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Tag: Matthew

  • King for a Common Era Holy Week 3

    King for a Common Era Holy Week 3

    KING jesus! KING jesus! KING jesus!

    Gospel of Matthew 21:

    Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.

    Gospel of Matthew 21:14 – New King James Version
    first century AD Jerusalem

    Today in Jerusalem

    ~ A.D. 30 

    another account of a fictional witness
    • SUNDAY had been a day with a festive parade into town by our savior KING.

    HOSANNA! King Jesus! Thank God for our conquering KING!

    In case you missed my account from SUNDAY:
    King for a Common Era Holy Week – 1
    • MONDAY everybody was asking, “Who is this?”
    King for a Common Era Holy Week 2
    • Will this KING jesus now conquer our captors?

    Every Jew coming to the festival knew all-to-well of our obligation to buy a kind of kosher indulgence.

    We tried to follow this KING

    ALL of Jerusalem was abuzz with this Jesus, who had ridden into our captive city like a KING! And this Son of Man (as he called himself) began the day overturning tables of moneychangers and chasing merchants and animals out of the Temple courts!

    Of course the Temple police appeared (though unprepared for such a disturbance as this), then pharisees and priests and scribes, even the chief priests.

    In fact — they WITNESSED the marvelous miracles, signs of JESUS’s power from God!

    .. and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” 

    Gospel of Matthew 21:15b New King James Version – witness of Jesus in the Temple

    Rather than praising GOD as even the children were now doing, THEY BECAME INDIGNANT.

    One of them said to him (I think it was a chief priest):

     “Do You hear what these are saying?”

    YES, this Jesus answered him AND then quoted a familiar Psalm.

    “Yes, Have you never read,

    ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
    You have perfected praise’?”

    Gospel of Matthew 25:16 NKJV – Jesus’ response to children singing about Him

    By now a few more Legions became clearly visible in the distance, yet the Temple police seemed to be nowhere in sight.

    Roman squad of Legions

    In general the crowds were JOYFUL and above all praising the healings which Jesus had been doing for some who came to Him.

    This irked the officials of the Sanhedrin, although they now turned away from making any trouble today for this Son of Man and Son of David, who some zealots in the multitudes were urging to be KING.

    This Jesus slipped out through the crowds quickly and headed toward a gate leading to the road to Bethany.

    an earlier Passover

    I'm trying to recall if it was last year [A.D. 29] or the year before that I had heard from someone that this was not unusual for this humble Nazarian Rabbi.

    Jesus had shown signs to more than five thousand men near Nazareth.

    Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said,

    “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

    Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.

    Gospel of John 6:14-15 NKJV

    Why would the Son of David who rode into Jerusalem like KING DAVID leave to stay in Bethany overnight, I wondered?

    To be continued.. God-willing…

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  • King for a Common Era Holy Week 2

    King for a Common Era Holy Week 2

    KING jesus! KING jesus! KING jesus!

    A.D. 30

    Herod's Temple

    Monday in Herod’s Temple 

    an account of a single fictional witness

    SUNDAY had been a day with a festive parade into town by our savior KING.

    HOSANNA! King Jesus! Thank God for our conquering KING!

    In case you missed my account from SUNDAY:
    King for a Common Era Holy Week – 1

    WE joined the multitudes with palm branches and our coats spread on the ground before the KING’s colt upon which he rode triumphantly to the gate.

    (I think two or three THOUSAND of US ready to breach the hopeless walls of our captive capital)

    I wonder what our conquering KING will do today?

    stone wall "city of David" in Hebrew and English in Jerusalem
    How WE hate the Roman rule over US. And Herod? Unlike the Great is an impotent king collecting favors and taxes for Pilate the Prefect.

    WE can’t wait to get into the city with the early CROWDS.

    Is this KING jesus like DAVID or SOLOMON?

    Will he finally call on us to take up arms against our ROMAN rulers?

    WILL his insurrection now unseat HEROD?

    NOW I have to report that yesterday on MONDAY, this KING jesus did NOT do at all what WE had expected.

    WE were all there.

    (I arrived in the Temple courtyard early, before the Christ WE anticipated would once more return triumphantly as the day before.)

    The crowds packing the TEMPLE and city today can hardly be numbered!

    AND when Jesus arrived I could again hear a few men flattering him with the glory of a KING.

    Gospel of Matthew 21:

    “Hosanna to the Son of David!
    ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’
    Hosanna in the highest!”

    Gospel of Matthew 21:9b – New King James Version

    10 And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying,

    “Who is this?”

    HOSANNA! save now, I pray
    • Will this KING jesus now conquer our captors?
    jerusalem

    So the multitudes said,

    “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”

    Gospel of Matthew 21:11 New King James Version

    And now what?

    Continuing from yesterday's account of a fictional witness, we look to MONDAY of Holy Week (as we have long designated this festival)..

    Jesus Cleanses the Temple

    Solomon's portico with view of the Temple and crowds
    Solomon’s Portico – crowded for the festival

    Then Jesus went into the temple of God..

    .. and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple,

    .. and overturned the tables of the money changers

    .. and the seats of those who sold doves.

    Gospel of Matthew 21:12 New King James Version

    for years Before Christ

    Now I have to tell you, God’s Temple, with its several strict regulations of the Sanhedrin has always been a lucrative place for a Jew to do business.

    The Pesach festival week this year had not seemed to be much different than any the last five decades since Herod the Great began construction of the still not-quite-finished Temple grounds for God’s ordinary people.

