Meredith Sprunger's Synopsis of The Urantia Book
Synopsis of Paper 172
GOING INTO JERUSALEM
1. Jesus and the apostles arrived at Bethany shortly after four o'clock on Friday afternoon, March 31, A.D. 30...Lazarus, Martha, and Mary... dimly felt that this might be his last visit of Jerusalem and Bethany. The chief priests were informed that Jesus lodged at Bethany, but they thought best not to attempt to seize him among his friends; they decided to await his coming on into Jerusalem. Jesus knew about all this, but he was majestically calm; his friends had never seen him more composed and congenial... While the Master slept that night, the apostles watched over him by twos, and many of them were girded with swords.
2. Six days before the Passover, on the evening after the Sabbath, all Bethany and Bethpage joined in celebrating the arrival of Jesus by a public banquet at the home of Simon. This supper was in honor of both Jesus and Lazarus; it was tendered in defiance of the Sanhedrin...Jesus talked with Simon about Joshua of old...Jesus said: "I am not concerned with such walls of brick and stone; but I would cause the walls of prejudice, self‑righteousness, and hate to crumble before this preaching of the Father's love for all men."
3. Nothing out of the ordinary happened until near the close of the feasting when Mary the sister of Lazarus stepped forward...and after anointing the Master's head, she began to pour it upon his feet as she took down her hair and wiped them with it...Judas Iscariot stepped over to where Andrew reclined and said: "Why was this ointment not sold and the money bestowed to feed the poor? You should speak to the Master that he rebuke such waste."
4. Jesus, knowing what they thought and hearing what they said, put his hand upon Mary's head as she knelt by his side and, with a kindly expression upon his face, said: "Let her alone, every one of you. Why do you trouble her about this, seeing that she has done a good thing in her heart?... In the doing of this, Mary has reproved all of you in that by this act she evinces faith in what I have said about my death and ascension to my Father in heaven... wherever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, what she has done will be spoken of in memory of her."
5. It was because of this rebuke, which he took as a personal reproof, that Judas Iscariot finally made up his mind to seek revenge for his hurt feelings...And many others encouraged him in this attitude since the cost of this ointment was a sum equal to the earnings of one man for one year—enough to provide bread for five thousand persons.
6. When the chief priests heard of this dinner in Bethany for Jesus and Lazarus...they decided that Lazarus must also die. They rightly concluded that it would be useless to put Jesus to death if they permitted Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead, to live.
7. On this Sunday morning, in Simon's beautiful garden, the Master called his twelve apostles around him and gave them their final instructions preparatory to entering Jerusalem. He...advised the apostles to refrain from doing any public work during this Passover sojourn in Jerusalem. He instructed them to remain near him and to "watch and pray."
8. After the conference with the apostles Jesus held converse with Lazarus and instructed him to avoid the sacrifice of his life to the vengefulness of the Sanhedrin. It was in obedience to this admonition that Lazarus, a few days later, fled to Philadelphia when the officers of the Sanhedrin sent men to arrest him.
9. Jesus ...had feelings of profound affection for Bethany and its simple people. Nazareth, Capernaum, and Jerusalem had rejected him, but Bethany had accepted him, had believed in him. And it was in this small village, where almost every man, woman, and child were believers, that he chose to perform the mightiest work of his earth bestowal, the resurrection of Lazarus. He did not raise Lazarus that the villagers might believe, but rather because they already believed.
10. Jesus did not decide to make this public entrance into Jerusalem as a last bid for popular favor nor as a final grasp for power. Neither did he do it altogether to satisfy the human longings of his disciples and apostles. Jesus entertained none of the illusions of a fantastic dreamer; he well knew what was to be the outcome of this visit.
11. There was one Scripture that had sometimes been associated with the Messiah by those who held more to the spiritual concept of his mission…This Scripture was found in Zechariah, and it said: "Rejoice greatly, 0 daughter of Zion...Behold, your king comes to you... upon a colt, the foal of an ass." A warrior king always entered a city riding upon a horse; a king on a mission of peace and friendship always entered riding upon an ass. Jesus would not enter Jerusalem as a man on horseback, but he was willing to enter peacefully and with good will as the Son of Man on a donkey.
12. Jesus called Peter and John... "Go to Bethpage, and when you come to the junction of the roads, you will find the colt of an ass tied there. Loose the colt and bring it back with you. If any one asks you why you do this, merely say, 'The Master has need of him.'"
