Paper 174 Overview: Tuesday Morning in the Temple

On this critical Tuesday morning of Jesus' last week in the flesh, he spent his final hours before public confrontation providing personalized counsel to each of the twelve apostles at Simon's home in Bethany. These farewell messages demonstrated his profound understanding of each apostle's character, strengths, and spiritual needs. After bidding farewell to Lazarus, Simon, and the women's corps, Jesus departed for Jerusalem with four of his apostles while the others established headquarters at Gethsemane. During the journey, Jesus delivered a profound discourse on divine forgiveness, explaining that God's forgiveness originates not from petitioned pardon but from perfect understanding of his children's nature, limitations, and motivations.

In the temple, Jesus faced a coordinated series of challenges from Jewish leaders who sought to discredit him before the multitude. He masterfully responded to politically charged questions about taxation, clarified misconceptions about resurrection to the disbelieving Sadducees, and articulated the essence of religious devotion by identifying love for God and neighbor as the greatest commandments. The day culminated in a significant encounter with truth-seeking Greeks, during which Jesus spoke prophetically about his approaching sacrifice and universal mission. A transcendent voice affirmed Jesus' ministry before he delivered his final public discourse in the temple, marking the conclusion of his formal teaching work and setting the stage for the dramatic events to follow.

At approximately seven o'clock on Tuesday morning, Jesus assembled with the apostles, the women's corps, and about two dozen prominent disciples at the home of Simon in Bethany. This meeting was characterized by farewells and final instructions, as Jesus bid goodbye to Lazarus with counsel that would soon prompt his flight to Philadelphia in Perea, where he would later become affiliated with the missionary movement headquartered there. Jesus also said his final formal farewell to the aged Simon and provided his concluding advice to the women's corps, who had faithfully supported his ministry.

The most poignant aspect of this gathering was Jesus' personal counsel to each of the twelve apostles, tailored precisely to their individual character and spiritual needs. To Andrew, he offered strength in leadership; to Peter, counsel to trust in spiritual rather than physical power; to James, wisdom about seeing beyond appearances; to John, encouragement toward gentleness and tolerance; to Nathaniel, steadfastness in faith when evidence seems lacking; to Philip, loyalty despite confusion; to Matthew, remembrance of mercy; to Thomas, faith over sight; to the Alpheus twins, fidelity to heart affections; to Simon Zelotes, resilience in disappointment; and to Judas Iscariot, a prescient warning against flattery and ridicule. After these meaningful farewells, Jesus departed for Jerusalem with Andrew, Peter, James, and John, while the others established the Gethsemane camp that would serve as their headquarters during the remainder of Jesus' earthly life.

The journey toward Jerusalem provided an opportunity for Peter and James to seek clarification on their ongoing disagreement regarding Jesus' teaching about forgiveness. Peter maintained that repentance and confession must precede forgiveness, while James contended that the Father forgives even before being asked. After a brief silence that indicated the significance of the question, Jesus explained that both apostles had failed to comprehend the intimate and loving relationship that exists between the Creator and his creatures, analogous to the understanding sympathy of wise parents toward their children.

Jesus elaborated by explaining that a part of every father lives in the child, giving the parent priority and superiority of understanding in matters concerning their relationship. Divine forgiveness, he taught, is inevitable because it is inherent in God's infinite understanding and perfect knowledge of all factors influencing human judgment and behavior. "Divine justice is so eternally fair that it unfailingly embodies understanding mercy," Jesus declared, emphasizing that God's forgiveness isn't a response to human repentance but rather an expression of his perfect comprehension of human nature. He further illuminated that human forgiveness grows as we develop understanding of others, stating, "You hold grudges and nurse vengefulness in direct proportion to your ignorance of the inner nature and true longings of your children and your fellow beings." True love, Jesus concluded, emerges from understanding, develops through unselfish service, and reaches perfection in wisdom.

Jesus' teaching on forgiveness reveals the profound difference between human and divine perception. While mortals experience separation from divine approval through guilt, the Father never perceives such separation. This misalignment results from human immaturity and incomplete understanding rather than divine withholding of forgiveness. Jesus thus established that divine forgiveness is not transactional but relational, stemming from the Father's perfect comprehension of his children's true nature and developmental limitations. This teaching significantly elevates the concept of forgiveness from a mere pardon for wrongdoing to a profound expression of intimate understanding and unconditional love.

The Sanhedrin and approximately fifty additional Jewish leaders had convened the previous evening, reaching a consensus that directly arresting Jesus would be dangerous due to his popularity among the common people. Instead, they strategized to discredit him before the multitude through a series of challenging questions, hoping to diminish his standing and facilitate his eventual arrest. This coordinated effort unified previously disparate religious factions, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians, in their opposition to Jesus, demonstrating their growing determination to eliminate his influence regardless of their doctrinal differences.

