Listen to this post NOW on Beyond Everything Radio!

I’ve decided to teach more thoroughly through Matthew’s account of the last days of Jesus. Too often at this time of the year we are given the story of the triumphal entry on Good Friday and then the crucifixion and resurrection on Easter. Yet, there are twenty-two vital additions to the story between Jesus driving out moneychangers and Judas betraying Jesus at the last supper. After much study, I’ve concluded that the Mattean editors were weaving vital threads together which are largely lost on the casual reader who interprets these passages through dispensationalism. Not desiring to spend half a year on this, I’ll share with you the highlights over the coming weeks.

Much of Evangelical doctrine comes from Dispensationalism which is credited to John Darby, but he may have simply been its big promoter in the late 1800’s. Why is this important? If you grew up on the Scofield Bible, or in Evangelicalism, then you are familiar with what is called “The Last Days” or Eschatalogical verses in the Bible. Dispensationalism “chops up” the Bible into segments on a timeline of human history, and Evangelicalism has conveniently placed our modern world into the last dispensation. Turn on any Christian radio, TV program, or podcast and you are likely to find a preacher saying: “We are living in the Last Days.” Right?

Why does this matter? Most biblical scholars reject dispensationalism. The biblical revelation, if one holds fidelity to it’s context and message, was not written for a time 2000 years into the future, but was referring to it’s own culture, region, and proximity, clearly describing the destruction of the Jewish Temple in A.D. 70 by Rome. The biblical languages are very clear about this, using very specific words which tell us this isn’t a world wide Armageddon, but a local historical event that was as Jesus put it:

“Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” (Matthew 24:34)

Of the twenty plus insertions (tweeners) that I mentioned above, most have been highjacked by Dispensationalism and therefore not incorporated into the passion narrative as intended by the Mattean manuscript. The result is, that modern hearers are unable to appreciate all that Jesus was saying in his final days. Dispensationalism spawned Evangelicalism’s eschatology, meaning that the Rapture (return of Christ) is coming before the 1000 year reign of Christ (pre-millennialism) and before the global Armageddon (Pre-tribulation). The Biblical perspective is known as Postmillenialism (meaning Christ already established his Kingdom and the tribulation already occurred in AD 70. Christ’s bodily return then is supposed to be the Church (body of Christ) with the Spirit living through believers in power, in an every redemptive force in the world.

Yes, the Bible differs from Evangelical doctrine.

I point this out because it either opens up Easter to all comers as intended by Christ, or Easter becomes another rote ceremony where religion divides the world into those who are forgiven, and those who will be left behind when Jesus comes back. So is Easter a time to focus on substitutionary atonement before the eschatological roof caves in, or is it a retelling of the exact means and power that Christ followers (us) will employ to redeem the world in and as Christ‘s body?

If you’ll oblige me, I’d like to invite you into a much bigger, more beautiful Easter story.

Last week’s story doesn’t end with Jesus tipping over the amplifiers, whipping the stage actors, and chasing people out of the coffee shop and book store during the big Easter celebration. As he’s doing this, people are bringing him the lame and blind. He’s performing the miracles of God on the marginalized who wouldn’t ordinarily be there, but whom have followed him into the temple. Think of it as a bunch of liberal protestors coming into a conservative Easter with Jesus and He healing them. The religious leaders were indignant (Matthew 21:15) because all “those” people were worshiping him. Then he quotes Psalm 8:2:

“Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
    to still the enemy and the avenger.”

The hidden gem here is the second half of the sentence which he leaves out. The religious leaders would certainly know the passage and that Jesus’ is making a statement that his religion has become his enemy. Religion will play a vital role as the antagonist in the work of God. Still does, but virtually nobody is willing to believe it.

Continuing in Matthew 21, 18-19 says:

“In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.”

Jesus is hangry and kills fig tree that wasn’t bearing fruit because it wasn’t quite in season. This is not a metaphor for modern day Israel, but another condemnation of Israel, the supposed people of God not bearing the fruit of God. Jesus has just begun and already there is no possible way to claim that Jesus is favorable toward religion. How do we miss this?

Next Jesus uses the fig tree as an example of faith for the disciples, we’ll come back to that.

This being the next day, Jesus goes back to the temple and begins teaching the people. Of course the religious leaders come up to him and challenge his “authority” (exousian). His answer is amazing:

“Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. ²⁵ The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ ²⁶ But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” ²⁷ So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

This is why I included in “Freedom from Religion” the baptism in the desert with John the Baptist. Jesus is now telling the religious leaders that John’s baptism, 21 miles away from the Temple, which was a subversive act to religion, was the counter-intuitive path of God to bring in all comers. They rejected John and his anti-religious teachings. Remember how all the numbers were down at the Temple because the crowds were out there?

The theme of “Authority” is also a continual thread. We know Satan tempted Jesus’ by offering him authority. So Jesus refusing to answer is essentially telling the religious leaders that they have no idea that they are under Satan’s rule. No wonder John records Jesus calling these communities: “Synagog’s of Satan.” (Revelation 2:9, 3:9).

Jesus is not favorable toward religion. So I ask you once again: “How could anyone who has fidelity to the scripture, create another institutional religion in his name?” On Easter, are we to believe that Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection were to inaugurate a new religion that decides who’s an innie or an outie? Jesus condemned his religion for this very thing. He condemned religion for profiting off of people. He condemned Israel for bearing no fruit because they should know better.

By way of contextualization, how can modern evangelicalism be so convinced that Jesus now supports a religion that divides the world into saved and unsaved, and which profits to the tune of $75B a year in the US. Is that what Easter is about? Converts and members? Before Jesus says “It is finished,” He has a lot to condemn about religion, and a lot of advice for his followers. These tweeners are not incidental to Easter, they are integral to it.