Chance, Re JESUS’ TIME OF VISITATION

Also, what adds to my belief that the 70^th Week has not been completed is what Jesus said and did when he went to enter Jerusalem/the Triumphal Entry.

In Luke 19:41, 42 "And when He drew near and saw the city, He wept over it saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on THIS DAY that things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 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 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children with you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because YOU DID NOT KNOW THE TIME OF YOUR VISITATION."

On the day that Jesus went into Jerusalem riding on an untamed colt, He wept while looking down on the City. It was the city that he spoke to, saying… You, even You [JERUSALEM] did not know the things that make for peace, or know the time of your visitation! (above)

On THIS DAY I AM going to reveal myself as your Messiah (Psalm 118:26, cf. Matt. 21:1–11); to fulfil My commission as the Servant ‘Messenger of the Covenant’ (Isaiah 42:1–9), and as the ‘anointed one’ (Luke 4:18–19, 61:1–2a).

BUT YOU [JERUSALEM] have not acknowledged the timing of my visitation, (cf. Daniel 9:24–27);

YOU will deny your opportunity to accept ME as your King!’ (Matt. 27:11, 29, 35–37)

Jesus already knew what the Jewish leadership would decide about Him, and do to Him within the next few days (Matt. 22:15; 26:2–4, 14), even before He approached Jerusalem for the last time! That is why He came to earth (Luke 24:26); but even so, the CITY, the people within it and the leaders, needed to have one last chance to choose Him as their Messiah: by recognizing Him through His actions (Luke 19:29–40), and His admission (Luke 22:66–70). He also knew what the city’s future outcome would be, because—in spite of its outward appearance of excessive pious religiosity—He knew He would find no spiritual fruit of righteousness to harvest within it!

Apparently, Jesus had to be recognised as Messiah by the Jews in Jerusalem (Matt. 21:1–11), or else the ‘stones would cry out’ (Luke 19:40); but only on THIS DAY (before the criticism started); then the CITY and its people (epitomised by its leaders), would turn against Him (Matt. 21:15, 23, 45–46; 22:15; Mark 11:7–10, 18). Jesus’ lengthy opinion of the Scribes and Pharisees who were plotting to destroy Him is laid out in Matthew 23, as is His description of a rebellious Jerusalem (Matt. 23:37–39).[1] A few days later on the eve of Passover, He disowned the temple and Jerusalem, saying: ‘YOUR House is left to you desolate!’ (Matt. 23:36–38) It is here that Jesus’ earthly ministry in Jerusalem, during the first half of Daniel’s 70th week, came to an end.

Within hours, He would be ‘cut off’ to confirm the New Covenant in His blood. (Dan. 9:26a, 27a, Heb. 9:11–18) The disciples would complete the second half of the week by preaching to the ‘lost sheep of the House of Israel’ until they were driven out of the city.

Until Jerusalem’s people could genuinely say: ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ (Matt. 23:39), Jesus vowed that HIS CITY would not see Him again. [2] Thus, Jesus’ dire anticipation of His impending experience in Jerusalem—even so early in the morning on the day of His triumphant entry into HIS CITY, as their MESSIAH—turned out to be true during the remainder of His Passion Week! So, He wept when He saw it!

But let’s go back a pace: the possible fate of Jerusalem (and that of the people/children living within it), had already been illustrated and heavily emphasised by Jesus in many of His stories and parables: and especially in His parable about a ‘fig tree’ [symbolic of Israel] that was planted in a vineyard (Jerusalem/Judea), which needed additional attention and encouragement to produce fruit.

It is difficult to know if Jesus was using a real-life fig tree that produced only leaves, as the model for His first parable (below); but I am inclined to think Jesus had already noticed this particular ‘fig tree’ while he was passing through Bethpage (on the Mt. of Olives) on the many previous occasions when He used that road. [3] So, without identifying it as the actual fig tree that would feature in an ‘acted parable’ (later on during His Passion Week), He told this parable about it.

In this Parable, the owner of the fig tree said to the keeper of his vineyard…

‘Look for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground? But the keeper answered and said Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down. (Luke 13:6–7)

In this parable, there is an unstated but direct connection between Jesus’ first inspections of the temple in Jerusalem—three years earlier, at the start of His ministry, during His First Passover—and His narration of this first ‘fig tree’ parable. On the first occasion, John 2:13–15 records that Jesus drove the money-changers and animals out of the Temple with a whip of cords! Saying, ‘Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!’