When Jesus began teaching in the temple court on Tuesday morning, a carefully rehearsed group of young students from the academies approached him with a politically charged question about the legitimacy of paying tribute to Caesar. This question represented a cunning trap: affirming the tax would alienate nationalist Jews, while denying it would constitute sedition against Rome. Jesus, perceiving their hypocrisy, requested a denarius and asked whose image it bore. When they answered "Caesar's," he responded with the profound principle, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and render to God the things that are God's." This masterful answer transcended the political dichotomy they had constructed, affirming both proper civil responsibility and higher spiritual allegiance. Jesus' response was particularly effective because it aligned with an established Sanhedrin ruling that "the right of coinage carried with it the right to levy taxes." Thus, Jesus avoided both political extremes while demonstrating a wisdom that impressed even those who sought to entangle him, effectively neutralizing this first attempt to compromise his teaching authority.

Before Jesus could resume his teaching, a contingent of learned Sadducees approached him with a question designed to ridicule the concept of resurrection, a doctrine they rejected but which Jesus affirmed. Their query concerned a hypothetical scenario based on the levirate marriage law, wherein a woman had been successively married to seven brothers, each dying childless. Their question, "In the resurrection whose wife will she be?" was not a sincere inquiry but rather an attempt to expose what they perceived as logical inconsistencies in resurrection belief. Jesus recognized their insincerity, noting that such cases were unlikely and that this custom was largely obsolete among Jews of that time.

Jesus' response addressed both their immediate question and their deeper spiritual ignorance. He declared, "You all do err in asking such questions because you know neither the Scriptures nor the living power of God." He proceeded to explain that resurrected beings "neither marry nor are given in marriage" but are "more like the angels of heaven." Jesus then skillfully appealed to Moses, the only authority the Sadducees fully acknowledged, by referencing God's words at the burning bush: "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."

Jesus emphasized the present tense "am" rather than "was," concluding that God "is not the God of the dead but of the living." This interpretation affirmed the continued existence of personalities beyond physical death without explicitly endorsing the Pharisees' concept of bodily resurrection. Jesus thus established the reality of the afterlife while avoiding the sectarian debate about its precise nature. The effectiveness of this response was evident when some Pharisees, typically opposed to Jesus, openly praised his answer, and the Sadducees withdrew, unwilling to risk further intellectual defeat before the attentive crowd.

With the Sadducees silenced, the Pharisees advanced their strategy by sending forward a lawyer to question Jesus about which commandment held the greatest importance. Unlike previous queries designed as traps, this question sought to engage Jesus in the legitimate rabbinic debate regarding the hierarchy of the law's many precepts. Jesus responded with characteristic decisiveness: "There is but one commandment, and that one is the greatest of all, and that commandment is: 'Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.'" Without hesitation, Jesus continued by joining this with a second commandment: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," asserting that on these two principles "hang all the law and the prophets."

Jesus' answer transcended the typical rabbinic parsing of individual laws by identifying the foundational spiritual principles underlying all divine commandments. The lawyer, recognizing the profound wisdom in Jesus' response, openly acknowledged that loving God and neighbor was "much more to be regarded than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices." Jesus, perceiving the man's spiritual receptivity, responded, "My friend, I perceive that you are not far from the kingdom of God." This exchange proved transformative for the lawyer, who that very night sought out Jesus at his camp near Gethsemane, professed faith in the gospel of the kingdom, and was baptized by one of Abner's disciples.

After this encounter, no other religious leaders dared pose questions to Jesus. Instead, Jesus challenged them with his own question about the Messiah's relationship to David, exposing their theological inconsistency in how a descendant of David could also be David's Lord. Their inability to answer revealed the limitations of their messianic understanding and demonstrated Jesus' superior spiritual insight, leaving them without further challenges to his teaching authority.

Around noon, while Philip was purchasing supplies for the new camp being established near Gethsemane, he was approached by a delegation of believing Greeks from Alexandria, Athens, and Rome. Their request to see Jesus created a dilemma for Philip, as Jesus had explicitly instructed the apostles to refrain from public teaching during Passover week. Additionally, Philip was uncertain about the protocol for introducing foreign gentiles to Jesus. After brief hesitation, Philip consulted with Andrew, and together they brought the Greeks to Joseph's home where Jesus was dining with his apostles and several disciples.

Jesus warmly received these Greek inquirers and delivered a discourse of profound significance that foreshadowed his imminent death and its universal implications. He began by acknowledging the rejection he had experienced from many of his own people while recognizing that some had believed, including "a full score of men who were once members of the Sanhedrin." Addressing both Jews and gentiles equally, Jesus declared, "He who believes this gospel, believes not merely in me but in Him who sent me," and invited the gentiles to "enter forthwith into the joyous liberty of the truth of sonship with God."

The emotional climax of his address came when Jesus, acknowledging his approaching hour of glorification, used the analogy of a grain of wheat that must die to bear fruit, illustrating the necessity of his sacrifice. When Jesus paused and said, "Father, glorify your name," the Personalized Adjuster of his indwelling appeared and spoke audibly, "I have glorified my name in your bestowals many times, and I will glorify it once more." Those present perceived this as an angelic voice. Jesus concluded by announcing, "Only a little time will the living light be among this darkened generation," and then led the assembly back to the temple for his farewell discourse to the Jewish leaders, aware that his public ministry was reaching its culmination.