Jesus arrived at Bethany six days before the Passover Celebrations and stayed His final week with Martha, Mary and their brother and friend of Jesus, Lazarus, the man whom Jesus had recently brought back to LIFE.

A banquet was prepared in Jesus' honour, and Mary anointed His head and feet with costly perfume, the equivalent to a man's yearly salary (The anointing of the head of an honoured guest with olive oil was a very common custom. The anointing with perfumed ointment of Jesus feet was an unusual act for someone to perform other than a house-hold servant.) The fragrance filled the room. This was an act of humility and expressed Mary's willingness to serve Him. Some disciples thought that Mary's gesture was a wasted expense and disagreed with what she had done. Jesus spoke out that this act was done in preparation for His Burial, and predicted that her act would be remembered and preached throughout the world.

When the local people of Jerusalem heard of Jesus' arrival, they flocked to see Him. The Chief priests wanted to kill Lazarus as well as Jesus, for many Jewish Teacers had deserted them and believed in Jesus, for they knew that Jesus brought Lazarus back to LIFE to the Glory of God.

Jesus sent two of His disciples ahead with instruction to get a donkey with a young foal that would be tied up beside the road. The foal was a colt, not yet broken in for riding. The disciples did as Jesus instructed them. This was the first day of the week and Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the colt,
fulfilling prophecy of the prophet Zechariah 9:9. The crowd that had journeyed to Jerusalem for The Passover joined some of the local people, spread their cloaks along the ground and took palm branches shouting, "Hosanna", and the words of Psalm 118:25,26 and Psalm 14:8, thus ascribing Him the Messianic Title as the agent of The Lord God, the Coming King of Israel.

Jesus humbly rode into Jerusalem as the Messianic King ,according to prophecy. The donkey was the mount of royalty, and horses were used for war. As Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey's colt, He knew, as God's Anointed Son, He would soon give His life for others and for the forgiveness of a multitude of sins.

The Psalms they were shouting in praise of 'The One who comes in the Name of the Lord' were traditional songs for travelers who came to the city for the yearly event, but the crowd were enthusiastic and praised Jesus with extra vitality and additional vigor. Jesus truly went in The Name of God, from His Presence, whom God, The Father had blessed. The crowds greeted Him as their Messiah, sent from God and who revealed God to them.

He was praised as the Lord's Anointed, who achieves the saving grace and victory for His people.
Only human beings, out of all of God's creation can consciously and verbally praise Him. They worshiped Jesus because they knew God's Favour was in their midst.

Jesus began to weep, for peace from God was within their grasp, but He knew that soon Jerusalem would be destroyed by The Roman Empire because of much rejection to Him there.
This was fulfilled in 70 A.D.

-SECOND CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE-
Jesus spent the night at Bethany. The next morning on the way to The Temple in Jerusalem, He saw a fig tree without fruit, He immediately cursed it, for to Him it was a symbol of deception and falseness.
Jesus entered The Temple and found the court full of traders and money changes who were making large profits as they gave out Jewish coins in exchange for 'pagan money' for the buying of doves. He drove these business men out and over-turned their tables, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 56:7,8 and Jeremiah 7:11.
Jesus quoted these verses because of the evil in The Temple. The Jewish people foolishly trusted in the building for protection from God's Judgement, but Jesus exposed the hypocrisy, for they cheated the worshipers spiritually and finacinanlly; worshipers because they traded in the Gentile Praying Court and finanically because the money transactions were dishonest, and not sincere before God.
They themselves drited away from God and thier attitude twoards Him was false. Jesus put a stop to the trading being carried out in the Gentile Court of The Temple and He stopped those who were using the area for a short cut route between the City and the Mount of Olives, thus robbing The Temple of its sanctity.

The blind and crippled came to Him and He healed them there in The Temple. All were praising God, the children were asking God to bless the 'Son of David', the Messianic Title, but the Chief Priests were disturbed. Jesus told them they were fulfilling the scriptures Psalm 8:2. Children trust and truly worship The Father. God appoints and evokes the praises of children to silence the powers that are displayed against Him. The Priests and Scribes wanted Jesus to stop their praises.

The people claimed to belong to God as His people but were disobedient to the Covenant conditions, thereby they deceived themselves in their hypocrisy, especially the Pharisees and scribes. The Covenant mercies became obligations and religious rituals and not sincere or real to the people, their inner nature was far from God. God wants acknowledgment of His Sovereignty and repentance from His people so He can offer them insight.

Even though the nation through history has been delivered by miracles time and time again, their hearts remained stubborn to God, even though they had every chance to choose to acknowledge Him, Israel hardened their hearts. God continually warned them to repent. (NEED TO KNOW TEXT) God promise blessings for obedience and destruction for disobedience. To choose destruction without thinking ahead shows the waywardness of the people's minds and emphasizes their ignorance of God's Word. Israel seemed always in a cycle of rebellion against God and His Word. They never listened to the prophets who spoke for God's messages to the people.

The cleansing of The Temple was a symbolic denunciation by The Messiah of the hypocritical worship of Israel, which Jesus likened to the fig tree He had doomed. (NEED TO KNOW TEXT)Fruit usually appeared on a fig tree before the leaves, and the tree Jesus cursed the day before had been in full leaf, but bore no fruit. Such a fruitless tree, was useless, similarly, the Jewish Nation rendered unfruitful spiritually, because of legalism, man-made tradition and the hunger for power by those in charge. (COLOUR IN PARABLES) Many leaders, scribes and teachers rejected Jesus Christ and encouraged the nation to do the same. This fulfilled the prophecies of Isaiah 29:13, Dueteronomy 29:4, Jeremiah 5:21 and Ezekiel 12:2.

To the amazement of the disciples, the tree withered as Jesus words of it was fulfilled directly. The disciples questioned how had the tree withered so soon. Jesus pointed out that a praying disciple is gifted with supernatural power of faith, that can achieve sudden results. The sudden decay of the fig tree by supernatural means is a symbol of difficulties, that can be removed by the supernatural power of faith that comes from trust and belief in God's faithfulness to His people, without doubting Him, for He hears and answers prayers.