New Testament BIBLE STORY #22

 NEW  TESTAMENT  BIBLE  STORY

#22

Chapter Thirty:

Jesus' Triumphant entry into Jerusalem

Reading the accounts in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, we can

come to a complete understanding of the events which transpired

as Jesus came near unto Jerusalem.

     Arriving at the mount called Olivet (where the great even of

Christ's glorious coming is to take place that is recorded in the

14th chapter of Zechariah), which is near  Bethphage and Bethany,

He sent two of His disciples to a village close by, saying to

them, "Go into the village, and immediately as you enter it you

will find an ass tied up, with a colt with her, on which no man

has ever sat; untie them and bring them to me. If any one says to

you, 'Why are you doing this?' say to them, 'The Lord has need of

them, and will send them back immediately when their work is

done.' And they will let them go with you."

     An "ass" is from the horse family, often what we call a

donkey. A "colt" is a young male offspring of the horse family,

in this instant, a young male from the female donkey.  The young

colt was still with its mother, hence Matthew records the ass was

"her" and she was tied up, the colt was "with her" and did not

need to be tied as the young colt would not leave its mother's

side. Such it is in nature with a mother and her young ones.

The colt was not as they say in the horse world, "broken" - no

man had ever sat upon it, yet it would have been old enough to

withstand the weight of the average size Jewish man. 

     Jesus would perform a small miracle here. He was going to

sit upon a young donkey that had never before had any training

with men, to carry a person with calm and quietness.  It is often

missed (because only Matthew records it) by artists depicting

this scene, that there was two donkeys....the young one Jesus sat

upon, but the mother was along side her colt, in order to bring

no distress upon the colt, as would have been the case if its

mother was not there.

     Now, some would argue that Jesus could have performed two

miracles, the second being "no distress" for the colt if it had

been taken away from its mother. That maybe true, but it is not 

a case of what Jesus could have done, it is a case of what Jesus

CHOSE to do. He chose to show everyone His compassion for 

BOTH the mother donkey and for her young offspring. He would 

not divide them up and perform a special miracle of "peace" for both

of them when divided up, but would simply take both of them, keep

them together, and perform a small miracle on the colt, giving it

complete composure of mind and body, as Jesus sat upon it and as

He would make His way into the city of Jerusalem. 

     

     As a young man I worked for a while breaking and training

horses. Young colts or fillies (female offspring) of horses that

are used for saddle riding (horse trails etc), will grow up

around humans, and will of course have no fear of them, and if

handled with kindness become like dogs in nature towards humans.

But yet the day comes when they have to be "broken" to the saddle

and for humans to ride. Now, in my experience, such friendly

colts and fillies, hardly ever "bucked" or went wild (as did

horses we were breaking that had never been around humans before

- they would be scared crazy and often buck like the bulls you

see being ridden in the Rodeo). They just most often stood there

and acted plain "dumb" - not knowing of course what to do, where

to go, and not knowing how to react to commands you gave it,

either by the voice or by the heels of your boots or by any tug

on the bit. Naturally, all this stuff that the human was now

doing was very new. They were not frightened of the human but

just did not know what this human now wanted it to do.

     So to help train the young colt or filly, we would have its

mother right alongside, and it would follow her just fine. After

a while the colt or filly would get to know what "stop" or "go"

(with a little heel kick) meant, and its training would progress

from there. It would take some time before its training would be

finished and complete, so to make a good saddle horse for any

person to ride on trail rides, by itself or with other horses

other than next to its mother.

     Jesus, chose to keep the colt with its mother, but performed

a miracle of sorts by having the colt know exactly what was

expected of it. I'm sure many people knew the situation of the

mother and her colt (that no man had ever sat on the colt) and

knew Jesus was doing something with both of them (especially 

the colt) that was quite different than the normal expectation of 

an untrained young donkey.

     Sure enough when the two disciples got to where the cold 

and its mother were and started to untie the mother, some people

seeing what they were doing and knowing they were not the owners

of the animals, asked them why they were taking them. They

responded with the words Jesus had told them to say, and the

people said no more and let them go away with the two donkeys.

Those persons concerned by what they saw the two disciples doing

must have known who the "Lord" was, when told that "The Lord has

need of them."  Jesus was indeed "Lord" to many by this time.

