Holy Week
This day marks the beginning of what has come to be known as Holy Week.[1] Though I am not as much of a church calendar advocate as some, I would like to take some time together to work through the last week of Jesus’ life. This week serves as the culmination of Jesus’ roughly three-year ministry and all the Gospel writers place a huge emphasis on this week in their writings. Statistically speaking, Luke devotes roughly five and a half chapters[2] (23%) to this week in his Gospel. Matthew writes eight chapters (28%). Mark uses six chapters in his Gospel (37%). And John writes a whopping ten chapters (48%) on the last week of Jesus’ life! Together, this averages out to just over thirty-four percent. So, think about this for a moment. A little more than a third of the material we have on Jesus’ earthly life is from the last week of his ministry. If Jesus ministered for three years (156 weeks), this would mean that thirty-four percent of the material we have comes from just over a half of a percent (.006) of the time he spent in ministry! This should tell us something of the importance of this week in the ministry of Jesus and in the minds of the Spirit-inspired Gospel writers. Why do they want this week to stand out above the rest?
Not only have the Gospel writers devoted a large percentage of their writings to the last week of Jesus’ life, they have crafted their Gospels to build toward seeing this week as the culmination of Jesus’ ministry. They show that this week was anticipated by Jesus for much of his ministry. For instance, Luke tells us early in his Gospel that Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem” (9:51). Mark tells us that Jesus began to teach the disciples that “the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and the scribe and be killed, and after three days rise again” (8:31) immediately after Peter confesses him as the Christ (8:29). Matthew records a similar event and even adds that this must take place in Jerusalem (16:21). John adds a frequent time reference in his Gospel to build anticipation for this week. Jesus refers frequently to his “hour” (2:4; 7:30; 8:20; 13:1; 17:1). This is the time “for the Son of Man to be glorified” (12:23). This is the purpose for which he came (12:27)! This time is when Jesus and the Father would be glorified, when the Son is lifted up from the earth, drawing all people to himself, judging the world, and casting out the ruler of this world, and would depart out of the world to return to the Father (12:28, 31-32; 13:1). The way that the Gospel writers have emphasized the last week of Jesus’ life has led any observant reader to conclude that the Gospels are “passion narratives with extended introductions.”[3]
The Triumphal Entry
The beginning of Holy Week is marked by the triumphal entry or Palm Sunday. Each of the Gospel writers include this in their Gospels, which doesn’t happen very often. If memory serves me correctly, then the feeding of the five thousand is the only event outside of this week where this happens. I’m not sure when these titles began to be associated with this day, but it probably didn’t happen until at least the 4th century with Constantine and all that followed.
Branches are mentioned in three of the gospel accounts, but only John refers to them as branches from the palm tree (12:13). He doesn’t say anything about what the people did with the branches, but Matthew and Mark say that the branches were placed on the ground (along with cloaks) as Jesus rode his donkey over them (Matt. 21:8; Mk. 11:8). So, the tradition of waving the palm fronds is suspect, to say the least.
What is of more significance than the branches is the beast of burden that Jesus rode in on. The Gospel writers draw attention to the donkey that Jesus rode as a fulfillment of prophecy. Apparently, there were two animals involved. According to Matthew, Jesus instructed two disciples to go into Bethpage and told them that they would immediately “find a donkey tied, and a colt with her” (21:2). They did as he said and “brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them” (21:7, emphasis mine). I imagine that Jesus was not straddling the donkey and the colt, which would make for an awkward ride, but that he was sitting on the cloaks of the disciples on either the donkey or the colt and the other animal was leading him as a guide. Matthew says that “this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet saying, ‘Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden’” (21:4-5; cf. Zech. 9:9). Prophetic fulfillment is important to Matthew. He uses this formula over a dozen times to help us understand who Jesus is. This reference is no different. The Jews should not be looking for their king on a valiant war horse or in the halls of the political powerhouses, but humbly riding an unimpressive donkey from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem (Zech. 14:4; cf. Matt. 21:1). Maybe we should petition the church traditionalists to change the name of Palm Sunday to Donkey Day?
Attention has been drawn to how this triumphal entry echoes a previous triumphal entry that infuses the latter with meaning.[4] While David was on his death bed, a claim for his throne was made by his son Adonijah (1 Kgs. 1:5). Bathsheba gently reminds David of his promise to make Solomon king after his death (1:17) and David affirms the promise he made to Bathsheba before the Lord (1:30). The connection with Jesus is made by the manner in which Solomon is recognized as the rightful king, the true heir to David’s throne and thus, the true Davidic son. Solomon is given David’s mule to ride to Gihon to be anointed by Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet and then rides up into Jerusalem to take the throne (1:33-35; 38-39). Is it just a coincidence that these two events are so similar? I think not! It is this very event that Zechariah is alluding to when he makes his Spirit-inspired prophecy. How will Jerusalem identify the coming king, the future Davidic Son and rightful heir to David’s throne? By watching for the one who enters the city on a donkey.
Another passage is alluded to in the Gospel accounts of the triumphal entry that reinforces the meaning we’ve arrived at from the passage in Zechariah. This passage is from Psalm 118:26 and is what the people[5] were shouting as they accompanied (escorted?) Jesus into Jerusalem. They were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest” (Matt. 21:9)! Psalm 118 is a psalm of thanksgiving, thanking God for his enduring covenantal love, and is referenced multiple times in the New Testament. In fact, several verses later in Matthew (21:42), Jesus is going to quote Ps. 118:22, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; and it is marvelous in our eyes.” The loud proclamation of the disciples and crowds prompted all the people in Jerusalem to wonder who this coming one is and compelled the unbelieving and antagonistic Pharisees to urge Jesus to rebuke his disciples (Luke 19:39). So, the crowds are praising and thanking God for his enduring covenantal love that has now shown itself in the arrival of the long-awaited for Son of David. Though they could not have known what was going to happen that week[6] and definitely had other ideas for this king that didn’t include his crucifixion, their response at this moment is entirely fitting for the situation. However, in a much more somber passage immediately following the triumphal entry, Jesus goes so far as to lament the peoples’ ignorance of his arrival (Luke 19:41-44). The peoples’ failure to grasp the full significance of this moment is hidden from their eyes. They will face judgment because they “did not know the time of [their] visitation” (Luke 19:44).
The meaning of the triumphal entry, therefore, has severe implications for the people of Israel. Their king has come to claim his throne at long last, and though they celebrate his arrival as they should, they do so to their detriment. Just as with Solomon, the arrival of the King means that the usurpers to the throne will be judged. The remaining events of Holy Week will show that the wedge driven between Jesus and the people is there to stay. In the coming weeks, we’ll look at four additional topics that will help us understand why the Gospel writers place such an emphasis on the last week of Jesus’ life: the Jews, the temple, the crucifixion, and the resurrection. I encourage you to read along as we spend some time considering our King as he arrives in his city to take his throne.
[1] I slightly detest the phrase “Holy Week” for several reasons. First, this week is not referred to as holy week in the Scriptures. Second, it tends to imply that other weeks aren’t holy, whereas the prophets anticipated a time when everything would be holy to the Lord, even the pots and pans (Zech. 14:20-21). I will, however begrudgingly, use it as a shorthand way of referring to the last week of Jesus’ life. [2] The most accurate way to arrive at these statistics would be to perform an actual word count of the Greek manuscripts. Chapter division weren’t added to the Bible until the thirteenth century and are somewhat arbitrary. However, most of the chapters of holy week are packed with teaching and are rather long, so a word count might actually push these percentages higher. [3] Blomberg, Craig L. Jesus and the Gospels (p. 129). [4] https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/triumphal-entry-before-jesus/ [5] The people here are referred to by the Gospel writers as the crowds (Matt. 21:9; John 12:12), the disciples (Luke 19:37), and the Pharisees (Luke 19:39). Apparently, they had gathered as a result of the resurrection of Lazarus, which they had correctly interpreted as a sign (John 12:18). [6] See John’s comment about the disciples in 12:16. The full meaning of these things did not occur until after the resurrection and the giving of the Spirit.