Episode 97: Mark Part 37— Healing Blindness and the Identity of the Messiah

This is a good example of what is called an acted-out parable. The two-stage healing of blindness is the only episode in the Gospels where someone isn’t healed right away. What is this meant to tell us about our own spiritual state and why is it important to understand before the disciples head to Caesarea Philippi?

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²² And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. ²³ And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” ²⁴ And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” ²⁵ Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. ²⁶ And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.” ²⁷ And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” ²⁸ And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” ²⁹ And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” ³⁰ And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.

Now, this is a unique story we don’t see anywhere else in the Gospels because it is the only two-part healing. Why does the healing take place in two parts? Because it is another acted out parable! One of the overarching themes of the Gospel of Mark has been the blindness of Yeshua’s own people and even His own disciples, to the truth about who He is and what He is doing. Blindness, as we will see over and over again, leaves all us us by degree—one step at a time. No sooner do we think we see clearly than we find out one more thing we were not right about. Thank goodness tho—or we would definitely stop seeking and clinging to Yahweh.

Hi, I am Tyler Dawn Rosenquist and welcome to Character in Context, where I teach the historical and ancient sociological context of Scripture with an eye to developing the character of the Messiah. If you prefer written material, I have five years’ worth of blog at theancientbridge.com as well as my six books available on amazon—including a four-volume curriculum series dedicated to teaching Scriptural context in a way that even kids can understand it, called Context for Kids—and I have two video channels on YouTube with free Bible teachings for both adults and kids. You can find the link for those on my website. Past broadcasts of this program can be found at characterincontext.podbean.com and transcripts can be had for most broadcasts at theancientbridge.com. If you have kids, I also have a weekly broadcast where I teach them Bible context in a way that teaches them why they can trust God and how He wants to have a relationship with them through the Messiah.

All Scripture this week comes courtesy of the ESV, the English Standard Version but you can follow along with whatever Bible you want. A list of my resources can be found attached to the transcript for Part two of this series at theancientbridge.com.

The two accounts that precede this one, and the one that directly follows, make this like the most ironic episode in the whole of historical literature. First, we have the miraculous feeding of the four thousand followed by the Pharisees demanding a sign—because feeding four thousand people just isn’t remarkable enough (yes, I know it happened in different districts), and then we have Yeshua warning His disciples about the poisonous Kingdom expectations of the Pharisees and the Herodians that are at odds with the realities of God’s Kingdom—only to have them thinking that He is passive-aggressively rebuking them about forgetting to bring bread as though He can’t make the one loaf they brought enough to feed a measly thirteen people. So, we have all this blindness. This week we will see a man who could see once, and has been blinded (like Israel), regain his sight little by little, until his sight is fully restored—and Peter will properly identify Yeshua, at long last, as the promised Messiah. However, blindness still remains and in the very next account, which we will get to the week after next, he will show that the blindness still lingers because he has no understanding of what kind of Messiah Yeshua needs to be in order to save both His own people and the world. So, the immediate background here. Yeshua has just faced a dangerous confrontation with the Pharisees where they are demanding a sign from Heaven. He refused and they got into the boat and the disciples were being entirely clueless about the important life lesson that Yeshua was trying to teach them. It wasn’t that they didn’t understand the lesson. No, they didn’t even realize there had been a lesson!

²² And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. 

So, they crossed from the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in the district of Dalmanutha, and no one knows where this is, to the northern shore at Bethsaida Julias, which Josephus wrote about in Ant.18.2.1 “WHEN Cyrenius had now disposed of Archelaus’s money, and when the taxings were come to a conclusion, which were made in the thirty-seventh year of Caesar’s victory over Antony at Actium, he deprived Joazar of the high priesthood, which dignity had been conferred on him by the multitude, and he appointed Ananus, the son of Seth, to be high priest; while Herod and Philip had each of them received their own tetrarchy, and settled the affairs thereof. Herod also built a wall about Sepphoris, (which is the security of all Galilee,) and made it the metropolis of the country. He also built a wall round Betharamphtha, which was itself a city also, and called it Julias, from the name of the emperor’s wife. When Philip also had built Paneas, a city at the fountains of Jordan, he named it Cesarea. He also advanced the village Bethsaids, situate at the lake of Gennesareth, unto the dignity of a city, both by the number of inhabitants it contained, and its other grandeur, and called it by the name of Julias, the same name with Caesar’s daughter.” Considering the fact that this is not only the hometown of Peter, Andrew, and Philip, and near the site of the feeding of the five thousand—I imagine that when they rowed into town it created all kinds of drama.

