Day 180: Luke 19:28–48

Every day He was teaching in the temple complex. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people were looking for a way to destroy him (v. 47).

We have arrived at a most critical juncture in our journey. Having accelerated through the parables, we now slow to a crawl, with magnifying glass in hand, to move through the final three chapters of Luke’s Gospel. We will spend every remaining moment attempting to become eyewitnesses to the events at the conclusion of his account.

Luke 9:51 records that “Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.” He performed many miracles and delivered vital messages along the way. But Luke 19:28–48 indicates that Christ’s presence was finally becoming more than His opposition could stand. His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, His cleansing of the temple. To the religious establishment, these were the proverbial straws that broke the camel’s back.

I wish we could all sit together on the Mount of Olives and look at the Holy City for a while. Picture it in your mind. The garden where Christ retreated was on the hill directly across from the altar of sacrifice on the temple mount. Jesus taught at the temple during the day, then at night He retreated to the Mount of Olives, which overlooked the temple.

Not long ago, I sat near this place where Jesus retreated. I couldn’t help wondering what went through His mind during those days. On that temple mount God had provided the substitutionary offering for Isaac (see Gen. 22:1–19; see also 2 Chron. 3:1). Paul wrote that through Abraham, God had provided an “advance” showing of the gospel of grace (Gal. 3:8). Fast forward, now, two thousand years to the scene where Christ was camped on the mountain parallel to the place of sacrifice at the temple. He resolved to fulfill the gospel that had been preached to Abraham. The time was imminent.

And, oh, by the way—“The Passover was approaching” (Luke 22:1). God’s timing is never coincidental, but it was perhaps never more deliberate than in the events that unfolded in the opening lines of Luke 22. A new year on Israel’s sacred calendar had just begun. The most sacred and critical year in all of human history was beginning—“the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:19). The age of the completed redemptive work of God was unfolding. Can you imagine the anticipation in the unseen places? The kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness were rising to a climactic point on the divine calendar.