     Jesus coming into Jerusalem on a colt was to fulfil the

prophecy in the Old Testament prophets of Isaiah 62: 11 and

Zechariah 9: 9. The Gospel of Luke quotes it this way: "Fear not,

daughter of Zion; behold thy king is coming, sitting upon an

ass's colt!"

     The disciples did not understand all this at first, but later, 

after Jesus had been glorified, then they remembered what

had been written and why Jesus had sat upon a colt to enter

Jerusalem.

     There was by this time a massive crowd of people gathered

around Jesus, behind Him, and in front of Him. More and more 

were hearing that Jesus was making His way to Jerusalem, and so 

were gathering along the roadway. Many threw their coats on the

roadway to make the footing softer for the colt. Many took leafy

branches which they had cut from the fields and trees and placed

them on the road that the colt, with Jesus on its back, was

travelling.

     All the people were worked up into great excitement.  This

was the day most of them had been waiting for, surely Jesus was

about to deliver them from the yoke of the Roman government. 

This is what most of them were thinking and quite sure in their

hearts that it would be so - Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah,

God's chosen one, God's promised one, the mighty MIRACLE 

worker, the one who could raise people from the dead, would now 

lead them to victory over their enemies, and bring in the glorious

Kingdom, where the Jewish people, and all the tribes of Israel,

would be the MASTERS of the world. Many had gathered because 

they had heard about the mighty miracle Jesus had done in raising

Lazarus from the dead.

     The people were so sure that Jesus was about to lead them to

victory over their enemies they all began to shout with uplifted

voices, "HOSANNA! HOSANNA! Blessed be HE who comes in 

the name of the LORD! Blessed be the KINGDOM of our father 

David that is coming. HOSANNA to the Highest!"

     The Hebrew word "Hosanna" when broken down into its meaning

is very revealing, and gives the true understanding of what the

people were shouting loud and long. "Hosan" means "save, help"

and "na" means "please." The people were crying out, "PLEASE 

SAVE AND HELP US!"

     Putting it in our English words, the multitude was saying,

"He who is coming in the name of the Lord, Please help and SAVE

us. Please save us from the Romans, deliver us, set up the

Kingdom of David. Save us in the presence, in the sight of (the

Greek "en" translated "in" can mean "before, in presence, in

sight") the Highest.

     The people wanted, now expected, that Jesus would save and

deliver them from the Roman yoke, and set up the glorious Kingdom

of God, a kingdom they thought would be like that kingdom in the

days of their ancient great king David.

     How they wanted to be delivered, set free from under the

heavy yoke of what they considered a great evil. They could

understand, they could see what the prophets had written, that

the Messiah would come and deliver Israel from the yoke of its

enemies, when the Messiah would come with the power of the 

Most High, to rule the world, and make Israel a prosperous and

fruitful nation, that all other nations would look up to, and want 

to be like. But they were reading the Old Testament with one

eye shut. They could not see that first of all the Messiah would

come to save people, and that included people from within Israel,

from their sins, from Satan, from themselves, and give salvation

to the world.    

     They were going to be soon very disappointed with Jesus, and

deflated in their expectations of what He was going to do for them. 

So disappointed they would be, that few would have ever

expected at that time, that the coming events would have them

turn their back on Jesus in a most drastic way...the most drastic

way possible to turn your back on someone you once praised and

glorified.

     Then among all this praise for Jesus there were the ever present 

Pharisees, who once more wanted to throw buckets of water

on the excited fire of enthusiasm being shown to this man riding

on the back of a humble colt.

     "Teacher, rebuke your disciples for making all this fuss

over you," shouted some Pharisees.

     "I tell you," replied Jesus, "if these were silent, the very

stones would cry out."

     He drew near unto the city of Jerusalem, and when it all

came into His view, Luke in his Gospel account records that "He

wept over it."  Once more we see the down to earth emotional side

of Jesus. He knew what trouble and pain and devastation the

people of that city were in for, if they did not all fully repent, 

and turn to their God in humble service. Jesus said, "I would that 

you knew what were the things that would make for peace in your 

lives! But, they are hid from your eyes, you refuse to see. 

