After his day of fury on Holy Week Monday, when He turned over the tables of the money changers and drove them out of the Temple, He knew He would be facing the wrath of the Elders if He returned on Tuesday. But He also knew it was part of His destiny, so he packed up His Disciples and they made the trek back down the mountain to Jerusalem on Tuesday morning.
On arrival, they entered the Temple and began to teach of God's love and His expectations of mankind, using the parables as He did so effectively. The rabbis were disturbed by this because it signified Jesus' commitment to something much different from the way they practiced the Law and taught it, and they knew it was a threat to their security and prestige. So they came to Him and argued, trying to push Him into taking a position from which they could charge Him with a crime and arrest Him. But he was too smart for them and told them that they were a group of snakes, snake vipers, that they should be ashamed of themselves because what they taught was hypocrisy. He asked how they expected to escape the gates of hell for their actions, yet in doing so, he never said anything about God which could be cause for arrest. Instead, he just told the truth about who they were and how they were the one's violating God's expectations.
And then he and His Disciples departed to spend the afternoon on the Mount of Olives, sitting and teaching His followers what became known as the Olivet Discourse. The discourse, a prophecy about the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the end times included a discussion of His Second Coming and the final judgement of God. This famous discourse can be found in the twenty-third and twenty-fourth chapters of the Gospel of Matthew and is available therein for all to read and understand.
As the evening drew near, Jesus was tired and He and His Disciples retired again to Bethany where they likely spent the night with his good friends, Mary, Martha and the now very much alive Lazarus. But the events of the day were not yet over, for Matthew also tells us that late in that day Judas Iscariot, one of His Disciples, made the agreement with the Sanhedrin to identify Jesus to the soldiers later in the week (Matthew 26:14-16). The prophecy of many years earlier about the arrest and death of Jesus was making another huge step toward coming true. It was nearly upon them.
On arrival, they entered the Temple and began to teach of God's love and His expectations of mankind, using the parables as He did so effectively. The rabbis were disturbed by this because it signified Jesus' commitment to something much different from the way they practiced the Law and taught it, and they knew it was a threat to their security and prestige. So they came to Him and argued, trying to push Him into taking a position from which they could charge Him with a crime and arrest Him. But he was too smart for them and told them that they were a group of snakes, snake vipers, that they should be ashamed of themselves because what they taught was hypocrisy. He asked how they expected to escape the gates of hell for their actions, yet in doing so, he never said anything about God which could be cause for arrest. Instead, he just told the truth about who they were and how they were the one's violating God's expectations.
And then he and His Disciples departed to spend the afternoon on the Mount of Olives, sitting and teaching His followers what became known as the Olivet Discourse. The discourse, a prophecy about the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the end times included a discussion of His Second Coming and the final judgement of God. This famous discourse can be found in the twenty-third and twenty-fourth chapters of the Gospel of Matthew and is available therein for all to read and understand.
As the evening drew near, Jesus was tired and He and His Disciples retired again to Bethany where they likely spent the night with his good friends, Mary, Martha and the now very much alive Lazarus. But the events of the day were not yet over, for Matthew also tells us that late in that day Judas Iscariot, one of His Disciples, made the agreement with the Sanhedrin to identify Jesus to the soldiers later in the week (Matthew 26:14-16). The prophecy of many years earlier about the arrest and death of Jesus was making another huge step toward coming true. It was nearly upon them.
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