May Christ’s healing love be with you and your family.
Let us continue with our journal on the last week of Jesus here on Earth. As we now know, Jesus spent his days prior to entry into Jerusalem in the suburb called Bethany, some two miles Southeast of Jerusalem. On Palm Sunday, he entered Jerusalem greeted with jubilations by the crowds. On Holy Monday, Jesus went to the temple and drove away the business profiteers, robbers and thieves. Jesus also rebuked the leaders. He healed the illnesses of many. People were singing praises of Him. The church leaders and their followers became indignant and started to plan on eliminating Jesus. Jesus retired back to Bethany on that Holy Monday.
Holy Tuesday
Waking up early morning, Jesus started his two-mile walk back to Jerusalem. His intent was to go back to the temple. He wanted to go there maybe to check if the business people, the merchants, money changers, robbers and thieves were back. He was on a mission to spend the whole day in the temple.
It may be possible that since He hurriedly left early in the morning, Martha and Mary did not get to prepare breakfast for Him. On the road to Jerusalem, Jesus was hungry. He saw a fig tree “in leaf”, meaning it is already in full bloom early that spring. It is expected that it must be bearing fruit. With that expectation, Jesus inspects the tree. He is immediately disappointed. All leaves, no fruit. All expectation, no satisfaction. In a shocking turn, Jesus curses the tree and it withers from the roots.  Why?
Jesus was teaching his disciples that soon they will be taking care of his flock. The disciples will have to “blossom to bear fruit”. The fruit of God’s love will have to be fed to God’s people. The disciples will be deemed useless if they only blossom in leaves and do not bear good fruit. After teaching his disciples, Jesus proceeded on his way to the temple.
Upon entry to the temple, the chief priests, Sadducees and Pharisees immediately confronted Jesus. They challenged Him. They wanted to know where He got his power to cure illnesses and speak in wisdom and authority. If He answers them from God, they will accuse Him of blasphemy. If He says the authority is of his own, again blasphemy for claiming He is God. Jesus would not fall on their trickery. He instead challenged them; He will answer their question if they could answer his question: “Where do you think John the Baptist got his authority from”. The leaders are then pushed on a dilemma. If they say it is from God, then why did they not follow John. And if they say, it’s from human authority, people will lash back at them because everyone believed that John was a prophet of God. The leaders did not answer Jesus. Therefore, Jesus did not answer them. Their outrage and indignation toward Jesus grew even more.
Jesus spent the whole day in the temple. He preached there tirelessly to the multitudes of people. On the accounts of St. Matthew, Jesus spoke eight parables that day. Aside from the eight parables, Jesus also preached about the greatest of all the commandments: “Love God above all else and love your neighbors as yourself”.
Jesus also clarified on that day that the Messiah is the son of David as was popularly known at that time. He also warned the people against hypocrisy. He emphasized to his disciples that they should practice what they preach. Jesus rebuked the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees. Jesus spoke of his Woes (8 in Matthew, 7 in Mark and 6 in Luke), of criticisms for their hypocrisy and perjury.
Jesus also predicted his upcoming suffering and death. He spoke of the destruction of the temple. He also taught about the end of time when He preached about the separation of the sheep and the goats.
Holy Tuesday must have been a very grueling, draining and exhausting day for Jesus. He spent the whole day preaching and discoursing to the people with many interruptions from the leaders who disputed and argued with Him and tried their most cunning ways to entrap Him. None of the Scribes and Pharisees, Elders and Chief Priests succeeded. Since they could not win in argumentation and debate with the Lord, they then wanted to eliminate Him in a more punitive and starker way.
Jesus went back to Bethany that night.
Tomorrow is Holy Wednesday, also known as Spy Wednesday. Stay tuned and let us find out why it is called so….
God Loves you!