Although Bethsaida was technically on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, it was just barely across the Jordan River to the north. It was an administrative center for the Roman province of Gaulonitis. Now, naming the city for Julia, aka Livia, potentially the deadliest woman who ever lived—wife of Augustus Caesar and mother of Tiberias. If she had married Herod the Great, who knows which one would have made it out alive. But naming this city after her was a smart move politically because she was incredibly powerful. But this isn’t really very important. Just super cool. And remember that this is where Yeshua escaped to after the murder of John the Baptist when the situation got too hot in Galilee. Back to the story.

And people brought a blind man to Him. So, I like to call this episode “Ephphrata the sequel” because there we had problems with hearing and speech cured, and now blindness. The Isaiah 6 curses are being prophetically addressed one by one. “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ ¹⁰ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” (Is 6:9b-10) Yeshua has come not only to deliver but to restore. Of all the people on earth, the ones who shouldn’t be blind are God’s chosen people and yet in a lot of ways they are just as blind as the outside world—it is only because of their cultural upbringing that their eyes are opened to the reality of Yahweh at all. And we can see the same thing today with kids brought up in a religious home. It doesn’t mean that it all clicks, that they get it, no matter what the parents do right and some kids do it despite their parents doing everything wrong! God is the one who removes blindness and opens deaf ears—as Yeshua shows us.

We’re going to repeat the first verse again, along with the second, and see six of the seven parallels in wording between this account and the healing of the deaf man with the speech impediment.

²² And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. ²³ And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” 

The blind man is brought to Yeshua. The people begged Yeshua. They wanted Him to touch the blind man. Yeshua leads the man out of the village to perform the miracle. Spit is involved. Yeshua lays hands on him. In vs 25, He will tell the man not to go back into the village aka. Don’t blab about this. This isn’t just a coincidence. The similarity in language tells us that these two healings are related. But what else do we see here? I love that Yeshua personally takes this blind man by the hand and personally leads him outside the village. In a world where the disabled were dishonored, Yeshua extends honor and restoration. Now, why outside of the village? Interesting question—it’s called a village not because it was small–it had all the trappings of a city but administratively it was run like a village. But it was an administrative center and so there was the potential for trouble with the Roman military if people went crazy over the healing and tried to make Him their king. He just got out of Dalmanutha after a life-threatening challenge and so He has to be careful. As we will see, it is vitally important that He gets to Caesarea Philippi unmolested. He can’t afford an incident now.

Psalm 146:8 says that it is the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. And no prophets ever cured blindness—so, again, this is a self-manifesting miracle where Yeshua shows that He is Yahweh in the flesh, the unique Son of God. He spits, and enough with the spit already, geez, and lays His hands on the man and asks if he can see anything which is so strange. Yeshua nowhere else asks someone if they are healed. They just are and He knows it and so we know there is a bigger message here, which we will get to in a few minutes.

²⁴ And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” 

This is important. The man wasn’t always blind. People born blind (1) don’t know when they are looking at human beings and (2) don’t know when they are looking at trees. So this is either an injury or some disease of the eye that came on later in life. Notice there was no exorcism and no mention of the man sinning. Stuff happens. And there is also no rebuke about his lack of faith so, again, bigger picture and we begin to suspect that this is an acted-out parable. Yeshua is teaching us a spiritual truth through this real-life physical healing.

²⁵ Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 

On the second attempt, notice that Yeshua doesn’t ask him any questions. This now looks like one of his normal miracles where He does His thing and the person is healed, without a hitch. And we look at this and it is easy to see that the underlying lesson is that of the progressive revelation that comes with being touched by Yeshua. Like I mentioned before, our blindness comes off in layers. Many of the Pharisees who questioned, ended up seeing the light and following Him after the resurrection. So did a great many priests. Remember about insiders and outsiders—insiders, like Judas, can become outsiders and outsiders, like many of the Pharisees, can become insiders. No one is doomed to be an outsider forever. No matter how someone looks to us in the here and now, we have no idea what they will be. But God knows. That’s why we can’t condemn. Once God lifts a person’s blindness, some will kinda stand still who looked so promising and others who looked like the devil himself become the greatest of saints. We can’t write anyone off because we are just clueless. Spiritual blindness is crippling, and some people run when the shackles come off and some sit on Facebook and argue.

