“Matthew 21–23; Mark 11; Luke 19–20; John 12,” Scripture Helps: New Testament (2024)
Scripture Helps
Matthew 21–23; Mark 11; Luke 19–20; John 12
Jesus Christ ate a meal with a chief publican named Zacchaeus. Mary anointed Jesus’s feet in anticipation of Jesus’s death and burial. Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem as the recognized Messiah while the crowd shouted, “Hosanna.” He cleansed the temple, cursed a fig tree, and withstood the challenge of the chief priests and elders in the temple. He taught about tribute money, marriage, and His Resurrection. He taught the two great commandments. He told the parables of the two sons, the wicked husbandmen, and the marriage of the king’s son. Jesus asked the Jewish leaders, “What think ye of Christ?” He denounced hypocrisy. Jesus lamented the coming destruction of Jerusalem.
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Background and Context
What was significant about the Savior’s triumphal entry?
(Compare to Mark 11:1–11; Luke 19:28–40; John 12:12–19.)
The Savior’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem fulfilled the prophecy that the Savior would ride a colt into Jerusalem as the promised Messiah and King of Israel. He entered Jerusalem in the pattern of ancient kings. As the Savior rode on a colt to the temple mount, the people shouted, “Hosanna.” Hosanna is a Hebrew word “that means ‘please save us’ and is used in praise and supplication.” The people laid their clothes and palm branches along the Savior’s path. This was the custom to welcome a new king. Their actions indicated that they “recognized Christ as the long-awaited Messiah.”
Why did Jewish leaders question the Savior’s authority?
The priests claimed authority based on their ancestry, the scribes based on their education, and the elders based on their social standing and wealth. The chief priests and elders asserted authority over the temple. Temple priests oversaw the money changing that took place in the temple. Jesus challenged their authority when He overturned the tables and referred to the temple as His house. Later, when Jesus was teaching in the temple, the Jewish leaders issued a dramatic challenge to Him by asking, “By what authority doest thou these things?”
What can we learn from the Lord’s cursing of the fig tree?
Jesus Christ cursed the fig tree for having “leaves only.” The tree then withered and died. Jesus explained to His disciples that if they had faith, they would also have power to do great things. While this event demonstrates God’s power on earth, there may be additional symbolism. For example, in the Old Testament, the fig tree is a symbol for Judah and Israel. This suggests that the cursing of the fig tree “was a pronouncement of judgment upon Jerusalem and Israel.”
What did the Jewish leaders hope to accomplish by asking Jesus questions in a public setting?
First-century Jews lived in a culture that prized honor. A person could have honor through birth, ancestry, position, power, or social connections. They could also lose honor through public challenges. In these situations, being clever and persuasive was valued. If the person challenged didn’t respond well enough in the eyes of bystanders, they lost influence within the community.
Jewish leaders tried to undermine Jesus’s honor and influence by questioning Jesus publicly. The Savior’s responses were so profound that the accusers were silenced and dared not ask the Savior anything else. With their honor at stake, the Lord’s opponents turned to a different method of public shaming—treating Jesus as a criminal and condemning Him to death.
What is the message of the parables of the two sons and the wicked husbandmen?
Jesus Christ used the parables of the two sons and the wicked husbandmen to testify of His divinity as the Son of God. In each parable, the Savior condemns those who questioned His authority and abused their own authority.
What can we learn from the parable of the wedding feast?
Ancient Jewish weddings included the gathering of the wedding party. Typically, the wedding party would follow the couple to the groom’s home for a feast. This procession usually happened at night. The wedding feast could last several days. The celebration “might include songs, music, love poems, and dancing.”
Using this parable, Jesus taught Jewish leaders that Israel had been invited to God’s figurative feast. This parable highlighted several ways Israel had refused God’s invitation. Jesus declared that God would invite new guests to His feast.
It may seem harsh that the man was cast out of the wedding feast for wearing the wrong clothes. But since these guests came from the streets, the king likely would have provided the proper clothing for them. Elder David A. Bednar taught that the man “did not simply lack a wedding garment; rather, he chose not to wear one. He rebelliously refused to dress appropriately for the occasion.” In other words, the man insulted the king by refusing the king’s gift.
The Joseph Smith Translation connects the statement “Many are called, but few are chosen” to not wearing the wedding garment. Elder Bednar observed: “An individual may even accept the invitation and sit down at the feast—yet not be chosen to partake because he or she does not have the appropriate wedding garment of converting faith in the Lord Jesus and His divine grace. Thus, we have both God’s call and our individual response to that call, and many may be called but few chosen.”
What dilemma did the Pharisees pose with the question “Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?”
Caesar, or the Roman emperor, required all adult males to pay a census tax. The Jews despised these taxes because they were used for the glory of the Roman Empire. Failure to pay the tax was viewed as rebellion against Rome; paying the tax was an offense to the Jews.
What did the Savior teach when He said, “In the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage”?
Like the Pharisees before them, the Sadducees also wanted to trap Jesus in his words. Therefore, they asked Jesus a question about marriage that they thought would be impossible for Him to answer and would justify their belief that there was no Resurrection. The Sadducees asked Jesus what brother a woman would be married to in the Resurrection if she had been married to seven brothers in mortality. This question relates to the practice of levirate marriage under the law of Moses. Levirate marriages allowed a childless widow to marry her deceased husband’s brother to preserve her husband’s name and line. This “practice … created a temporal marriage to address needs raised by death but was unneeded in the next world in which death would no longer exist.” Jesus’s response aligns with the teaching in Doctrine and Covenants 132:15–16. These passages teach that when a man and woman marry for as “long as he is in the world and she with him, their … marriage [is] not of force when they are dead.”
