The Last Temple Discourse 

Three days before Jesus was executed, during the week before Passover, he went to the Jerusalem temple to address a group gathered there. Most were friendly, but his enemies, the Sanhedrin, were also there. He gave this discourse at this place and at this time to say farewell to his friends and followers. He also wanted to expose his enemies’ hateful opposition and give them one last opportunity to accept the gospel. The gospel he taught was the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.

The discourse included a call to salvation for that generation and every generation thereafter. But it was primarily a final appeal and merciful offer of forgiveness, in the Father’s name, to the Sadducees and Pharisees who made up the Sanhedrin. This discourse was Jesus’ last public address while still in the flesh.

Shortly after two o’clock on Tuesday afternoon, April 4, 30 CE, Jesus arrived at the Jerusalem temple, accompanied by eleven apostles, Joseph of Arimathea, thirty Greek believers, and certain other disciples. A large crowd had gathered in the temple’s courtyard to hear him speak.

The moneychangers and the merchandisers had not dared to enter the temple again since Jesus and the aroused multitude had driven them out the previous day. He would have been arrested then, except that the authorities were afraid of a riot by those visiting Jerusalem for the Passover holiday. Many were followers of Jesus or curious about him. Others were his persecutors, the Sadducees and Pharisees, who wanted to kill him.

The Master boldly ascended the porch of Jerusalem’s main temple to deliver this, his last discourse. It was, in fact, his farewell address to the world. He knew his death was at hand.

There, Jesus stood tenderly, overlooking the large audience in the temple’s courtyard. He faced friends and enemies and the discourse was for them and every generation since. He wanted to leave the world with a positive message of salvation for all and to declare the inevitable consequences for those who reject salvation and kill God’s messengers. Jesus fearlessly called out the false teachers and bigoted religious rulers, the Sadducees and the Pharisees, who dared to put themselves and their stifling traditions between man and God.

That morning, various groups had an opportunity to question Jesus, but no one did. The temple court was quiet and orderly. He began on a note of love, speaking plainly and with absolute authority. Translated into modern English, he said:

“This long time have I been with you, going up and down in the land proclaiming the Father’s love for the children of men, and many have seen the light and, by faith, have entered into the kingdom of heaven. In connection with this teaching and preaching, the Father has done many wonderful works, even to the resurrection of the dead. Many sick and afflicted have been made whole because they believed, but all of this proclamation of truth and healing of disease has not opened the eyes of those who refuse to see the light or are determined to reject this gospel of the kingdom.

“In every manner consistent with doing my Father’s will, I and my apostles have done our utmost to live in peace with our brethren, to conform with the reasonable requirements of the laws of Moses and the traditions of Israel. We have persistently sought peace, but the leaders of Israel will not have it. By rejecting the truth of God and the light of heaven, they are aligning themselves on the side of error and darkness. There cannot be peace between light and darkness, life and death, truth and error.

“Many of you have dared to believe my teachings and have already entered into the joy and liberty of the consciousness of sonship with God. And you will bear me witness that I have offered this same sonship with God to all the Jewish nation, even to these very men who now seek my destruction. And even now, would my Father receive these blinded teachers and these hypocritical leaders if they would only turn to him and accept his mercy. Even now, it is not too late for these people to receive the word of heaven and to welcome the Son of Man.

“My Father has long dealt in mercy with this people. Generation after generation have we sent our prophets to teach and warn them, and generation after generation have they killed these heaven-sent teachers. And now do your willful high priests and stubborn rulers go right on doing this same thing. As Herod brought about the death of John, you likewise now make ready to destroy the Son of Man.

“As long as there is a chance that the Jews will turn to my Father and seek salvation, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will keep his hands of mercy outstretched toward you; but when you have once filled up your cup of impenitence, and when once you have finally rejected my Father’s mercy, this nation will be left to its own counsels, and it shall speedily come to an inglorious end. These people were called to become the light of the world, to show forth the spiritual glory of a God-knowing race, but you have so far departed from the fulfillment of your divine privileges that your leaders are about to commit the supreme folly of all the ages in that they are on the verge of finally rejecting the gift of God to all men and for all ages—the revelation of the love of the Father in heaven for all his creatures on earth.

“And when you do once reject this revelation of God to man, the kingdom of heaven shall be given to other peoples, to those who will receive it with joy and gladness. In the name of the Father who sent me, I solemnly warn you that you are about to lose your position in the world as the standard-bearers of eternal truth and the custodians of the divine law. I am just now offering you your last chance to come forward and repent, to signify your intention to seek God with all your hearts and to enter, like little children and by sincere faith, into the security and salvation of the kingdom of heaven.

