The raising of Lazarus from the dead inflamed the Pharisees and the leading council. As they said, “’what are we accomplishing? Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation’… So from that day on they plotted to take his life.”
As a result Jesus stopped his public ministry and left the area, returning to the village of Ephraim. But it was almost time for the Passover, and Jerusalem began to fill up with pilgrims. The main topic of conversation was the activities of Jesus and the order of the Pharisees that anyone seeing him was to report his location immediately so that he could be arrested.
From Ephraim Jesus began a rather slow journey to Jerusalem. He was on a schedule, knowing that his death would result. For maximum impact that death could not be hurried. Even though he was close, “his time” had not yet come. As he traveled he continued the activities that had characterized his entire ministry. He taught and he healed the sick. He was not in hiding. Some Pharisees continued to travel with him, engaging him in argument. Several times along the way he predicted his coming death. John records one of those times. “They were now on the way up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. The disciples were filled with awe, and the people following behind were overwhelmed with fear. Taking the twelve disciples aside, Jesus once more began to describe everything that was about to happen to him. ‘Listen,’ he said, ‘we’re going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die and hand him over to the Romans. They will mock him, spit on him, flog him with a whip, and kill him, but after three days he will rise again.’”
It must have been a strange procession. I feel that the Triumphal Entry really began on the road to Jerusalem, approaching Jericho. There Jesus was full of power, purpose, and absolute determination. The apostles were more than a little afraid of him, as was the crowd following him. He had taken on himself the aspect of conquering Messiah, come to do battle with evil and death. He fully became the mighty warrior, God himself, contending for his people against the powers of sin and death.
As Jesus traveled southward he approached Jericho, where he would turn west, gaining elevation to Jerusalem itself. The crowd following him grew, becoming swollen with pilgrims, but with him always as its center and focus. I believe that the people somehow were aware that they were traveling with majesty. That feeling must have gotten the best of apostles James and John, who came to Jesus with this request: “When you sit on your glorious throne, we want to sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.” When the other ten disciples heard this they were furious. They all wanted those places for themselves! I’ve always thought this interchange revealed the essential loneliness of Jesus, as he goes to die and as even those closest to him we thinking of how to cash in on his popularity.
So there he was, fully aware of traveling to his death, surrounded by disciples who really didn’t get it yet, laid upon by the needy crowd, beset by Pharisees as annoying as mosquitoes, watched by all, but most by God in heaven as the drama draws close to its critical battle between death and life. He was God in flesh, but how weary his spirit must have been.
Prayer: “Conquering Jesus, we view your coming sacrifice from the detached vantage point of history. How passionate those last days must have been for you and for all around you. How magnificent that you refused to turn aside and hide from what was to come. How tremendous the way you carried that crowd with you all the way to Jerusalem, where their number would grow by magnitudes. You are the ‘Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” promised by Isaiah. Only you could accomplish the mission of destroying death with the power of life eternal. How great you are! How awesome your purpose. You are the redeeming God of eternity, and we are your people. Rule in my life today. Amen.”