What were “the law and the prophets”?
See the entry “Scriptures” in the section “Important New Testament Terms” in the introduction.
How did the Savior challenge traditional beliefs about the Messiah?
Jesus Christ referred to an inspired psalm of David in which David called the Messiah his Lord. It was prophesied that the Messiah would be from the line of David. The Pharisees traditionally believed that the Messiah would be an earthly king who would deliver the nation of Israel. But David knew that the Messiah would be the Son of God, so David referred to the Messiah as his Lord. The Savior used this psalm to teach the Pharisees that according to their scriptures, Christ was more than just the son of David; He was also the Son of God.
What was important about Moses’s seat?
An official chair in a synagogue, called Moses’s seat
Moses’s seat may refer to an actual seat at the head of the synagogue. The seat represented Moses as a teacher of the law. It seems that Jesus did not take issue with what the scribes and Pharisees taught but rather with how they lived.
What were phylacteries and borders of garments?
The word phylactery is a Greek word meaning “guard, keeper.” Phylacteries are small leather boxes strapped onto the forehead and arm. Inside the boxes are small rolls of parchment with scriptural instruction. Borders of garments were tassels put on the hem or corner of clothes to remember God and His laws.
Jesus criticized the Pharisees for wearing enlarged boxes and tassels to show off their supposed superior commitment to God.
photograph by James Jeffery
What is a hypocrite?
The word hypocrite is a Greek word meaning actor, “pretender, disingenuous or insincere.” Hypocrites are those who are deceitful in actions, or “frauds.” The Lord denounced the scribes and Pharisees for not living what they taught. The Savior pronounced eight woes on the scribes and Pharisees because of their hypocrisy. A woe is a great affliction that leads to misery.
What was a proselyte?
Proselytes were Gentile converts to Judaism. The process of conversion included “circumcision [for males], baptism, and a sacrifice.”
What was Jesus teaching when He talked about tithes, gnats, and camels?
Israelites made offerings to help support the temple and the priests. These offerings could be in money or specific crops, including small spices like mint, anise, and cumin. Jesus observed that the Pharisees could pay tithes with small spices but neglect important matters like judgment, mercy, and faith.
Because gnats were considered unclean insects, some Jews strained their drinks to avoid accidentally eating them. Camels were also considered unclean to eat under the law of Moses. The Savior used the examples of paying a tithe of spices, straining gnats, and eating camels to teach the Pharisees that they were focusing on the wrong things.
What were whited sepulchres?
A person who stepped on a grave was considered ritually unclean under the law of Moses. To prevent this, graves were painted white to make them more visible. A freshly painted tomb looked clean on the outside, but a dead body decayed within. No amount of exterior polish could change what was happening on the inside. The Savior used this image to describe hypocrisy. It is human nature to worry about outward appearances, but the Savior wants to change our hearts.
Why did the Jews garnish their sepulchres?
In New Testament times, the Jews would garnish, or decorate, sepulchres of important people to honor them.
What was significant about Mary anointing Jesus Christ?
(Compare to Matthew 26:6–13; Mark 14:3–9.)
Mark and Matthew recorded that an unnamed woman anointed Jesus Christ’s head the day before the Last Supper. This unnamed woman was likely Mary of Bethany. John recorded that Mary anointed the Savior’s feet just prior to the Savior’s triumphal entry.
Mary’s anointing of Jesus Christ showed her trust and faith that He was the Messiah. Mark recorded that she broke an alabaster jar, sacrificing both a valuable vessel and all its contents. The ointment was pure spikenard, an expensive perfume imported from the Himalayan mountains. The perfume was worth over 300 pence (about a year’s worth of pay for the average laborer).
Jesus stated that the woman’s actions would be “a memorial of her” throughout the world. This statement foretold the eventual spread of the gospel throughout the world. Matthew’s and Mark’s Gospels seem to imply that this woman was the first disciple to recognize the Savior’s impending death.
What did Jesus mean by “he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal”?
As in Luke 14:26, the Greek word translated as “hate” in this verse is miseō. It can mean “strong aversion, disfavor, or disregard toward someone or something.” In these verses, the sense is that of disregard toward one thing in comparison to another. In other words, Jesus is teaching His disciples that they cannot have divided loyalties between Himself and their family members. Jesus wants us to trust Him and put Him first in our lives.
Learn More
Jesus Christ’s Triumphal Entry
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Ronald A. Rasband, “Hosanna to the Most High God,” Liahona, May 2023, 108–12
Parable of the Wedding Feast
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David A. Bednar, “Put On Thy Strength, O Zion,” Liahona, Nov. 2022, 92–95
Hypocrisy
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Lynn G. Robbins, “What Manner of Men and Women Ought Ye to Be?,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2011, 103–5
Media
Videos
“The Lord’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem” (1:22)
“Jesus Cleanses the Temple” (1:34)
“Phylacteries” (1:06)
Images
Mary Anoints the Feet of Christ, by Robert T. Barrett
Triumphal Entry, by Walter Rane
The Chief Priests Take Counsel Together, by James Tissot