We have stumbled into Passion Week. It started with so much joyful exuberance I could barely contain myself. At last, the son of my virginity and God's special promise was coming into His glory. So I had surmised.
The throngs of our devout Jewish people had come from all directions, and to congregate in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover that our Heavenly Almighty God Yahweh, had decreed more than a millennia ago. We had all come from our hometowns to celebrate and remember God's rescuing our ancestors and liberating them from their Egyptian slavemasters and captors and from Egypt, itself. Ahh-h-h...liberation from slavery. Thus, the rejoicing in the dusty streets. Had Jesus come to rescue us from the Roman overlords?
Jesus, the One I had conceived by the Holy Spirit, as the angel Gabriel had spoken; the message from God. Jesus, the "Son of the Most High God"! (Luke 1:26-36 NIV) He was to "reign over the house of Jacob forever" in a kingdom that would "never end".
My heart fluttered with excitement and expectation as Jesus rode upon a donkey. What? A donkey?! Now where had He gotten it?! We can't afford such an animal. Ah-after these past three years, I shouldn't be so surprised though.
His ride into Jerusalem made the crowds feverish with burgeoning hope in their hearts and they shouted and cried,
"Hosanna!"
"Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!"
"Hosanna in the highest!"
Such were the cheers reverberating all down the line.as the palm branches were laid to line the way. I could pinpoint His progress through the multitudes. It really was the best parade I had ever witnessed.
Jesus' actions the next day totally kerflummoxed me! He had made a whip and cleansed the Temple of the money-changers and the merchants along with their merchandize. That done, He calmly turned to teaching the people in the Temple. I couldn't believe it.
I get it though. He's the Son of God. and the Temple was His Father's house as He had explained to me when He was twelve and Joseph and I had "misplaced" Him. His Father's house was meant for prayer and worship. How could the religious leaders turn it into a "den of robbers," as Jesus had rightfully accused.
No wonder they got riled up though. Humiliation and loss of source of monetary gain and especially the power trip of lording it over us out-of-towners. Oh, and not to mention, although, if any of them find my writing...but I don't want to think of that...that that was the part of the Temple supposed to be reserved for the Gentiles called the "Court of the Gentiles". Due to the "den of robbers" happening in that part of the Temple, the Gentiles could not come and worship Yahweh, could they? That was very likely purposely orchestrated.
So there Jesus was, teaching away in the Temple. The infuriated religious leaders come and question His authority and power to have done "those things".
If I were the type to be proud of my children, which, ahem, I am, I'm rather pleased Jesus' answers silenced them. However, I was beginning to feel twitches of unease on His behalf. People who messed with Sanhedrin members had best watch out!
Nevertheless, Jesus was found in the Temple again on Tuesday morning, teaching away. Again the people were enthralled and hanging on to His every word. I was spellbound too, for that matter. Those words were substance and life.
The religious leaders, again, challenged Him and with more questions, sending bribed "spies' to catch Him in His words. These insincere inquirers were equally silenced, adding fuel to the fire of the furious religious leaders. They plotted to arrest and kill Jesus. Yet, glory be, they were afraid the crowds, who were besotted with Jesus, would stone them or create a riot. This they avidly wished to avoid.
What happened next turned the timbre of the rest of Passion Week down right nasty and fatal for the blessed Son of God.
Pause and consider further what this Passover and Festival of Unleavened Bread was about. As I mentioned earlier, we were celebrating the liberation of the children of Israel from the slavery of Egypt. Eating unleavened bread commemorates how my ancestors, the Israelites, ate only unleavened bread on the eve of the exodus; they had had to be ready and quick on their feet to leave at a moments notice. This they celebrated every year since, when they could, according to our Laws given so long ago from God through Moses.
Similarly, I can tell you now from the events that followed during this week, that Jesus' death on the cross (which was the religious leader's intent from Monday onwards til it happened), at Passover time, was Jesus delivering mankind from the slavery of their sins. This was no coincidence.
Those who made their exodus from Egypt had to first slay an unblemished lamb and paint their home doors' side posts and lintel with its blood so that the firstborn son would not be killed by the angel. The substitute lamb.
Jesus' death on the cross at Passover time was significant in that He became that substitute for all mankind; our precious perfect Lamb of God.
Like I said though, I did not realize all that at the time. It was just a sorrowful, terrible, tragical nightmare to see the One I had borne and raised for God, and whom I loved (but didn't always understand), treated so unjustly and cruelly.
On that Passion Week Wednesday, Judas Iscariot, can you believe it?, he, having been one of the disciples specially chosen by Jesus to follow Him as one of his companions for those three years or so, now offers to betray Jesus. Those Sanhedrin members were overjoyed! They agreed to give Judas Iscariot 30 shekels of silver coins. My Son! Betrayed for the price of an able-bodied slave! how could Judas have done such a dastardly thing!
That isn't all the cunning either! So subtle. They made the pact for Judas to do this when no crowds were present! Such cowards. Such cowards!
My heart is beating so fast as I pen these words. I can't catch my breath when I think of this deceit. Yes, I know I must forgive as Jesus did from the cross.
Incidentally, due to the thousands of extra Jewish folks in Jerusalem at this time; come to celebrate Passover, the Romans had tightened security by bringing other Roman rulers and their contingents of soldier troops to the city. This was their usual modus operandi.
The Sanhedrin as well as the Romans were fearful of riot, and more significantly, the Romans, of an attempted coup with the swelled Jewish numbers populating the city at this Passover time.
