Come Follow Me LDS- Luke 19, John 12 Part 1

'Pounds, Palms, & Procession'
- Zacchaeus and the focus on the Publicans
- Jesus' Royal Procession into Jerusalem
- The Temple Ceremony is a Royal Procession

 

 

Come Follow Me New Testament

LDS Mormon Luke John Bible

 

in this episode we're going to talk

about some pounds some palms and a

procession here we go okay we're going

to focus episode one this week on Luke

19 now remember where we are we are we

have left Jericho now with a savior he

has a massive massive following of

disciples and other people that are

interested in him and he now is on his

way for the last time to Jerusalem and

as he gets close to Jerusalem probably

before he actually gets to Bethany he

passes by a certain publican named a

Zacchaeus now I think that this is very

interesting that they put in another

publican I don't know if before actually

looking through the specific chapters at

one time in going through Luke that I

would have noticed before

just how much Jesus focuses on the

publicans and how the author's here

especially Luke focus on these publicans

but it makes sense as Luke goes through

all of these parables where he is again

identifying the spiritual economy with

the temporal economy well the publicans

would be right in the middle of that as

they are the tax collectors for Rome and

they are a big part of the temporal

economy they are seen as sinners they

are seen as fraudulent as snakes if you

will where they are pocketing a lot of

money and taking taxes unfairly from

the Jews and here they publicans are

Jews but in a way they are more

aligned maybe with Rome than they are

with Jerusalem and remember we've just

had the

parables of the unjust steward the

unjust judge and other places where

we see this spiritual economy being used

in Jesus's parables and he doesn't stop

there's still more of these temporal and

spiritual economy parables to come but

here

Zacchaeus a publican is in the path of

Jesus on his way toward Jerusalem and

he's small of stature so he can't see as

Jesus passes by again massive multitudes

why is that important to understand I

had pointed this out previously and I

don't think I followed up with this it's

important to understand that there are

large amounts of people that are

following Jesus because we want to see

that these are the individuals that are

likely the ones that are helping him

through what is often called the

triumphant entry into Jerusalem they're

the ones who are laying down their

garments they're the ones who are with

the palms in their hands and that are

welcoming him in as the king of kings

and so as we see this large amount of

people that are gathering around him we

understand that there is probably a very

large schism if you will between

disciples and followers converts

baptized converts since the time of John

the Baptist that are with Jesus and they

are diametrically opposed to the people

in power to the establishment and so

that is what is happening as we see

about to happen with Jesus coming into

Jerusalem with these throngs of people

so because there are so many peoples

Zacchaeus whose small of stature can't see

him and so he climbs up into a tree yeah

so that he's able to see him and Jesus

sees Zacchaeus and when Jesus comes by

he says right here in verse 5 and when

Jesus came to the place he looked up and

saw him and said unto him Zacchaeus make

haste

and come down for today I must abide at

thy house so here we have again the

example of Jesus staying with the

perceived sinners with the publicans he

again is spending his time with these

individuals those that are lost and

that's a lot of where these parables are

rooted in and so in verse 6 and he made

haste and came down and received him

joyfully and when they saw it they all

murmured saying that he was gone to be

guest with a man that is a sinner

so then Zacchaeus says to Jesus as he's with

him there in his own home he kind of

says look I I've been good so Jesus

probably knows him and he says behold

Lord the half of my goods I give to the

poor and I if I have taken anything from

any man by false accusation I restore

him fourfold so he's saying you know

temporally I'm doing all these things

that are great and Jesus says that this

is fantastic way to go and then Jesus

wolves into this next parable and this

is the parable of the pounds this is

basically identical to the parable of

the talents here's why I like the

parable of the pounds more than the

parable of the talents because we use

the term pounds instead of talents we

immediately understand that this is

about money and not about singing or

about or art or some other Talent right

we oftentimes use the parable of the

talents as if that is about these God

gifted talents that we each have

and how we need to maximize them that

could be used in that way it's not that

it's not right but that's not the intent

of that parable at all the talents are

not gifts in that sense the talents are

money and that is what Jesus is doing

here again he's using the temporal

economy to give a spiritual message with

the spiritual economy and that's what he

does here with

pounds or the talents from call them

pounds here and this is how Jesus

describes this he said therefore a

certain nobleman went into a far country

to receive for himself a kingdom and to

return and he called his ten servants

and delivered them ten pounds and said

unto them occupy till I come but his

citizens hated him and sent a message

after him saying we will not have this

man to reign over us and it came to pass

that when he was returned having

received the kingdom that he commanded

these servants to be called unto him to

whom he had given the money that he

might know how much every man had gained

by trading so the nobleman is not

accepted in the New Kingdom like Jesus