Thus, His story about a ‘conversation’ between the owner and the keeper of the vineyard, illustrates—with poignancy—the fact that Jesus had been going in and out of Jerusalem and Judea, as the keeper of the vineyard for three years, seeking to find spiritual fruit within the Jewish Nation (Fig tree) that had been specifically planted by God (the owner) in Jerusalem/Judea, to represent Him in His world-wide vineyard. So far, God had found no fruit of repentance and righteousness, but perhaps during the next year, after the keeper (Jesus) had poured out every good thing He had to offer: ‘digging around it and fertilizing it’ in order to save the fig tree, then a decision would be made regarding its fate.

Thus, after entering Jerusalem for the last time on THIS blessed day (according to Mark 11:1–11), and after being feted briefly as the long awaited Messiah—Son of David—Jesus’ first priority was to eagerly inspect the Temple before He retired to Bethany for the night, with His twelve disciples. Mark doesn’t say what Jesus thought, or even said, about what He had seen in the Temple that afternoon. However, when Jesus and His disciples approached the city the following morning, on their way back to Jerusalem, we see Jesus ‘acting out’ a parable against a ‘fruitless’ fig tree growing beside the road, which exposed the relevance of His earlier parable.

Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, ‘Let no fruit grow on you ever again.’ Immediately the fig tree withered away. And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, ‘How did the fig tree wither away so soon?’ (Matt. 21:19–20)

Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response Jesus said to it, ‘Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.’ And His disciples heard it. (Mark 11:12–14)

Thus, in the context of Jesus’ Passion Week, this ‘acted parable’ undoubtedly arose as a consequence of what He had seen during His inspection of the Temple the previous afternoon (Mark 11:11, Matt 21:12), and it foreshadowed the actions He would take later that day.

So, had anything changed during the ensuing three years to satisfy the vineyard keeper’s desire to produce fruit for the owner? Apparently not! On this second day, after He had already cursed the ‘fruitless’ fig tree, Jesus went back to the temple.

So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. Then He taught, saying to them. Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it a den of thieves.’ (Mark 11:15–17)

He began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, It is written, My house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. (Luke 19:45–46)

Thus, Jesus’ actions confirmed what he already knew he would find in the Temple in Jerusalem when He had triumphantly entered the city the previous day. He had, during the three years or so of His ministry, been looking for, and expecting to find repentance toward God, and spiritual fruit maturing in Israel (for the nations), but it wasn’t there to find!

As they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, remembering said to Him, ‘Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.’(Mark 11:20)

The possible fate of Israel (God’s fig tree), centred in Jerusalem (God’s vineyard), had been decided; the people’s failure to repent and produce the fruit of righteousness had been known to Jesus on the day He rode into Jerusalem on the young colt; even as the crowd cried out…

NOTE: In the second ‘acted parable’ he cursed the Fig Tree (symbolic of Israel) for not producing fruit! But, let’s remember it was not the season for figs (as stated above). However, horticulturalists advise that in Israel the main harvest for figs was after PASSOVER; although figs can be found on a healthy tree all year round.

Thus, it appears that cursing the fig tree was Jesus’ prophetic confirmation that Israel’s fate would be decided after the next year (i.e., after that PASSOVER), depending on Israel’s reaction to the Holy Spirit’s work and witness through the disciples’ preaching of the complete Gospel [4]—exclusively to the ‘Lost sheep of the House of Israel’—for three years or so, until about AD 34. Thus, the second half of Daniel’s 70^th Week, which encompassed the 7 year ‘Covenant period’ for Israel and Jerusalem, ended with the Jewish Council’s rejection of the Gospel, the martyrdom of Stephen, and a great persecution breaking out against the newly converted Jewish Christians.

[1] Matt. 23:37: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’”

[2] Jesus will not drink the 3^rd Cup of Redemption again (Luke 22:17–18), which is memorialised in our Communion. He has already drunk that cup to its depths! The Cup of Redemption involved His sacrificial death, and that is the Cup that Jesus was praying to His Father about in the garden on the night Judas betrayed Him! Matt. 26:36–39 says:

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, ‘Sit here while I go and pray over there.’ And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them ‘My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.’ Then He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.’

Instead, when Jesus returns, He will drink the 4^th Cup of Praise, in His kingdom to come. (Luke 22:14–18) Concurrent, with drinking this 4^th cup (during the Jewish Passover celebration), there is a verbatim recitation by the Jews of Psalms 113–118, as an act of praise and thanksgiving.

[3] Bethpage, at the Mt. of Olives was a vineyard that contained many Fig trees. (Cf. Matt. 21:1; Luke 19:29–38, with Luke 13:6–7, re. the parable of the fig tree)

[4] Jesus’ death as atonement for sin, His resurrection from the dead; His ascension into the heavenly ‘Holy of Holies’ to act as our great High Priest; and the Holy Spirit implanting the law of God in Jewish believer’s hearts on Pentecost.