon the nation.

THEREFORE:

His cursing the fig tree was not occasioned by any resentment or malice at being disappointed,  but to point out unto His disciples the wrath that was coming upon a people who had now nearly filled up the measure of their iniquity.

A FRUITLESS SOUL,  that has had such cultivation bestowed on it,  may expect to be dealt with as God did with this unrighteous nation.

See also the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22, 23.

In John 2:13-22 is recorded the first time Jesus cleansed the Temple.
The background information and the basic procedure followed are much the same in both accounts.

Jesus drove them out that sold.

Some reckon this none of  the least of  Christ's miracles,  that he should himself  thus clear the temple,  and not be opposed in it by them who by this craft got their living,  and were backed in it by the priests and elders.
It is an instance of  his power over the spirits of men,  and the hold he has of them by their own consciences.  This was the only act of regal authority and coercive power that Christ did in the days of his flesh;  he began with it,  John 2 and here ended with it.
(from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)

The children crying out in the temple

"Out of the mouth of  babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise"  is from the 8th Psalm.

It was a common thing among the Jews for the children to be employed in the public acclamations; and thus they were accustomed to hail their celebrated rabbins.  This shouting of the children was therefore no strange thing in the land;  only they were exasperated,  because a person was celebrated against whom they had a rooted hatred.  As to the prophecy that foretold this,  they regarded it not.

Tried to prohibit:

THE  THIRD AND FOURTH DAYS

By what authority

Referring particularly to:

We might liken this to:   His right to be in charge-day-to-day!

The baptism of John, where was it from?

"We do not know"  should have been truthfully,  "We will not tell," for:

Isaiah 64:6
But we are all like an unclean thing,  and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.    (NKJV)

1 Timothy 1:15
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.    (NKJV)

A parable in some respects similar to that of the Barren Fig Tree.

The general application of this parable seems to be:

He provided all for them - They returned nothing but wickedness to Him.
Also in conjunction with this parable is Isaiah 5:1-7

Isaiah 5:1-7
Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard:
My Well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
He dug it up and cleared out its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine.
He built a tower in its midst, and also made a winepress in it;  so He expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes.
"And now,  O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,  judge,  please,  between Me and My vineyard.
What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it?
Why then,  when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?
And now,  please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,  and it shall be burned;  and break down its wall,  and it shall be trampled down.
I will lay it waste;  it shall not be pruned or dug,  but there shall come up briers and thorns.
I will also command the clouds That they rain no rain on it."
For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of  Israel,  and the men of Judah are His pleasant plant.
He looked for justice, but behold, oppression;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.     (NKJV)

The stone which the builders rejected

This is taken from Psalm 118:22.

Ps 118:22
The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.     (NKJV)

See also Ephesians 2:20

Arranged a marriage

The phrase refers to the marriage feast,  rather than the ceremony.

My dinner

Not the principle meal of the day,  but a  "noon-breakfast,"  a luncheon.
(This feasting with guests went on for a week after the wedding).

Tell those who are invited

The custom included an initial invitation and a second call at the stated hour.

Made light of it

Not in the sense of  "jeering."
They simply gave it no heed.  It was of no importance to them.  They preferred earthly things to heavenly blessings.

And went their ways

These are two different classes of  unbelievers:

Each equally guilty,  and  "not worthy."  (vs. 8).

Seized his servants
The invited ones,  here certainly Israel,  refused this call,  and when further explanatory entreaties were made, became either brazenly rude or positively murderous.
Compare Jewish treatment of John (Matt 21:25),  Stephen (Acts 7:59),  and James (Acts 12:2).

If the scene describes a marriage that involved the recognition of the son as heir, then refusal to attend showed disloyalty as well as discourtesy. This accounts for the violent destruction brought upon the rebels by the king's forces.

Did not have on a wedding garment

The language here is drawn from the remarkable passage in Zephaniah 1 :7,8
"Be silent in the presence of  the Lord GOD; for the day of the LORD is at hand, for the LORD has prepared a sacrifice; He has invited His guests.  And it shall be,  in the day of the LORD's sacrifice,  that I will punish the princes and the king's children,  and all such as are clothed with foreign apparel."

There are here three classes who are not allowed to enter:

Excerpts from Farrar   (concerning the Three Parables)

Taxes

The word is "kenson."
It refers here to the poll tax that the Jews paid the Emperor (of Rome).
This payment was objectionable to them for two reasons:

Is it lawful?

Rather - "is it permissible,  is it allowed,  or permitted?"
The Jews were not discussing the legality of  paying poll tax to Caesar,  but whether a Jew should do so in view of his theocratic relationship to God.

They pressed for an answer, "Yes" or "No," as if there were no other possible answer. They hoped, in view of  His Jewish background and teaching,  that He would say no. That would involve Him at once with the Roman authorities.

Jesus perceived their wickedness

Answer to this question was extremely difficult:

Jesus shows His profound wisdom

His answer is full of consummate wisdom. It:

When our lives are examined by men, whose image do they see?

Philippians 2:5-8
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Who ... made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant ... he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death     (KJV)

Romans 13:14
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.     (KJV)

Matthew 5:16
Let your light so shine before men,  that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.  (KJV)

And raise up offspring for his brother

This law is mentioned in Deuteronomy 25:5,  and an example of  this is the situation between Ruth and Boaz.
The son produced by the second union is to be reckoned in the genealogy of the deceased brother, and enjoy his estates.

Deuteronomy 25:5-6
"If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside the family; her husband's brother shall go in to her, take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her.  And it shall be that the firstborn son which she bears will succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.      (NKJV)

The purpose of the Mosaic legislation here was to prevent a family inheritance from being broken up. Since the 7 men have died,  and also the woman,  the interest of the case had passed over into the future life,  if there was such a thing,  which the Sadducees doubted.

The Sadducees  (and the Pharisees also,  so far as they connected marriage and the propagation of the race with the future life),  showed themselves incapable of  conceiving a power that could produce an entirely different order from any within their experience.  They assumed either that God could not raise the dead,  or that He could raise them only to a life that would be a counterpart of the present,  or even more replete with material pleasures.

Like the angels

Literally,  "in the same manner as,  after the fashion of."
It speaks of similarity and equality,  here limited to the restrictions of the context that speaks of marriage and the propagation of the race.

Angels were originally created.
There is the same number of angels in existence today as when they were created.
They do not propagate their kind.
Human beings in the next life will not be angels,  but they will be like angels in this respect,  that they will not propagate their kind.
Thus,  the hypothetical case of the Sadducees has no relation to the future life.

I am the God of Abraham

Abraham was dead over 300 years when these words were spoken by God to Moses:

Now Jesus properly observes that God

This quotation is taken from Exodus 3:6,16;  and as the five books of  Moses were the only part of the Scripture that the Sadducees acknowledged as Divine,  Jesus,  by confuting them from those books,  proved the second part of  His assertion,  "Ye are ignorant of those very Scriptures which you profess to hold sacred."

Love the Lord your God

We must love Him with:

This  "Great Commandment"  is greatest: