Crucifixion as an Insurrectionist, In the Place of an Insurrectionist - Luke 23 – Jesus' Final Week part 5

(Click here to read Luke 23)

Luke 23:18-25 (ESV)
18  But they all cried out together, “Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas”— 19 a man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder. 20 Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, 21 but they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!” 22 A third time he said to them, “Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish and release him.” 23 But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed. 24 So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted. 25 He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, but he delivered Jesus over to their will.

Jesus was tried and crucified as an insurrectionist by the empire of Rome. Luke records his short ministry before his crucifixion as beginning in his hometown of Galilee, followed by choosing twelve disciples to carry on his ministry after he is gone. He called them apostles, which means “sent ones”. From Galilee he traveled toward Jerusalem with the apostles gathering crowds of followers who would listen to him teach, and receive miraculous healing and provision.

The crowds grew and began to follow him across the country toward Jerusalem. He preached about the Kingdom of God, announcing the coming of a Great Reversal toward true justice that would begin with the Living Spirit of God planted inside a human spirit, resulting in a change in their very being, toward a change in their actions, and a change in the world. In this Great Reversal rulers and kings would come down, and be replaced by the meek and humble. The last will be first, and the first last. The oppressed will be set free. Scoundrels would be forgiven.

His message was revolutionary both in action and consequence, yet he never spoke a word of insurrection or violence. In fact, his method of resistance was peaceful and active. He taught and practiced love for enemies, offering a cup of cold water to one set fire by hatred.

His teaching and his life turned religion and politics both on their head, removing the possibility of control and corruption. All become equal in this new Kingdom in both their skullduggery and their salvation. There is only one King, and he sets his people free.

The religious and political elite of his realm of influence were both threatened by his message. Still, the true power of oppression, the empire of Rome, took very little notice. Jesus was arrested and tried as a heretic by his own people, but if he was going to receive any punishment for these crimes, it would have to be at the hand of Rome.

Rome executed criminals who they perceived as a threat to the empire. Crucifixion in particular was reserved for non-citizens of Rome who participated in or conspired toward insurrection. Jesus' life and teaching may have been revolutionary in a certain sense, but to die at Rome's hands, Rome would have to be

convinced he was a threat.

Luke 23:1-5 (ESV)

Then the whole company of them arose and brought him before Pilate. 2 And they began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.” 3  And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” 4 Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, “I find no guilt in this man.” 5 But they were urgent, saying, “He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place.”

This “King of the Jews” as Jesus willingly identified himself was a rural, working class man of little education and no credentials by the standards of Rome. The empire couldn't have possibly conceived of such a man being an actual threat, no matter how popular he may have been to the discontented crowds. With a short term and practical vision, Pilate may have appreciated this mystic who taught the crowds not to become violent. The very values of the empire that Jesus preached against were the things that made them blind to Jesus as any threat.

So Jesus was sent to the Roman authority in charge of Galileans, mocked and abused, and similarly excused to return to Pilate. He was then presented back to the crowd by an incredulous Pilate, who was certain that this man was innocent.

13 Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, 14 and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him. 15 Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him. 16  I will therefore punish and release him.”

Luke 23:18-25 (ESV)

18  But they all cried out together, “Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas”— 19 a man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder. 20 Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, 21 but they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!” 22 A third time he said to them, “Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish and release him.” 23 But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed. 24 So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted. 25 He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, but he delivered Jesus over to their will.

Pilate was a shrewd leader. Like every oppressive empire that wishes to stay in power, an image of compliance with the will of the people is necessary to keep the forces of discontent at bay. Pilate had a practice of granting amnesty to a prisoner every Passover, the religious holiday the people were celebrating at the time of Jesus' trial.

But the people did not want the “King” released to them. They called for Barabbas, the insurrectionist. Barabbas was likely a Zealot – one of the Jews who wanted to overthrow the Roman empire. Zealots attacked Roman travelers and stole from them to redistribute wealth, like Robin Hood, or a pirate. He probably wasn't a drooling, crazy idiot as popular movies (such as Passion of the Christ) suggest. He was probably very intelligent, and maybe even a folk hero.

Barabbas' Freedom = Freedom to decide for yourself what is right or wrong outside of any authority, and do as you please. You are your own Lord and King. You are Master of your domain.

Barabbas sought to be free from the yoke of Rome by the very same values and methods by which Rome oppressed.

Jesus' freedom was different. Jesus taught a freedom that lived for others, that loved enemies, that gave from one's abundance for those who had less. Jesus taught to give to all who ask, even those who would never repay. He taught mercy for those that would betray us. Jesus' freedom was one that began inside a person, and was then offered to everyone with whom that person came to interact. This was a freedom that took no control of another by violence or manipulation, whether that person was an equal, an oppressor, or a vulnerable person in need.

Jesus sought, lived, and offered freedom of the entire person, physically, mentally, spiritually, politically, and otherwise, by the exact opposite values and methods of the corrupt and violent Roman empire.

Luke 4:18-19 (ESV)

18  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and recovering of sight to the blind,
     to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19  to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.”