is not accepted but his servants go out

and try and magnify their callings right

they try to go out and trade eventually

what Jesus is leading to here is to

trade in the spiritual economy but just

like with the parable of the talents

that one servant is given ten pounds and

he goes out some trades and he gets ten

pounds back and the second servant has

five pounds and he goes out in trades

and gets five an additional five pounds

back so they've both doubled their money

and then the third servant says the

following lord behold here is thy pound

which I have kept laid up in a napkin

for I feared thee because thou art an

austere man thou take us up that thou

layest not down and repost that thou

didst not sow and he saith unto Him out

of thine own mouth will I judge thee

thou wicked servant thou knowest that I

am an austere man taking up that I laid

not down and reaping that I did not sow

wherefore then gave us not thou my money

into the bank that at my coming I might

have required my own with usury or

interest and he said unto them that

stood by take from him the pound and

give it to him that hath ten pounds and

they said unto Him Lord he hath ten

pounds for I say unto you that unto

every one which hath shall be given

and from him that hath not even that he

hath shall be taken away from him so

this is really interesting this is a law

that seems to apply both temporally and

spiritually

so the third servant who had the 1 pound

who did not go out and do anything with

it but just sat on it basically was a

wicked servant to the nobleman because

he was too careful with it

he didn't do anything with it and what

is the nobleman do he takes that single

pound away from him and gives it to the

servant that has 10 pounds actually now

has made 20 pounds another 10 pounds

and that is the way life works right

he's giving a very simple principle here

let's use 4 as an example a recording

artist who goes out and makes songs

they're very very good at it they get a

lot of reception a lot of downloads a

lot of streams off of their songs

eventually they start building up a

brand and then their next song comes out

well how much easier is it now for that

next song to also get a lot of downloads

and a lot of streams a lot of playing

time on the radio and then they build a

brand and now they may do advertising

for companies as they've built up this

brand and maybe they go and they do some

acting in a movie maybe they're asked to

do a feature in another song of a very

famous person regardless what happens is

as they move up in that temporal economy

there's more and more opportunity that

they are able to leverage and this is

something we see happen in real life

especially in capitalism right where we

have people that start to do really

really well they're able to do even

better once they start having some real

success and that's not bad although some

may argue that some regulation might be

in store there but the person at the

bottom if that person and this is using

this example is not making any efforts

at all to increase anything to make

anything then they're more likely to

lose ever

think that they have and so we get kind

of this law of abundance that comes into

play and that is a natural law it is

what happens and Jesus here seems to be

saying that it is the same thing

spiritually so if we get out of our

minds the idea of being rich here of

somehow that's the spiritual thing

that's not what Jesus is saying

again Luke over and over again uses the

temporal economy to compare it to the

spiritual economy so he's talking about

being rich spiritually and that's what

he's trying to say here it appears to me

is that the spiritual economy works the

exact same way as you magnify your

calling and what I mean by that is that

as you're a son or daughter of God as a

son or daughter as a husband or wife as

a parent and you're calling it in church

whatever it might be if you are

magnifying your opportunities and not

sitting with idle hands then you will

have an increase and if you are able to

continue down that spiritual path of

growing spiritually and having successes

spiritually as the Lord oftentimes says

in the scriptures you can start waxing

confident in leaning on these spiritual

principles and then it becomes more

natural to you and in a sense those

spiritual things start becoming

attracted to you and there are more

spiritual opportunities so I think the

moral then of this parable is magnify

your time that you have here on earth

magnify the opportunity that you have

here in mortality spiritually and the

more you do so the more you will gain

out of that the more you give in the

more you will have returned to you and

then Jesus continues on his path here

now most of what we're about to go

through here when we talk about Jesus's

what is typically called the triumphant

entry into Jerusalem this has already

been covered in the Easter series that I

did so I would recommend that if you

want to go into more detail on this that

you go back to

the Easter series there's a playlist for

that starting with Palm Sunday but just

for the sake of a narrative here let me

just go over a couple of points here

Jesus arrives first at Bethany with it

which is less than two miles outside of

the city walls in Jerusalem this is

where Mary and Martha and Lazarus are

and he is anointed in a sense kind of

symbolic as the king as the Messiah by

Mary and then they have the conflict

between Mary and Martha Lazarus is there

as well and then he leaves from there he

goes to the Mount of Olives and from the

Mount of Olives he goes he tells his

disciples to go get the donkey basically

and perhaps another full that go along

with him for this procession and I

really prefer the name procession over

this bland long title of this period

