Jeremiah 23:6. THE VICARIOUS SACRIFICE AND TRIUMPH "Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. "Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every man to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of My people was He stricken. And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when Thou shalt make His Soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see of the travail of His Soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath poured out His Soul unto death: and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." Isaiah 53:1-12. GOD IS JUST, AND JUSTIFIER OF BELIEVERS "Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the Law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His Blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." Romans 3:20-26. RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH "But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righeousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Romans 10:6-10. CHAPTER XVIII. THE DAYS OF PUBLIC CONFLICT "Behold, I lay in Sion a Chief Corner Stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on Him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe He is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the Stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the Head of the Corner, and a Stone of stumbling, and a Rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the Word, being disobedient." 1. Peter 2:6-8. "Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood . . There is no fear of God before their eyes." Romans 3:13-18. "They are of the world: We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error." 1. John 4:5-6. us. The Passion Week of the Lord Jesus Christ was identical with that of the Jewish Passover, which occurred early in the month of April, as time is now counted. This Passion Week began with that Sabbath Day on which the Lord Jesus made His Triumphal Entry into the City of Jerusalem. During the first days of this week of His suffering, the Son of God waged an open and successful conflict with His enemies. Wednesday and Thursday forenoon of this week were "days of silence," since there are no records of events during that time. Thursday afternoon and evening Jesus spent, in a quiet way, with the Apostles, until the time of His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, which occurred probably near the turn of midnight. Then on Friday, in stirring succession, came the Lord's Trials, His Crucifixion, and His Burial. The most important aspects of these central events will be considered in the following nine chapters which constitute Part VI of the Life-Work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Passion Week, as already suggested, began on the Sabbath of the Triumphal Entry. That day, and the Monday and Tuesday that followed, were days of open conflict. While Jesus had been absent from Jerusalem, as described in the previous chapter, the decision of His enemies to put Him to death had crystalized into a fixed purpose. The scribes and Pharisees were therefore now studying how they might carry that purpose into execution. This they intended to do during the Passover Week, or as soon thereafter as the temper of the Common People would allow. Those rulers of the Jews were therefore watching every opportunity that should arise that might prove favorable to their plans. They held themselves ready also for hastily calling a council at any moment to decide what to do, if events should take some extraordinary turn. Such were the undercurrents of deadly purpose which the Lord's enemies had set in motion while He had been absent from the City. Besides this, they were furious with hatred, and blind with religious fanaticism, because the Lord Jesus had transferred His activities from Galilee to their ecclesiastical center at Jerusalem. In this determined spirit, therefore, the scribes and Pharisees confronted Jesus upon His return to Jerusalem at the beginning of the Passion Week. I. Sabbath Day-The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem It was the Sabbath morning following the supper in Bethany, which was described in the last chapter. Doubtless the news had Triumphal Entry John 12:12-19 spread rapidly, that Jesus was in Bethany, and would probably come to Jerusalem on this Sabbath morning. The visiting Jews especially, who had come to the Feast from all parts of the Jewish world, had gathered on the Bethany road, in great numbers, to see Jesus as He entered the City. The emotions of the multitude were intense. There was a general impatient desire to see Jesus. There was a common feeling that something unusual was about to happen. The deep-laid plots of the scribes and Pharisees gave rise to a nervous concern for every movement of Jesus, which greatly intensified the suspense and uncertainty that hovered over the entire situation. The Preparation of Christ for His Triumphal Entry. The Lord Jesus, facing this situation, calmly made the preparations Royal Entrance as Prophesied Matthew 21:1-7 Mark 11:1-7 Luke 19:29-35 John 12:12 that were necessary for His prophetic entrance into the Sacred City. This was done by means of detailed directions which He gave to two of His Disciples, and which they immediately carried out. Concerning the details of the plan by which Jesus secured the ass and her colt for His use on this occasion, there is remarkable agreement among the four Gospel writers who record the event. Among them, however, there are some slight differences in point of emphasis. Matthew, in a special way, and John, to some extent, give prominence to the prophetic aspect of Christ's entering the City as He did. Mark and Luke emphasize the part taken by the two Disciples in making the preparations; but John omits this feature of the record altogether. All three of these writers refer to the fact that the ass on which Jesus rode was young and unridden before. Mark mentions the promise of the Disciples to return the ass to her place again; and Luke suggests that the Disciples may have given Jesus some assistance in mounting the beast. But John viewed the incident more from the standpoint of the multitude, and their interests in the happenings of the occasion; and this fact accounts for his giving no record of the preparations made for the event by the two Disciples. 2. The Royal Entrance into the City. When the preparations were completed, the royal entrance began. It was a simple per Royal Honor and John 12:12-19 formance; but the spectacle was very imposing in its simple grandeur. The scene was one of great enthusiasm. There were three special points of interest which the reader will readily see in that slow-moving procession as it approached the Sacred City on that Sabbath morning. The people honored Jesus on that occasion. Some went before and laid down their garments, and branches 1. Jesus Honored by the People for Him to ride over. from the palm trees, Slowly after those in Himself, sitting upon the ass, on which the Disciples had placed their own outer garments for Him to sit upon. After Him, came the remainder of the multitude, falling enthusiastically into the never ending procession, as it moved on, with great exultation, into the City. The evident purpose of the people was to do all the honor possible to Jesus on this occasion. 2. Jesus Exalted as King of Israel The people exalted Jesus as the King of Israel. The long procession had one voice of applause, both those who went before, and those who came after Him. Besides these, who were in the moving line, John suggests that other multitudes, who, having gone out to meet this procession, were standing possibly by the wayside, added their voices to the general chorus of praise and exaltation, which expressed always the same general sentiment. Among the many expressions that arose from that vast multitude, voicing their praises of Jesus, the following have been pre served in the sacred records: "Hosanna: Blessed is He That cometh in the Name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!" "Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is Hosannas to Jesus He That cometh in the Name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!" "Hosanna: Blessed is He That cometh in the Name of the Lord: Blessed is the Kingdom that cometh, the Kingdom of our father David: Hosanna in the highest!" "Blessed is the King That cometh in the Name of the Lord: peace in Heaven, and glory in the highest!" These notes of praise, caught up by successive groups of that vast throng, and following one upon another, rolled across that moving crowd, like waves of the sea. The volume of praise rose to the heavens; and the "Hosannas" were remembered after the events of this day had passed into history. 3. Jesus Envied by His Enemies But all was not harmony in that crowd that day. The enemies of Christ were there, with envy and resentment at these signs of His success with the common people. These chief priests and Pharisees were probably standing in a group, at one side of the procession, where they could read, in the enthusiasm of the occasion, the complete failure, as it then appeared, of all their previous opposition to the Son of God. "Behold," they said among themselves, "how ye prevail nothing: lo, the world is gone after Him!" These enemies of the Lord endured this popular praise of Him as long as their envy would allow. Then they tried to silence the people, by an appeal to Jesus Himself. They said to Him: "Master, rebuke Thy disciples!" But He, using and ancient prophecy, said to them: "I tell you that, if these shall hold their peace, the stones will cry out.' By these words He meant that the exultation of the people on this occasion was inevitable, irresistible, and, at least in its inner motive, acceptable. It was not meet that the Son of God, making such a royal entrance into the Sacred City, should do so without the praises of God's ancient people. 3. The Actions of Christ within the City. So the enthusiastic procession moved on slowly into the City. Of all that Jesus may have said and done on that great day, only two things have been recorded. The first of these happened on the way to the City; the other engaged His attention, at least for a part of the time, while He was within the Temple. Both of them were acts of His Christ as King 1Habakkuk 2:11. |