What is Holy Tuesday?

494 Luke 20:1. — "One of the days." Mark shows that this was the Tuesday of Passion Week.

The third day now dawned; a busy day, as the three Synoptic Gospels show. It began with the lesson deduced from the withered fig tree (11:20-26), and ended with the prophetic forecast of Jerusalem's troubles till the Lord returns, given to the disciples in response to the question privately put to Him, when sitting on the Mount of Olives, by Peter, James, John, and Andrew (13:3).

The fig tree was withered. They all saw that. It was dried up from its roots. Peter called the Lord's attention to it; the Lord told them of the power of faith for those who ask and believe that they shall receive. "Have faith in God. Verily, I say to you, Whosoever shall say to this mountain, Be thou taken up, and cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he says cometh to pass he shall have it. Therefore, I say to you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them. And whensoever ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any one: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses" (11:22-25). We have quoted the Revised Version, for there are several important differences in the passage, as well as the omission of verse 26. Believing prayer! What results from it may there be! What mighty deeds may be effected! A mountain removed, and the heart realize the power of faith. But such prayer can only proceed from one in charity with those who have offended him. There must be a forgiving spirit ere the prayer of faith can be presented to God.

The Lord began afresh to teach the people in the temple. While engaged in that and walking about, as Mark especially notes, the chief priests and the scribes and elders approach Him with a question relating to His startling acts on the previous day. Taken by surprise, they were dumb, then. Now, recovered from their astonishment, they ask for His authority for what He did, and from whom He, who was not of Aaron's line, had received authority to order people and things within the precincts of God's house. But were they sincere? A question about John's baptism would prove them. Was John's mission from heaven or from men? They knew whence it was, but a true answer would have condemned themselves. To have denied its heavenly authority would have brought them into conflict with the populace. Therefore they answered, "We cannot tell." They showed what they were. The Lord, therefore, refused to answer their questions about Himself. Such people could only be left to themselves.

Characteristic differences we have called them. These are very marked, especially in Matthew and in Mark. In the former, since dispensational teaching has its special place therein, we meet with some parables of the kingdom of the heavens, spoken at that time, but not recorded by any of the others. In the latter, in which attention to details is a prominent feature, we are told of events of that last week, as the days are marked on which they took place. Mark's gospel here reads like a leaf from the writer's diary. With Luke it is different. He fixes attention on "one of the days" in that week (20, 21). What day that was Mark shows, viz., the third before the Passover. And a busy and interesting one it must have been, the people very attentive to hear the Lord, He responding to their desires, meeting as they came up objections of His opponents, propounding questions Himself, and answering those put to Him whether from His enemies or from His disciples, laying bare to men their secret motives, opening up, too, the Word, and foretelling the future. In these different ways was He occupied that day.

What are we to understand by the expression, "the times of the Gentiles"? Turn to the scripture where the phrase occurs. It is found in the 21st chapter of Luke (Luke 21:24), where the Lord Jesus is describing to His disciples the imminent destruction of Jerusalem. It is the last day of His public life. When I say that, I mean the last day of His public ministry. If you have never gone over the last week of the Lord's life, I recommend you all to do it, and you will be wonderfully struck with the amazing amount of ministry which took place during that time. On the first day of the week He was anointed in Bethany (John 12:1-11). He is made much of — and that is what we have the privilege of doing now — the first day of the week. The Jew gave Him the last day of the week, the Christian gives Him the first. The next day (Monday) He comes into Jerusalem in triumph, riding upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass (Mark 11:1-11). The next day (Tuesday) He curses the fig-tree, and cleanses the temple (Mark 11:12- 19). The next day (Wednesday) occupies from Mark 11:20 to verse 11 of chapter 14 (see also Matt. 22 to 25, and Luke 20, 21). The ministry that took place that day is simply enormous. Into it I cannot go now; you must trace it out for yourselves; but from early morn to dewy eve, that day, the blessed Lord seems to have been pouring out His marvellous ministry.

