Chapter 23 concludes this section of the “testing of the Lamb (Jesus)” with Him condemning the religious leaders for their pride and hypocrisy. Here Jesus pronounced seven woes upon the pharisees and scribes leading to His ultimate pronouncement of judgment. In His final words, Jesus laments over Jerusalem and declares that He will not return again until they accept Him as Messiah.
Chapter 22 continues with the overall theme of testing. But before, this Jesus continued His parabolic teaching to the leaders indicating how that their rejection of Him will lead to the kingdom being offered to others and their destruction. After this, differing groups came to Jesus to question Him to entrap or find reasons to condemn Him.
Jesus now enters into Jerusalem, presenting Himself as the rightful King of the Jews. Fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah, He enters Jerusalem riding on a donkey. The next day Jesus entered the temple and for the second time cleansed it. During these last days of Jesus before His crucifixion, He is tested by the religious leaders, fulfilling Moses instructions of testing the lamb (Exodus 12).
Continuing with the principle of “the last shall be first and the first, last”, Jesus continued teaching His disciples in a parable. The point He was making was that, He would appoint those to serve Him throughout the church age and would reward them just as He rewarded the twelve apostles. As He headed toward Jerusalem, again He reminded them of His upcoming death and resurrection.
Leaving Galilee, Jesus now heads toward Jerusalem where He will be crucified and raised from the dead. Along the way, He is questioned about divorce by the pharisees and provides valuable teachings on the priority and permanence of marriage. Even though His words are difficult to receive, He continues by teaching that His disciples should always be like children.
Continuing from the idea of “heirs of the kingdom”, chapter 18 deals with the children of the kingdom. That is, all who would be in the “new” kingdom should be humble as children and be careful of how they treat the least in the new kingdom (church).
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