which is typically called

the triumphant entry into Jerusalem it

doesn't make a whole lot of sense it's

not very descriptive it is a procession

it is the procession of a king and

you'll noticed in all the Gospels here

that as this time comes into play here

right now you'll start seeing the word

king a lot more so we've seen that a few

times in the Gospels already but right

now as Jesus comes into Jerusalem for

the last time and he goes through this

procession we start seeing this royal

imagery and these royal titles and that

is very understandable because if we

understand what's happening we

understand that Jesus is coming in as

the king of kings that he is coming in

as the king as the Davidic King which

would then arrive at the temple after

his procession as was done over and over

again with the Davidic Kings arriving

from the east and then playing a part in

the temple drama where they would act as

the temporal king the Davidic King they

would also act as Jehovah the King of

Kings where they would actually go into

the Holy of Holies and to be born of God

coming out of the Holy of Holies and

that turned them into a son

of God in a representation of the Son of

God being born out of the holy of holies

and then thirdly they would represent

all of the congregation remember this is

the time of the Feast of Tabernacles

where everybody is brought in and

they're all participating in this temple

drama and so they would stand in the

king and queen would stand in for the

men and women of the congregation so we

see the word king over and over again

well during his time here in Jerusalem

and just to clarify on this this is

during the Passover not during the

Feast of Tabernacles but what you start

seeing here is a lot of ritual that

would happen during the Feast of

Tabernacles when the king was brought in

and we turn to John 12 and we look at

just a couple of verses here I'm not

going to cover a lot of this because

we've already done this on the palm

Sunday episode but going to john 12:12

it says on the next day much people that

were come to the feast when they heard

that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem so

you had even extra throngs of people

here to see Jesus and they took branches

of palm trees and went forth to meet him

these would be I think the lulavs

which were what were used during the

Feast of Tabernacles these were not just

some giant palm that were just put out

or sat down that would be just for a

some type of a royal procession might

lean toward that a little bit in

symbolism but this is something that was

used specifically in the day or in the

Feast of Tabernacles and they were they

were put together with a few different

things a citron a willow a palm

something else and they were called

palms and they went forth to meet him

and cried Hosanna blessed is the king of

Israel that cometh in the name of the

Lord and really what you see here is you

see these royal titles of King you see

the king of Israel or the Davidic King

from the people not the king of the Jews

but the king

Israel is who this is it's pilot that

puts up that he is the king of the Jews

remember that if you're reflecting back

to the time of for example of Isaiah the

term Jew was not used at least not that

we know of that would not be a title or

a fulfillment of a prophecy to be the

King of the Jews it would be the king of

Israel but they use the term Hosanna

which is probably has a meaning

of something to the effect of please

save me basically please save me Lord

save me and I think it's pretty

interesting that if you look at and this

is an important point if you look at

when a an English king or queen is in a

coronation there is the phrase god save

the king or god save the queen and it's

something very similar now it's turn to

them the king or queen god save the king

of queen and not god save us but it is

pretty interesting that here you have

something very similar that is used at

that time and in fact the similarities

are in mint if you look at a coronation

we're going to have a chance for a

monumental event to happen here soon and

that is the coronation of King Charles

or whatever name he is going to take

once Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth passes

it's something that hasn't happened in

England and in the Western world at this

level for 70 years as Queen Elizabeth

was coronated in the 50s and at the time

it was on a TV taped not a massive

audience black and white mostly this

will be eye-popping to people when they

see this coronation the amount of

rituals that happen here and if you are

a temple goer you will be stunned at

what you see and the similarities that

are there remember that when you go

through the temple it is a royal

procession it is about the royal

priesthood and I will do a separate

Podcast completely on the English

coronation that I think you'll be very

interested in so Jesus is going to go

through the procession remember that

it's John the Baptist that is supposed

to first come in and make the path

straight that's for this very purpose

right now is for the king to come

through the path that has been cleared

of stumbling blocks that has been made

straight for the king to come through on

to the temple that's what this is so

when we have prepare either way make his

paths straight from John the Baptist

that is about the procession that is

about the king coming to the temple in

the procession where the Melchizedek

Priesthood has its core ordinances the

royal priesthood has its core ordinances

John the Baptist is a job as an ironic

priesthood over is to prepare the way

for this procession that Jesus is going

through and that is how that ties

together I hope you've enjoyed this up

to now we'll save the rest for episode

two I'll talk to you next time