So, real quick here, let’s talk about acted-out parables. We see them in other places in Scripture—not just here. Both the feedings of the four and five thousand were also acted out parables of the coming Messianic banquet that will include both Jews and Gentiles. In Isaiah 20, we find out that Isaiah has walked around naked as a jaybird as a sign to Egypt and Cush that they would go into exile via the agency of the Assyrians. In Jeremiah 19, Jeremiah is commanded to buy a flask and to shatter it in front of the Jewish elders and priests as a sign that Yahweh would crush Jerusalem because of their idolatry. In Ezekiel four and five, we have back to back acted out parables. First, we have Ezekiel acting out a siege against Jerusalem and then laying on one side and then the other representing the judgments against Israel and Judah—all during the 390 days of laying on his left side he had to eat real Ezekiel bread—not the fake stuff in the stores. Real Ezekiel bread is cooked over animal poop and is not meant to be a positive thing. Moral of the story—just because it’s in the Bible and has a Bible verse on it, doesn’t mean that the context is positive. Then in the next chapter, he has to cut his hair and burn it in the city as a sign of judgment. And in Ez 12, he had to pack his bags, dig a hole in the wall, and leave the city at night as a sign that they would be going into exile. Fun, fun stuff. But yeah, you preach the truthful truthiness of your truth under a fake Jewish name on Facebook, I guess that’s a hard life too.

²⁶ And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”

This is the seventh and final link to the Ephphatha episode. Except that this time, it looks like the guy didn’t blab. Good on ya, mate! But I think this is important because He can’t afford for everyone to put all the pieces together the way the disciples finally will—and it was all because of this last miracle—even though they won’t fully understand until after the resurrection. Isaiah 35:4-6:

Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.”

All of this has happened. The healing of the paralytic, the healing of the deaf man, the man with the speech impediment enabled to speak freely, and now the blind healed. Now, we understand. All these self-manifesting miracles. Yeshua has proclaimed and proved Himself to be Yahweh in the flesh by doing what only Yahweh can do and for fulfilling these promises of Yahweh. This is not a mere prophet or even the greatest of prophets. This is not just an obedient man blessed with power from on high. This is the one unique Son of God, the visible image of the invisible God. He performs these works and He performs them effortlessly without stumbling and failing like we do. I will tell you that I have laid my hands on people and they were healed. It doesn’t happen very often but it has happened. Yeshua never failed. It always worked. Even when He wasn’t trying and someone just touched Him. But these verses speak not only of healing the blind, deaf, mute and lame—they talk about vengeance. The Jewish Messianic hopes tended to center around the idea of someone who would take vengeance on people but Yeshua came with vengeance against the spiritual authorities who were using people to do their evil works. Yeshua came violently against demons—not against people. Prophecy was being fulfilled, but in an entirely unexpected way. All the people who say that Yeshua never said He was this or that—the more I study, the more I just can’t agree. He didn’t have to spell everything out—He acted everything out.

Now, from there they travel twenty-five miles north of Bethsaida to Mt Hermon, to a region that is very important in the beliefs of Second Temple-era Jews. In a couple of weeks, we’re going to talk about this and why what happens, happens in this place and at this time. We’ll be taking about Jubilees again and I Enoch. As I have mentioned before, neither of these are Scriptural and they have too many problems to be taken seriously as such but they do show us how Jews of the Second Temple period interpreted Genesis six with the introduction of evil on earth—not the introduction of sin that took place in Genesis 3, that’s different. But the introduction of evil practices and gross rebellion on the earth. Mt Hermon was extremely important symbolically and perhaps even spiritually. We’ll talk about that in two weeks. As for this week and next, we’ll just leave it with them traveling all the way north to the slope of Mt Hermon, to the home of one of the Herods—Philip, the half-brother of Herod Antipas who ruled over the Galilee. They were both sons of Herod the Great.

