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The autum of the year 32 A.D. and the spring of the year 33 A.D. Jesus preaches all over the country
In the beginning of the month of October in the year 32 Jesus and His disciples went to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles there. By that time Jesus had been preaching for about three years, but almost exclusively in Galilee. The six months that He still had before His death He preached in Judea and in Perea (Perea is the territory east of the river Jordan).
The Feast of Tabernacles takes seven days. During the last few days of the Feast of Tabernacles Jesus dared to appear in the temple regularly and to preach to the people there, though He knew that many of the higher class of priests, the scribes and the Pharisees were looking for an opportunity to kill Him. In His speeches He pointed out to the people that there was practically nobody who obeyed the Law of Moses. Some people reacted by saying to Jesus that He was possessed by a demon and that He had transgressed the Sabbath law on many occasions. But there were also people who listened to Jesus and believed in him and considered him the Messiah. But there were no people like this among the priests who held positions of power in Jerusalem. Neither among the people who had attended classes in the institutions of higher education in the Holy Scriptures. Nor among the Pharisees.
When the Feast of Tabernacles was over Jesus stayed in Jerusalem for a long time, though He knew how dangerous this was for Him. On many occasions He debated with His opponents and tried to convince them that He was the Son of God, that God had sent Him to the earth and that everybody who refused to recognize Him as the Messiah thereby forfeited the right to get a place in the Kingdom of God. He also told His opponents that He did not understand why they wanted to kill Him, though He did nothing else but tell the people what He had heard from God Himself. Sometimes He expressed Himself more harshly and told His opponents that they could not recognize the truth because they were children of Satan and, just like their father, did not want to see the truth. Repeatedly He emphasized in His discussions that all people who believed in Him would receive eternal life in the Kingdom of God that was to be established.
Demonstrating that the threats of His opponents could not stop Him, Jesus healed another blind person on a Sabbath. On a Sabbath again! This fact again roused a lot of people to anger, but other people realized that someone who is able to work so many fantastic miracles can have received this gift only from one person: God Himself.
Shortly after this Jesus sent 70 men, in little groups of two, to many towns and villages in Judea to preach about the Kingdom of God. When they came back to Him they had positive news: their preaching had been very successful.
When one day one of His disciples asked Jesus what He thought was the best way of praying Jesus gave him, as an example to be followed, the Lord’s Prayer: Father, may Thy name be sanctified, may Thy kingdom come soon. Give us each day sufficient food and forgive us our sins, as we forgive the people who have sinned against us. And do not lead us into temptation. Jesus added that when people prayed for things they would like to have, they should exercise perseverance and should not give up too soon: keep asking and you will receive what you are asking for, keep looking and you will find what you are looking for, keep knocking on the door and it will be opened.
When in those days Jesus was again accused of doing His miracles through powers He had received from the devil, He reacted more fiercely than He had ever done before: speaking straight He called the generation of people who rejected Him a godless generation which deserved to be condemned.
In those days He also reproved the Pharisees with much harsher words than He had used so far. He called them unreasonable people who looked pious and god-fearing on the outside, but who were bad and blameworthy on the inside. He called them hypocrites and He called them unrighteous.
He also denounced the scribes. It was their duty to show the people the way to eternal life in the Kingdom of God, but instead they did everything they could to keep people away from the kingdom of God (Luke, 11:52).
The reaction of the Pharisees and the scribes was obvious: they began to hate Jesus even more and to look out for a chance to silence Him for ever (Luke 11: 53 and 54).
In spite of all this opposition Jesus then, again on a Sabbath, healed a woman who had been physically so weak for 18 years that her body was always bent, no matter whether she sat or walked. He also gave some more illustrations with regard to the Kingdom of God. He called it a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds. But this small seed often gives life to a huge tree. He also compared the kingdom of God with leaven: a small amount of leaven can ferment a huge mass of flour.
In December of the year 32 Jesus was again in Jerusalem to celebrate a feast. This time the Feast of Inauguration. This feast had been instituted by the Jews in 165 B.C. after they had cleaned the temple, which had been desecrated by the Greek rulers in those days.
After the Feast of Inauguration Jesus crossed the river Jordan and during the last months of the year 32 and the first months of the year 33 He worked in Perea. This was the territory where some years earlier John the Baptist had been working. Remembering what John had said about Jesus many Jews in this area accepted Jesus as their Messiah.
