After two days of going to Jerusalem and teaching in the temple, most Bible teachers believe that Jesus and his disciples stayed in Bethany and rested up and prepared for the coming Passover.
While in Bethany, they gathered and ate a meal at Simon the Leper’s house. During that occasion, a woman came with an alabaster jar of costly perfume and anointed Jesus:
Matthew 26:7-13 (ESV):
7 a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. 8 And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9 For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” 10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. 12 In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
This event is also recorded in Mark 14:3-9.
Another event that most believe also happened on that day—Judas went to the temple authorities and agreed to betray Jesus:
Matthew 26:14-16 (ESV):
Judas to Betray Jesus
14 Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. 16 And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.
After the confrontations with Jesus on Tuesday, the temple chief priests had to be overjoyed when Judas came to them with his proposal. After all, they had been talking among themselves trying to figure out a way to get to Jesus when the crowd wasn’t around. Now one of the disciples closest to Jesus, that knew his traditional places to hide out, came to them and offered to deliver him up for a mere pittance of silver. How fortunate from their perspective.
For nearly 2 thousand years folks have speculated over Judas’ motives, but the only evidence that scripture supplies us with is the fact that Satan ‘entered into’ Judas and was obviously involved in the betrayal:
Luke 22:1-5 (ESV):
The Plot to Kill Jesus
22 Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. 2 And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for they feared the people.
Judas to Betray Jesus
3 Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. 4 He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. 5 And they were glad, and agreed to give him money.
That leaves us with the question; why was Judas, who seemed to be a leader of the twelve (the treasurer), in a condition and attitude that made him susceptible to be possessed by Satan in the first place? We probably will not know the answer to that question this side of eternity or until Jesus comes again.
As Jesus left the temple on Holy Tuesday, he dropped a ‘bomb’ on the disciples as they marveled over the beautiful impressive temple they were leaving behind. He told them that the day was coming when not one stone would be left upon another:
Luke 21:5-7 (ESV):
Jesus Foretells Destruction of the Temple
5 And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, 6 “As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
Matthew 24:1-2 (ESV):
Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. 2 But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
As you can imagine, the disciples were shocked and were probably silent for quite awhile after that. Eventually they came to Jesus and asked about when that was all going to happen:
Luke 21:7 (ESV):
7 And they asked him, “Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?”
Matthew 24:3 (ESV):
3 As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
Notice that the disciples asked several questions. First they asked him when these things would take place (the destruction of the temple) and then what was going to be the signs of his coming to rule and the end of the age. His answers to those questions are found in Matthew 24 and in Luke 21.
At this point they really had not accepted what Jesus had said repeatedly about his coming death and resurrection. It really didn’t fit into their understanding about what the Messiah was supposed to do. The Messiah was supposed to go to Jerusalem and rule all of the world from the temple at ‘the end of the age.’
The fact that the temple was going to be destroyed really didn’t fit into their Messianic theology.If the temple was destroyed, how would the Messiah Jesus rule there? Will it be rebuilt? They were pretty much convinced that they would be there when it all happened and end up ruling with Jesus. Little did they know that nearly 2 thousand years would go by before the Messiah Jesus would really come to rule ‘at the end of the age.’
Because of their questions, some of the answers that Jesus gave had to do with their generation and others with what was going to happen at the end when Jesus comes back, and maybe some applied to both eras. Nevertheless, when Judea tried to break away from Roman rule and the Roman legions began to circle around Jerusalem in 70 AD, tens of thousands of Jewish Christians, believing what Jesus had said about the coming destruction, left the city while they could.
The city and the temple was destroyed. Not one stone was left upon another because the gold decorating the temple melted into the cracks of the stones after the temple was set on fire and the Roman soldiers took down every stone trying to get to the gold. Read Matthew 24 and Luke 21 for what Jesus said about this destruction but also about what is going to be the signs of his coming again at the ‘end of the age.’
After Jesus left Jerusalem he lamented over the fact that the leaders and the people had substantially rejected him:
Matthew 23:37 (ESV):
Lament over Jerusalem
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
Luke 19: 41-44 (ESV):
Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem
41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Judas was not the only one who betrayed Jesus, the majority of leaders and the people in Jerusalem had also rejected the ‘visitation’ of their Messiah. Bur at the ‘end of the age’ Jesus will be coming back to rule; and then every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is the Lord and ruler of all.
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