Episode:Jesus Culminates His Ministry—O Jerusalem! (Part 2)
Jesus lamented: “O Jerusalem, if you had only known, even you, at least in this your day, the things which belong to your peace, and which you could so freely have had! But now are these glories about to be hid from your eyes. You are about to reject the Son of Peace and turn your backs upon the gospel of salvation. You are about to reject the gift of God, and all men will reject you.”
Keywords: Urantia, Jesus, Hosanna in the Highest, Jesus Wept, The Widow’s Mite
Opening thought: Help, Lord, for godly people have ceased to be; those who are faithful have vanished. Everyone lies to their neighbor; they flatter with their lips but harbor deception in their hearts...You, Lord...will protect us forever from these wicked, who freely strut about when what is vile is exalted by the human race. Psalms 12
Summary by Kermit
Commentary after Review
One of us mentioned his gratitude for the visual aids available in the TV series The Chosen which give color and vividness to the narrative of Jesus’ story. In particular the series depicts the Jewish people’s focus on religious living through incidental behaviors throughout their daily living and exhibition of familiarity with their scriptures. By today’s comparison self-proclaimed religionists today have lost the religious focus of putting God first in their lives for others to see. (By their fruits you will know them). True religion is wholehearted devotion and a living loyalty to some reality which the religionist deems to be of supreme value for himself and for all mankind. A question arose as to the distinction between such wholehearted devotion and the faintest flicker of faith to which the Father will ever respond. This led to a discussion of the aspects of quantity and quality in the realms of religion. Faintest flickers are not much quantitatively, but the quality of an honest attempt of a fearful soul to reach out for the Father represents a genuine faith nucleus he honors and fosters and around which a sphere of righteousness can grow. But mistake not, those who have been called out of the darkness are expected to believe with a whole heart.
The reading about the Palm Sunday welcoming crowd speaks to the quantity-quality issue. The bias towards quantity today can be traced to the birth of scientific inquiry in the Enlightenment. The corresponding reduction in quality of religious living evinced by the rise of materialism and secularism is the milieu into which the 5th ER is delivered. The ability of the 5th ER to uplift civilization is dependent on its reception by enough individuals who are upliftable. Note the fate of the Jews who it turns out were not upliftable resulting in forfeiture of their role as the spiritual standard bearers of the world.
172:3 The Start for Jerusalem
Scrutiny of the gospel records illuminated by the midwayer disclosures throughout Part IV allow for the coordination of essential knowledge. The advanced student of the revelation will surely undertake to compare the gospel accounts with the midwayer narrative reflectively for a truthful synthesis of the Master’s bestowal. We will continue to point out instances of such notable coordination leaving the details for the student to pursue.
Jesus had always sought to suppress all public acclaim of him as the Messiah. In his considerations regarding his public entrance into Jerusalem, now being at the end of his ministry in the flesh he loosened his constraints in such matters and saw no harm in allowing his disciples to freely express their feelings. But to be clear Jesus’ decisions on his manner of entry into Jerusalem were not made for the purpose of satisfying the expectations of others. He knew what awaited him in Jerusalem and chose to live out his bestowal in obedience to the Father’s will in conformity with the cosmos.
Jesus’ chose to enter Jerusalem in consonance with the Scripture Zechariah 9:9 ofttimes associated with the Messiah. He would enter peacefully and with good will riding on a donkey and not as the bold and aggressive temporal deliverer successor of David as described in other Messianic prophecies.
Jesus was hardly successful in conveying the spiritual nature of the Kingdom of Heaven to his apostles and disciples. But this was certainly not due to shortcomings on his part, rather that his hearers were so materially minded and unable to rise above their preconceived opinions, settled ideas, and long-standing prejudices to grasp such a concept.
It was an enthusiastic and festive crowd of several hundred that set out from Bethany. Another several thousand Passover visitors to Jerusalem, having been notified by David Zebedee and some of his men acting on their own initiative, set out to meet the procession from Bethany. The two groups met as Jesus had passed over the brow of Olivet. It was at the brow of Olivet that Jesus’ demeanor changed. He wept as he addressed the city pronouncing the destruction of Jerusalem as the terrible consequences of their rejection of the Son of Peace, echoing the prophet Jeremiah’s description of the destruction of the first temple.
As the two groups met, Pharisees coming out from Jerusalem chided Jesus, urging him to control the cheering multitudes. Jesus replied, “It is only fitting that these children should welcome the Son of Peace, whom the chief priests have rejected. It would be useless to stop them lest in their stead these stones by the roadside cry out.” Was Jesus suggesting that, should the Pharisees squelch the crowd, God himself could raise up stones in praise of the Son of Man or was he alluding to the possibility of the crowd stoning the Pharisees in response to their attempts at quieting them?
The crowd’s joyous welcome of the Master did not run deep. Later this same week when Jesus did not live up to Messianic expectations the same crowds were willing to reject him. Strong emotion is hardly equivalent to deep conviction let alone living faith.
172:4 Visiting About the Temple
Upon arriving at the temple Jesus and the apostles (minus Alpheus twins who were returning the donkey to its owner) strolled about the temple observing the Passover preparations. This day was unprecedented in the lives of the thoughtful but speechless apostles.
Here we find the well-known story of the widow’s mite, illustrating the contrast between the wholehearted and unquestioning widow who in her religious devotion gave all in her contribution to the temple treasury and the rich who gave (from their superfluity) what amounted to a trifle.
Strolling about the temple courts, Jesus silently reflected on his emotions in connection with previous visits and then led the company back to Bethany for the night.
