We're on page 40, but last time we brought up from page 39 that Judas sold Jesus for those pieces of silver and the question arose of what did slaves sell for? What I was able to ascertain was most male slaves, depending on the time frame, but pretty much during the New Testament era, male slaves sold for between 500 and 625 denarii, so days' wages, okay, when you think about that. Now, here's a shocking one. Female slaves, what do you think, higher or lower? Female slaves could get you up to 6,000 denarii. Don't ask me why. I don't know. So, you know, that's that old joke about for the brain transplants, right? And they had a male brain and a female brain and which one costs more? And it was the male brain. Why was that? Because it's less used, right? But anyway. Just that was a curious thing. Now, there were also other price comparisons during this time frame. Some people would spend up to 80,000 denarii on an estate. So put that in comparison to a slave, right? Or you put that in comparison to Jesus, right? Judas selling Jesus. So what is that? What did Judas get? Less than a tenth, right, of what a slave would have sold for. So this comparison, I think that was the question from last week. So is that answer the question? I think two of you had that, so. All right. Any other questions from last week that carried over from Judas? Alright, so we're on top of page 40, and I asked you to ponder this. Does Jesus show divine foreknowledge here? or what sometimes is referred to as prescience, which is pre-science, pre-knowledge, foreknowledge. Just another way of saying it, right? But does Jesus show his deity when he explains these things in verses one through three? Or is he showing wise pre-arranging? I think you know where my position is on this. Or is there something else? Sometimes we paint ourselves into corners we don't need to, but I think those are the two primary interpretations, but we see in Mark 11, verses one through three, as they approach Jerusalem at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, And I lost my spot here. He sent two of his disciples and said to them, go into the village opposite you. And immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there on which no one yet has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. And if anyone says to you, why are you doing this? You say, the Lord has need of it. And immediately he will send it back here. So, Is that because Jesus just knew all of that ahead of time? Or does he know it ahead of time because he planned it ahead of time as a human being? He just knows, you know, perhaps the last time they were near Jerusalem, he set it all up. And I'm inclined to that interpretation myself. At the same time, I'm not opposed, I'm not denying the deity of Christ, right? By saying this just could simply be wise planning, right? So most of the pilgrims are going to arrive walking. So when Jesus is going to come in on this colt of a donkey, it's gonna be different, right? It's like, why? way. Why are you doing this? So that's extremely important that this occurs. Now, verses four through six tell us, and they went away and found a colt tied at the door. And again, Mark just now unpacks what Jesus said they were going to find. Outside in the street, and they untied it, and some of the bystanders were saying to them, what are you doing, untying the colt? And they spoke to them just as Jesus had told them And they gave them permission. So, by doing this, as I typed in there a quote from Kostenberger and Taylor and Stewart, what is that, their book, The Final Days of Jesus. But what Jesus is doing is crossing a point of no return. By doing this, he's coming into Jerusalem. He knows what he's doing. He has set the stage. He has arranged all things. Again, not just in his deity, but I think in his humanity. He has set the stage and so when he comes down that hillside on that donkey on Sunday, I think, Sunday morning. We'll talk about that another time, whether it's Monday. He knows exactly what he's doing. He is saying, okay, here I am. And the crowds respond accordingly, and you see that in verses 7 through 10. They make four statements, and they are all tied in with, I think, tied in with the Book of Psalms, and you can see there the references. But they say, Hoshana, that's their first statement, is save us, right? And again, we got to be careful sometimes with these words, but that seems to be the root of it. And whether they're deliberately saying in their mind, I'm in need of salvation, save us, or it's just, there's a great deal of euphoria at this point. There's hundreds of thousands of visitors to Jerusalem. In fact, The rabbis, this is weird, but the rabbis, because you have to spend Passover in Jerusalem, they temporarily expand the border of Jerusalem. So they stretched it out and made it temporary so you could be in Jerusalem without being in Jerusalem, right? It's weird, but whatever. It's just what they did. The second thing they said is, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. which has been referred to back in Luke 13. I'm not going to take the time to go there. The third thing they say, and this is extremely important, blessed is the coming kingdom of our Father David. There seems to be some, by