13. David Zebedee and some of his former messenger associates took it upon themselves to hasten on down to Jerusalem, where they effectively spread the report among the throngs of visiting pilgrims about the temple that Jesus of Nazareth was making a triumphal entry into the city. Accordingly, several thousand of these visitors flocked forth to greet this much‑talked‑of prophet and wonder‑worker, whom some believed to be the Messiah.
14. Before they started, the Alpheus twins put their cloaks on the donkey and held him while the Master got on. As the procession moved toward the summit of Olivet, the festive crowd threw their garments on the ground and brought branches from the near‑by trees in order to make a carpet of honor for the donkey bearing the royal Son, the promised Messiah. As the merry crowd moved on toward Jerusalem, they began to sing, or rather to shout in unison, the Psalm, "Hosanna to the son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."
15. Jesus was lighthearted and cheerful as they moved along until he came to the brow of Olivet, where the city and the temple towers came into full view; there the Master stopped the procession, and a great silence came upon all as they beheld him weeping. Looking down upon the vast multitude coming forth from the city to greet him, the Master, with much emotion and with tearful voice, said: "0 Jerusalem, if you had only known, even you, at least in this your day, the things which belong to your peace, and which you could so freely have had! But now are these glories about to be hid from your eyes. You are about to reject the Son of Peace and turn your backs upon the gospel of salvation. The days will soon come upon you wherein your enemies will cast a trench around about you and lay siege to you on every side; they shall utterly destroy you, insomuch that not one stone shall be left upon another. And all this shall befall you because you knew not the time of your divine visitation. You are about to reject the gift of God, and all men will reject you."
16. The Master had not planned that these crowds should come out from Jerusalem to meet them; that was the work of others. He never premeditated anything which was dramatic.
17. As they neared Jerusalem, the crowd became more demonstrative, so much so that some of the Pharisees made their way up alongside Jesus and said: "Teacher, you should rebuke your disciples and exhort them to behave more seemly." Jesus answered: "It is only fitting that these children should welcome the Son of Peace, whom the chief priests have rejected. It would be useless to stop them lest in their stead these stones by the roadside cry out."
18. The Pharisees hastened on ahead of the procession to rejoin the Sanhedrin, which was then in session at the temple, and they reported to their associates: 'Behold, all that we do is of no avail; we are confounded by this Galilean. The people have gone mad: over him; if we do not stop these ignorant ones, all the world will go after him."
19. No attempt was made to molest Jesus as the Sanhedrin greatly feared the people, and that was, after all, one of the reasons Jesus had for allowing the multitude thus to acclaim him. The apostles little understood that this was the only human procedure which could have been effective in preventing Jesus' immediate arrest upon entering the city. The Master desired to give the inhabitants of Jerusalem...this one more and last chance to hear the gospel and receive, if they would, the Son of Peace.
20. For a moment they sat down by the treasury...At last there came along a poor widow, scantily attired, and they observed as she cast two mites (small coppers) into the trumpet. And then said Jesus, calling the attention of the apostles to the widow: "Heed well what you have just seen. This poor widow cast in more than all the others, for all these others, from their superfluity, cast in some trifle as a gift, but this poor woman, even though she is in want, gave all that she had, even her living."
21. No twelve human beings ever experienced such diverse and inexplicable emotions as now surged through the minds and souls of these ambassadors of the kingdom. These sturdy Galileans were confused and disconcerted; they did not know what to expect next... They went to their lodgings, though they did not sleep much, save the twins. But they did not keep armed watch over Jesus at Simon's house.
22. Andrew was thoroughly bewildered, well‑high confused. He was the one apostle who did not seriously undertake to evaluate the popular outburst of acclaim... Andrew was busy watching some of his associates whom he feared might be led away by their emotions during the excitement, particularly Peter, James, John, and Simon Zelotes...He was concerned about the attitude of some of the twelve whom he knew were armed with swords; but he did not know that his own brother, Peter, was carrying such a weapon.
23. Simon Peter was at first almost swept off his feet by this popular manifestation of enthusiasm; but he was considerably sobered by the time they returned to Bethany that night... Peter could not understand why Jesus did not speak to the multitude when they arrived at the temple, or at least permit one of the apostles to address the crowd. Peter was a great preacher, and he disliked to see such a large, receptive, and enthusiastic audience go to waste.
24. To James Zebedee, this Sunday was a day of perplexity and profound confusion; he could not grasp the purport of what was going on; he could not comprehend the Master's purpose in permitting this wild acclaim and then in refusing to say a word to the people when they arrived at the temple...James could not understand the reason for throwing away such a magnificent opportunity to proclaim the kingdom. By night, his mind was held firmly in the grip of a distressing and dreadful uncertainty.
