It was time for Jesus’ ascension, i.e. time for him to go up to Jerusalem to celebrate a Feast Day. This particular occasion could not have been the Passover when Jesus was crucified, as I hope to show here. Nevertheless, neither does Luke mention which Feast Day this might have been. Luke 9:51-53 shows the Samaritans were upset that Jesus was set to go to Jerusalem instead of celebrating that Feast Day with them. The Samaritans had no reason to celebrate the Feast of Dedication (celebrated in our December) or the Feast of Purim (celebrated in late winter), because these days had special meaning only for the Jews in Jerusalem. Therefore, there would be no reason for the Samaritans to be jealous of Jesus’ determination to go to Jerusalem, if his intention was to celebrate one of these feast days. The Scriptures the Samaritans used was the Samaritan Pentateuch which they called the Law. These were the only Scriptures they used and the feasts they celebrate correspond to those found in Leviticus 23.
In Luke 13:1-5 we see Jesus discussing two events with some Jews at Jerusalem. We know he is there, because both catastrophes occurred in Jerusalem, and at least the one concerning Pilate occurred very recently. Josephus mentions this particular event in two of his works.[1] Pilate’s official residence was at Caesarea. However, it was customary for all the Roman procurators who governed the Jews to travel to and stay at Jerusalem in Herod’s palace and officiate at the Antonia whenever one of the Jew’s three great Festival seasons occurred. Luke 13:1 shows itself as a time when Pilate came to Jerusalem, which he did only when a great many pilgrims came to worship at the Temple. He did this because of the danger of a sedition developing when so great a number of pilgrims gathered in one place (cf. Matthew 26:5 and Mark 14:2).
Therefore, it seems evident that Jesus’ ascension (Luke 9:51) was to celebrate a Feast Day, as these Galileans had come to celebrate, as well, but were killed in the same season of Jesus’ visit (cf. Luke 13:1). Since Pilate was also there at the season Jesus was in Jerusalem, this indicates that the Feast Day which Jesus intended to celebrate (Luke 9:51) was one of three events: the Passover, Pentecost or Tabernacles of 30 AD. Tabernacles of 29 AD was the last great feast mentioned (John 7:37; cf. Luke 9:28). So, no matter which day is intended that Jesus would celebrate (Luke 9:51), an additional Passover between John 6 and John 12 must have occurred and is implied at Luke 13:1-5.
If this was a Passover (remembering that Pilate was present in Jerusalem at Luke 13:1), it is the third one and Jesus is in his third year of ministry. This would make sense considering his word in the parable: “…these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none” (Luke 13:6). According to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia:
“…In Palestine and other warm climates the fig yields two crops annually – an earlier one, ripe about June, growing from the “old wood,” i.e. from the midsummer sprouts of the previous year, and a second, more important one, ripe about August, which grows upon the “new wood,” i.e. upon the spring shoots. By December, fig-trees in the mountainous regions of Palestine have shed all their leaves, and they remain bare until about the end of March, when they commence putting forth their tender leaf buds (Matthew 24:32; Mark 13:28, Mark 13:32; Luke 21:29-33), and at the same time, in the leaf axils, appear the tiny figs. They belong to the early signs of spring: “The voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land; The fig-tree ripeneth her green figs” (paggim) – Song of Solomon 2:12-13.”
Therefore, if Jesus is taking spiritual significance from what can be seen around him, as he does elsewhere, this visit to Jerusalem must be the spring harvest culminating at Pentecost, when the early crop would be expected from the old wood of the previous year, so the Passover must be the Feast Jesus intended to celebrate in Luke 9:51.
If we consider Jesus’ words at Luke 12:27 “Consider the lilies…” we are able to show that Jesus had to have intended on celebrating the Passover when he set his face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51). The lilies that Jesus told his disciples to consider were scarlet color (cf. Song of Solomon 2:14; 5:13) and arrayed more gloriously than the scarlet robes of Solomon (Luke 12:27). These lilies bloomed from late winter in January to the spring in early May. Therefore, if Jesus was actually pointing to the “lilies of the field” to make his point spiritually, the red flowers had to be in bloom. Since Jesus had already been in Jerusalem by this time (cf. Luke 10:38), the harvest mentioned in Luke 10:2 must refer to that between Passover and Pentecost and the fruit that Jesus looked for on the fig tree in Luke 13:7 must be the growth from the old braches that bloomed in June. Therefore Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.
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[1] See: Antiquities of the Jews 18.3.2; cf. Wars of the Jews 2.9.4
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