The end of the day - and what a long, disappointing day (!) - leaving Jerusalem for the last time after a deliberately planned trap ending as a sparring match of questions and answers with the scholars of the Talmud, some followers of their teachings, and a group that didn't believe in life after death.
Matthew 23
vs.37
Ἰερουσαλὴμ Ἰερουσαλήμ, ἡ ἀποκτείνουσα τοὺς προφήτας καὶ λιθοβολοῦσα τοὺς ἀπεσταλμένους πρὸς αὐτήν, ποσάκις ἠθέλησα ἐπισυναγαγεῖν τὰ τέκνα σου, ὃν τρόπον ὄρνις ἐπισυνάγει τὰ νοσσία αὐτῆς ὑπὸ τὰς πτέρυγας, καὶ οὐκ ἠθελήσατε
(Jerusalem, Jerusalem - killing prophets and stoning others sent to you. How many times did I want to bring you together like a hen brings her little chicks around her under her wings... But you were not willing.)
The whole story could have been different. Jesus had worked hard to make his public teaching one of joy and hope, forgiveness and acceptance, healing and second chances, a story that would have ended with a more complete understanding of God and what he wanted for people.
vs.38
ἰδοὺ ἀφίεται ὑμῖν ὁ οἶκος ὑμῶν ἔρημος
(Just look at your house! It has been left empty.)
He found his people in disarray. He found them in groups and sects. He found them in social classes. He found them in conflict against Rome and in conflict among themselves. He found them in disbelief of his message about who God was and what he wanted.
vs.39
λέγω γὰρ ὑμῖν, οὐ μή με ἴδητε ἀπ’ ἄρτι ἕως ἂν εἴπητε εὐλογημένος ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἐν ὀνόματι κυρίου
(So rest assured that you will not see me from this moment until you have declared, "Praise the one coming in the name of the Lord!")
He had tried! But his father had made it clear to him that his time on Earth was over. It had been an especially long and trying day. So, he in turn told those listening to him that he wouldn't see them again in this city until he was treated as the Messiah entering Jerusalem, which, unknown to them, would only be a little over a week later. When he returned, the events would be ordered, the countdown set. There would be no more opportunities for the hen to gather her chicks to listen to Jesus talk about his father or his wishes for his people.
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The beginning of the same day, a week and a half before his final entry into Jerusalem led on a donkey in a procession of palm leaves to shouts of "Hosanna in the highest - Praise the one coming in the name of the Lord."
Knowing the time of the end heightened Jesus' urgency to explain EXACTLY what stood in the way of people seeing God for who he was and Jesus for who he was. Jesus was incredulous that the very people who were supposed to represent God to the world wouldn't believe the one whom God had sent to them so that they could return to being a people who could actually represent him.
Who was it that couldn't accept that he was the Messiah, the one representing God' light in a dark world? Who was it that couldn't accept that he was God in flesh accepting them as they were and encouraging them to be better about doing hateful things to each other? Who was it that would blatantly oppose teachings about acceptance, healings of restoration, and beautiful acts of catching God's favor?
That's the unbelievable part of this story. They were the people well versed in what God's covenant meant to his people. They were referred to as scholars of the Talmud and as Pharisees, a group of people that committed themselves to following the teachings of these scholars of the Talmud to the letter. God's ways had been codified in their eyes. It wasn't a loose covenant of love and acceptance. It was an unbending list of commands that needed to be followed meticulously in order to curry favor with the Almighty Lord of Hosts. Anything short of that curried the Almighty's anger. The covenants made with Abraham and Moses and the traditions of the people, the insights of former, esteemed rabbis, were all written down. By the time of Jesus, Jews had divided into several groups trying to deal with the long history of God's covenant with them, but the most influential group in Jerusalem was the one saying that being a Jew was a matter of black and white, a system of actions to be performed. The group believing this austere regimen of behavior in following the Talmud called themselves Pharisees.
Messiah by Ghenadie Sontu
When his father had made it clear to him that his time on Earth was over, Jesus left the outlying regions of Judaism and went to its heart, Jerusalem. He knew he would encounter these scholars and this rigid group of people. They had followed his movements in Galilee and surrounding areas, so they had encountered Jesus and his teachings before. He also knew that they were the largest party of the controlling power groups in Jerusalem.
He was down to just a week and a half on Earth. He had to expose the true nature of these Pharisees and scholars. He had to speak about just what what kind of people they truly were. His father had wanted them to change, but they wouldn't do it. Now, the countdown was set, so he had to highlight emphatically what a fictitious religion Judaism had become compared to what his father had wanted. So, after the major sparring match that had been planned to thwart all of his teachings (Matthew 22), Jesus took the opportunity to recount the ways in which the scholars and their followers were so UNrepresentative of his father.
