Headed to Easter - Tuesday

Headed to Easter – Tuesday

Tuesday:

Jesus spent Monday night in Bethany.  Early on Tuesday, as he made his way back to Jerusalem, he was hungry.  He saw a fig tree by the side of the road and went up to it.  There was nothing on it except leaves – no figs at all. 

He spoke to the tree: “May you never bear fruit again.”  It immediately withered.

When the disciples, who were with him, caught up to him they noted the dead fig tree were amazed.  “How did this tree wither so quickly?”

Ah, a teaching moment from the Master: “I tell you this, if you have faith and do not doubt, you too can do to the fig tree what was done, and even larger acts, like saying to the mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and you can do it.  If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for, through prayer.”

He continued on to the temple and began teaching.  The religious leaders of the temple stopped him and asked, “Who gives you the authority to do these things? 

Jesus replied with a question of his own.  “John’s baptism – where did it come from – heaven or of human origin?”

These temple leaders wouldn’t answer.  They knew the answer, but deferred instead by saying, “We don’t know.”

Christ’s response: “Neither will I tell you on whose authority I am doing these things.”  They wanted to play games with their answer.  He knew without a shadow of doubt from where his authority came.

He also told a couple of parables that day.  The first was the parable of two sons – one the father asked to go and work the vineyard.  He said yes and then never showed up. 

The second son said no and later changed his mind and went to work.

And then he told of the parable of the tenants.  A landowner planted a vineyard, put up a wall, dug a winepress and built a watchtower.  He then rented the land and went away. 

Harvest time came and he sent his servant to collect his owner’s share.  The tenants beat and killed the servants. 

It happened a second time and the same thing happened again.

The third time he sent his son; they threw him out and killed him too. 

He then asked what would happen if the landowner himself showed up.

The temple leaders knew the answer and they knew he was talking about them. 

This only made them angrier.  They looked for a way to arrest him, but knew the crowd held him up as a prophet and stopped short of that for this moment in time.

But they never let up.  They kept at him.  After the Pharisees had their shot, the Sadducees took over.  They bantered, questions, tried to trap him and trip him up, looking for any reliable excuse they could use in order to carry out their scheme.  Finally, at the end of Mathew 22, we read:

“… and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.”

That was how Tuesday played out

Please read Matthew 21-22 for more of the back story.

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