25. Join Zebedee came somewhere near understanding why Jesus did this; at least he grasped in part the spiritual significance of this so‑called triumphal entry into Jerusalem... As John turned this Scripture over in his mind, he began to comprehend the symbolic significance of this Sunday‑afternoon pageant.. John had a type of mind which naturally tended to think and feel in symbols.
26. Philip was entirely unsettled by the suddenness and spontaneity of the outburst ...he was perturbed by the thought that Jesus might possibly ask him to feed the multitude, so that the conduct of Jesus in turning leisurely away from the crowds...was a great relief to Philip...That night Philip got to thinking over these experiences and was tempted to doubt the whole idea of the kingdom...but he expressed his doubts to no one; he loved Jesus too much. He had great personal faith in the Master.
27. Nathaniel, aside from the symbolic and prophetic aspects, came the nearest to understanding the Master's reason for enlisting the popular support of the Passover pilgrims ...He was not, therefore, in the least surprised that the Master made no further use of the cheering crowds... Nathaniel had great confidence in Jesus' understanding of men as well as in his sagacity and cleverness in handling difficult situations.
28. Matthew was at first nonplused by this pageant performance ...until he also recalled the Scripture in Zechariah...Matthew became ecstatic; he was certain that something extraordinary would happen when the Master arrived at the temple...None of the twelve was more depressed on the way back to Bethany that evening. Next to Simon Peter and Simon Zelotes, he experienced the highest nervous tension and was in a state of exhaustion by night. But by morning Matthew was much cheered; he was, after all, a cheerful loser.
29. Thomas was the most bewildered and puzzled man of all the twelve...Down deep in his heart he regarded the whole performance as a little childish, if not downright foolish...By the time they reached the temple, Thomas had deduced that the purpose of this popular demonstration was so to frighten the Sanhedrin that they would not dare immediately to arrest the Master …By bedtime the Master's cleverness in staging the tumultuous entry into Jerusalem had begun to make a somewhat humorous appeal, and he was much cheered up by this reaction.
30. This Sunday started off as a great day for Simon Zelotes...Simon dreamed of the establishment of the new national rule of the Jews ...On the way down Olivet he even envisaged the Sanhedrin and all of their sympathizers dead before sunset of that day. He really believed something great was going to happen. He was the noisiest man in the whole multitude. By five o'clock that afternoon he was a silent, crushed, and disillusioned apostle. He never fully recovered from the depression which settled down on him as a result of this day's shock; at least not until long after the Master's resurrection.
3l.To the Alpheus twins this was a perfect day. They really enjoyed it all the way through...In the memory of the twins this was always their day of being nearest heaven on earth... It was the most befitting entry of the king the twins could conceive; they enjoyed every moment of the whole pageant. They fully approved of all they saw and long cherished the memory.
32. Of all the apostles, Judas Iscariot was the most adversely affected by this processional entry into Jerusalem... Judas was disgusted with the whole spectacle. To him it seemed childish, if not indeed ridiculous...He heartily resented the whole performance. He shared the views of the Greeks and Romans, who looked down upon anyone who would consent to ride upon an ass or the colt of an ass...Judas had about made up his mind to abandon the whole idea of such a kingdom...Judas was tremendously influenced by the ridicule of his Sadducean friends ...A prominent Sadducee (a friend of Judas's family) rushed up to him in a spirit of gleeful ridicule and, slapping him on the back, said: "Why so troubled of countenance, my good friend; cheer up and join us all while we acclaim this Jesus of Nazareth the king of the Jews as he rides through the gates of Jerusalem seated on an ass.” Judas had never shrunk from persecution, but he could not stand this sort of ridicule ...At heart, this ordained ambassador of the kingdom was already a deserter; it only remained for him to find some plausible excuse for an open break with the Master.
Discussion Questions
1. What prejudices and self-righteous attitudes are characteristic of our culture?
2. What Judas’ criticism of Mary reasonable? How did Jesus’ view Mary’s action?
3. Why did Bethany accept Jesus when Nazareth, Capernaum, and Jerusalem rejected him?
4. Had the Jerusalem leaders accepted Jesus and his message, what might have happened during the last 2000 years of history?
5. Did Jesus call attention to the widow’s offering to encourage people to give all of their wealth to spiritual purposes, or to contrast attitudes between the poor and rejected and the rich and respected?
6. Why were the apostles so confused on Palm Sunday?
7. Why do you think Jesus did not speak to the crowd when they reached the temple?
A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship