Easter PreThoughts #7

The Friday before Palm Sunday…

Yesterday, the Thursday before Palm Sunday in Jesus’ life, we followed Jesus across the Jordan, into Jericho to Zacchaeus’ home for the night.

Then, Jesus spoke another parable, because He was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately (Luke 19:11).

Jesus’ parable was a lesson to all those who thought He was going to Jerusalem to overthrow Rome and become their King.  His story was this (Luke 19:12-14): “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business till I come.’” But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us.’

The nobleman returned as their King.  He called the servants before him for accounting.  He found that one servant had invested and had a return of tenfold and another fivefold.  Another servant came with only the one original mina, having buried it in order to not lose it – the King was angry.

The parable was directed at the nation Israel which had been given a blessing and a charge but had failed to follow through, rather complaining that God was hard and took from people what was not just.  Said the servant with only the original: “For I feared you, because you are an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow,” 19:21.  The message was clear: Jesus was not going to become the king now, but would leave and return as the King.

That Friday, Jesus again stepped onto the roadway and joined the thousands moving up to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits as instructed by the law (Exodus 23, Leviticus 23).  The entourage with Jesus served as a buffer from the many that would want a miracle or a word from Him.  We might imagine that the climb from the valley floor to the mountain crest was pretty silent – at least for Jesus.  He knew what was ahead and He knew that those around Him still did not understand the “suffering Servant” (Isaiah 53), but were anticipating His overthrow of the current powers and an establishment of the promised Davidic kingdom.

He arrived in the village of Bethany on the east side of the Mount of Olives (just east of Jerusalem) where Mary, Lazarus, and Martha lived just before sundown which began the weekly Sabbath.

Surely the Jewish leadership knew of His arrival and continued their struggle on how to eliminate Him without an uprising by the nation or by the Romans but now observance of the Sabbath kept them at bay.  Jesus would die precisely on schedule – on His schedule!

Saturday night, after the close of the Sabbath at sundown, Martha and Mary hosted a meal for Jesus and their resurrected brother which was well attended.  John 12:1, Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead…a great many of the Jews…came (thus after the Sabbath, so Saturday eve), not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead, 12:9.  While reclining at the meal, Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil, 12:3.

Judas complained about the waste of money only because he was accustomed to stealing from the purse.  To which Jesus declared, “Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial. For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always,” (12:7-8).  Mary, who had sat at Jesus’ feet at an earlier time (Luke 10:39), had concentrated on His teachings and understood He had arrived there to die.  She got it.  Why?  Because she slowed the press of life to spend time with Him and was ready for a great crisis in life – are you??

The next morning, Sunday, was the time for Jesus to present Himself as the Lamb from God.

I wonder how much or how little Jesus slept that night?

Psalm 118:26, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!