“My Father has long worked for your salvation, and I came down to live among you and personally show you the way. Many of both the Jews and the Samaritans, and even the gentiles, have believed the gospel of the kingdom, but those who should be first to come forward and accept the light of heaven have steadfastly refused to believe the revelation of the truth of God—God revealed in man and man uplifted to God.

“This afternoon my apostles stand here before you in silence, but you shall soon hear their voices ringing out with the call to salvation and with the urge to unite with the heavenly kingdom as the sons of the living God. And now I call to witness these, my disciples and believers in the gospel of the kingdom, as well as the unseen messengers by their sides, that I have once more offered Israel and her rulers deliverance and salvation. But you all behold how the Father’s mercy is slighted and how the messengers of truth are rejected. Nevertheless, I admonish you that these scribes and Pharisees still sit in Moses’ seat, and therefore, until the Most Highs who rule in the kingdoms of men shall finally overthrow this nation and destroy the place of these rulers, I bid you co-operate with these elders in Israel. You are not required to unite with them in their plans to destroy the Son of Man, but in everything related to the peace of Israel you are to be subject to them. In all these matters do whatsoever they bid you and observe the essentials of the law but do not pattern after their evil works. Remember, this is the sin of these rulers: They say that which is good, but they do it not. You well know how these leaders bind heavy burdens on your shoulders, burdens grievous to bear, and that they will not lift as much as one finger to help you bear these weighty burdens. They have oppressed you with ceremonies and enslaved you by traditions.

“Furthermore, these self-centered rulers delight in doing their good works so that they will be seen by men. They make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their official robes. They crave the chief places at the feasts and demand the chief seats in the synagogues. They covet laudatory salutations in the market places and desire to be called rabbi by all men. And even while they seek all this honor from men, they secretly lay hold of widows’ houses and take profit from the services of the sacred temple. For a pretense these hypocrites make long prayers in public and give alms to attract the notice of their fellows.

“While you should honor your rulers and reverence your teachers, you should call no man Father in the spiritual sense, for there is one who is your Father, even God. Neither should you seek to lord it over your brethren in the kingdom. Remember, I have taught you that he who would be greatest among you should become the server of all. If you presume to exalt yourselves before God, you will certainly be humbled; but whoso truly humbles himself will surely be exalted. Seek in your daily lives, not self-glorification, but the glory of God. Intelligently subordinate your own wills to the will of the Father in heaven.

“Mistake not my words. I bear no malice toward these chief priests and rulers who even now seek my destruction; I have no ill will for these scribes and Pharisees who reject my teachings. I know that many of you believe in secret, and I know you will openly profess your allegiance to the kingdom when my hour comes. But how will your rabbis justify themselves since they profess to talk with God and then presume to reject and destroy him who comes to reveal the Father to the worlds?”

Never before had Jesus so sharply and emphatically criticized Israel’s priestly class. Having tried all else, in this, his final appeal, he clearly exposed the sad truth of their utter failure to lead their flocks to God. This he did in vivid and stark terms to try and save those whose ears were deafened by self-interest and whose minds were willing prisoners of spiritually dead tradition. He said:

“Woe upon you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You would shut the doors of the kingdom of heaven against sincere men because they happen to be unlearned in the ways of your teaching. You refuse to enter the kingdom and at the same time do everything within your power to prevent all others from entering. You stand with your backs to the doors of salvation and fight with all who would enter therein.

“Woe upon you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! for you do indeed encompass land and sea to make one proselyte, and when you have succeeded, you are not content until you have made him twofold worse than he was as a child of the heathen.

“Woe upon you, chief priests and rulers who lay hold of the property of the poor and demand heavy dues of those who would serve God as they think Moses ordained! You who refuse to show mercy, can you hope for mercy in the worlds to come?

“Woe upon you, false teachers, blind guides! What can be expected of a nation when the blind lead the blind? They both shall stumble into the pit of destruction.

“Woe upon you who dissimulate when you take an oath! You are tricksters since you teach that a man may swear by the temple and break his oath, but whoever swears by the gold in the temple must remain bound. You are all fools and blind. You are not even consistent in your dishonesty, for which is the greater, the gold or the temple which has supposedly sanctified the gold? You also teach that, if a man swears by the altar, it is nothing; but that, if one swears by the gift that is upon the altar, then shall he be held as a debtor. Again are you blind to the truth, for which is the greater, the gift or the altar which sanctifies the gift? How can you justify such hypocrisy and dishonesty in the sight of the God of heaven?

