As they drew near to Bethphage, at Mount Olive, Yeshua sent two students, saying, Go into the village. Right away, you’ll find a colt and a donkey. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone asks you about it, tell them ‘the Teacher needs these’ and they will let you take them.
The students returned with the colt and donkey. Cloaks were spread over them, and some spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the palm trees and strewed them in the road. The throngs of people made a parade, with Yeshua in the midst of them riding the donkey.
The people called, Hosanna for the son of David! Blessed him that comes in the name of the holy one. Hosanna to the highest heavens!
As the procession entered Jerusalem, the people there were shaken, saying, Who is this? What’s happening?
And the people processing said, This is the prophet Yeshua, the Nazarene.
Yeshua dismounted from the donkey and went into the temple. He threw out the buyers and sellers. He overturned the tables of the moneychangers.
He said, It is written, ‘My house will be known as a house of prayer,’ but you’ve taken the sacred space and made it into a mercantile den of thieves.
Yeshua healed the blind and lame who came up to him. The throng cheered him on with shouts of Hosanna for the son of David!
The high priests and canon lawyers were outraged.
Yeshua turned and left, his followers going with him. They camped in Bethany.
Next morning, Yeshua was walking back to Jerusalem, in search of breakfast. He saw a fig tree, but found nothing on it but leaves.
There is no need for a fruitless tree, Yeshua said, and it withered and dried.
The students were amazed and asked, How could that tree dry up so fast?
And he said, When you pray, you can move mountains. This tree was no longer useful; there was no need to preserve it. If a mountain is holding you back, with prayer, you can move the mountain out of your way.
Returning to the temple, the chief priests asked him, Who do you think you are? By what authority do you do these things?
Yeshua said, If you answer my question, I’ll answer yours. Where did the mikvah of John come from, heaven or the world?
Any answer they might give, one way or the other, would make them look bad. So, they answered, We don’t know.
Yeshua said, So, you didn’t answer my question. I won’t answer yours.
But, here, I’ll give you another chance. A father had two sons. He went to the first and asked him to go to the field and work. That son at first declined, but then changed his mind and did work in the field. The father asked the second son, who said he would gladly work, but didn’t do any work at all. Which son did as his father asked?
They answered, The first son, of course.
Yeshua said, John came to you and all teaching the path of justice. You did not believe in his mission, but the whores and the toll collectors and other people reviled by you did believe. The people who believe will apprehend the realm of the holy one, regardless of class. The people reviled by you will apprehend the realm before you do.
As it is said, ‘The stone that was rejected by the builder has at last become the chief cornerstone.’ The realm of the holy one is for the people that labor in the fields, whose labors bear fruit that is shared equitably. I tell you, the rejected stone will crush the fruitless.
The Pharisees wanted Yeshua taken into custody, but doing so in a such a public way would make them look bad, for the crowds regarded Yeshua as a prophet. They called some of their students, along with a few of Herod’s men, and approached him, hoping to trap him into confessing that he was against the Roman occupation.
The students of the Pharisees asked him, So, we know you are honest and teach the word of the holy one truthfully. What do you think? Is it okay to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
Yeshua said, Show me the coins given to pay the tax.
The coins were shown to him.
Yeshua asked them, Whose picture is on these coins?
They answered, Caesar’s.
He said, Give what is Ceasar’s to him; give to the holy one what belongs to the holy one. Everything belongs to the holy one, and none of it bears a false image.
The students and Herod’s men went away.
Later that day, a group of Sadducees, who did not believe in resurrection, pose a trick question to him: The tradition of Moses says that if the husband of a couple dies without leaving any children, the brother must take in his widow. In one village, a woman married into a family with seven sons. Her husband died. They’d had no children, so he left her as chattel to his brother, who later died without leaving children, and so on through all the brothers of the family. Then the widow died. When the resurrection comes, which of the seven will be her bridegroom?
But Yeshua said, In the realm of the holy one, there are no brides or grooms, only messengers, helpers, angels. In ancient times, the holy one called from the bush, ‘I am. I am of the living, not of the dead.’
Those who heard the teaching were amazed. Later, the Pharisees approached him again and asked Yeshua which of the commandments was most important.
And he said, The most important commandment is the very first one: To love the holy one with all of your heart, all of your spirit, all of your mind. And I say there is a second that works with the first: Love your neighbor as you love yourself. All that is written in the law and the prophets is supported by these two commandments.
He turned to his students and said, Where Moses sat, now the Pharisees and canon lawyers sit. Do what they say, but don’t do what they do. They are not good role models, for they do not practice what they preach, and everything they do is for show. They tax the people and offer no pubic benefit to those in need. They take the best seats and the best food and enjoy being called, ‘Master.’
Don’t try to be a Master, like them; after the holy one, your teacher is your only leader, and you are all a family. The highest person among you will be the servant of all.
Woe to all of the unaccountable fakes and frauds who act as gatekeepers and deny average people any opportunity to enter the realm of the holy one. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killer of prophets and stoners of ambassadors, now that you have laid to ruin the sacred temple, all the blood you have shed will come back upon you.
Now I will go away and be gone until that time when you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the holy one.’
© 2020 by Elisabeth T. Eliassen and songsofasouljourney.blogspot.com
A brief note about my literary exploration of the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth: I have undertaken this exercise having read, sung (in several languages), meditated and prayed on the contents of the Synoptic Gospels (as well as the Non-Synoptic Gospels) for at least 45 years. In that time, I’ve accumulated a bit of a library (which comes as no surprise to those who know me), and I try to follow modern scholarship. Here is a partial list of the authors and books that come to mind as I write these episodes:
Ballentine, Debra Scoggins, The Conflict Myth & the Biblical Tradition; Oxford University Press 2015
Erdman, Bart, various titles
Gaus, Andy, The Unvarnished New Testament; Phanes Press, 1991
Herzog, William R., Parables as Subversive Speech; Westminster John Knox Press, 1991
Louden, Bruce, Greek Myth and the Bible; Routledge, 2019
Wajdenbaum, Philippe, Argonauts of the Desert, Routledge, 2011
Ward, Keith, The Philosopher and the Gospels, Lion Hudson, 2011
Yosef ben Maityahu (Titus Flavius Josephus), various writings
