Scripture indicates that Tuesday was also the day Judas Iscariot negotiated with the Sanhedrin, the rabbinical court of ancient Israel, to betray Jesus (Matthew 26:14-16). This was a very busy day for Jesus and his disciples. It was on this day that Jesus also went to the Mount of Olives and it was here that a major discourse took place between Jesus and the disciples. The Olivet Discourse, was an orderly and extensive teaching that Jesus gave on the Mount of Olives. The subject being that of the end times. Matthew has the most extensive record and can be found in Matthew 24:1 – 25:46. This is not the time to address these chapters as they are filled with much information and a few words could never give them justice as to their importance in our savior’s journey to the cross. I suggest you read the Chapters and verses as listed above. There are some points here that help us to better understand the emotional burden and determination of Jesus in the hours before his passion. We tend to set aside the humanness of Jesus, he was God incarnate and walked among us, God in human form. This was his choice and makes all the more revealing the power of the Father, the God of all creation. A discourse is a conversation, a discussion and you might say about a set of principles, or instructions to a certain group, in this case the disciples. In Christianity, the term Five Discourses of Matthew refers to five specific discourses by Jesus within the Gospel of Matthew. One of those discourses was the Sermon on the Mount of Olives. Jesus chose for this discourse to take place in the privacy of the Mount of Olives. We must as difficult as it might be, try and understand that the life of Jesus was not one of circumstance, it was according to the will of the Father, God. Within this discourse is the warning to the disciples that they will suffer tribulation and persecution before the ultimate triumph of the Kingdom of God. This discourse is also known as the Little Apocalypse because it includes the use of apocalyptic language. After this time with the disciples on the Mount of Olives and a full day, Jesus and the disciples returned to Bethany to stay the night. We have no record of what the Lord did on Wednesday but the assumption of many scholars is Jesus and the disciples spent the day in Bethany resting and planning for the Passover Feast. One thing that is important is that at one point Jesus had raised Lazarus from the grave and with the closeness of Bethany to Jerusalem the word of this miracle made it to the Pharisees in short order. You can be certain that this sealed the fate of Jesus in their eyes.
I will close out this week with a blog to be posted at fromthepewblog.com on Saturday evening entitled…
Last Supper, A Place Called Gethsemane, The Unexpected Gift
Hope you will join us in the Pew this Saturday eve.
Life is Good
jk
Research Sources: DBS, New Interpreter’s Bible and
From The Pew 