some anyway, putting together some of the events and anticipation and prophecies. And then lastly, Hosanna in the highest, which is another way of saying, may God in heaven be praised and honored, right? That's what they're saying. So they make those four statements and then they As we know elsewhere that they, well, in verse nine, that many spread their garments in the road and others spread leafy branches, having cut them from the fields. Those are symbols of political allegiance. They're saying we are, at least for now, willing to follow you. Now, the current thing is These people who make these statements here on Sunday, or if you prefer, Monday, but they make these statements here, some of these same people are going to be the people who give us Barabbas. Now I know that's not the current trendy thing to say because Oh, you know, we don't have any proof. I think there is knowing people and understanding the gospel accounts. I think we're on safe ground to say at least some of them are going to be switching sides, if you will, come later on. So this allegiance that they're professing is You know, kind of like Vikings fans, right? Or Twins fans, right? Yay! And, right? It's like, there's enthusiasm as long as they're winning, right? And, which isn't really often. So, you know where I'm at on that. Three things that Bookman points out real quick. And again, I don't want to belabor this at all, but Doug points out three significant prophecies that are fulfilled at this time. And the first is taken from Zechariah 9, and verse 9. And Zechariah, records this, rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Make a loud shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Again, those expressions, O daughter of Jerusalem. There isn't a literal daughter of Jerusalem. It's referring to the women in Jerusalem, right? It's not a specific, oh, Jerusalem had a daughter. Who did Jerusalem marry, right? We don't wanna, you know what I mean? Don't, it's a figure of speech, obviously. Behold, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and endowed with salvation, lowly and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a pack animal. That prophecy is fulfilled here in Mark 11 based on Zechariah 9. Now, Jesus does not come in on a horse or a mule. That would have been a military symbol. He comes in on a humble, lowly donkey, right? So he doesn't have the cool 4 by 4 pickup, right? He comes in in a, I don't know, I'm trying to think of an insignificant vehicle anymore in our culture, but in what? He comes in in a geoprism, right? Without any tinted windows. But you know what I mean. He comes in without claiming to be a military, right? Because he's in a Roman occupied city. If he comes in on a horse or a mule, that is saying something that is going to be clearly not misinterpreted. It's going to be interpreted that Jesus is saying, I am this leader of this rebellion. So he comes with this donkey. Now, that's the manner of his presentation. Doug goes on to say, secondly, the moment of his presentation, based on Daniel 9, verses 25 and 26. Again, without dwelling too long on this, and I've typed in the math, so to speak, for you, the calendar stuff. Verse 25 of Daniel 9. So you were to know and have insight that from the going out of a word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and 62 weeks. It'll be restored and rebuilt with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. And then after 62 weeks, the Messiah will be cut off. and have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary, and its end will come with a flood. Even to the end there will be war. Desolations are decreed." Harking back to the book of Nehemiah, chapter 2, verses 1 through 8, we know is March 4th of 444 BC, and if you do the math, and I've typed that in for you, it takes you to 173,800 days to this day. If they had done their math, they could have been prepared. And perhaps Simeon is one of those. Anna, who was in the temple waiting for God to do His work, that's all involved with that. So, the manner, the moment, and lastly, the meaning of the king's presentation taken from Psalm 118. Psalm 118, verses 21 through 29. The psalmist writes, I will give thanks to you for you have answered me and you have become my salvation. The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is from Yahweh. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which Yahweh has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it." What day? The day of rejection? The day of fulfillment here? Oh Yahweh save, oh Yahweh succeed. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of Yahweh. We have blessed you from the house of Yahweh. Yahweh is God and he has given us light. Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You are my God and I will give thanks to you. You are my God, I exalt you. Give thanks to Yahweh for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever." In other words, Jesus is coming not as a military, not as a military genius or a military threat, or he is coming as their king, but he's coming humbly, and he is coming as their savior. And they say, Hosanna, Hosanna, save us now. So I think Doug is right with those, but that's the significance of this, what we call Palm Sunday. Now let's go to one more thing here in verse 11. Mark 11, 11, and Jesus entered Jerusalem, and he came into the temple, and after having looked around at everything, he left for Bethany with the 12, since it was already late. Now, why does he look around? Again, I don't wanna read too much into the white spaces here, but I think in light of what's gonna happen, especially on Tuesday, But it wouldn't surprise me if this is not simply a reconnaissance mission, is to make sure that everything is the way it needs to be, so that when he comes in and takes possession of the temple, and he doesn't allow anybody to go through the temple complex. Now you have, not all of you do, you have your map of Jerusalem from last time, or recently. Did everybody get one of those? I don't think you were here, did you? Whoops, there you go. But you see that they are coming down from the east side, So there, you can see over here you have the Mount of Olives and they're going to come down the road, excuse me, they're going to come down the road and perhaps enter in on that east side and they don't have the gates listed here, but there's an eastern gate. Isn't there a lion or something on the outside of that gate if memory serves correctly? But there's that gate which would be just outside of where it says Herod's Temple. So it's most likely he comes down that hillside, comes up across the Kidron Valley, goes up the street, stops at all the souvenir places, so to speak, you know what I mean, and gets through that gate and comes into the temple and to that temple complex. So when we're talking about Jesus entering the temple, he is not entering Did I hand these out? The one with the Temple Mount on one side and the Herod's Temple on the other. But he's coming into that temple, the complex. He's not going into the Holy of Holies. He's not going into the Court of Women. He's out there in the Court of the Gentiles. And he is observing and evaluating, and I would argue planning and preparing so that when he comes back, everything's ready to go. So I think that's what happens here, and he heads back to Bethany for the evening to get some rest, because these next couple of days, Monday and Tuesday, are going to be exhausting. Wednesday, I think, traditionally has been argued Wednesday as a silent day, a day of rest back up in Bethany, because Thursday's coming. He doesn't sleep from Thursday morning until he dies. That's a long time. He dies, what, 3 in the afternoon, right? He's on the cross for 6 hours. So he'll die Friday afternoon at 3, so he's been up since O Dark 30 on Thursday morning. All the way through and all that. Is it any wonder that there's exhaustion, right, when he is forced to carry his cross, the cross member of his cross, and he can't even make it a quarter of a mile? He's lost so much blood, he hasn't had sleep, he hasn't really eaten. Well, he did eat, I guess, Thursday. He had Passover, whatever was all involved with that. But he's exhausted. So I think there is that understanding that in his humanity, Jesus has to, if you will, budget his energy dollars. I mean that carefully but you know what I mean. He knows what's coming and he knows the limitations of his human body. So I think that's why Wednesday is, if you will, a day off. Does that make sense? So that sets the stage for for his cursing of the fig tree in verses 12 through 14, and then his cleansing of the temple in verses 15 through 19. Now, just to give you some ideas, as you look, I've given you all these pictures of the Temple Mount, but the Temple Mount comprises roughly 35 acres. It's a little bit bigger than this room. You can get a quarter of a million people in the temple complex. That's a lot of people. Now, you're squished in there to be sure. But it's huge. If you ever have an opportunity to go and you get up there, you realize how big that really is. But Jesus comes up there and takes control of that entire area. All the buildings, all the activity, and nobody has the courage, nobody has the courage to stop him. I don't think anybody has the ability to stop him. This is his father's house, right? And remember there was stated earlier at the first cleansing of the temple that zeal for his father's house had consumed him. I think it consumes him once again, right? It devours him. He is concerned about his father's honor, his father's glory. This is his father's house. Don't mess with it, right? And so he controls it. He stops with that, we know that, at the end of Tuesday, by Thursday, well, Friday, very early Friday, what we would call Thursday evening, but early Friday, Jesus is eventually going to end up in the temple again and being interrogated and mistreated and illegally put on trial. There's all kinds of things that are going to go on there where he's going to be brought back. But pretty much from Chapter 11, verse 12 and following, stuff's gonna happen. Just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And especially Tuesday is, as I've said numerous times before, Tuesday is just an exhausting day. It's just exhausting, studying through it, reading through it, and grasping what's all happening. All right, I'm going to stop and we'll pick up with the fig tree because that's going to raise its own sets of questions for that.