CHAPTER 19

It was six days before the start of the Passover, and Jesus, his dis- ciples, and a large crowd of followers walked up the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives was a mountain ridge that was separated from Jerusalem by the Kidron Valley. On the Mount of Olives were the towns of Bethphage and Bethany. The village of Bethphage was located less than a mile east of Jerusalem, and Bethany was located about 2 miles east of Jerusalem.

When Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethany at the beginning of the Sabbath on Friday evening, a dinner was given for Jesus at the house of Simon the Leper. Martha served, and Lazarus reclined with Jesus at the table. While Jesus was eating, Mary came to him with an alabaster jar containing a pound of very expensive fragrant oil. She broke the jar and poured it on his head. The whole house was filled with the smell of the fragrance.

When the disciples saw this, they be- came very angry and said to her, “Why are you wasting this expensive oil? This oil could have been sold for lots of money—for more than a year’s wages—and the money given to the poor. They rebuked her. But Jesus said to his disciples, “Leave her alone! Why are you rebuking her? Why are you causing her so much trouble? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you. You can help the poor any time you want. But you will not always have me with you. She poured this fragrant oil on my body to prepare it for my burial. I tell you the truth: Wherever the gospel is proclaimed around the world, what she did to me will be told in her memory.”

On Sunday morning Jesus said to Peter and John, “Go to Bethphage. When you enter the village you will find a donkey tied there. Her colt that has not been ridden will be tied beside her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone asks you, ’Why are you taking this colt?’ tell them, ‘The Lord needs it. We will send it back here soon.’ And they will let you take them.” Peter and John did what Jesus had told them to do. They went to the village and found the colt tied at a doorway in the street. As they untied the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you taking this colt?” The disciples said, “The Lord needs it.” And so the people let them go. Peter and John brought the donkey and her colt to Jesus in Bethany. They placed their clothes on the colt and put Jesus on it.

This happened to fulfill what is written in Zechariah 9:9, “Say to the Daughter of Zion: See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a colt, the colt of a donkey.”

As Jesus rode the colt from Bethany along the Mount of Olives toward Jerusalem, large crowds of people went out to meet him and waved palm branches. Many of the people saw Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead, and they never stopped telling others about him.

Other people spread their outer clothes and branches from the fields on the road. The people who walked ahead of Jesus and those who followed him were shouting Psalm 118:26, “Hosanna in the highest heaven! Blessed is the king of Israel! Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

When Jesus came near the place where the road descends the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem, the whole crowd of disciples began to rejoice and praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen. They shouted, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

Then some of the religious leaders in the large crowd of people said to Jesus, “Teacher, command your disciples to stop shouting these things!” Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth: If my disciples keep quiet, the rocks on the ground will cry out!”

When Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your Roman enemies will set up an embankment against you, and encircle you on every side. You will not be able to escape. They will tear Jerusalem down to the ground, with you and your chil- dren within its walls. They will not leave one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s visitation.”

Once again, Jesus predicted that the Romans would destroy Jerusalem and the temple, which was fulfilled in AD 70.

When Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley and was entering Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up and full of excitement. The crowd of peo- ple asked one another, “Who is this?” The people yelled, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee!” But the religious leaders said to one another, “Look! We are accomplishing nothing. The whole world is following Jesus!”

At first Jesus’ disciples did not understand what was going on. Only after Jesus was glorified did they remember what had been written about him and all the things that had been done to him.

Jesus rode the colt into Jerusalem, and then he went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything. But because it was already late on Sunday, he left Jerusalem with his apostles and walked back along the Mount of Olives to spend the night in Bethany.