tuesday

christ's last week continued, dad's retelling....

Whereas for Monday there were only a few verses, we have multiple chapters full of parables and teachings recorded from the Savior's last Tuesday -- one of the most amazing of which was to declare what two commandments encompass all others.

If you have time this Spring break without Seminary, I would urge you to read about his Tuesday for yourselves. Tuesday can be found in Matthew 21:20-46; all of chapters 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26: 1-5, and 14-16. It is also found in Mark 11:19-33, all of chapters 12 and 13, and 14: 1, and 10-11. The Luke version includes Chapter 20, and some of 21. In John, it is 12:20-43.

First, on the way from Bethany to Jerusalem, they stopped at the fig tree Jesus had cursed the day before. It had "withered away" and "dried up from the roots" in less than a day. He used this as an opportunity to teach the Apostles about faith, prayer and forgiveness. He explained that just as he had "removed" the tree from fruitful life, so too did the Apostles have power to "remove" a mountain. "All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." (Matt. 21:20-22; Mark 11:20-26)

When Jesus arrived at the Temple for his daily teaching, the "chief priests" asked him by what authority he taught. He used the popularity of John the Baptist with the people to stump the priests, who would not answer by what authority John was baptized. They would not say. "Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things."

In succession, he then taught the Parables of:
* The Two Sons
* The Wicked Husbandmen, and
* The Marriage of the King's Son.

Then he was asked about money -- whether "tribute" or taxes should be paid to the Roman ruler Caesar. (It's personally interesting to ponder this around the time of the April 15 tax deadline for all of us!) His famous answer was to render unto Caesar what was Caesar's (temporal, monetary system) and to God the things that are God's.

He was asked about Marriage and the Resurrection, which was already a growing religious "theory." Said the Son of Man, who would personally become the most powerful proof of resurrection at the end of the week: "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." He sided foursquare, then, with the doctrine of resurrection by declaring that God was always a God of the living, whether on earth or in heaven, including those who were once on the earth in mortal life.

At this point, since he had stymied the questions of the Sadducees, the Pharisees decided to have a go at Jesus in debate. For once, I am very grateful for a lawyer who asked a question. "One of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" He answered that there were two, loving the Lord your God with all your soul and with all your mind, and loving your neighbor as yourself. "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

Now, he turned the tables by asking them who they thought Christ would be the Son of. Since they called him (not knowing Jesus was the Christ) the Son of David, how could that be? "If David call him (Christ) Lord, how is he his son?" Pure doctrine is always this rational and logical.

At this point, the same Savior who threw out the merchants and moneychangers now warns against and condemns the Scribes and Pharisees for their opposition to true doctrine -- which takes up the entire Chapter 23 in Matthew. That we have it preserved might suggest that the same words are well applied to apostates, and may have given comfort (and voice) to Joseph Smith's righteous anger and anguish when he was beset upon by ex-church leaders and others who tried to debate, trick and "destroy" him.

After this repudiation, things quieted again, and we read about The Widow's Mite in Mark (12:41-44) and Luke (21:1-4). He was sitting near the "treasury" at the temple, or money offering box and watched as the wealthy cast abundant and noisy coins into the box -- publicly demonstrating their "worthiness" to eye and ear-witnesses. He did not denounce the tithing of the wealthy, however showy, to the public. Instead, after a widow put in a mere "two mites," which was greater in relation to her income than the offerings of the rich to theirs, he pulled "his disciples" or Apostles aside and instructed them that the widow had given all that she had, and this was greater in the eyes of God than what the rich had done. In this, he was giving critical PPI-type advice to the soon-to-be leaders of the church who would be taking in offerings themselves in future that they should greatly honor alms from the poor, even though it be less than from the rich.

It was after the Widow's Mite that scholars have placed another private discussion with the Apostles at the Temple, when Jesus lets them know about his coming death. Greeks who came to Passover asked Philip for an audience with Jesus, and it was at this point that he and Andrew report this to Jesus. "The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified." In John 12:20-36, he now talks about being "lifted up" in death soon. This conversation is overheard by others nearby, who begin asking questions. He speaks carefully, using the wonderful expression, "Yet a little while is the light (of his earthly life) with you." Then he follows this with a sermon on his relationship to the Father.

After this, John says, he "departed" by disappearing among the crowd and then out the city again. After he left, John reports the reaction of some people to these teachings who fail to understand, despite the many miracles Jesus had performed, and the perfect truth of his teachings, who the Savior truly is.

Now that the subject was raised, once he got outside the gates of the city, he and the Apostles stopped on the Mount of Olives, which was on the way to Bethany. At the bottom of the Mount is the Garden of Gethsemane. It is on this Tuesday evening that he offered the most-quoted and fullest discourse on the signs of the times (Matthew 24; Mark 13). "The disciples came to him privately (as) he sat upon the Mount of Olives" and asked him about the signs. His first mention of being "lifted up" in death soon at the end of the teachings at the Temple had naturally spawned the questions. He tells them about the signs of the destruction of the Temple and of his own second coming. He tells them the parable of the fig tree, which has been a "visual aid" on these first two days. He tells them the parable of the man taking a far journey, and that the Son of Man will come again like "a thief in the night."

It is as part of this discourse privately on Tuesday evening with his Apostles, sitting on the mountain where he will soon be betrayed (Garden of Gethsemane at the bottom), and the mountain on which he will stand and break in half at the Second Coming -- it is in this discourse that he appropriately reveals the Parable of the Ten Virgins -- which has everything to do with being prepared for the Second Coming. (Matt. 25:1-13)

He follows that with the equally powerful and important Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30).

He then reveals that it is he, Jesus, who is the Bridegroom and who will judge the world. (Matt. 25:31-46).

After he "finished all these sayings," he told them that in two days, during the Thursday evening feast of the Passover, "the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified."

As he was speaking, the chief priests and scribes were conferring on how to kill Jesus, according to the Gospel writers. They were probably still stinging from his specific rebuke of them hours before so that even those who might have been more moderate could not speak up for saving his life (or ignoring him). As they tried to figure out how to do it, one of the Apostles, Judas Iscariot, arrives and says he will "deliver" Jesus to them. Did he know it was to deliver his own Savior and Rabbi to his death? The text is not clear. We'll not get into speculating on the motives of Judas. It is interesting that he either left early from the private teachings of Jesus about his death and Second Coming, or after that discussion was over and Jesus moved on to Bethany. The priests promised him 30 pieces of silver, which was the price of a slave, for betraying Jesus. Many, many years before, it was Judas's namesake -- Judah (since Judas is the Greek version of Judah) -- who came up with the plan to get rid of brother Joseph by selling him as a slave for the going price then. And yet ... in both the case of Joseph and Jesus (or Joshua, his true Hebrew name), while Judah and Judas sought to do evil, God turned it to good. It was only through these betrayals that, in Joseph's case, Israel was saved temporally and, in Jesus's case, we all may be saved with eternal life through the atonement.

Tuesday stands for us as the most important set of teachings prior to the Last Supper during the last week of the Savior's life.