The days shall come upon you when your enemies will cast

a wall of armies around you, and hem you in on all sides. Then

they shall dash you to the ground, you and your children within

you. They shall not leave one stone upon another, utter destruction 

shall come upon you; because you did not know nor want to 

understand your time of visitation and punishment"

(Mat.21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19: 29-44; John 12: 12-19,

29-44)

     Jesus knew the vast majority in that city of Jerusalem would

never come to true repentance. Though many in the days ahead

would come to accept Him as Savior, acknowledge their sins, and

find the true way to salvation (all of that after His resurrection 

and ascension back to heaven, as we shall see in the book of Acts), 

for the most part the majority of people and religious leaders would 

reject Jesus, and would not abandon their false ways of living, and 

their wrong thoughts towards the Roman powers. Hence in 70 A.D. 

the city of Jerusalem would be brought to the ground by the Roman 

armies, and its inhabitants (including children) slain by the sword.

     Jesus foreknew this would all happen, and so with deep emotion, 

He cried tears of sorrow, as the city of Jerusalem came into His view. 

He knew He must die there, but He also knew the punishment to 

come upon that city, because its people would not turn from their sins, 

and look to seek the way of peace for themselves individually, as 

well as for their city as a whole.

UNFRUITFUL FIG TREE IS CURSED, AND DIES

     On the following day, returning from Bethany, where Jesus

and the twelve had spent the night, they were coming back to

Jerusalem again, and Jesus was hungry. He saw a fig tree by the

wayside in the distance, and walking up to it He discovered it

had only leaves on its branches and no figs. "May no fruit ever

come from you again," Jesus said to the tree. And the disciples

heard what He said.

     The next morning as they passed along the same way, they 

saw the fig tree was all withered away right down to its very roots.

And Peter remembered, said to Jesus, "Master, look! The fig tree

which you cursed has withered away."

     "Have faith in God," Jesus answered, and went on to say,

"Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up

and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but

believes that what he has said will come to pass, it will indeed

be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in

prayer, believing that you will receive it, and you will. And

when you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against

any one; so that your Father also who is in heaven, may forgive

you your trespass" (Mark 11: 12-14, 20-25).

     We need to understand that Jesus did not go around cursing

this or that thing at random, or just to over use, or abuse, the

power that He had. He did not take the mighty power from the 

Holy Spirit given Him, and use it like a play toy. He did not go 

about cursing things just for the fun of it. 

     A fig tree is one of the fruits trees that is very different

from most fruit trees. The actual fruit, the fig, comes on the

branches BEFORE the leaves come. So, when seeing a fig tree 

from a distance, and noting it has leaves on its branches, you 

would automatically gather it also had fruit on its branches.  

This is what Jesus expected when He finally got up close to t

he tree, but as we have seen, there was no fruit, or figs, on the 

tree at all. It was really a useless, unproductive, fruit tree that 

was not doing what it was designed to do. It was taking up space 

and nourishment from the soil, and giving nothing back, certainly 

not giving back what it should have been giving back.

     We must take this as a lesson to learn from. God does not

want people, all of which have some gifts, talents, and abilities, 

to just take up space so to speak, drink in and use up what they 

can from society and from others, and never give back to others, 

something that can enrich and help others in some manner. 

Everyone has something they can contribute to someone

else, be it but a smile, a word of encouragement, some form

of a helping hand (i.e. opening the door for someone who has

their hands full of parcels, or helping an old lady cross a busy

street), giving of your time, energy, talents, to a charitable

cause etc. 

     If we do not produce something that gives back to others,

then we are fit for nothing, fit only to lose everything. And

that is exactly what will happen to us, if we do not repent of

living a useless, none productive, none giving life.....we shall

be rooted up, plucked up by the roots, we shall wither away and

simply be no more. God cannot use in His family someone who 

is none productive for what they were created to be and to do in

service for humanity. A Christian's life, the life of a child of

God the Father, is to produce and serve, to give back to others,

what God has given to you, and God does give something to 

every person so each can give something back to society and 

to others.

