Conclusion of Christ's Triumphal Entry Into Jerusalem

As Jesus draws close to Jerusalem, he views the city and begins to weep over it, saying: "If you, even you, had discerned in this day the things having to do with peace-but now they have been hid from your eyes." for her willful disobedience, Jerusalem must pay the price, as Jesus foretells: "Your enemies [the Romans under General Titus] will build around you a fortification with pointed stakes and will encircle you and distress you from every side, and they will dash you and your children within you to the ground, and they will not leave a stone upon stone in your." This destruction of Jerusalem foretold by Jesus actually occurs 37 years later, in the year 70 C.E.

Just a few weeks earlier, many in the crowd had seen Jesus resurrect Lazarus. Now these keep telling others about the miracle. So when Jesus enters Jerusalem, the whole city is set in commotion. "Who is this?" People want to know. And the crowds keep telling: "This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee!" Seeing what is happening, the Pharisees lament that they are getting absolutely nowhere, for, as they say: "The world has gone after him."

As in his custom on visits to Jerusalem, Jesus goes to the temple to teach. There the blind and the lame come to him, and he cures them! When the chief priests and the scribes see the marvelous things Jesus is doing and when they hear the boys in the temple crying out, "Save, we pray, the Son of David!" They become angry. "Do you hear what these are saying?" They protest. "Yes," Jesus replies: "Did you never read this, 'Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings you have furnished praise?' "

Jesus continues teaching, and he looks around upon all things in the temple. Soon it is too late. So he leaves, along with the 12, and travels back the two miles or so to Bethany. There he spends Sunday night, probably in the home of his friend Lazarus. Matthew 21:1-11, 14-17; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:29-44; John 12:12-19; Zechariah 9:9.

Next time: Visiting The Temple Again

The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived, 1991