The sect of the Sadducees, within the Sanhedrin, had favored positions dished out to them by the Roman authorities but if the people rioted or created some other disturbance, those prestigious positions could be revoked.
Besides the shekels Judas would earn, and the betrayal without the crowds, he went a step further. His sign of designating which man was Jesus, the one to arrest, would be the one he'd kiss. Oh the effrontery!
Do you now what a "kiss of greeting" in our culture symbolizes? Customarily, it showed friendship, respect and esteem. What bitter gall, that kiss of betrayal!
Reflecting back, there were a couple of lessons to be learned. In the situation of "getting rid of Jesus", the ultimate influence at work here was Satan. He used human influence: the religious leaders' jealousy and hatred combined with Judas Iscariots' own free will who chose to "follow the money" due to his greed for it.
Lesson to take home: regardless of such influences in my life, it behooves me to realize, I'm ultimately responsible to God for making my own choices in life. In the end, like Judas Iscariot, I would face the consequences whether good or bad.
Judas' end was very sad as he did not repent.
From that Wednesday's secret pact's "signing and sealing," Judas Iscariot looked for a way to hand Jesus over to the Sanhedrin without the peoples' knowledge.
Before that could happen, Jesus celebrated the Passover Eve with His disciples in the Upper room where all things were prepared and ready for them. Peter and John had been tasked with this and had followed Jesus' instructions for that evening, as He had told them.
In addition to the unleavened bread to be eaten, wine was in evidence. Wine is generally a symbol of joy. From these two items Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper at their Last Supper. Some people call this "Holy Communion" or even the "Breaking of Bread".
What was the meaning? Well, when the disciples and even the rest of us nowadays, when they partook of the bread and drank from the cup, we would be remembering all Jesus had done for us through His suffering and death.
The bread represented Jesus' body which was given for all mankind; as the Passover Lamb. This is like Jesus' body being broken for us. The cup of wine was symbolic of Jesus blood being poured out for us on the cross.
This was the new covenant Jesus was making/had made, between God and man. He "signed and sealed" it with His blood.
Later John wrote,
"The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1;9).
This reminds me of what the High Priest had to do yearly in the Temple. He had to have the blood of a clean animal; some in each hand. One for his own sins and the other, for the sins of all the people of Israel. With this, and only with this, could he enter the Most Holy Place of the Temple; the place of God's presence.
Jesus' new covenant only required this once, for all people, for all sin for all time, for His forever kingdom. His spilt blood was enough to cover all. His kingdom of God, which He came to set up, had been initiated. We did not realize this then as our minds were on what all thought would be a "real kingdom" with Him wresting the power and authority away from the Romans to do so.
To go back to the Upper Room. Jesus had started talking about how one of the twelve disciples would betray Him. That, they could NOT fathom. Except, of course, Judas Iscariot, who would already have known he was the one to spark the diabolical free fall of domino effects that unfolded the remainder of the week, spiraling down to Jesus' death upon the cross from the most heinous choice of all time.
The other's were rather "blurred, blurred" to what was going on and questioned, "Lord, is it I?"
Yet their minds were more on something else, "Who was the greatest among them?"
Indeed, was not Jesus, The One?
What were they thinking? Why would they argue? I think it could be the fact that for three years, Jesus went from village to village healing sicknesses, casting out of demons, creating miracles such as feeding 5000 men, plus women and children from just a few fish and loaves of bread, all the while preaching that the kingdom of God was coming. He had sent the disciples out two by two on identical missions as He did with the seventy two others.
Even the throngs of people, as Jesus entered into Jerusalem on the tamed little donkey, thought that was why He was coming to the city with purpose, to do.
Their minds really could not overcome these thoughts. Being Jesus' closest companions, they thought they deserved to get in on positions of power and authority in said Kingdom. What an honor this would be!
No doubt Satan was also stirring the pot here. He'd had such great success with Judas Iscariot and the Sanhedrin; why not get the whole lot of them embroiled? Peter himself would deny he even knew Jesus.
However, they had to learn what Jesus' true meaning of the Kingdom of God meant. I'm still trying to get a grasp of it myself.
Jesus had to tell them that He does not work as the pagan rulers did. They grant their family and/or cronies privileged posts in their ruling realm. However, if they wished to be great in His kingdom, they'd have to be like the youngest member of a family who is often looked down upon. They had very few rights.
They would have to be servants if they wanted to be leaders. Jesus said, that this is how He has been throughout His ministry. To be great, one needs to be humbly serving others.
Thank God they repented of their pride. Yes, with Peter's denial, that was temporary. He did later repent and when Jesus rose from the dead He repaired the strained (on Peter's part) relationship. Peter grew spiritually. It was so amazing to witness. He even eventually preached and thousands came to Christ in one fell swoop!
Back to the lesson and idea of free will. When we choose to do what is right, to repent and do what is pleasing to the Lord, there will be blessing of some sort; and between material and spiritual blessing, the latter really is for the better.
Once again, another important lesson to take home and live with, is that each person has the endmost responsibility of making one's own choices. Whatever our choice, know that there are consequences.
I'm so glad I accepted His honor of being His handmaiden and servant to bring Jesus into the world in the first place. What if I hadn't? I don't want to think of it.
It's been quite an experience much like a roller coaster ride, not that I'd know what that's like, but you know -- it's just an expression.
So we wait on tenterhooks from the BLAST the consequences shot from the canon of the Betrayal and Arrest Pact.
~ERC October 2020~
Based on Luke 22:1-6; 7-38
Sing along with Mark Lowry, Mary Did You Know, which he also wrote.
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