Passion Week 2023

Father, As we look at this rightly familiar story which forms the core of our faith in your son, help us to see something different which may help us more than usual today. Thank you that you raised Jesus from the dead. Thank you that You paved the way back to what you always intended for us. Jesus, thank you for laying it all aside. Thank you for sacrificing it all so that we can be with and become a part of the communion that you are with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, thank you for guiding us in the way that the Father would have us walk, thank you for being the seal of our salvation. In Jesus’ name, Amen. Christ is risen! It is Resurrection Day. The day that we focus on the reason why we are different from every other religion on the planet. Today we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead by the power of the Father. Today we celebrate that we can become one with God, that God made a way, through the cross, and showed us that it worked by raising Jesus from the dead on the third day. With that introduction... It was early on the first day of the week. It was just growing bright when Mary and Mary and one or two other women headed to the tomb where Jesus’ body had been laid at the end of the day on Wednesday. They planned to treat the body with more aloes and spices, for preservation against decay. But when they got there, they found that the tomb was open. A strange man appeared to Mary Magdalen, she initially thought that he was the gardener and had somehow not only unsealed the tomb, taken out the guards, and moved Jesus’ body somewhere unknown to her. He told her that He was Jesus... The rest of us, after she ran back to the upper room, were taken aback by this, so Peter and John ran as fast as they could to the tomb, not fully knowing what to expect when they got there. When John got there (and he got there first), he poked his head into the tomb, to see the gravecloths folded neatly on the slab where Jesus’ body had been laid. When Peter finally puffed up, he went all the way in, just like Peter to do that. He encountered an angel, who asked him who he was looking for. The angel explained that Jesus was not dead any more, that he had been raised to life. John heard this as well. They walked back to the Upper Room, stunned. That was a rare thing for Peter to not be running his mouth, but the whole way back, they walked in silence. They were processing what they had just seen and heard, but words failed them. They could hardly believe it. Jesus is alive. John watched Him die on the cross, he had been there the whole time. He watched the “trials”, the scourging, the crowd being coerced into calling for His blood, Pilate passing sentence and washing his hands, the staggering journey to Golgotha, the nails, the mocking, the hours of anguish... To the very end, when Jesus gave Mary and John to one another as mother and son, then pled for forgiveness for all who had put Him where He was, then when He gave up His spirit and was pierced through the heart by that spear. John was there. Peter hid. Peter was ashamed of the betrayal that he had perpetrated. It nearly crippled him for days. How many of us have denied knowing the Lord when things got hairy? Have you always stood strong, or have you chosen the easy, silent way to avoid strife or ridicule? How would you feel if an angel told you that the man whom you’d denied to save your own skin was alive, after all? How would you feel if you were John? You watched Him suffer and die. You were probably there helping to bury the body before the beginning of the High Sabbath. I didn’t have words for my feelings, either. When they got back to the Upper Room, and confirmed what Mary had been telling us, we weren’t sure what to make of it, either. Stunned doesn’t quite cover the emotion that was so thick in the room that you didn’t even need a knife to cut it, you could easily cut it with the edge of your hand. Fear, confusion, wanting to believe this amazing news, shock... So many emotions. We weren’t sure what to think either... We didn’t dare to be joyful, though over the course of the day, that started to creep over us as well. As we sat down, we 10 (Thomas had left on business during the day, and the traitor had already hung himself in the Potter’s Field), Jesus walked through the wall into the room. We nearly hung from the ceiling at that point, because we’d never seen anyone do anything like that before, so all we could think was that it must’ve been a ghost in our midst. Jesus bade us be at peace... Yeah, right... That was gonna happen in that moment. We started to calm down as he grabbed and ate a piece of the fish we’d prepared for dinner. We didn’t understand it yet, but prophecy had been fulfilled in our midst. Jesus was truly alive. We still hid much of the time, as the Jewish leadership had a vested interest in quashing any story of resurrection, and indeed, they still work hard to deny the truth of the resurrection, as it makes Jesus’ message and claims carry more weight than they could bear. He is ALIVE! Death could not hold Him. Hallelujah!!!