     This is also a lesson in "faith." Again, we do not, and

Jesus did not, go about demonstrating "faith" just for the sake

of demonstrating faith, and casting this or that mountain or hill

into the sea. But under the correct situation, where faith is

needed, for a good and correct purpose (and it was a good 

purpose that this fig tree should be withered up, for it was taking

up good space and soil, for no good purpose, the soil could

be used to plant a productive tree), then having "faith" you

could do miracles, and things that most would never expect 

could be done. Many a person down through history have 

performed things (or had things done for them) that most would 

have thought was quite impossible. They had faith in God that 

what they wanted and needed (asking according to His will, 

not asking amiss, James  4: 3; with 1 John 3:22) for that situation, 

would be granted them.

      And with faith, mountains could be removed into the sea, if that

was what was needed to be done for that particular circumstance.

     Jesus also took the opportunity while speaking about "prayer" 

to remind them that an attitude of being able to forgive others, 

was a basic fundamental attribute of being a child of God, for only 

by being able to forgive others, would we have our sins forgiven 

by our heavenly Father.

JESUS CLEANSES THE TEMPLE ONCE MORE

     The ways of sin and unrighteousness had crept back into the

practices within the Temple walls. Jesus had in the past thrown

out the greedy, unscrupulous, merchants who sold things to the

people who came to sacrifice in the temple. They had robbed the

people, taken advantage of them, sold in such a way that was only

to make as much profit as possible for themselves. Once more such

merchant robbers were back in the Temple, doing their selling to

the people as before. How soon the heart of man can forget

the correcting of the Lord, and return to its former evil habits.

     Jesus entered the Temple in Jerusalem, and saw again that

the merchants had reverted back to their old sinful ways and

practices. Once more with righteous indignation He overturned 

the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold

pigeons and cried out, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be

called a house of prayer'; but you make it a den of robbers."

     Jesus would not allow anyone to carry on their selling,

bringing in and taking out their merchandise through the Temple.

     The sellers by now knew the mighty power He possesed and they

were not about to test Him with it. All stood in fearful awe of

Him.

     The blind and the lame came to Him in the Temple, and He

healed them as before.   Children were even crying out with loud

voices, "Hosanna, please save us, Son of David." And when the

scribes and the chief priests heard what the children were

saying, they said to Jesus with jealousy and frustration, "Do you

not hear what these are saying." They wanted Jesus to tell them

to stop, but Jesus looked at them and said, "Yes, I hear what they 

are saying. Have you never read where it is written, 'Out of

the mouth of babes and sucklings you have brought perfect

praise'?"

     And they could say nothing or do nothing to Him in response.

They feared Him, not only because of His great power in performing 

miracles and healings, but also because the multitudes of people 

were astonished at His teaching, hanging on every word He spoke, 

and were at this point fully behind and backing Him up all the way.

     Leaving them, Jesus went out of the Temple and the city of

Jerusalem, and went again to Bethany and lodged there for a short

while (Mat.21: 12-17; Mark 11: 15-19; Luke 19: 45-48).

CHIEF PRIESTS QUESTION JESUS' AUTHORITY

     It was not long before Jesus was back in the Temple

preaching and teaching the things concerning the Kingdom 

of God.

    The religious leaders of the people were by now getting as

uptight and as jumpy as a cat on a hot tin roof. The chief

priests, and the scribes, with the elders (a good portion of the

Jewish Sanhedrin, or court of religious matters) of the people,

came to Jesus and demanded to know, "By what authority are you

doing these things, or who gave you the authority to do them?"

     Jesus answered them with a question, "I also will ask you a

question; and if you will tell me the answer, then I will tell

you by what authority I do these things. My question is this:

'The baptism of John, where did it come from? Was it from the

authority of heaven or from the authority of men?' "

     Now those leaders were in quite the pickle as we say. They

quickly reasoned among themselves that if they said John's

authority came from heaven, then Jesus would ask them why they

did not believe him. But if they said John's authority came from

men, they knew the crowds of people would be against them, and

might even do physical violence to them, for they knew the people

held John as a prophet from God. So with a sheepish voice they

answered Jesus, "Well.....we really do not know where John's

authority came from."

     Jesus stared at them, paused for a moment....then with half

a smile on His face, said to them, "Well......neither will I tell

you by what authority I do these things" (Mat.21: 23-27; Mark 11:

27-33; Luke 20: 1-8).

     Those leaders of the people had been caught in their own

trap. They went away seething with anger inside, and determined

even the more to destroy this man called Jesus.

             ...................................

Written December 2002