Passion Week begins with Palm Sunday, this coming Sunday, April 2nd. But a lot that happened leading up to the Triumphal Entry gets overlooked as though it doesn’t have a connection to the crucifixion. For instance, the raising of Lazarus. Is there a connection? Let’s look.
The Messiah returned to Bethany before going into Jerusalem, but He had been gone from Jerusalem for a while. There are a few things to tell about His return that we’ll lump into this post. We’ll call this “day zero.” Wednesday.
The Gospel of John is the only one to mention Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha. The raising of Lazarus talks place in John 11. In chapter 10, we see Yeshua (Jesus) in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah (John 10:22). This is the story where Yeshua declared that He and the Father are One, and the Pharisees tried to stone Him for claiming to be God. He then escaped from their hands and crossed the Jordan to where John had been baptizing people (John 11:23-42). This would have been about 4 or 5 months before the Passover if there was a 13th month that year, and I believe that to be the case. Regardless, the text doesn’t say how long they were at the Jordan, but the very next story is about the death of Lazarus.
Yeshua had raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:7-44) and the Sanhedrin plotted to kill Him because of it (John 11:45-53). Yeshua then withdrew to a village called Ephraim near the desert (John 11:54) until it was close to Passover. This town appears to be north of Jericho, whether to the east near the Jordan River or to the west near Bethel or Shiloh is uncertain. Here, we see the visit to Yeshua of the rich, young ruler (Matt. 19:16-22. Mark 10:17-22, Luke 18:18-23), Yeshua predicting his death one more time to the disciples (Matt. 20:17-19, Mark 10:32-34, Luke 18:31-35), and the request of James and John to sit at Yeshua’s right and left (Matt. 20:20-23, Mark 10:35-40).
They left Ephraim for Jerusalem by way of Jericho (this most likely places the village by the Jordan as Jericho would be en route to Jerusalem). It is here that Yeshua heals two blind men, one named Bartimaeus, and the other is unnamed. The timing is either before entering Jericho or while leaving town (Matt. 20:29-34, Mark 10:46-52, Luke 18:35-43). While passing through Jericho, Yeshua speaks to Zacchaeus and dines at his house (Luke 19:1-10).
Luke is the only account to mention Zacchaeus and afterward, he discourses the Triumphal Entry. Matthew and Mark record the Triumphal Entry after the blind men receive their sight. Only John records Yeshua’s visit to Bethany prior to going to Jerusalem. Since Yeshua and His disciples had a meal with Zacchaeus in Jericho, it is unlikely that they then went to Jerusalem on that same day for the Triumphal Entry and all the rest of the events that unfolded that day. We’ll pick it up Thursday for Yeshua’s visit to Bethany.
The Passion of Christ begins tomorrow!
As you may have noticed from this post, apologetics is a good thing to learn. If you looked up the Scripture references as you read through the post, you may have noticed in the story of the two blind men, Matthew and Mark say it happened as they were leaving Jericho, but Luke appears to say it happened as they were approaching Jericho. Which is it?
It’s really not an issue if you understand how the writings were compiled. Matthew was there when it happened. Mark was probably a young boy that wasn’t there but he traveled with Peter and wrote Peter’s account of the life of Yeshua. Luke was not there for any of it but compiled stories from eyewitnesses that were there. None of that is to say there are discrepancies and errors in the Bible so it can’t be trusted. If you’ve ever listened to J. Warner Wallace from Cold Case Christianity, you’ll understand from a forensics point of view, you don’t want all the witnesses to have the exact same story. The fact that the Gospels had slight variations in how each writer told their stories is what made J. Warner Wallace realize the Bible was true. The Gospels don’t have errors, just different perspectives.