Holy Week, Beginning With Celebration, Is Followed By Weeping, Outrage And Darkness

 

This dramatic event in the outer court of the temple almost certainly sealed Jesus' fate and resulted in his crucifixion.

The royal donkey ride celebrating Jesus's arrival in Jerusalem was reminiscent of his ancestor King Solomon's inaugural parade into town on his father David's special mount.

     And King David said, “Call to me Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada.” So they came before the king. The king also said to them, “Take with you the servants of your lord, and have Solomon my son ride on my own mule, and take him down to Gihon. There let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him king over Israel; and blow the horn, and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ Then you shall come up after him, and he shall come and sit on my throne, and he shall be king in my place. For I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and Judah....

     Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the sacred tent and anointed Solomon. Then they sounded the trumpet and all the people shouted, “Long live King Solomon!” And all the people went up after him, playing pipes and rejoicing greatly, so that the ground shook with the sound."

I Kings 1:32-35, 39-40 (NIV)

In Luke's account this is followed by Jesus weeping in anguish over what he predicted would be the utter destruction of Judaism's beloved capitol city. 

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even 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 enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

Luke 19:41-44 (NIV)

On the next day of this memorable week Jesus's anguish turns to outrage as he observes what is happening in the temple's Gentile Court. What was created as a place of welcome for non-Jewish worshippers had become a market place for the sale of animals and doves and for the exchanging Roman coins for the currency required for temple offerings. 

This large outer court was to be a place for teaching, debate and for the singing of psalms of praises and ascent. As a twelve-year-old Jesus had engaged in serious conversation in this very area with some Jewish rabbis assembled there. One can imagine that one of the questions he could have raised was when or how the words of the prophet Isaiah would be fulfilled about Gentile foreigners and other undesirables being fully welcomed in God's temple.

For thus says the LORD, “To the eunuchs who keep My sabbaths, And choose what pleases Me, And hold fast My covenant, to them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial, and a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off. Also the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to Him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be His servants, every one who keeps from profaning the sabbath and holds fast My covenant; even those I will bring to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer.        Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”  Isaiah 56:6-7 NASB

Jesus's dramatic act of expelling those for whom profit took precedence over inclusion and welcome almost surely sealed his fate and made his crucifixion inevitable. 

Then Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people selling animals for sacrifices. He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”

Luke 19:45-46 (The Living Bible)

The rest is history, the story of Good Friday, the darkest imaginable day for Jesus's followers, but one which ushered in an entirely new dawn of eternal light for untold multitudes of believers.