Tag: Pharisees

Episode NT26 – The Triumphal Entry

tale2tell original Bible Stories series – New Testament

Based on John chapter 12 verses 1 to 19

The Triumphal Entry

Once again Jesus came to Bethany. It was about six days before the important Jewish ceremony of Passover. During Passover, Jews from all around the world returned to Jerusalem to sacrifice a Passover lamb and remember how God had rescued the Israelites from Egypt!

The Passover had been the last and greatest sign God had performed in Egypt as He’d prepared for His people to be set free from slavery. On the night of that first Passover, every Israelite family had to sacrifice a lamb and smear its blood on the doorposts and lintel of their house and stay inside, dressed and ready to leave Egypt. Then, at about midnight, the angel of death went through the whole land of Egypt to kill the first-born son in every household. But, whenever he came to a house with the blood of a lamb smeared on the doorposts and lintel, he would know that there had already been a death in that house, the death of a lamb in place of the first-born son, and so the angel of death would ‘pass over’ that house and go onto the next. This way, all Israel was saved from the loss of their sons by obeying God’s command to sacrifice a lamb in their place. (PAUSE)

When Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethany, they stayed with Lazarus, the man Jesus had raised from the dead, and a meal was served in Jesus’ honour. Jesus knew what was ahead of Him, and even though this was a celebration, the atmosphere was heavy as Jesus thought about what was to come.

While Jesus was eating His meal lying with his head towards the table and His feet pointing away as was the custom at that time, Mary, Lazarus’ sister, came to His feet with a large jar of very expensive perfume. Then, breaking the seal on the jar, Mary poured the perfume over Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair – filling the house with fragrance.

Somehow Mary understood how Jesus felt and so she did this beautiful thing for Him. But not everyone who watched understood or cared about what was happening. It was Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples, who spoke up. ‘What does that woman think she’s doing?’ he exclaimed. ‘That perfume was worth a small fortune. We – we could have sold it and given the money to the poor instead of wasting it on Jesus’ feet!’ Not that Judas cared for the poor, he was just horrified to see all that money ‘go to waste’ as he thought. You see, Judas was in charge of looking after the disciples’ funds, and as well as ‘looking after’ the money, he also made sure he ‘looked after’ himself, stealing money when he thought no one was looking!

But Jesus turned to those who were unhappy with what had just happened and replied, ‘Leave her alone. Mary has done this in preparation for my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but I won’t be with you much longer.’ (PAUSE)

Now Jerusalem was only a couple of miles away, and when all the people who’d come for the Passover celebrations heard that Jesus was in Bethany, they flocked to see him and to see Lazarus, the man Jesus had raised from the dead. (P)

The next day, Jesus made preparations to go to Jerusalem. Calling two of His disciples to one side He said to them, ‘You see that village over there? I want you to go into that village and as you enter it you’ll see a young colt – a young donkey that’s never been ridden before – tied up by the side of the road. Untie it and bring it here to me. Should anyone ask you what you’re doing, tell them, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back soon.’

The two disciples did what Jesus said, and sure enough, as they entered the village they found a young donkey that had never been ridden before tied up outside a house. As they started to untie it, some of the people standing nearby demanded, ‘What do you think you’re doing untying that colt – it’s not yours.’ After the briefest glance at each other, the two disciples told them exactly what Jesus had said to say, ‘The Lord needs it and He’ll send it back soon.’ At that the bystanders let them take the donkey to Jesus. (P) Bringing the colt to Him, His disciples threw their cloaks over it, and Jesus sat on it, riding towards Jerusalem. (P)

Although people didn’t realise it at the time, Jesus was fulfilling a prophecy that said: ‘Do not be afraid, people of Israel. Look, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.’ But it wouldn’t be until after Jesus had gone back to heaven that they’d start to understand. (PAUSE)

The crowds thought Jesus was the Messiah and expected Him to be a warrior king and to take over the country and get rid of the Romans. But Jesus wanted to show them that their ideas of what the Messiah would be like were wrong. So instead of coming to Jerusalem on a warhorse, He chose a simple colt – refusing to be the kind of Messiah the crowd wanted!

By now the crowds were very large, and as Jesus made His way to Jerusalem, they threw their cloaks on the road ahead of Him, and they went into the fields to cut palm branches to wave. And as the procession reached the place on the road where it descends from the Mount of Olives, His followers started to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for the wonderful miracles they’d seen.