Jesus’ last day in the grave, no matter how you slice it. Whether He died on Wednesday or Friday, this is when the body of the Lord was most cold. In Jude, we learn that Jesus did indeed descend to Hell to bring forth the captives, break death, and proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom in the heart of the Enemy’s stronghold, embarrassing him just as he had embarrassed (or tried to embarrass Jesus). Today, we meditate on the pauses of life, when we are most unsure of what is coming next. Those moments, much like the one we now find ourselves in, when we have to catch our breath and cling to faith, just as the disciples did. Fear is natural in times of transition, but we can breathe easier because we know that in the end, we win. There are dark moments when it would be easy to give in to fear rather than rising up and standing or even kneeling in faith, believing that God is good, whether it LOOKS like it or not in the moment, in the natural.

Now we come to “Good” Friday, which, if you have followed my argument so far, was actually the midpoint of the 3 days in the grave. Traditionally, this is when we remember Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross. If we were thinking historically and contextually, we would see that the crucifixion likely happened on Wednesday afternoon, not Friday afternoon. This does not negate or detract what He did for us, but it does help the story to make more sense, because I cannot think of a culture where Friday afternoon- early Sunday morning equals 3 days. That is not how the Jews reckon time. For Jewish reckoning, days start at sundown, and end at the next sundown. By that reckoning, He died at the end of Friday, was in the grave all day on the Sabbath, and was raised around sunrise on Sunday. That makes it just a hair over 1 day, not 3. The writers of the Gospel accounts were Jews, except for Luke. Think about it. If Jesus died around 3 PM on Friday (about 3 hours before the Sabbath was to begin), they would not have that as a day. You make up your mind. Let me know what makes sense to you in the comments.

In reality, this likely happened on Tuesday or Wednesday, not Thursday. I honor the tradition, as it makes sense to split things up a bit, but even with the way that these events are presented in the Gospels, it seems more bang, bang, bang than there being a couple of days where nothing remarkable happened. So, if the Last Supper happened on Tuesday night, then the arrest was that night, the trial was that night and into Wednesday, and the crucifixion was on Wednesday, He was dead and buried by the beginning of the High Sabbath of Passover (which lasted 3 days, from sundown on Wednesday to sundown on Saturday. Normal Sabbath is sundown Friday – sundown Saturday. This, being the highest of the Feasts, has an extra long time of rest for the people. This gives us 3 days in the grave, Thursday-Saturday. He was probably raised in the middle of the night on Saturday (as we understand it).

Here we are on the Day of Preparation, which would be after the Fig Tree on Tuesday, and Jesus sends the Peter and John to find accommodations for them to each the Passover Meal. This story opens with Jesus speaking prophetically about what they will find in the city. As I wrote this, it hit me that perhaps the term should be that He manifested what he desired, then they found it just as He had said. Remember, he had just taught them about faith earlier in the day, and who knows what he taught on in the Temple that day. So I’m going to say that Jesus manifested the Upper Room to that it would be exactly as He desired for them. Prove me wrong.

The cleansing of the temple. In most accounts, this happened just after the fig tree incident, a day or two after Palm Sunday. That is why I chose to put this on the Monday of Holy Week. Over the course of the week, I will show that the traditional accounts are incorrect in terms of when what happened. Why did Jesus clear the money changers and merchants out of the Temple courts? Why was he so upset by this situation? He knew that these individuals and systems, while originally intended to make life easier for the faithful, ultimately created a very oppressive situation. These bankers and merchants extorted the poor who came to worship and sacrifice. How is a church bookstore or coffee shop any different from these men who interfered with the people’s desire to be with God as best they could. The Temple was meant to point to the reality that after Jesus died, was raised, and ascended into heaven, we would each be our own place to meet with God, our own place where God can commune with us. It became a horrible situation, run by money-grubbing, power-hungry men (not all of the ones on the Sanhedrin matched this description, but most did). Jesus could not brook that continuing, so at the Spirit’s urging, he fashioned a whip out of cords and kicked all of that marketplace nonsense to the curb. What elements in your temple might need cleansing today? God is not against us providing for ourselves, as long as that provision does not preclude us from being with Him. If it becomes the center of who we are, and starts to control our lives, then God will probably desire to cleanse our respective temples.

