The Glory of His Last Week

The Holiness of Christ · AD 30

… a lamb without blemish or spot.

1 Peter 1:19

Christ is holy — He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth. In the last week of His earthly life, chiefly over April 4 and 5 of AD 30, the spiritual leaders of Israel scrutinized Him ruthlessly, inspecting His life, doctrine, and works. This unit follows those days in the temple: they could find no fault in the Holy One of God, yet the builders rejected the chosen cornerstone.

Read: Mark 11:12–19; Mark 11:20–12:44; Matthew 23:1–39

Three Days Before: The Fig Tree and the Temple

On the morning of Tuesday, April 4, Christ walked from Bethany, on the east side of the Mount of Olives, into Jerusalem. Rather than withdrawing into seclusion to prepare for His death, He poured out His final hours preaching to the people in the temple. Hungry along the road, He came to a fig tree full of leaves but bearing no fruit, and said, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.”

It was not the fig tree that troubled Christ but the fruitlessness of the children of Jerusalem, who had been given so much yet bore nothing. Entering the temple, He was grieved to find His Father's house turned into a marketplace. Two years after His first cleansing, the Jews were no better — still turning worship into personal gain — so in righteous anger He drove out the money changers and overturned their tables.

The chief priests and scribes were filled with unrighteous anger and wanted to arrest Him at once, but they feared the people. The blind and the lame came to Him to be healed, and even children cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” Because it was not yet His hour to die, He kept teaching until evening, then returned to Bethany for the night.

May no one ever eat fruit from you again.

Mark 11:14

Is it not written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations”? But you have made it a den of robbers.

Mark 11:17

Two Days Before: His Authority Challenged

The next morning, April 5, as they passed the fig tree, the disciples saw it had withered to its roots. “Have faith in God,” Jesus told them, teaching that those who believe without doubting can command even a mountain to be cast into the sea, and that when we pray we must also forgive anyone against whom we hold anything.

Back in the temple, the chief priests, scribes, and elders challenged Him: “By what authority are you doing these things?” Knowing they only sought cause to accuse Him, Christ answered with a question about John's baptism — from heaven or from man? Unwilling to speak their true opinion for fear of the people, they claimed not to know, so He refused to tell them by what authority He acted.

Christ then told three parables against them — the two sons, the wicked tenants, and the wedding feast — declaring that tax collectors and sinners were entering the kingdom ahead of the spiritual leaders. Like the tenants who killed the owner's son to seize the vineyard, these leaders were now seeking to kill God's Son. So the kingdom would be taken from them and given to others who would bear fruit, for the rejected stone had become the cornerstone.

Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Mark 11:24

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

Mark 12:10–11

Silencing His Accusers

Unable to arrest Him before the crowds, His enemies tried to entrap Him with words. The Pharisees joined the Herodians and, after flattering Him, asked whether it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar — hoping He would offend either the Jews or Rome. Christ asked for a denarius and, seeing Caesar's likeness on it, settled the matter with ease.

Next the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection, posed a riddle about a woman married to seven brothers. Christ answered that they knew neither the Scriptures nor the power of God: in the resurrection people neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels. And from the burning bush He showed that God is not the God of the dead but of the living, for God called Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Then a lawyer asked which commandment was greatest. Christ named love for God with all one's heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love for neighbor as oneself. On these two, He said, depend all the Law and the Prophets. Turning the tables, He then asked how the Christ could be both David's son and David's Lord — a question no one could answer — and from then on no one dared to question Him.

Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.

Luke 20:25

Woes and a Widow's Mite

Turning to the crowds, Christ warned them of the scribes, who loved long robes, long prayers, the best seats, and the praise of men, while devouring widows' houses. Then He pronounced seven woes upon the scribes and Pharisees — hypocrites who shut the kingdom in people's faces, cleaned the outside of the cup while inwardly full of greed, and appeared beautiful as whitewashed tombs while within were full of dead men's bones.

Afterward He sat opposite the treasury and watched the crowd give. Many rich people put in large sums, but a poor widow dropped in two small copper coins, barely worth a penny. Calling His disciples, Christ said she had given more than all the others, for they gave out of abundance while she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on.

Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box.

Mark 12:43

For Reflection

Down, down, down our Lord continued to climb. He submitted to be tested, examined, and challenged by the leaders of Israel. When they could find nothing condemnable in Him, they tried to lure and entrap Him; they questioned Him again and again but could not make Him stumble in a single word. Through all the scrutiny, Christ proved to be holy and without fault — pure in His actions, thoughts, teachings, and works. Truly the builders rejected God's cornerstone, the Holy One of God.