In those days He got a tip from a Pharisee who told Him that King Herod (the son of the Herod who wanted to murder Jesus immediately after His birth) was looking for Him and wanted to kill Him. Jesus answered that it was certain that He would not be killed in Perea, but in Jerusalem.
In this last period of His public ministry Jesus told the Jews the illustrations of the lost sheep (about a shepherd who loses one sheep and then leaves his whole herd to start looking for it), the lost coin (a woman who has ten drachma and loses one also starts searching right away) and the lost son (who squandered his inheritance, became very poor, decided to return to his father and was very heartily welcomed by him).
About the end of the year 32 or the beginning of 33 Jesus heard that a man whom He loved very much and who lived in Bethany, very close to Jerusalem, was seriously ill: Lazarus. To be able to visit him Jesus had to cross the river Jordan and enter the territory of Judea, where many people were out to kill Him. Consequently the apostles protested vehemently. When Jesus decided to go anyway Thomas made the remark: let us go with Him to die together with Him. On their way to Bethany Jesus already knew that Lazarus had died. He told His disciples that Lazarus had gone to rest. He had gone to sleep. (The Bible presents the ordinary physical death which all people undergo as a condition of resting, of sleeping, of not being conscious of anything).
When Jesus reached Bethany Lazarus had been resting/sleeping in his grave for four days. The sisters of Lazarus told Jesus that He had come too late. If He had come earlier, Lazarus would not have died. Jesus reacted by saying that Lazarus would rise again. Martha thought that Jesus meant: being brought back to life at the resurrection on the last day of our present human history. Then Jesus spoke the famous words: “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in Me will live again, even after he has died. And anybody who lives and has faith in Me will certainly never die.” (in this last sentence Jesus refers to the second death, definitive annihilation, which on the last day, the Day of Judgment, all people who will not be admitted into the Kingdom of God will have to undergo).
Jesus loved Lazarus very much. Arrived at his grave He burst into tears. Then He ordered the people to roll away the big stone entrance to the grave, which had been excavated in a rock. When the stone entrance had been rolled away Jesus shouted to Lazarus that he should come out. And Lazarus did come out!
Jesus was not only happy that His good friend was alive again, He was particularly glad that with this great miracle He had been able to convince many people that He was really their Messiah, liberator and future king.
All this was not such good news for Jesus’ opponents. The class of higher priests and the scribes were very worried about Jesus’ increasing number of followers. They were especially afraid of a falling apart of the Jewish nation into champions and opponents of Jesus. And that could lead to religious and political unrest. And in its turn this could lead to a very violent interference of the Roman occupying forces.
They decided to let all the members of the Sanhedrin come together for an immediate emergency session to discuss how they could fend off the danger. The Sanhedrin was the highest Jewish court of law which was allowed by the Romans to pass sentence on religious matters. It consisted of both priests and laymen and among the members were scribes and Pharisees. The chairman was the High Priest. In the year we are talking about the High Priest was named Caiaphas. He argued that Jesus formed such a danger for the safety of the Jewish people that what they were really dealing with was a choice: either the entire nation would die as a result of Roman military intervention or no more than one Jew would have to die for the sake of the safety of the people: Jesus. Then the Sanhedrin decided that Jesus would have to die. (see for a report of this important session of the Sanhedrin in John 12: 45-53).
When Jesus heard about this He began to avoid large crowds and for a while He withdrew to a small village, a little more distant from Jerusalem.
But He did not stop preaching or healing people. Even in the last few months and weeks of His public ministry He did not hide from His enemies somewhere, but for the last time He traveled through Samaria, Galilee and Perea. He also told the people some new illustrations. Among them was the story of the Pharisee and the tax-collector, who both entered the temple to pray. The Pharisee was very satisfied with himself and thanked God that He had made him such a fantastic human being. The tax-collector only said to JHWH: God, I am a sinner. Have mercy on me. Jesus’ conclusion: he who exalts himself will be abased; he who abases himself will be exalted.
On a certain occasion a lot of young children came to Him. The apostles thought He would find that irritating and wanted to keep the children away from Him. But Jesus did not allow them to do that. On the contrary: He called the children to Him. He also said that people could only enter the Kingdom of God if they were as innocent as children.
When one day a very rich young man asked Jesus what he would have to do to be allowed to enter the Kingdom of God Jesus told him that, naturally, he had to be a good person, but it would also help a lot if he would give his riches to the poor. After this the rich man stopped following Jesus. This led Jesus to saying the well-known words that it was easier for a camel to creep through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.