²⁷ And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 

As I hinted at, Caesarea Philippi was on the southwestern slope of Mt Hermon, near the base at an elevation of just over 1100 ft in the vicinity of Dan and the ancient Israelite cities of Baal Gad and Baal Hermon. This a was a gorgeous place—well watered and lush. It was a very pagan city. There was a grotto dedicated to the god Pan in the area, dated to the time of Alexander the Great. The region was a gift from Caesar Augustus to Herod the Great about 20 BCE, and in thanks, Herod built an Imperial Cult Temple dedicated to Augustus. The Imperial cult, as I have not mentioned it before, was a religion that revolved around deified Roman Emperors—at this point, posthumously. I believe Caligula was the first Emperor to demand such honors before he died. When Herod died, he gave the region to his son Philip and Philip greatly built it up into a major center for pagan worship and named it Caesarea Philippi after Tiberius Caesar and himself. CP became the capital city of the region of Trachonitis and Philip’s home.

But right now, they are simply travelling there. They are “on the way”—which is one of our next big themes. First, He is on the way to Mt Hermon for an earthshattering encounter and from there he will be “on the way” to Jerusalem for His final Passover. And He asks His disciples the same question they and others have been asking about Him. Let’s look really quick at those questions. The first incident is found in Mark 4:35-41

³⁵ On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” ³⁶ And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. ³⁷ And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. ³⁸ But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” ³⁹ And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. ⁴⁰ He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” ⁴¹ And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Amazingly, this seems to be the first time that the disciples are questioning His identity. The reality has been veiled and had to be veiled. As Paul tells us in I Cor 2:8, it had to be a secret until it was too late to stop the crucifixion from happening. “⁶ Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. ⁷ But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. ⁸ None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

The second question is part of the prelude to the tragic end of John the Baptist, which served as a foreshadowing of Yeshua’s eventual fate in Mark 6:14-16. However, this time the question isn’t being asked by insiders, but by outsiders.

¹⁴ King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” ¹⁵ But others said, “He is Elijah.” And others said, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” ¹⁶ But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.” 

So, His identity is an enigma, has been an enigma for all this time—because, unlike us, they have no narrator. Hindsight is 2020—oh, maybe we don’t really want to think of anything that way anymore. As I am writing this there are still three days to go. I laugh but it has been a very trying year. Started it out with the tragic death of a young friend, the daughter of dear friends. And then COVID and all of the needless division among believers because of masks and vaccinations as though these are worth dividing over. And my son Andrew’s three surgeries—the one the day before Sukkot and the two a month late, but now he is doing amazing and has a new job paying more than the one he got fired from after missing too much work due to his shunt-malfunction headaches. If 2020 is hindsight from now on, I think we should just keep looking forward! Okay, back to the teaching. Neither insiders nor outsiders have figured out His identity up to this point, despite His doing so many things that Scripture claims are the sole and exclusive rights and abilities of Yahweh—things like, but not limited to, forgiving sin and walking on the water. Add to this now, the healing of the blind! So, the moment of truth has arrived and Yeshua will be responsible for the next two inquiries as to who He is. So, His first question, “who do (other) people say I am?”

²⁸ And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” 

This is no shock. We already had this account from chapter six but there is more to it than there seems. One, there must have been a lot of people whom Yeshua reached who were only familiar with the reputation of John the Baptist. Obviously, anyone who knew them both wouldn’t believe this. There might well have been a family resemblance as their mothers were both cousins (via Mary’s mother, who was from the house of Judah via her father, Heli (Eli), and from the house of Aaron via her mother according to her genealogy in Luke 3) but anyone who knew them would know that Yeshua was around before the death of John. As I mentioned in my teaching on Herod and John, John never worked a single miracle but there was probably speculation that a risen, vindicated John in a resurrection body would be able to work miracles and so that was quite possibly the mindset behind the thought that Yeshua was actually John part 2. Elijah, of course, was the forerunner to the coming of Yahweh. Let’s look at Mal 3

3 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. ² But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. ³ He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.  ⁴ Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. ⁵ “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.”

So, this sounds like a fun encounter. But this was John the Baptist, who was preparing the way before Yeshua, the Arm of the Lord from Isaiah, the Yahweh-Warrior, the Lord Himself here in Malachi. A lot of the rebukes in this passage make their way into those leveled against the Jerusalem leadership.

But people also suggest that He is “one of the prophets” or, in other words, like the prophets of old—the prophets God sent to the nation until Malachi, when they believed that formal prophecy ceased and Yahweh stopped sending His messengers. That was a definite paradigm they were working with—no more prophets, so Yahweh was speaking through teachers instead—like the Teacher of Righteousness from the Qumran sect or the Pharisees and their scribes attributing their traditions backward to Ezra and the men of the great assembly and even back to Moses. But this is a stunning statement, that they are considering the possibility that Yeshua is something entirely old and also entirely new—a new “dispensation” (for lack of a better word) that Yahweh is once again on speaking terms with His exiled people (yes, exiled, because they were not self-ruled, see the prayer of Nehemiah 9) and perhaps doing wonders and speaking to them again. Perhaps this meant that they were returning to how God used to communicate and you can see why the leadership would not welcome this as it would weaken their hold over the people. Same old story, new century, right?