‘Bless the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’ they shouted. ‘Bless the coming Kingdom of our ancestor David! Praise God in highest heaven!’ (P)

As usual some of the Pharisees had come along to find fault with Jesus. And when they heard the crowd shouting these things they couldn’t believe their ears! So shouting across to Jesus they said, ‘Teacher! Tell your followers off for saying such things!’

But Jesus shouted back, ‘If they were to keep quiet, the stones along the side of the road would burst into shouts of joy!’

And so, as the Pharisees watched the procession and saw the huge crowd that had come to see Jesus, they said to each other, ‘That’s it, we’ve lost! The whole world’s gone after Him now!’

Episode NT20 – The Man Born Blind

tale2tell original Bible Stories series – New Testament

Based on John chapter 9

The Man Born Blind

‘What people tend to forget when you’re blind is that you’re not deaf as well! In fact, my hearing’s a lot better than most peoples and I could hear them quite clearly as they came towards me.’

‘Jesus,’ somebody asked, ‘Whose fault is it that this man’s been born blind?’ And then, to rub it in a little more he said, ‘Was it his own sin or his parent’s sin?’ Come on, I thought, it could hardly be my sin! That would’ve meant I’d done something evil before I’d even been born. And as for my parents … well. Then I heard another voice answering their question, I guess it must have been Jesus.’

‘Neither,’ He said, ‘It wasn’t this man’s fault or his parent’s fault. This man was born blind so that the power of God could be seen in him.’ Whatever that meant! And then He added, ‘All of us have to get on with the tasks God’s given us to do because there’s little time left before the night falls and all work comes to an end. But you see, while I’m still here in this world, I am the light of the world.’

‘I’d been born blind, I’d never seen any light, so I really couldn’t understand what He was talking about when He said He was the light of the world!’

‘What happened next was a little – awkward. Jesus spat on the ground and made some mud with His spit and some soil. Then I felt a gooey substance being rubbed over my eyes and Jesus spoke to me. ‘Go and wash in the pool of Siloam,’ He said. And that was that! (P) I had no option but to wash to get the mud off my eyes. But something inside me seemed to tell me that I should do exactly what Jesus had just told me to do, not just find some water to wash off the mud, but to go where He’d said.’

‘It didn’t take long to go to Siloam, and when I got there I started to wash off the mud. It was good to get it off because it’d started to dry a little and was becoming uncomfortable! I put my head down to the pool, dipped my hands in and splashed great handfuls of water over my eyes. Then I washed off the mud and started to wipe the water out of my eyes.’ (PAUSE)

‘There aren’t words to describe how I felt next. It’s just not possible for you to understand but when I opened my eyes my head was filled with … with … light, colours, images, things, movement! I could see! Jesus had healed me! I could see! Not even in my wildest imagination had I dreamt that seeing would be like this! When I was young I’d often asked what it was like, and nothing anyone said had made any sense, until now. Now I understood what people meant when they tried to use words to describe a colour or the clouds in the sky.’

‘When I was young I’d pestered my parents to ask them if maybe one day I could see if the doctors could heal me. They’d tried to find out if there was any hope for me, but the doctors had soon put them straight. No one had ever been able to see who’d been born blind. It just didn’t happen. But now, this man Jesus had come along, covered my eyes with mud, told me to wash in the pool of Siloam and the impossible had happened! I could see.’ (PAUSE)

‘You couldn’t wipe the smile off my face! I made my way back home using the skills I’d learnt when I was blind but also taking in my surroundings. When my neighbours saw me, they hardly recognised me because of the stupid great grin on my face! They started looking at each other and asking, ‘Is this the same blind beggar we knew before?’ I kept telling them, ‘Yeah! It’s me, it’s me!’ But they could hardly believe their own eyes! ‘What happened?’ they asked. ‘Who healed you?’’

‘Well I told them, ‘This man called Jesus came along, spat on the ground, made some mud out of His spit and the soil and then rubbed it on my eyes. Then, He sent me to the pool of Siloam and told me to wash the mud off in that pool. I did everything He said, and when I’d done it, I could see!’’

‘’Well,’ they asked, ‘Where is He now?’’

