His Last Week

You know it didn't really hit me until last night as I celebrated the Lord's Supper with my church family. This week we celebrate the last days that Jesus lived on this earth. I had become so busy and my life so hectic that I had not taken time to properly remember the series of events that have changed my life.

My guess is that you, too, might have lost track of time.

Sunday we will all gather in churches all over the country and celebrate the risen Lord. But for most of us, it will be difficult to celebrate. In fact, for a lot of you, Easter has never been an exciting celebration of the resurrection of Christ, just another service. The reason why we sometimes find it so hard to be jubilant on Easter, is because we fail to spend enough time at the cross of Christ, reflecting on his actions there. We don't do it because, well, because it is really sad and depressing. But without Christ's suffering and death, the story of Easter is not great news worth celebrating, it's just another day with some OK news. So let's take a few minutes, and let me tell you the story of Jesus' last week.

It all begins on the Sunday before Easter. We call it Palm Sunday. Remember, Jesus knows the plan that God has for him. He knows that when he comes to greater Jerusalem metropolitan area, he does so for the last time. Yet he comes anyway. How bittersweet the entry into Jerusalem must have been.

Mark 11:4-10

They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people standing there asked, "What are you doing, untying that colt?" They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
"Hosanna!"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!"
"Hosanna in the highest!"

As Jesus sat on this colt and road into Jerusalem, this triumphal entry must not have given him much comfort, as within less than a week, the same people who were now singing "Hosanna" will be shouting, "Crucify Him!" What contrasting emotions we see from the crowd and what mix of emotions must Jesus feel as the crowds in Jerusalem sound his arrival.
As Jesus enters Jerusalem, he enters the temple to see what is going on there (Mark 11:11). Once in the temple, Jesus sees the money changers and sellers taking advantage of the Jews who were coming to worship at the temple. Certainly it would have sorrowed Jesus' heart to see this activity in the courts of the Gentiles keeping them from worshiping God. After seeing this desecration of the temple, Jesus left to Bethany for the night. The story picks up on Monday.

Mark 11:12-21

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it. On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, (Another account of this story says that he actually made a whip out of some cords and used it to drive them out. See John 2:13-16) and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written: 'My house will be a house of prayer for the nations'? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'" The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. When evening came, they went out of the city. In the morning (Tuesday) as they went along they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!"

Jesus sees a tree that looks perfectly fine. On the outside it has leaves and seems healthy. But upon closer examination it is useless, bearing no fruit. Jesus curses the tree and then enters the temple. It is here that scripture paints for us one of the most unusual pictures of Jesus in the whole Bible. He gets angry. I want you to understand, however, that Jesus is not wrathful or vengeful. In fact, Jesus has likely thought about this event and what he is going to do. Just a few verses earlier, describing what happened on Sunday evening, we see Jesus entering the temple and taking in all that was happening there. In the account found in John, Jesus takes his time to fashion a whip before clearing the temple. The problem Jesus has is that the buying and selling was taking place in the court of the Gentiles, which was the only place the Gentiles were allowed to worship God. Their distracting acts were keeping people from bringing their sacrifice and praise to God. This hacked Jesus off, and he cleared them out. Can you imagine how mentally taxing this event had to be for Jesus. The temple that had been built for such noble purposes and from the outside looked perfectly good and healthy. It was a beautiful building, but it was corrupt on the inside, producing no fruit... just like the fig tree that Jesus interacted with earlier in the day. Jesus cursed the fig tree and it withered, and Jesus cleansed the temple and ultimately, it too would be destroyed.

Imagine for a moment the grief Jesus must have felt for his people who have and who will betray him, and for his beloved Jerusalem as they have the Truth living amongst them, and they didn't even know it. Jesus' grief is written about in

Matthew 23:37-38
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look your house is left to you desolate.

Jesus spends the rest of Tuesday and Wednesday teaching in the temple and around Jerusalem. You can read what he teaches in the following texts:
Matthew 21:23-25:46
Mark 11:27-13:37
Luke 20:1-38
John 12:20-50

Jesus knew what he had come to do. He knew he only had a few days left to impress some very important messages upon his followers. He has been the triumphant victor entering Jerusalem. He has been the angry clearer of the temple. He has walked all over the Jerusalem area. And as we find ourselves at Thursday, he prepares to share the final meal of his life.