What took place on the Thursday is given us in Mark 14:12-72. It is most noticeable that nothing is recorded, save what relates to the Passover being prepared — no ministry. He spent that day apparently with God alone till eventide. Then on Friday (Mark 15) He died, — thank God, for me! In the grave He lay all the Sabbath day, and He rose, the triumphant Saviour, on the first day of the new week. It is on the Wednesday that He is telling His disciples what is coming on Jerusalem, and, as we get down towards the end of the discourse, we read," These be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES be fulfilled" (Luke 21:22-24). I need not stay to tell you how absolutely this solemn prediction was fulfilled. Jerusalem was soon after overthrown. God, in patient grace, waited a little, He did not destroy it the day after the death of His Son. Nay, for sixty years He waited on His rebellious people, who first rejected their Messiah, and then resisted the Holy Ghost (Acts 7:51-52). At length He sent forth His edict; and, if I may so say, the scavenger came upon the scene, and swept the carcase away. Judaism, as a system of religion, came to an end before God, when Christ was nailed to the cross (Col. 2:14); but the Jews clung fast to their city and their religion, until the Romans, like the scavenger with the broom, came, and swept it and them away.

499 Luke 20:20. — Some have supposed that this verse introduces the Tuesday of Passion Week, but see note on verse 1. The whole of Luke 20 seems to belong to that day.

This was five days (John 12:1, 10) before the Passover (the 15th of Nisan), and so, on the tenth day of the month, when lambs had to be procured, in keeping with Ex. 12:3. The "Lamb of God" had become matter of traffic a few hours earlier on the same Jewish day (Matt. 26:14).

493 Luke 19:47 f. — "Was teaching day by day": the Wednesday could not have been spent, as often supposed, in seclusion, whereby all in chapters 20, 21 would be crowded into the Tuesday. Cf. 21:37 f. His teaching here would be in the Court of the Women.

In the Gospel of Mark we get the different days at Jerusalem of the last week of the Lord's life on earth more distinctly noted than elsewhere. He reached Bethany six days before the Passover, as John states (12:1). Henceforth Mark must be our guide. He entered Jerusalem on the ass on the fifth day (Mark 11:1-11). He cleansed the Temple on the fourth day (12-19). He taught in the Temple, and answered the different questions put to Him, on the third day at the close of which, sitting on the Mount of Olives with His disciples, He foretold the future of the nation and of the city. From that time to the evening of the Passover we read of nothing that He did, with the exception of giving directions to Peter and to John to prepare that supper. There was a short time apparently of quiet before the Passover day arrived. It may be, therefore, that it was at the close of the third day before the Passover that the Lord hid Himself from the people; His public ministry terminating probably with the withering denunciation of the Pharisees, and the announcement on His part that their house was left to them desolate, and they should not see Him henceforth, till they should say, "Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord" (Matt. 23:39).

The third day before the passover closed. Nothing more is told in this Gospel of the Lord's work or teaching after that, beyond the giving direction to Peter and John to prepare for the paschal feast, till He sat down with the Twelve in the upper room on the night before His death. The events of the fifth, the fourth, and the third days Mark has carefully distinguished, as none of the others have done. The last week, therefore, is pretty well described. The time for His ministry upon earth was now drawing to its close the hour of His passion was at hand.

It is to me quite evident, as regards this verse, Mark 14 and John 12, that Matthew and Mark give parenthetically what led Judas to go to the chief priests, and the only question is, did he go directly or four days after? He may have gone off at once, or waited until some good occasion offered. This question hangs on the judgment whether the consultation of the priests was how to use the occasion offered, or whether the offer met their consultations. The days in Mark are quite clear - six, before He had the supper - five, before He goes in - four, before He curses the tree - three, before they see it withered and the discourses take place, and then comes chapter 14 two days before the Passover.

Coming into the city the following morning the fig tree, to which the Lord had spoken, was seen to be dried up from the roots. The blight that had fallen upon it worked in a way that was contrary to nature, which would have been from the top downwards. This fact proclaimed it to be an act of God, and Peter was struck by it, and called attention to it, thus inviting the Lord to remark upon the occurrence. His comment appears to be twofold, since the word, "For," which begins verse 23 seems to be of doubtful authority.