Galatians 5:1 (ESV)

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

So, if Jesus is King offering freedom, how is it that he is about to die?

Philippians 2:5-11 (ESV)

5  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6  who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9  Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Barabbas' is the temptation of the fruit in the garden of Eden, that we get to decide good and evil for ourselves. We decide for ourselves what’s right and wrong for us with no outside authority. We are our own Lord and King. We can be like God.

And when we seek such “freedom” at the expense of others, we are Barabbas. And we are not truly free. We want to fight for our freedom. We are terrorists in our own world, fighting for our rights, fighting to get all that is owed to us, scrambling to be God. This is everything that religion is about, from Buddhism to Moralism to Atheistic Naturalism.

The Kingdom of Heaven requires us to say, as Douglas Coupland:

My secret is that I need God--that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give, because I no longer seem to be capable of giving; to help me be kind, as I no longer seem capable of kindness; to help me love, as I seem beyond being able to love.

-Life after God

Jesus was perfect, and he was made sin for us. We can ONLY receive freedom as a gift. It isn’t owed to us. We don’t need to ask for our wages earned. God is dispensing a gift. All it costs is everything, but Christ already paid for it.

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Jesus was executed that day between to other insurrectionists. Three men hung on crosses, each with a hope that the world could be different than it was. Two received the consequences of their violence., and would never see the changed they hoped for. Jesus' went to the grave to plant the seed of the Kingdom and true change in the world.

Jesus died on the cross as he had lived, resisting the power of the empire within and without as he spoke forgiveness for all the injustice he was served, and submitted his life to his Father in heaven.

Luke 23:34, 46 (ESV)

34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.

46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

Luke 23:26-56 (ESV)

26  And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus. 27 And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. 28 But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30  Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us’, and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ 31 For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
32  Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33  And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments. 35 And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38  There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”
39  One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
44  It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 while the sun's light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. 47 Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” 48 And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. 49 And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.



50  Now there was a man named Joseph, from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, a good and righteous man, 51 who had not consented to their decision and action; and he was looking for the kingdom of God. 52 This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 53 Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid. 54 It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. 55  The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. 56 Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments.
On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

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v3 – Jesus claims to be King of the Jews.

v14 – Jesus was not inciting a rebellion.

v19 – Barabbas had been sentenced for insurrection, and the people wanted his release.

v46 – His last prayer is submission and surrender.

Denial, Betrayal, Arrest, and Covenant - Luke 22 – Jesus' Final Week part 4

(Click here to read Luke 22)

Luke 22:19-23 (ESV)

 ¹⁹  And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁰ And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. ²¹  But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. ²² For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!” ²³ And they began to question one another, which of them it could be who was going to do this.

Betrayal hangs heavy in the air at the Last Supper. On this night, Jesus has been betrayed by one of his inner circle, and one of his very closest friends will deny even knowing him. He shares the table with both of them tonight.

Tonight, he will be arrested. He will be tried at morning as a heretic and an insurrectionist, both crimes punishable by death.

For a few days, Jesus has confined his activities to the public courtyard of the temple, surrounded by crowds of his followers. He had entered the city less than a week before, to the praise of the people as they called him Messiah, the Chosen one, while he was riding a donkey. He and the crowds went from the gate to the temple, where Jesus overturned and overtook the courtyard from the corrupt moneychangers and businesses that were taking advantage of faithful pilgrims (Luke 19).

(Click here to see notes on Jesus' dramatic entrance to the city)

At night, he went alone to the Mount of Olives, arriving back at the temple early in the morning to join the camp of misfits and teach about the Kingdom of God (Luke 20-21). The authorities have increased surveillance and pressure, hoping to trap him into saying something violent or revolutionary so they could have him removed by Rome (Luke 19:47-48, 20:21, 26, 22:2).

Luke 22:1-2 (ESV)

Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. ² And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for they feared the people.

They couldn't remove Jesus legitimately, and the critical mass of supporters surrounding him would have been witness if they tried. If they were going to hang onto their corrupt control, they would have to act clandestinely.

Luke 22:3-6 (ESV)
³  Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. ⁴ He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. ⁵ And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. ⁶ So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.

Evidence suggests that Jesus knew of Judas' betrayal. Certainly he knew that his teaching and his life were to lead to his death. He predicted his death twice in chapter 9 (vv22 and 44), and once right before entering the city (Luke 18:32-33), saying explicitly that he would die at the hands of the Roman empire.

Betrayal, Denial, and Loss

When he has his two closest disciples leave the courtyard to prepare the Passover for them to share together, he does so with great care and secrecy (vv7-13). It seems like he has been making plans in secret to leave the temple courts and share this last significant meal with his disciples. By keeping it a secret, he also kept it from Judas. The Last Supper was a surprise party for his disciples, but one with great sober intention.

Jesus knew he was in danger, and his secrecy suggests he knew he was in danger by his close friend. His hours were numbered. His words at this event were going to be some of the most important he would ever speak to his disciples. He made sure they would not be disturbed, at least long enough to share this final meal.

In Luke 15 (see notes), Jesus told the story of a Father betrayed by his son. Such a loss is far more complicated than even a death. In his story, this father willingly received his wretched son back, forgiving him entirely for what he'd done.

Jesus knew the bitterness of betrayal. He felt the napalm burn of being attacked and abandoned utterly by one for whom he gave his ministry. Judas was a friend. Jesus had crowds around him, but only twelve that he shared with as he shared with Judas. Thousands would have probably loved to have the access that Judas had. And Judas was not always a traitor. Luke 6 says that Jesus picked his closest twelve after a night in prayer, and describes Judas the one who would “become a traitor” (6:12-13,16).

After sharing the Passover meal with his disciples, he prophesies to Peter, one of his closest, that the rooster would not crow for morning until Peter had denied him three times (vv31-34). Later, after his arrest, his friend is recognized in the courtyard where he is held prisoner. Peter had an accent, as Jesus would also have had, that set him apart as being from the multi-ethnic and low-income neighbourhood of Galilee. Peter is recognized in the dark by his accent, three times by other strangers waiting by the fire. He adamantly denies ever knowing his closest and dearest friend (vv54-62).

Trials could only legally happen during the hours of daylight. When the rooster crows, Jesus is led out of the house for his trial, and locks eyes with his comrade. Peter remembers what Jesus had said at Supper, and his heart breaks. Verse 62 says he wept bitterly.

Betrayal and denial are bitter. Jesus had said to his disciples that to follow him would mean to deny themselves.

Luke 9:23-26 (ESV)
 ²³ And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. ²⁴ For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. ²⁵  For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? ²⁶ For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

On this night, to avoid a cross, Peter denies his Lord, and leaves him to die alone.

Luke 22:61-62 (ESV)
 ⁶¹ And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times.” ⁶² And he went out and wept bitterly.

(see more notes on Luke 9)

Jesus has traveled with these twelve from Galilee to Jerusalem, preaching of the Kingdom of God. He has repeatedly described this Kingdom as an upside-down one, a Kingdom completely contrary to the values of the empire. He says that the message of the empire is good news to the poor (Luke 4), and that in it the first will be last, and the last, first.

It is these men who were closest to Jesus during that journey, who now respond to news of his suffering and betrayal with an argument over which of them would be greatest. This is not the first time they've had this argument. The first time this argument is recorded in Luke was right at the very beginning of their calling with Jesus, also right after he told them he was to die.

Luke 9:46-48 (ESV)
⁴⁶  An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. ⁴⁷ But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side ⁴⁸ and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among all of you is the one who is great.”

On the night he is to be betrayed and arrested, Jesus patiently describes the radical nature of this different Kingdom to the people who should have understood it best.

Later that night, as Jesus asks for their comforting company and prayer during deep agony (v44), these men will prefer to sleep (vv45-46). What could possibly encourage Jesus to continue his path to execution, when it seems his message of a different Kingdom has been so badly misunderstood or forgotten?

The Last Supper

Luke 22:14-16 (ESV)
 ¹⁴  And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. ¹⁵ And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. ¹⁶ For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”

This Supper with his disciples and what it represents is what makes the difference between Jesus' message of a Kingdom as a utopian idea, and the Kingdom of God as a present reality.

The meal they shared was the Passover. In this holy annual meal, the Jewish people remember their slavery in Egypt, from which they were dramatically rescued by God through Moses. God judged their oppressors with ten plagues that utterly destroyed their empire, and made a mockery of their idols. On their last night in Egypt, the Israelite families followed Moses' instructions to kill a lamb for their meal that night, and brush the blood of the lamb on the doors of their houses. They were to eat the lamb with bread made without yeast. That night, when the angel of the Lord came to kill the firstborn sons of Egypt, it would pass over the doors with blood, and they would be spared. By this judgment, Egypt relented when they would not from any other plague. Israel was released from slavery.

From Egypt, the new nation of Israel traveled to a mountain where they received the law, the covenant terms they would follow that showed they were God's people. In the covenant, God required a dedication of all the firstborn sons of Israel, saying that by the Passover, he had rescued them and therefore made them his own. Israelites would kill a lamb when they broke the laws of the covenant, and the blood of the innocent animal would pay for their sin.

But Jesus presented the Passover differently.

Luke 22:17-20 (ESV)
 ¹⁷ And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. ¹⁸  For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” ¹⁹  And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁰ And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

Jesus was offering a New Covenant. This Covenant would not be bought by the blood of lambs, or the strict adherence to a moral law. Jesus was offering himself as the innocent lamb. His life, lived entirely as the law code required, was given for the payment of any law broken by his disciples.

He sat at a table with those that would betray him to death, that would abandon him to grief, that would deny him in shame. And before any of it is to occur, he forgives it all completely. His death wasn't a strategy for overturning Rome. It wasn't a great example for his disciples to follow, though by living life according to his teaching, they would. His death was a gift, a gift of freedom from the Old Covenant. He fulfilled it entirely. It was done.

And so, this was a new Passover. Judgment for their wrongdoing, misunderstandings, or downright treachery, even that very evening, could be completely forgiven. All Jesus had been preaching about the Kingdom of God up until this day could be made possible because of the holy and righteous hearts he could now give to all those who would receive it.

And he offered, not because it was deserved, or earned, or even asked for. He gave it because of love.

The Kingdom of God in the hearts of these and the rest of his disciples would turn the empire upside down. It would turn religion upside down. People as wholly freed as they would be, free to live without fear of judgment or punishment or even death, were people who really could and would live according to the Justice and generosity that Jesus had taught.

And these would be lives set free from all bondage, as Israel had been set free from Egypt. These were lives purchased, every one, by the King of kings. There is no higher judge to call them guilty when this one calls them innocent. There is no other King that could demand honour when this one receives the highest honour.

These are lives freely able to receive the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God inside of them, the living seed of the Kingdom of God that changes the world from the grave to the sky.

Jesus' Arrest

Before leaving the upper room, Jesus told the disciples to be prepared to live their lives of freedom and resistance. He assures them that what is about to happen, his arrest and execution as an insurrectionist, must occur according to God's plan. He tells them that it will be the fulfillment of scripture (vv35-38). Though they may not understand, this surely would have been a comfort later.

He takes them to the Mount of Olives, where he had spent his nights during the last week of occupation and teaching at the temple (see notes). He prays with such anguish that he sweats blood. He asks God to let the cup pass from him, but also says he will submit to his will (v42).

Here it says that an angel came to strengthen him (v43). In the other synoptic gospels, this happens during Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, but not here (Matthew 4:11, Mark 1:15). Luke does not record angels ministering to him at his temptation. Only in Luke does it record this event happening here. This may have been the Last Temptation, “the opportune” time recorded in Luke 4:13.

Jesus is arrested in the middle of the night, at the Mount of Olives, by a crowd led by his friend, Judas. A disciple strikes a man with a sword in retaliation. Jesus tells him to stop, and heals the man immediately after (vv49-51). The purpose of his death and the message of the Kingdom of God could not be confused by violent rebellion. Jesus confronts the tactics of the aggressors come to arrest him by pointing that they had to arrest him at night when he was alone, by deception and conspiracy. They were not willing to arrest him in front of the people who were with him in the courtyard of the temple. This was corruption. They knew it, and so did he, and he called it what it was (vv52-53). He similarly pointed out Judas' betrayal when he arrived (vv47-48).

Luke 12:3-4 (ESV)

² Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. ³ Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.

Jesus is taken away to a secure location until he can be legally tried in the daylight. He is mocked, beaten, and abused. At first light, he is finally asked a question in a mockery of justice that sought to have him incriminate himself.

To the most pointed question of whether he was the Son of God, he answered more clearly than he ever had before this point by his own confession.

He told the counsel he was the Son of God.

This was enough for him to be worthy of death by the law of Moses. The verdict in this court was clear. But under Roman occupation, no one could pronounce or carry out a death sentence without a conviction by Rome. For this, they would have to prove he was a revolutionary.

This they were prepared to do.

But what was heresy to the counsel was Good News for the Kingdom of God. It was exactly this event that would inaugurate the planting of the Kingdom in the hearts of all those who would receive it. And it was this reason, that Jesus is divine, that the Holy Spirit could be offered as a gift to everyone who would receive the power of God inside them to live as Citizens of the Upside Down Kingdom of Heaven.

Luke 22:63-71 (ESV)

⁶³  Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him. ⁶⁴  They also blindfolded him and kept asking him, “Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?” ⁶⁵ And they said many other things against him, blaspheming him.

⁶⁶  When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes. And they led him away to their council, and they said, ⁶⁷  “If you are the Christ, tell us.” But he said to them, “If I tell you, you will not believe, ⁶⁸ and if I ask you, you will not answer. ⁶⁹ But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” ⁷⁰ So they all said, “Are you the Son of God, then?” And he said to them, “You say that I am.” ⁷¹ Then they said, “What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips.”

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vv23-24 – These two verses together seem almost absurd. Jesus just said that someone would betray him and his blood would be poured out. They change subjects to wondering which of them is best without a breath.

v52 – Jesus was NOT leading a rebellion – implied

v70 – Jesus claims to be the Son of God.

Occupy the Temple 3 - Prophecy and Fulfillment - Luke 21 - Jesus' Final Week part 3

Occupy the Temple part 3 - Occupy the Temple part 2 - Occupy the Temple part 1  
(Click here to read Luke 21)

Luke 21:1-4 (ESV)

Devon at Occupy Edmonton. Credit - AMVanimere

Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, 2 and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. 3 And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. 4 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

Jesus and his followers are Occupying the temple courtyard after a dramatic "housecleaning" when Jesus removed the corrupt bankers and businessmen who had previously used the space (click here to read more about this event from Luke 19).

The powers that be haven't appreciated the community building and teaching that have taken the place of the buying and selling. They've been challenging Jesus' authority to be in the space with the huddled crowds teaching what he does (click here to read more about these challenges and Jesus' response from Luke 20). They are afraid of the people, so for now their only tactic has been increased surveillance combined with these challenges, and hoping for an opportunity to have a legal reason to remove Jesus by force.

The first passage in Luke 21 shows that the new occupants of the temple are not hindering the coming and going of the worshipers and religious faithful who have come to visit.

Jesus' observation of the widow reminds us again of the message he's carried consistently since the beginning of his ministry. Jesus preaches the good news of the Kingdom of God, in which there will be a Great Reversal in the order of the entire world, as the Kingdom planted in the hearts of people by the Holy Spirit is demonstrated in their lives in radical love and justice. It also reminds us of the parable of the self-righteous Pharisee and the repentant tax collector in Luke 18:9-14 (see notes).

The new Kingdom is different. It is alive and growing. It is demonstrative and powerful. And it is coming.

Jesus warns his followers that the change will be hard. They are resisting authorities that will not give up their power easily. But the hope for the faithful is that the change will be fulfilled and completed one day at his return. On that day, the wicked who refused to lay down their crowns will be judged, and the good news for the poor, the blind, the oppressed, and the imprisoned will be completely realized.

The poor widow giving her last two pennies in her faith is juxtaposed by the fifteen story tall stone temple and surrounding buildings built by a puppet ruler to impress the people. The beauty and riches of the temple will be destroyed in an attempted revolution gone bad forty years in the future (vv5-7). When Jesus prophesies its destruction, the people ask when it will happen.

For the rest of the chapter, Jesus speaks of the consummation of the Kingdom of God that will occur at his return (vv8-9). Instead of giving times and dates, he describes the signs by which they will know it is coming. He also warns them to be patient. The Kingdom will come slowly.

Luke 21:8-9 (ESV)

8 And he said, “See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them. 9 And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once.”

Jesus says the temple destruction is the beginning of the end. But the end will not come at once (v9). There will be bad times In the future. (cheer up, it'll get worse), but God will be faithful. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit will give them the word when brought before the authorities for their resistance (repeating Luke 12:11-12).

Luke 21:12-15 (ESV)

12 But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. 13  This will be your opportunity to bear witness. 14 Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, 15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.

Jesus demonstrates this kind of wisdom and faith in the way he answers his challengers in Luke 20 (see notes).
This is exactly what happens to Paul, and many of the other early Christians as well. The story of Acts is a progression of the gospel through persecution.

Jesus answers their question of "when will these things be?" in verses 20-24. The defensive reaction of the empire to the violent uprising of 70AD will be swift and terrible.

But this symbol of the end of the old order is not the final coming of the Kingdom of God (vv25-28). His followers will continue to resist the old world and live on the earth as ambassadors and symbols of the Kingdom Come. And he will come. We have a hope.

Keep on watch look for the signs, Jesus tells the people. Watch for coming persecutions and difficulties, including the fall of Jerusalem, which will happen in this generation (v32). The fulfillment of this prophecy would confirm the promise of Jesus' return. As bad as it may seem at any time, his followers have hope that there will be an end to the resistance. Jesus will not abandon us (v33). We should remain vigilant, and not lose hope or become apathetic in our resistance or our proclamation (vv34-36).

The Mount of Olives

The chapter ends by saying that Jesus spent his nights on the Mount of Olives. He needed alone time.

On the night of his betrayal and arrest, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives with his disciples to pray. I imagine this may have been the scene every night of this final week spent teaching at the temple, as he felt the wait of his coming execution increase with each passing day. He was filled every night by time spent with his Father, giving him the strength to minister all day under the watchful eye of the corrupt authorities.

Probably some of the crowd stayed at the temple, or Luke wouldn't have considered Jesus' leaving notable. At least enough to keep the occupation going must have remained, or else the powers would have been able to remove them.

(Luke 22:2 - they feared the people... There were enough of them to make them afraid. They were losing control of this situation.)

Verse 38 says that the people returned "early in the morning". This may have been like our experience with the Occupy Edmonton camp, and many others of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Very few people knew how many or how few were actually there at night. The powers are more constrained by schedules and timing. The poor and dispossessed have more free time to demonstrate.

But for Jesus, his time in the temple with the crowds is coming to an end. It is almost time for the Passover. Just as he takes his nights alone, he also must take his leave to spend this significant night with his closest disciples.

It will be his last meal with them before his betrayal and arrest.

Who said you could Occupy the Temple? - Luke 20 - Jesus' Final Week part 2

Occupy the Temple part 2 of 3
(Click to read Luke 20)
(Click to read part 1)

 
Luke 20:1-2 (ESV)
One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up 2 and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.”

Our chapter opens on a dramatic scene in Jerusalem city. In the courtyard of the new and impressive fifteen story high stone temple, once home to corrupt bankers, businessmen, and other assorted thieves, sits a critical mass of the poor common folk in their place. Booths and tables for selling overpriced religious goods to tourists were occupying this space only yesterday. But the sights and sounds of a marketplace on the property of this house of worship have been replaced by a small community of displaced and hungry persons, listening with joy and anticipation to the teachings of a rural, poor, working-class Galilean.

The authorities are unhappy. This is their space, their place of power. And they've determined it to be better used as it was, for taking advantage of the religious faithful, not a place for building community and listening to an un-credentialed commoner talk about God. But there isn't much they can do about it yet. They are afraid of the people (v19).

They challenge his authority, asking him who had given him permission to be there, or who had ordained him to preach from scripture.

Jesus had already answered this question. Before he began his ministry, he stood up in a synagogue, and read from Isaiah, saying the verse was about him, beginning on that day.


Luke 4:17-19 (ESV)

¹⁷ And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

¹⁸  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

¹⁹  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Such has been the nature of his ministry up until this point. He has preached and demonstrated freedom, justice, and love, even in resistance to the religious and political powers. Here in the temple courtyard, in the shadow of the buildings erected by a puppet government of Rome to gain the favour of the masses, he continues to announce the coming of the Kingdom of God.

But instead of answering directly, Jesus challenges them to tell him who had given John the Baptist his authority. He was also a popular teacher, and just as lacking in credentials as Jesus. 


Luke 20:3-4 (ESV)

3 He answered them, “I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, 4 was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?”

They were stuck. They couldn't speak against John in the presence of the crowds. They couldn't speak for him, or they might legitimate Jesus' teaching. Afraid, they say they don't know. And if they don't know about John, how then can they have the authority to determine whether Jesus is able to preach? Jesus has disarmed them.
 

Luke 20:8 (ESV)

And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

For the rest of the chapter this back and forth continues. The authority of the age continues to try to undermine Jesus' authority. Jesus continues to teach about the Justice and Love of God's Kingdom, and the coming demise of the old ways of corrupt power, both religious and political.

It is in these two realms that the authorities focus their attacks. If they can catch Jesus saying something to contradict his faith or scripture, they can remove him as a heretic. If they can catch him saying something explicit against the empire, they can have him removed as an insurrectionist and a criminal.

They want their centre of control back.

Jesus and the crowds are under heavy surveillance.


The Political Challenge (vv19-26)

Jesus' teachings and his life had strong social and political consequences. His mother sang over him before his birth that his life would bring down kings, and put the humble in their place (Luke 1:52 and notes). Jesus proclaimed woes on the rich in his Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:24 and notes). His ministry was inaugurated by the reading of a prophecy about setting the oppressed free (Luke 4 notes). His entire message so far has been about the Good News of God's Kingdom, in which a Great Reversal will turn the order of everything toward justice and love (Luke 13 notes). 


Luke 20:20-26 (ESV)

20  So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor. 21 So they asked him, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God. 22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” 23 But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar's.” 25 He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” 26 And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marvelling at his answer they became silent.

Jesus wasn't carrying any money on him.

Jesus' answer is both political and spiritual. The image on the coin was, indeed, Caesar. The inscription was, "Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the Divine Augustus". (Caesar himself claimed to be the son of god and divine, a blasphemy punishable by death according to religious law. Ironically, the religious leaders are here ready to turn Jesus over to Caesar because they are threatened by people believing he is divine.) By distinguishing between Caesar and God, Jesus protests and denies the validity of the inscription he had just pointed out.

In the Jewish story of Creation, God makes human beings in his own image.

Genesis 1:27 (ESV)

So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
     male and female he created them.

If Jesus is saying that the image of Caesar on a coin implies his ownership and authority, upon what is the image of God stamped? To the crowds and the religious leaders that heard him, Jesus was undeniably claiming that God was the one with highest authority.

It may be that Caesar has authority to decide how and by whom his empire's money would be used. But the image of God is stamped on every poor person in that courtyard, upon the religious leaders who questioned Jesus, and even upon Caesar himself. God could use, spend, or call back to himself any one of these people into whom he had breathed life whenever he wished.

Jesus had taught these same crowds that they did not need to worry about their clothes or their food, because they had a Heavenly Father that fed them (Luke12:22-24 and notes). He taught them to pray every day for their provision (Luke 11:3), and to otherwise live with open hands of radical generosity and love (Luke 6:35-36). They were children of God, and free from the bondage of the world's system of capital.

So let Caesar have his money. We belong to our Creator, our King, our Father. Once we've given him everything that is his, our allegiance, our love, our possessions, our very lives, there won't be much left for Caesar.

If Caesar were to believe the same, he would have no issue with Jesus saying this. If Caesar were to believe himself sovereign, he would not understand Jesus' words, and would still have no issue with him.

The Religious Challenge (vv27-40)

The Sadducees were a powerful religious sect with some of the most stringent boundaries on their understandings of God and scripture. Many other Rabbis taught from interpretations and applications from the whole of Hebrew scripture, history, and tradition. The Pharisees were one group that taught this way, and Jesus practiced a form of this as well. But the Sadducees accepted only the first five books of Moses as authoritative. If something wasn't explicitly stated in these books, they questioned its validity. In practice, they were the most liberal in their dealings with politics and the Roman empire. They believed in holding office and compromising with Rome when mutually beneficial. In belief, this meant they were strict empiricists. They did not believe in spirits or the miraculous. Neither did they believe there would be a resurrection and judgment at the end of days. They were unique in rejecting these common beliefs, making their challenge all the more difficult to unravel.

The resurrection was an important part of Jesus' teaching on the Kingdom of God, so this is where the Saducees focus their criticism.

They present him with a carefully convoluted question about remarriage and death to try to trap him in an impossible rhetorical circumstance. The foundation of their question is scripture from the first five books. The premises included the question of who a legitimately remarried woman would be married to when she and all her husbands were resurrected in God's Kingdom.

Jesus begins his answer with an unsolicited correction to their question. Marriage is for now, not for eternity. Our lives in the eternity of God's Kingdom Fulfilled won't include such things. But he goes on to defend his belief in resurrection anyway, using the first five books of Moses to do so.

Luke 20:37-40 (ESV)

37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” 39 Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” 40 For they no longer dared to ask him any question.

Jesus Returns the Challenges

Each time Jesus is challenged, he wisely disarms his opponents and turns the challenge back onto them. But he does not play the victim. Jesus is just as willing to challenge these powers and the legitimacy of their authority as they are his.

First Challenge - Parable of the Tenants (vv9-18)

Jesus tells the people a parable of tenants given a landowner's authority over a vineyard in his absence. The landlord sends servants back to receive the fruit of the vineyard, but the tenants reject them all, arrogantly treating each one worse than the last.

Finally, the landlord sends his "beloved son", the same words used to describe Jesus at his transfiguration (Luke 9:35; Matthew 7:5). This son is killed. Jesus has three times predicted his own death in Luke. Here he reveals to the authorities publicly that he knows their plans.

The leaders know the story is about them (v19), so the conclusion is significant. Jesus says that the landlord will kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. This is a potent image considering the dramatic reversal already recently demonstrated when the bankers and businessmen in the temple courtyard were replaced by the crowds sitting before them.

Luke 20:17-18 (ESV)

17 But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written:

“‘The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone’?
18  Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

Second Challenge - Who is David's Son?(vv41-44)

Both Jesus' challengers and the crowds before him are wondering at his identity. Days before, he had entered the city to the worship and adoration of crowds that called him a King who comes in God's name (Luke 19:38) or "Son of David" (Matthew 21:9), both titles for the promised Messiah who would came and set his people free from oppression. When asked to stop them, Jesus replied that if they did, the rocks themselves would cry out instead.

Here, Jesus challenges their ideas about who this Messiah is. David prophesies of Messiah, calling him "Lord". Jesus asks how this Messiah could be David's son, yet also be called "Lord". Jesus' question implies its answer. If David, the most powerful and beloved king in Israel's history called Messiah "Lord", then Messiah will be even greater than David.

It's a powerful claim from someone who just had a crowd call him by that name, a crowd now surrounding his opponents.

Luke 20:42-44 (ESV)

42 For David himself says in the Book of Psalms,

“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit at my right hand,
43     until I make your enemies your footstool.’
44 David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?”

The Third Challenge - Warning Against the Religious Elite (vv45-47)

The chapter ends with Jesus at the top of every challenge. Standing before his opponents, the old guard protecting the old systems, he boldly warns the people not to follow them, and condemns them for their corruption.

Luke 20:45-47 (ESV)

45  And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, 46 “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the market-places and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at feasts, 47  who devour widows' houses and for a pretence make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

Jesus speaks Truth to power. The old world is crumbling. The new world is coming alive through the cracks. The mountains are being removed. The valleys are rising. Everything is different now.

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After Jesus drives the sellers out of the temple, the religious leaders try to find ways to trap him in a sin or crime and kill him, or have him killed.

It is appropriate that they would question his authority. Clearing out the temple questioned their authority.

Jesus' Last Week - A Timeline

Click the above image for an expanded version of a timeline of Jesus' final week, provided by Biblegateway.com.

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Good Friday Links

He has died to make men holy. Let us live to make men free.
Good Friday 2013 thoughts on emancipation from all oppression bought for us at the cross.

Crucifixion as an Insurrectionist, in the Place of an Insurrectionist
Jesus Final Week - Luke 23







































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Occupy the Temple – The Triumphal Entry – Luke 19 – Jesus' Last Week Part 1

(Click here to read Luke 19)

Luke 19:37-40 (ESV)

37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives— the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39  And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

All of Luke has led up to this point, the final week of Jesus' life. Since chapter 9, Jesus and his disciples have been making their way to Jerusalem from their hometown of Galilee. Along the way, they have been announcing the arrival of the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of the Great Reversal, where the humble are exalted and the exalted are humbled. Jesus teaches a change of the heart of persons, exchanging their greed and selfishness for generosity and radical love. He teaches a change of action, those same individuals exchanging their lives of striving for active participation in a new way of being, a way that lives for others, for the poor and marginalized, for justice in resistance to the patterns of the world. And he teaches and demonstrates a different order to the entire way the world operates, an exchange of power and privilege from the controlling elite to the poor and dispossessed.

