Bible

Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey

Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey

Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It was a special time of year for Jesus and His friends. A special celebration feast; the feast of the Passover, was coming up. It was kind of like our Thanksgiving. Lots of people traveled to the big city of Jerusalem to celebrate. Jesus and His friends were on their way there too.

The Triumphal Entry

Matthew 21:1-17

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,  saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.”  This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,

 “Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”

 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.  They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”  And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?”  And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.  He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.  But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,

“Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies
you have prepared praise’?”

And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.


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Are you burdened with the weight of unforgiveness?

English: White tulips

Image via Wikipedia

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:15-15).

One weight that God does not want you to carry is the weight of unforgiveness. Yet many in the body of Christ find it difficult to forgive. Unforgiveness not only affects your spiritual growth, but it also weighs heavily on your emotional and physical well-being.

The apostle Peter, a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ, and a stalwart of the early Church, struggled with the weight of unforgiveness. He hated the Gentiles. He referred to them as common and unclean. He even refused to preach the gospel to them. There is no evidence that the apostle Peter ever reconcile his differences with the Gentiles.

In the book of Matthew chapter 18:21-22, Jesus uses Peter’s struggle to teach us how to forgive. If we followed His instructions the world will be a better place:

Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?

Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, until seven times: but, until seventy times seven

Unforgiveness is an attitude of the heart that abides outside the law of love. To walk in forgiveness is to walk in great spiritual freedom. Your heart is light when it does not carry grudge, bitterness, or resentment. To forgive does not mean that you agree with the offence that someone has committed, or that you support it in any way.

To forgive means that you choose to release the judgment you are carrying toward someone, even though that person did something that was unkind or unfair. The choice to forgive is not based on fairness or justice, but on mercy and grace. Mercy triumphs over judgment when you choose to forgive. Jesus did not carry any grudge against the people who nailed Him to the cross. Instead, He showed mercy by saying; “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

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The Messiah and the Samaritan woman

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well (Photo credit: Lawrence OP)

The Samaritan woman found Jesus (the Messiah) in an unlikely place (at the side of a well). Her brief but historic meeting with Him would forever change her life. She was so overwhelmed that she left her water jar by the well and went back to the town to spread the good news. “Come; see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”

John chapter 4:7-26, tells us that Jesus was resting by the side of Jacob’s well one day; after a long journey from Judaea to Galilee, when a Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”

The woman was shocked that a Jew was asking a Samaritan for a drink. Back in those days Jews and Samaritans (Gentiles) did not mix. Gentiles were considered unclean and unrighteous.

The Samaritan woman who was more concerned about tradition than about helping Jesus with a drink of water, said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?”

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God (the gift of God is eternal life), and who it is (the Messiah) that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

“I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, He will explain everything to us.”

Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am He.”

The moral of the story is; the gospel of Jesus Christ knows no boundaries. It is for anybody who will accept it.

The Vine and the Vinedresser

Smith's later theology described Jesus and God...

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I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bear much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. (John 15:1-10, ESV).

There is something that you can always be certain of as you abide in the vine—Jesus Christ and God  the father are deeply and intimately involved in your life; and they will never leave you nor forsake you.

The relationship of a branch to a vine signifies one of the closest relationships possible in creation. The branch is in the vine, the life of the vine is in the branch, and the vine-dresser [Jesus] is cutting back everything [the baggage] that will hinder it [you] from bearing much fruit.

Jesus uses the relationship of the branch and the vine to remind you of how dependent you are upon Him.

Like branches on a vine, our Christian life is a growth process. We mature more every day. As we abide in Jesus, we learn to know him better and trust him more. Cautiously, we reach out to others. We love them. The greater our trust in Christ, the greater our compassion will be.

This is a lifelong challenge. When we are rebuffed, we have the choice to draw back or give our hurt to Christ and try again. Abiding is what matters. When we live that truth, we can begin to love like Jesus.

Jesus doesn’t command you to bear fruit, but He does command you to abide in Him. Fruit is the outcome of your abiding, and that fruit will always glorify the father.

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Jesus is the only Mediator you’ll need

“There is one God, and one mediator, between God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus“(1 Timothy 2:5).

Stained glass at St John the Baptist's Anglica...

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A mediator takes the hand of one party and places it into the hand of another party. A mediator is someone who has one primary aim, and that is to bring peace to a broken relationship.

Most of us are aware of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, between Israel and Palestine. We also know that over the years the United States have delegated several peace mediators to sit down with both parties to try to work out a compromise; but to date no one has been able to take the hand of one party and place it into the hand of the other.

Jesus Christ is your representative to God, and He is God’s representative to you. He does not have any hidden agenda—He has your best interest at heart, and He is a genuine mediator. As your mediator He presents your need of mercy to God, and as God’s mediator He extends God’s grace to you. “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

Jesus Christ is the only mediator that you will ever need, for He is the One whose sacrifice on the cross at Calvary for sin completely satisfied the demands of God’s justice and holiness. The only one that you should allow to come between you and God is His Son, Jesus Christ. “Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).