“Woe upon you, scribes and Pharisees and all other hypocrites who make sure that they tithe while disregarding the weightier matters of the law—faith, mercy, and judgment! Within reason, the one you ought to have done but not to have left the other undone. You are truly blind guides and dumb teachers; you strain out the gnat and swallow the camel.

“Woe upon you, scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites! for you are scrupulous to cleanse the outside of the cup and the platter, but within there remains the filth of extortion, excesses, and deception. You are spiritually blind. Do you not recognize how much better it would be first to cleanse the inside of the cup, and then that which spills over would cleanse the outside? You wicked reprobates! you make the outward performances of your religion to conform with the letter of your interpretation of Moses’ law while your souls are steeped in iniquity and filled with murder.

“Woe upon all of you who reject the truth and spurn mercy! Many of you are like whited sepulchers, which outwardly appear beautiful but within are full of dead men’s bones and all sorts of uncleanness. Even so do you who knowingly reject the counsel of God appear outwardly to men as holy and righteous, but inwardly, your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and iniquity.

“Woe upon you, false guides of a nation! Over yonder have you built a monument to the martyred prophets of old, while you plot to destroy Him of whom they spoke. You garnish the tombs of the righteous and flatter yourselves that, had you lived in the days of your fathers, you would not have killed the prophets, and then in the face of such self-righteous thinking, you make ready to slay him of whom the prophets spoke, the Son of Man. Since you do these things, are you witness to yourselves that you are the wicked sons of them who slew the prophets. Go on, then, and fill up the cup of your condemnation to the full!

“Woe upon you, children of evil! John did truly call you the offspring of vipers, and I ask how can you escape the judgment that John pronounced upon you?

“But even now I offer you in my Father’s name mercy and forgiveness; even now I proffer the loving hand of eternal fellowship. My Father has sent you the wise men and the prophets; some you have persecuted, and others you have killed. Then, John appeared proclaiming the coming of the Son of Man, and you destroyed him after many believed his teaching. And now you make ready to shed more innocent blood. Do you not comprehend that a terrible day of reckoning will come when the Judge of all the earth shall require of this people an accounting for the way they have rejected, persecuted, and destroyed these messengers of heaven? Do you not understand that you must account for all of this righteous blood, from the first prophet killed down to the times of Zechariah, who was slain between the sanctuary and the altar? And if you go on in your evil ways, this accounting may be required of this very generation.

“O Jerusalem and the children of Abraham, you who have stoned the prophets and killed the teachers that were sent to you, even now would I gather your children together as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you will not!

“And now I take leave of you. You have heard my message and have made your decision. Those who have believed my gospel are even now safe within the kingdom of God. To you who have chosen to reject the gift of God, I say that you will no more see me teaching in the temple. My work for you is done. Behold, I now go forth with my children, and your house is left to you desolate!”

And then the Master beckoned his followers to depart from the temple.

The fact that Jewish spiritual leaders and religious teachers rejected Jesus' teachings and conspired to kill him does not affect any Jew's standing before God. It should not make Christ-followers prejudiced against Jews as fellow mortals. Rejecting Jesus cost the Jews as a nation and sociopolitical group dearly. There is no reason why the descendants of these long-ago Jews should be persecuted by intolerant, unworthy, and bigoted professed followers of Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Jew by birth.

This unjust and un-Christlike hatred and persecution of modern Jews has often resulted in the suffering and death of an innocent and unoffending Jewish person whose ancestors wholeheartedly accepted Jesus' gospel and died for it. How the celestial beings shudder as they watch the professed followers of Jesus persecute, harass, and even murder the later-day descendants of Peter, Philip, Matthew, and others of the Palestinian Jews who so gloriously died as the first martyrs of the gospel of the heavenly kingdom.

How cruel and unjust to make innocent children suffer for their ancestors' sins, of which they are unaware and cannot be held responsible – and to do such wicked deeds in the name of one who taught his disciples to love their enemies! Jesus' life depicts how some of his fellow Jews rejected him and conspired to bring about his ignominious death. Still, it does not justify the unjust hatred or unfair attitude that so many professed Christians have held toward individual Jews for centuries. Kingdom believers, those who follow Jesus, must stop treating Jews as guilty of Jesus' rejection and crucifixion. God and his Son have always loved Jews. God saves Jews and gentiles.