Click the flag for more on Jesus and Resistance

Jesus has been identified by his disciples and the crowds as the Messiah, the promised one they have been expecting to come and set them free from their oppression. Three times Jesus has warned his disciples that his path will not be toward a violent overthrow of the occupying Roman empire, but that their road to Jerusalem is one that will lead to his death as an insurrectionist by the empire's hand. Many have shown their misunderstanding along the way, their desire for justice by the hand of this Saviour so acute that their hope for immediate change often clouds their ability to understand Jesus path of nonviolent resistance and change through love. Still, Jesus continues to patiently teach and demonstrate this third way, this other path, as he makes his way toward the religious and cultural centre of his people's world, and his own death.

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It is through his followers active in the world, by the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives that the Great Reversal will be accomplished. This will be a change from within to without, from the bottom to the top, from the least to the greatest. It will begin from the grave and extend to the sky. Jesus gives his entire being to the world, and the seed broken and buried gives life to the garden of the new Kingdom.

The roots of the living Kingdom wedge wider the cracks of the concrete and barbed wire until the entire dead structure comes crumbling down, revealing a living, verdant garden of True Community in Holy Spirit Kingdom life. - from "Overgrow the Government"

As he approaches Jerusalem, he passes through the neighbouring Jericho, and is given one more opportunity to teach and demonstrate this new way. A tax collector, one of the most despised people of his day for their reputation for betraying family and friends to the empire, has been waiting to see him. This man would represent the opposite of everything Jesus teaches. He submits his life wholly to the powers of this world, oppressing the poor for the sake of personal wealth. But Jesus enters his home, and upon receiving the unconditional love of Jesus, the tax collector repents of his selfishness and treachery, promising to change everything about how he lives.

Luke 19:8-10 (ESV)

8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
 

This man could not have been more far gone. It is here, in the hearts of individual persons like Zaccheus, love by love, heart by heart, that the Kingdom will come.

Jesus goes on to teach and explain that the Kingdom will come in this way, in the lives and actions of his followers, by telling the story of a business owner giving his workers the job to steward his business while he is gone (vv11-27). Some translations have the business owner say “Occupy until I come”, bringing to mind a not-entirely-untrue image of active peaceful resisters seeking to create counter-cultural communities in resistance to the powers of this world. Jesus' parable describes the workers investing the gifts given them by their supervisor to good affect, getting more for their efforts in his absence, bearing fruit by their growth until he returns.

Luke 19:11 (ESV)

11 As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.

Anticipation of his arrival has been building for his entire journey. His disciples talk on the road about which of them will be greatest in the new kingdom after the revolution that Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem is bound to initiate. The religious and political leaders increase their pressure and surveillance as he comes closer to their centre of power and influence. Even the puppet-king of the region, Herod, has been looking into this strange man's following and reputation, and hopes for an audience with him.

And the crowds around him have grown, creating a folk-hero of him. These are the crowds that welcome him as he enters the gates of Jerusalem. He rides a colt, a symbol of the house of David, and fulfilling the prophesy of the coming Messiah-King. The donkey is also a satire. This is a king that doesn't need a cavalcade or announcements by superior authorities. These crowds are his people. There is no authority higher than his. He needs no affirmation by the kings or the priests to truly be the king he is. His kingdom is a different one, and the donkey and the common folk are enough.

Jesus and his Followers 
Occupy the Temple

Luke 19:45-46 (ESV)

45  And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”

As he enters the city, he demonstrates a passion mixed with deep love, sorrow, and fury. He weeps for the city he loves as he prophesies its destruction, to be fulfilled within a generation when Jerusalem will be torn apart in 70AD, the result of a violent revolution contrary to the peaceful resistance that Jesus has been preaching. Jesus makes his first visit in Jerusalem to the temple, the very heart of the powers of the world that his kingdom will see reversed. In the courts are moneychangers, charging the people who journey to worship for an exchange of their Roman money for other denominations. Since the symbols of the empire were stamped with idols, these coins were not allowed in the temple. Pilgrims who had traveled with money to buy or give sacrifices in the temple would be forced to change their money, and these people took advantage of the religious faithful. 

Jesus is enraged. He forcefully drives the bankers and businessmen out of the place of worship.

And after cleaning house, the backwoods, rural, low-income Jesus and the undereducated and hungry crowds that follow him remain in the temple courts, taking the place of the corrupt bankers and businesses that had previously occupied the space. They remain there to hear Jesus teach and demonstrate the coming Kingdom.

They've set up camp in the centre of the scene of the corruption of the previous order. They've reclaimed the space for true worship and loving community.

Luke 19:47-48 (ESV)

47  And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.

The line has been drawn, and the powers that be are rattled. The critical mass of the poor and the oppressed around their Messiah interrupt the desires of the elite to remove him. For now.

Check back here tomorrow at 8am for more on the Temple Demonstration as it continues in Luke 20.

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v8 – A rich and corrupt tax collector becomes a Jesus follower. It appears as though he remains a tax collector, but an honest one. This is different than Matthew, who left his old life behind. Jesus honours both.

Another parable about business.

v22 – Judged by his own words, not necessarily as he would have acted otherwise.

v38 – (Triumphal entry on a borrowed colt) “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

This is a strange way for a king to make an entrance. Maybe today it would have been like a king arriving on public transit instead of a limo.