Having just dealt with a group consisting of chief priests, scribes and elders whotried calling Jesus’ credentials into question, in this week’s passage, Jesus is faced with yetmore opposition from the religious Jewish leaders. This time, they come to Jesus with theintention of trying to trip Him up in His words, as they question Him on the subject of payingtaxes. The Jews hated having to pay taxes to Rome, because it was a reminded to themthat Rome had power over the Jewish nation. For Jesus to say ‘yes’ to paying taxes, wouldput Him at odds with the majority of Jews. But for Jesus to say ‘no’ to paying taxes, wouldput Him at odds with the Roman officials. As one would expect, Jesus answers their questionwith such wisdom and precision, which causes His enemies to be silenced yet again.

Having just dealt with a group consisting of chief priests, scribes and elders who tried calling Jesus’ credentials into question, in this week’s passage, Jesus is faced with yet more opposition from the religious Jewish leaders.  This time, they come to Jesus with the intention of trying to trip Him up in His words, as they question Him on the subject of paying taxes.  The Jews hated having to pay taxes to Rome, because it was a reminded to them that Rome had power over the Jewish nation.  For Jesus to say ‘yes’ to paying taxes, would put Him at odds with the majority of Jews.  But for Jesus to say ‘no’ to paying taxes, would put Him at odds with the Roman officials.  As one would expect, Jesus answers their question with such wisdom and precision, which causes His enemies to be silenced yet again.

The religious leaders were angry at Jesus because of what He said and did, andwere determined to destroy Him (v18). But first, they had to get enough evidence to bringcharges against Him. It was all a question of authority (v28-29, 33). What right did Jesushave to cleanse the temple, and call it His house? He was claiming to be God! WhatJesus does, is that He takes them back three years, when John the Baptist was ministeringto the people, asking them whether John’s authority was from God or from men. Thispresents the religious with a dilemma, because regardless of how they answered, theycould not win. The reality is that these leaders had not submitted to John’s authority,which meant that they were not ready to accept Jesus’ authority and to trust Him.

In this week’s passage, we are introduced to Jesus’ final week of life and publicministry. As Jesus finally enters into Jerusalem, He enters the very place where Hisbetrayal, arrest, trial, crucifixion awaited Him. Yet on this day that He enters into Jerusalem,it is a day of excitement for the people, along with a day to fulfil numerous OldTestament prophecies relating to Jesus. While Jesus tended to avoid public demonstrationson His behalf, on this occasion, He allows for it to happen, now that He approachesthe end of His earthly ministry. The scene that we are given in this passage isonly but a foretaste of what the future holds, when Jesus returns again for His gloriousSecond Coming.

As Christians, we need to be aware of what sin is and how we can overcome sin. Oftendue to sin’s deceptive nature, we forget how serious a problem sin is. Sin deceives us into thinkingthat sin is harmless and that we are not hurting anyone. As we see in Genesis 4, sin is neverharmless, it is looking to devour/control us. Nor should we judge sin by whether it hurts ourneighbour, but view every sin an act of lawlessness against God. The Christian should neverfeel that they are powerless to resist sin. The Holy Spirit is at work sanctifying us, but we have arole to play. It begins with understanding who we are. In Romans 6 Paul wants us to understandthat we have died and risen with Christ. Christ died to conquer sin and death. Consequently weare no longer slaves to sin. We are free not to sin, though the possibility of sinning is ever present.Since we are now alive to God, we overcome sin as we offer ourselves to God.

In this week’s passage, we come to the final miraculous healing of Jesus, recordedin the Gospel of Mark. As Jesus is making His way towards Jerusalem with Hisdisciples, they stop in a place called Jericho, where a blind man by the name of Bartimaeusis begging. When the blind man hears that Jesus is coming His way, He beginsto cry out to Him in desperation. While others around him tell him to keep quiet, this onlymotivates Bartimaeus even more to cry out for Jesus to have mercy on him. Jesus takesnotice of the persistent cry of the man, which leads to a short exchange of words, beforeJesus heals the man’s blindness completely. What we see in this account, is the willingnessof Jesus to hear the persistent cries of the undeserving, who need His mercy.

In this week’s passage, we come to a scene which immediately follows Jesus’third announcement of His death and resurrection. While James and John were uncertainabout all the details, they had confidence that Jesus would ultimately be victorious,and they wanted to partake of the greatness. The only problem is that they were motivatedby selfish ambition (v35-37), manifesting arrogant overconfidence (v38-40), whichwas demonstrating an ugly competitiveness (v41-42). They wanted to be great, butthey didn’t understand the path to true greatness in God’s Kingdom. By drawing theirattention back to His coming crucifixion, Jesus teaches them the lesson that the path totrue greatness is humility (v43-45).

In this Sunday’s passage, we are given the account of when Jesus foretells ofHis coming death and resurrection for the third time. What this reminds us of, is that thedeath of Jesus was not an unplanned or unexpected misfortune. Nor was Jesus a victimof circumstance. As Jesus retells His disciples what would soon happen to Him, it’sa reminder that Christ’s death and resurrection was something which was carefully calculated,and preordained, well before it actually took place. It serves as a reminder tous, that the cross comes before the crown, and that suffering comes before glory. Inthis study, we will be exploring the tremendous truth, that Christ’s death & resurrectionwere planned by God, and that everything happened the way that it was preordained.