‘’I’ve no idea.’ I replied.’ (PAUSE)

‘When I told my neighbours that Jesus had made the mud out of the spit and soil, I could tell they were uncomfortable. You see it was the Sabbath day when all this happened, and our religious experts, the Pharisees, had made up lots of extra little rules to make sure no one disobeyed the Sabbath law, which says you are to keep the Sabbath day Holy! – One of those extra rules was to do with not working something like dough or mud! So they took me to the Pharisees!’

‘’What happened?’ they asked me. And I told them about the mud making and about the washing in the pool of Siloam and then being able to see. That’s when the arguments started! ‘This man Jesus can’t be from God,’ one of them said, ‘because He’s working on the Sabbath!’ And then another asked, ‘But how could some ordinary person do such a mighty miracle?’ Neither side could agree with the other  – – so they asked me!’

‘’Who do you think this man is who opened your eyes?’ To be honest, I hadn’t really thought about it because I was so overjoyed at being able to see again, so after a moments thought I said, ‘Erm, well, I guess He must be a prophet!’’

‘You won’t believe what happened next. Completely ignoring what I’d said, they started to accuse me of never having been blind in the first place! They wouldn’t listen to a word I said. In fact, they were so adamant that I hadn’t ever been blind that they called my parents in to question them! ‘Is this your son?’ they asked. ‘Was he born blind, and if so how can he see now?’’

‘I’d never seen my parent before then, and I didn’t know what the expression on their faces meant, but I could tell from their voices they were worried. ‘Yes, he is our son,’ they said, ‘and he was born blind. But how he came to be able to see again, and who healed him we can’t say. Ask him yourselves,’ they said. ‘He’s old enough to speak for himself.’’

‘And so once again they called me in! ‘Give glory to God by telling the truth,’ they said, ‘because we know Jesus is a sinner!’ Give glory to God! I ask you! How much more glory could you give to God than healing a man born blind! ‘Whether He’s a sinner or not I don’t know;’ I said. ‘But this one thing I do know, I was blind, and now I can see!’’

‘’But what did He do?’ they asked again, ‘How did He heal you?’ I couldn’t believe it; they hadn’t been listening to a word I’d said! ‘Look,’ I insisted, ‘I’ve already told you! Didn’t you listen the first time? Why do you want me to tell you again?’ And then a little bit cheekily I asked, ‘Do you want to become His disciples too?’’

‘That did it! They nearly exploded! They started saying all kinds of rude things to me. ‘You may be His disciple, but we’re disciples of Moses!’ they roared. ‘We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we don’t know anything about Him!’’

‘‘Oh,’ says I, ‘that’s very strange! Here comes a man who heals the eyes of someone born blind and you don’t know anything about Him! Well, we know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but that He hears those who worship Him and do what He wants them to do. Never before in the whole history of the world has anyone been able to heal the eyes of a person born blind. If this man wasn’t from God then He couldn’t have done it!’’

‘They’d lost the argument, and they knew it, so they started shouting at me, treating me like a fool as they spat out their nastiness! ‘You were steeped in sin since your birth!’ they screamed. ‘Are you trying to teach us?’ And then they threw me out of the synagogue! Making it very clear that I wouldn’t be welcomed back. (PAUSE)

‘The news of what’d happened to me must have spread like wildfire, because not too long afterwards – this man came up to me. When He spoke I immediately recognised His voice, it was Jesus. ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ He asked. ‘Who is He sir,’ I replied, ‘because I’d like to.’’

‘’You have seen Him,’ He told me, ‘and He is speaking to you now.’’

‘’Yes Lord,’ I answered, ‘I do believe!’ And then I did what was the only right thing to do, I worshipped Him.’

‘Jesus spoke to me again, ’I have come to judge the world, to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they can see that they’re really blind.’ I understood what He meant, I could see now, but it was with more than just my eyes, I also understood who He was. But some Pharisees who’d followed me overheard what Jesus said and got all uptight again, ‘Are you saying we’re blind?’ they asked. Well, even I could tell that they had no idea who Jesus really was. But Jesus answered them, ‘If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty. But you remain guilty because you claim you can see.’’

‘I understood that! The Pharisees thought they knew all about God and had it all worked out, and yet when they were confronted with the incredible miracle that had happened to me, they refused to believe that it said anything about who Jesus is. (PAUSE) I’m so grateful to God that I can see!’