    Trouble is that more and more Zealots have more openly attacked our occupiers’ Legions even though ROME has included Judea in its ‘peace‘ for a hundred years or so.

    Every Jew coming to the festival knew all-to-well of their obligation to buy a kind of kosher indulgence.

    This KING Jesus who called himself Son of Man (rather than son of David) would have none of it.

    There were already dozens of these authorized vendors at work with hundreds of early bird customers like us.

    When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!”

    Gospel of John 2:15-16 NKJV

    Prophesy of Isaiah

    As a good Jew I thought I knew these sayings this new Prophet Jesus quoted. One is about the gentiles — and believe me they were all there too.

    Even them I will bring to My holy mountain,
    And make them joyful in My house of prayer.
    Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
    Will be accepted on My altar;
    For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

    Isaiah 56:7 NKJV

    And He said to them, “It is written,

    ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”

    Gospel of Matthew 21:13 NKJV

    You know what else I remember from this Prophet from seven centuries ago concerning Israel’s leaders?

    His watchmen are blind..

    And they are shepherds
    Who cannot understand;
    They all look to their own way,
    Every one for his own gain,
    From his own territory.

    Isaiah 56:11b NKJV

    Isaiah calls them ‘greedy dogs’ who are never satisfied.

    It seems fit that this Man would clear the Temple of these dogs indulging our Council of leaders comfortably walled-up away from God’s place of worship.

    THIS JESUS even knew that our captive weeping Prophet had called it “a den of thieves!”

    We tried to follow this KING

    This Jesus had our attention. He was right in everything he said and did.

    But because of the crowds WE could only get glances of this King as He moved about the Temple courts.

    WE kept hearing stories though — confirmation of things Jesus did that no other man or prophet could do.

    Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple,
    and He healed them.

    Gospel of Matthew 21:14 New King James Version – witness of Jesus in the Temple

    ALL of Jerusalem was abuzz with this Jesus, who had ridden into our captive city like a KING!

    AND also this Jesus from Nazareth also showed many SIGNS of power by His own hand.

    To be continued.. God-willing…

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  • King for a Common Era Holy Week – 1

    King for a Common Era Holy Week – 1

    KING jesus! KING jesus! KING jesus!

    A.D. 30

    silhouette of Jesus seated on a donkey overlooking Jerusalem 
    an account of a single fictional witness

    Palm Sunday

    HOSANNA! King Jesus! Thank God for our conquering KING!

    YESTERDAY was some day with a festive parade into town by our savior king.

    WE took branches from palm trees and covered the road as our KING ascended into town on his regal ride. Then WE joined the multitudes who went before

    (I think two or three THOUSAND of US ready to breach the hopeless walls of our captive capital)

    and those who followed cried out, saying:

    “Hosanna to the Son of David!
    ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’
    Hosanna in the highest!”

    Gospel of Matthew 21:9b – New King James Version
    stone wall "city of David" in Hebrew and English in Jerusalem

    WOW, the stories we’ve heard about this powerful KING who IS ONE of US riding into town!

    jesus entering Zion just like KING DAVID a THOUSAND YEARS AGO — just like we sing of days long past —

    The LORD Is on My Side

    Psalm 118

    1 Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.	
1הוֹד֣וּ לַיהוָ֣ה כִּי־ ט֑וֹב כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ׃

Let Israel now say, 
“His mercy endures forever.”
Let the house of Aaron now say, “His mercy endures forever.”	
Let those who fear the LORD now say, 
“His mercy endures forever.”
--	
I called on the LORD in distress..

    6 The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?
    7 The LORD is for me among those who help me; Therefore I shall see my desire on those who hate me.

    Oh those Romans, how WE hate their rule over US. 

And Herod? What an impotent king collecting favors and taxes for a foreign Governor Pilate.

    10 All nations surrounded me, But in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.

    They surrounded me, Yes, they surrounded me; But in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.

    They surrounded me like bees; They were quenched like a fire of thorns; For in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.

    You pushed me violently, that I might fall, But the LORD helped me.

    21 I will praise You, For You have answered me, And have become my salvation.

    blueprint of Herod's temple
    from the Lord’s teaching later in the week:

    Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

    ‘The stone which the builders rejected
    Has become the chief cornerstone.
    This was the LORD’s doing,
    And it is marvelous in our eyes’ ?

    Gospel of Matthew 21:42 NKJV

    The stone which the builders rejected

    Has become the chief cornerstone.

    Psalm 118:22 אֶבֶן מָאֲסוּ הַבּוֹנִים הָיְתָה לְרֹאשׁ פִּנָּה׃
    ὡσαννά
    HOSANNA! save now, I pray
    Will this KING jesus now conquer our captors? 

Will he bring to US riches like KING Solomon?

    24 This is the day the LORD has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.

    25 Save now, I pray, O LORD; O LORD, I pray, send now prosperity.

    Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!
    We have blessed you from the house of the LORD.

    Psalm 118:26 NKJV

    Gospel of Matthew 21:

    10 And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?”

    jerusalem

    So the multitudes said,

    “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”

    Gospel of Matthew 21:11 New King James Version

    Now what?

    And concluding yesterday's account of a single fictional witness, we look forward to MONDAY of Holy Week (as we have long designated this festival)..

    I wonder what our conquering KING will do today?

    WE can’t wait to get into the city with the early CROWDS.

    Is this KING jesus like DAVID or SOLOMON?

    Will he finally call on us to take up arms against our ROMAN rulers?

    WILL his insurrection now unseat HEROD?

    To be continued.. God-willing…

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