As Jesus and the 12 were returning to Jerusalem after Palm Sunday, Jesus saw a fig tree in leaf, but it was barren, so he cursed it because he was hungry. The next day, when they came back to the City, the tree was withered from the root. The disciples, particularly Peter, were stunned at that development, so Jesus used it as a teaching moment for them, on the nature of faith. What faith did it take for Jesus to end the life of that tree? This translation says that it was instant, most say that it happened by the next day. Either way, though, the tree withered in very short order after Jesus cursed it, and he taught them about the nature of faith and what it can do when wielded properly. Much ink has been spilled on this topic, and I will not add much more to it. Where is your faith? What is faith, as you understand it? Let me know in the comments.

Father, As we enter Holy Week this year and stop to look at your Son’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, be with us. Help us to join in the joy of the day. Help us to hear Him clearly in the text. Help us to feel and smell the dust from the road, the wind and the sweat from the throngs of people who greeted Him in defiance of Empire. Jesus, help us to feel your heart for Jerusalem, for Your people. Holy Spirit, help us to join in with what you desire for us in this moment. In Jesus’ name, Amen. It is a warm, breezy day as Jesus prepares to ride to Jerusalem from Bethany. He dispatches two of the twelve to borrow a young, unbroken donkey’s foal from a local person. He knows much of what will transpire in the next week, and the human side of Him relishes in the approbation that He knows He will receive that day, but then balances that against the reality of what will be coming later in the week, whether sooner, or later. I don’t think that He knew that He would be raised from the dead, but I think the Father let Him know that the cross was coming, that these who cheered so loudly for Him would so easily be turned against Him. Against that internal backdrop, the two who He sent out to find the donkey come back with the animal, with jubilation because all was as the Master had said it would be. They catch a glimpse of Jesus’ face as a cloud passes over it. Jesus shakes off the thoughts and feelings He was having, then tells them to get the others, because it is time to go to Jerusalem. Two of them lay their cloaks on the animal’s back, then mounts the young donkey, and they set out on the 2 mile trip from Mary & Martha’s place to the gates of Jerusalem. Just a little way into the trip, a crowd begins to throng around the road, cutting and placing palm branches, waving cloaks, and crying out: “Hosanna! Hosanna to the Son of David!!!!” “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!” Then, almost on cue, the pharisees get Jesus’ attention: “Shut them down! Don’t you realize what this could look like to the Romans?” I see Jesus laughing at them, but not at THEM, but the spirits behind them, then He grins from ear to ear, and shouts, over the crowd: “If I silence them, the very ROCKS themselves will begin to cry out, and you will hear it.” That shut the pharisees down, though I sense that they simply added it to their “list”, and got even more angry with Him because He didn’t bow the knee to their demands, so they went to plot about how they could take Him down. They hated that they could not control Him, their pressure meant nothing... It was almost as though He was challenging them to do something about Him and His message. It was a clash of Kingdoms. A war of the worlds, so to speak. Jesus knew that He had come to die, not that He wanted to suffer, but was committed to the Father’s rescue plan, as we have talked about in our recent memesplanations on theosis. I love that other interpretation of why Jesus came. It wasn’t because we were basically evil, though we have become bent in that direction over time. It was to restore relationship and communion with us, and to open the way to experience communion with God even here, if we will empty ourselves of ourselves, and learn to love one another in the way that we were originally designed to. It is that simple. Heaven is union with God. That is why Jesus came. This is Holy Week, and this week, I will post short reflections on the events of that week, with an eye towards convincing you that perhaps the traditional account doesn’t make sense in terms of time. The meaning of the events is the same, but perhaps most of the action happened in the first 4 days of the week, from Sunday-Wednesday, rather than skipping about 2 days, and truncating the 3 days Jesus was supposed to be in the grave to 1-1.5 days. Never sat right with me... At any rate, tune in for those, here on the Spirituality & Tech channel on Rumble.