Matthew 23
Verse 4
δεσμεύουσιν δὲ φορτία βαρέα [καὶ δυσβάστακτα] καὶ ἐπιτιθέασιν ἐπὶ τοὺς ὤμους τῶν ἀνθρώπων, αὐτοὶ δὲ τῷ δακτύλῳ αὐτῶν οὐ θέλουσιν κινῆσαι αὐτά
(They make burdens and place them on people's shoulders to carry, but they are not willing to help shoulder the load.)
Verse 5
πάντα δὲ τὰ ἔργα αὐτῶν ποιοῦσιν πρὸς τὸ θεαθῆναι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις· πλατύνουσιν γὰρ τὰ φυλακτήρια αὐτῶν καὶ μεγαλύνουσιν τὰ κράσπεδα
(All of their actions are done to be seen by others. They make their scripture straps thicker and exaggerate the fringe on the bottom of their garments.)
Verse 13
Οὐαὶ δὲ ὑμῖν, γραμματεῖς καὶ Φαρισαῖοι ὑποκριταί, ὅτι κλείετε τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν ἔμπροσθεν τῶν ἀνθρώπων· ὑμεῖς γὰρ οὐκ εἰσέρχεσθε οὐδὲ τοὺς εἰσερχομένους ἀφίετε εἰσελθεῖν
(Scholars of the Talmud and Pharisees, actors, you make me cringe because people see you close off the realm of the heavens. You yourselves don't enter, and you keep them from entering.)
Verse 15
Οὐαὶ ὑμῖν, γραμματεῖς καὶ Φαρισαῖοι ὑποκριταί, ὅτι περιάγετε τὴν θάλασσαν καὶ τὴν ξηρὰν ποιῆσαι ἕνα προσήλυτον, καὶ ὅταν γένηται ποιεῖτε αὐτὸν υἱὸν γεέννης διπλότερον ὑμῶν
(Scholars of the Talmud and Pharisees, actors, you make me cringe because you go all over the most desertous regions around to convert one person, and when you do, you make him twice as much a child of Hinnom Valley's despicable fires of desecration as you are yourselves.)
Verse 23
Οὐαὶ ὑμῖν, γραμματεῖς καὶ Φαρισαῖοι ὑποκριταί, ὅτι ἀποδεκατοῦτε τὸ ἡδύοσμον καὶ τὸ ἄνηθον καὶ τὸ κύμινον καὶ ἀφήκατε τὰ βαρύτερα τοῦ νόμου, τὴν κρίσιν καὶ τὸ ἔλεος καὶ τὴν πίστιν· ταῦτα [δὲ] ἔδει ποιῆσαι κἀκεῖνα μὴ ἀφιέναι
(Scholars of the Talmud and Pharisees, actors, you make me cringe because you exact a tenth of mint to spread on your synagogue floors for a good aroma, a tenth of dill to mix in as medicine to make you feel better, and a tenth of cummin to give your mouths a refreshing smell. Yet, you have relaxed the matters of the covenant that really matter - justice and mercy and good faith. It should be a matter of course to do the former without relaxing the latter.)
Verse 24
ὁδηγοὶ τυφλοί, οἱ διϋλίζοντες τὸν κώνωπα, τὴν δὲ κάμηλον καταπίνοντες
(Blind guides, straining out a wine gnat that is unclean just to gulp down an unclean camel!)
Strong, strong words! And Jesus elaborated on these points more than what is quoted here. He was greatly empassioned about the fallacies of these scholars, their followers, and the other groups that didn't know the covenant of God nor his power!!
He said all of this, and he was down to the end of his time. He left Jerusalem...
The morsel with all the kick and sting in it for future generations to notice and avoid are the words ὑποκριταί (actors) and ὁδηγοὶ τυφλοί (blind guides). It was a shame because there was not another chance. Jerusalem would not see him again, he said, until he came a week later as king, messiah, and son of God to be crucified, which fulfilled Psalm 118.26. And then, he woke up. All was fulfilled, and not another chance existed.
There are still those groups today that want a performance-based, black and white, duty-filled, obligation-driven, you're-in-and-they're-out kind of religion. They are easy to spot because their language contains few words of acceptance, forgiveness, healing, or restoring brokenness, and their actions are perfunctory rather than the beautiful, courageous acts of grace representing Jesus and his father. They want to achieve being flawless with their own paltry deeds offered to God. In reality, there is only one way to be flawless.
Jesus' strongest and sharpest words, his most emphatic warnings, as he faced the time for his departure to his father, were for his followers not to become actors and blind guides. Then he left us.
This hits home because my own footsteps have walked down Pharisaical paths of acting and blindly guiding. I still know people I left on those paths. My prayer is to echo the words of Jesus when he taught the Twelve to pray: "Don't make us stand trial for our evil, but rescue us from it!" (Matthew 6.13)
[The Greek text used is the Nestle-Aland 28th edition.]
[Songs used are Set Me Free by Casting Crowns and Flawless by Mercy Me.]
[Introductory photograph from www.fotosearch.com, artwork, The Messiah, by Ghenadie Sontu retrieved from
http://www.ghenadiesontu.com/figurative/messiah]
[Translations from Greek are my own.]
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