²⁹ And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?”… 

Okay, the moment of truth here. They are on their way to one of the northernmost points of the ancient Kingdom of Israel, a pagan worship center then and nothing has changed now. They are very much in “rival territory.” They’ve been speculating, undoubtedly talking amongst themselves, but the whole thing with the bread might have gotten through to them. He asked them, point blank, when they were bickering about bread and wondering how they were going to eat, ¹⁷ And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? ¹⁸ Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? ¹⁹ When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” ²⁰ “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” ²¹ And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

In other words, don’t you understand who I am yet and what I am capable of? And this was a while ago because it was when they were on the boat headed to Bethsaida, before the healing of the blind man and now they are on a 25-mile journey north to Mt Hermon. They’ve had a lot of time to mull this over. So, what conclusion have they come to?

…Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” 

BOOM! At last! Peter says something worth saying—which, of course, means that he is going to blow it when we finish up the chapter next week. But what is Peter saying? That Yeshua is the Divine, pre-existent son of God? Nope. Peter doesn’t have a narrator. To Peter, all this means is that Yeshua is the anointed King of Israel, the long-awaited Messiah come at long last to save the Jews from foreign occupation once and for all and to regather the exiles from the four corners of the earth. At last, we have the successor to Simon Maccabeus—let me read from I Macc 14:41-43:

⁴¹ “And the Jews and their priests decided that Simon should be their leader and high priest for ever, until a trustworthy prophet should arise, ⁴² and that he should be governor over them and that he should take charge of the sanctuary and appoint men over its tasks and over the country and the weapons and the strongholds, and that he should take charge of the sanctuary, ⁴³ and that he should be obeyed by all, and that all contracts in the country should be written in his name, and that he should be clothed in purple and wear gold.

They were looking for a prophet, during the days of Simon, to reveal to them the identity of the Davidic King but in the meantime they placed the last surviving Hasmonean of the sons of Matthias over them as prince—not king. His grandsons were the first to call themselves king and they were messed up people. Simon was an interim measure until the Messiah came, and later his son John Hyrcanus and then things got nuts. And this was great news for Peter and the others. After all, they were the inner circle, the insiders, the guys who would most benefit when their horse came in first and destroyed the Romans and their nation was on top again.

The Messianic expectations of the nation were varied at this point but getting rid of the heathens and being self-ruling was pretty much on everyone’s menu of what to expect. They believed that the Messiah would cleanse the Temple of the corruption under the wicked Sadducean high priesthood, that the Romans would be overcome once and for all, and that he would usher in an age of righteousness and justice.

But why did it take the disciples so long to figure out His identity? Frankly, because Yeshua perfectly fit into none of the existing categories. He wasn’t quite the priestly Messiah, although He met some of the requirements. He had no army like David, so He wasn’t shoo-in there either. He wasn’t what the Pharisees were expecting because He disagreed with them so often. He was quite the enigma. But I mean, at least the disciples are seeming to head in the right direction and I imagine they can’t wait to tell everyone when they get to where they are heading.

³⁰ And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.

What? Oh man! They finally understand that, as NT Wright says, he is not just announcing the Kingdom but also declaring Himself as the King, but it’s a secret. Well, it’s a dangerous secret. They are heading to the home of one of the Herods, Philip, and then they will turn around and travel through the Galilee, ruled over by Herod Antipas, and then they will head to Jerusalem, under Roman governorship and occupation. A new King in town has only one of two fates possible—He will destroy the pretenders or He will be executed by them. If they begin to tell people, then an army will form around Him whether He wants it or not. People will die just from following after Him to Jerusalem if He publicly admits to being the renewed Davidic King. And if Yeshua is slaughtered on the way then His death is not going to be a fulfillment of the Scriptures. It must be in Jerusalem. It must be on the Passover. There must be the nation there as witness to His death. There is too much at stake now to risk premature exposure.

Next week, the other shoe will drop as Yeshua drops all pretense about what kind of Messiah they are following.