Events: Olivet Discourse - Withered Fig Tree - Teaching and Healing on the Temple Mount - Judas Negotiates His Betrayal
Tuesday of Passion Week began with a journey from Bethany to Jerusalem. As the disciples passed by the fig tree that Jesus had cursed on Monday, they were amazed to see it had withered from its roots. Jesus spent most of the day teaching and healing people on the Temple Mount. It was there that the Herodians, Pharisees, and the Sadducees did their best to undercut His authority. They interrogated and questioned Him, but Christ’s response was so strong, the Bible says, that they dared not question Him anymore.
As Jesus sat across from the treasury, He watched people give their tithes and offerings. Some made great fanfare when they gave, but there was a widow who gave from her need, both humbly and simply. Jesus remarked to His disciples that she had given more than all who had gone before her. As the day wrapped up, the disciples declared the glory of the Temple, which represented God’s permanent presence and favor to the Jewish people. But Jesus astonished them by indicating that the Temple would be completely destroyed.
He then took His disciples across the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives, giving them a discourse on events that would happen before His Second Coming. The Jewish people had placed their hope in a religious system symbolized by their glorious Temple. Jesus offered a new way to God, through faith in His cross and resurrection. Just as He had said to the Samaritan woman, that how a person worships is more important than where they worship, He was now teaching His disciples that systems of religion don’t save.
Trust in Jesus alone today! Ask Him to lead you to a deeper dependence upon Him, and to rid you of any reliance on religious systems or personal works.
Tuesday’s events are recorded in Matthew 21:23–24:51, Mark 11:20–13:37, Luke 20:1–21:36, and John 12:20–38.
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