Rethinking Jesus’ Final Week: The Galilean Secret
Warmest greetings beloved believers. I have the task of doing a five-minute commentary on Mark 13 through 16, and it’s an honor and a privilege and an impossibility because you could talk about those events, well they’ve been talked about for 2,000 years so far, you could talk about them for all eternity.
Let’s specifically talk about things that I am not going to be talking about. Okay, the Olivet Discourse where Jesus is talking about signs of the end times, tribulation, and all of that. Well, there’s plenty of YouTube influencers, so to speak, who have written many videos and lots of discussion on social media on this topic.
I don’t feel the need to add to that at this time. The Great Commission spread this gospel to all nations, and a great discussion could be had on how well that we have lived up to that. And there’s good things and bad things to be said in that regard, but not today.
The Last Supper, the prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane, and the arrest of Jesus by Roman soldiers at the request of the Sanhedrin. The betrayal by Judas, Jesus washing his followers’ feet, but also being anointed in a similar fashion by Mary Magdalene Prior. The condemning to death by Pontius Pilate, and the fact that Pontius Pilate was probably the one who set the all-time record for being in the wrong place at the wrong time because he didn’t want that job.
Crucifixion and Resurrection. You know, I mean, I’m only laughing because, what hasn’t been said about the Crucifixion and Resurrection? Praise the Lord, we have a church where we talk about it every Sunday, because we have a pastor who is focused on the things that need to be focused on, and not other things. So that’s a beautiful thing.
So what am I going to talk about? I’m not going to be talking about all of those things. What am I going to talk about? Well, Pastor Schultz, in this amazing weekend of seminar and discussion and lots of new information, and he just did an amazing job also with the music, but one of the most remarkable things that he said was a pretty obvious thing, but if you want something hid, hide in an obvious place. He said, and I quote, for Christ’s sake, Christianity is a Jewish religion.
So let’s talk about the Jewishness of Mark 13 to 16. So, all right, let’s start with this. The day and the hour of when Jesus would be returning is only known by the Father.
And there’s a movie that you can watch, I think it’s on Tubi, Before the Wrath. It’s a Sorbo film, but he’s talking about how the events of the Passover Seder, which was the Last Supper, how they would be totally understood, and the things Jesus was saying, a lot of them would be totally understood, because they mirrored and paralleled weddings in Galilee, in Nazareth. Very much Jewish customs.
Also, the insistence of Pontius Pilate that the inscription on top of the cross should say, King of the Jews, in defiance of the Sanhedrin who were saying it should be, he said he was the King of the Jews. And the conversion of Jesus into the Lamb of God, the crucifixion taking place on Passover, and the tradition of that. There’s also significance of the third day, such as in Genesis.
It was on the third day that God gave light into the world. In the beginning, the light was Jesus, but he gave light into the world, the sun and the moon. So that was order over chaos and light in the world.
So there’s so many things, but let’s look at it this way, because maybe this talk should be the sympathy for the Jews. If there was, in this time, an occupying country, and somebody came and said they were the Messiah, but they weren’t going to free the Jews from an occupying country. They were going to free them from themselves.
Well, certainly, the Jews that were in authority could possibly seem to take offense at that. I mean, the disciples called Jesus Rabbi. Even Judas in the betrayal called him Rabbi.
And Peter was asked if he was going to leave with other followers of Jesus, who just couldn’t take what Jesus was telling them. It was too much for them. And he said, where would I go? There is nobody else that has the words of everlasting life.
So how could the Jews stand by and let somebody say that the problem was them, not the occupying country? So in the grace of his love and his message of redemption, Jesus was the all-time rebel. The Jews always felt that they knew better. They could have been to Canaan in 11 days, except that they rebelled against God, and they were in the wilderness for 40 years.
So they never learned that God’s ways were different, and that his thoughts were higher, and that what had to be restored was not necessarily just the sovereignty of a nation, but the sovereignty, his sovereignty, of love in our hearts. So my point is that we can understand the Jews being the way that they were and the way that they have been. And it’s time for the Jews to come home to Jesus and realize that in spite of everything that they thought that the prophets had said, that they missed a lot of what other prophets had said in terms of messianic literature in the Old Testament.
And only by the horrors of World War II, leading to the establishment of Israel in one day, could we come to a place where Israel would actually be free from occupying nations, from being surrounded by countries that hate them. And that’s happening right now. Watch the headlines.
It’s amazing to see. Don’t forget, our timetable is very different from God’s timetable as well. One day is like a thousand years.
The 490 days of Daniel was 70 years, right? Just some thoughts to try to present something of use and benefit to you guys. Christianity is a very Jewish religion, and something to keep in mind and meditate on. Chew the cud, ya know?
What are the essential takeaways for Mark 13-16 in our daily lives?
These are easy and straight forward.
1. Don’t grumble about your lot in life. Especially don’t grumble against God.
2. God’s timetable wins. Just ask Abraham and Sarah and many others in the Bible who had to wait and wait and ultimately they were rewarded for their waiting.
3. Our trials can often turn into blessings. Our suffering can often turn into abundant mercy. Don’t try to understand it. Job tried and the satisfying answer that he received directly from the Lord was that the greatness and the ways of God are higher than our stature and ways to such a degree that the only appropriate response to any situation is awesome wonder.
## Classic Commentaries Corner
* “To separate the Gospel of Christ from its Jewish roots is to sever the branches from the very vine that sustains them. Every custom Jesus observed, from the Passover Seder to the language of a Galilean wedding, was a deliberate design of the Father to show that salvation comes from the Jews, yet is free to any ‘whosoever’ who wills to receive it.” — John Wesley
* “The Jewish authorities stumbled over Christ because they wanted an earthly general to conquer their political occupiers, rather than a heavenly King to conquer their internal sins. We fall into the exact same trap today whenever we demand that God fix our external circumstances while we stubbornly refuse to let Him rule our hearts.” — A.W. Tozer
* “When Pilate wrote ‘King of the Jews’ upon the cross, he spoke a grand, prophetic truth in defiance of the legalists. Christ did not fail the expectations of Israel; He infinitely exceeded them by becoming the ultimate Passover Lamb, taking the sentence of the law upon Himself so that the veil could be ripped away forever.” — Adam Clarke
* “The three days of Christ’s burial mirror the third day of creation, bringing a glorious spiritual light out of the absolute chaos of death. Just as Israel spent forty years in the wilderness due to their own murmuring and rebellion, we prolong our own wilderness seasons whenever we choose to grumble about our trials instead of waiting in awesome wonder on God’s perfect timetable.” — Matthew Henry
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## Corroborating Scripture
* Romans 11:17–18 — “If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others… do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.” (The Jewish Foundation)
* John 1:11–12 — “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (The Rejected Messiah)
* 1 Corinthians 10:10 — “And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.” (Don’t Grumble About Your Lot)
* 2 Peter 3:8 — “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” (God’s Timetable Wins)
* James 1:2–3 — “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” (Trials Turn into Blessings)
* Job 42:2–3 — “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.” (Awesome Wonder)
* Romans 11:25–26 — “I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters… Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved.” (Coming Home to Jesus)
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Prayer For Whomsoevers
Lord I spent a lifetime feeling completely disconnected from my Jewish heritage and certainly it was never presented to me as my actual religion or faith. It took becoming Christian to have a deep interest in what it means to be a Levite (as I am told I am) in 2026. You know all this and I apologize. Now I am deeply interested, listening, studying because I want to know You. And what I find is one cannot understand Jesus fully if not diving deeply into the original Jewish language and the customs. One cannot understand the Last Supper or Communion, what people are talking about with regards to the Rapture and much else in the New Testament without understanding the Old. Sorry Lord, this is supposed to be prayer not homily. I pray Lord that Christians and Jews come to understand their brotherhood and that I embody that as much as possible that I might help heal ancient wounds and bring people to better understandings. May I grow nearer and dearer daily and may my faltering, stumbling, imperfect attempts find favor with You in their broken earnestness. In the name of the Lion of Judah, our Saviour, your Son, I share the preceding with humility and I say in fullness “amen!”
