Communion

We take communion tonight in remembrance of the fact that it was on this night, Maundy Thursday, the night before his death, that Jesus called the Church to eat and drink in remembrance of what was to come. It was while celebrating the Passover with his disciples and with the knowledge that the Father was about to forsake him that Jesus gave his disciples a new command and a new means of grace.

The new command is captured in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ³⁵ By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

And the new means of grace is captured in the passage we just heard (Mark 14:22-25).

We do this tonight, then, because of what Jesus said and did some two thousand years ago.

Kids, you need to understand this. We deserve to die and give our own blood for our sins. But this meal is a reminder that we don’t need to get what we deserve. Instead, God offers us—he offers you—grace. He offers us—he offers you—mercy. And he offers it because the story, as we’re about to see, doesn’t end on Thursday night. There’s more to the story. The bread and juice on your table remind us that Jesus died in our place and bled for our sins and then rose from the dead declaring victory over sin and death.

And so, with glad gravity we love one another as Jesus loved us and we eat and drink in remembrance of the clearest display of that love—his sacrificial death on our behalf.

 

Passion Week

*This timeline is largely based on the scholarship of Douglas Bookman.*

We are in the latter half of what is typically called Holy Week.

Holy Week refers to the week between Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday) and his resurrection (Easter Sunday). Even though they constitute only one week of Jesus’ 30+ years on earth and 3+ years of public ministry, these events take up close to half of all four Gospels (about 40%).

All Scripture and history points to the events of this week and yet many of us don’t have a clear understanding of what exactly took place during this week or how it all fits together. Tonight, therefore, as we have done in previous Maundy Thursday services, we are going to go very briefly through the week in order to help you better appreciate what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.

We believe that doing some version of this each year (of walking together through the events of Holy Week) is crucial because it reminds us that Christianity is not an idea or a concept or a belief system; rather, it is the acceptance of real, historical facts about a real, historical person, Jesus of Nazareth.

Christianity does not exist apart from these events and this person. Again, my aim in the next 15-20 minutes is to retell this story to strengthen us in our faith as we behold the glory of God in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Before coming to the week itself we need a bit of background. For the 3+ years leading up to Palm Sunday Jesus had done an excellent job of garnering the favor of the people (by performing miracles, healing their sick, and confronting the religious leaders) and upsetting the religious leaders (by refusing to submit to their man-made rules and publically challenging their authority).

Three events in particular solidified Jesus’ favor among the people and disdain among the Pharisees and Sadducees.

First, just three weeks prior to Palm Sunday, Jesus raised Lazarus (likely a wealthy, prominent man whose funeral would have been well attended and well documented) from the dead (John 11). This caused an absolute buzz among the Jewish people.

Second, early on in His ministry Jesus cleared out the temple of all the money changers and people selling animals for the Passover. This is especially significant because the Sadducees were in charge of the temple. Third, for almost the full three years prior to His death, Jesus taught and challenged the Pharisees in the synagogue (as the Sadducees were in charge of the temple, the Pharisees were in charge of the synagogue). In this, Jesus upset the Pharisees and made enemies of them too. And in this, Jesus united two groups (the Pharisees and Sadducees), who were very much at odds with one another in virtually all other matters, in their hatred of Him.

 

Friday and Saturday

This brings us to the Friday and Saturday before Palm Sunday. There was a great deal of commotion in Jerusalem regarding the question of whether or not Jesus would come to celebrate the Passover (John 11:56-57; Luke 17:11). The Pharisees and Sadducees were anxious to find out because they wanted to lay their hands on Him and put Him to death. The people were impressed by Him, and therefore wanted to see Him and be with Him. Additionally, they were curious as to whether or not the Jewish leaders would successfully kill him.

Then, we learn from John 11:54 and 12:1 that earlier in the week Jesus had left Ephraim for Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, most likely with a rather large group of people. On Friday, however, Jesus turned aside from the crowd that He’d been traveling with and went into Bethany. The group that He had been traveling with continued on into Jerusalem. The results were that the entire city knew that Jesus was indeed coming to Passover and that He could not enter Jerusalem until Sunday (because Bethany was outside of a Sabbath Day’s journey from Jerusalem). These things meant that the city was completely abuzz by Sunday morning (John 12:12).

Jesus spent Friday evening through Sunday morning in Bethany awaiting His entry into Jerusalem. During this time Marry anointed Jesus with the perfume (John 12:2-8) and a large crowd gathered there to see both Jesus and Lazarus (John 12:9-11).

 

Sunday

Then, on Sunday Jesus entered Jerusalem to the praise of the people. He rode into the city on a donkey to the tune of Psalm 118. This is the song that the Jews were to sing when the Messiah came. Jesus understood the significance of this Psalm as he laid claim to it in Luke 13 (3 weeks earlier).

In the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem Jesus most clearly presented himself as the Messiah and the people loved him for it.

But this leaves us with a very important question: Given Sunday, why does the same crowd cry “crucify Him” on Friday? What happens to change the hearts and minds of the people?

The answer, many scholars believe, is Monday and Tuesday. That’s where we turn next.

 

Monday and Tuesday

If Palm Sunday was the day in which Jesus most clearly presented himself as the Messiah, Monday and Tuesday are the days in which he most clearly proclaimed his Messiahship and what it meant to receive him as Messiah.

On Monday Jesus put the greatest distance between Himself and the Sadducees yet by clearing the temple for the second time in His ministry and, this time, taking over the temple and embarrassing and hurting the Sadducees financially. This was the biggest money maker of the year for the Sadducees and many of the merchants who had set up shop there. Jesus kicked them all out. And again, this enraged the Sadducees.

Additionally, Jesus put the greatest distance between Himself and the Pharisees on Tuesday when He repeated the chorus, “Who unto you Scribes and Pharisees”. They too were humiliated and enraged.

And, in answer to our question above (what happened to turn Sunday into Friday?), Jesus also put distance between Himself and the people during this time by making it clear that the people could not come to God on their own terms. The people were not willing to trust Jesus and reject the works-righteousness of Pharisees and Sadducees and, therefore, began to turn away from Jesus.

Now, more than ever, the Jewish leaders wanted Jesus dead, but the Romans did not let people bear arms or execute judgment. Therefore, Jewish leaders knew that if they were to defeat Jesus they would have to get Romans involved. So, again, in Mark 11, we see the Sanhedrin gathered together (Pharisees and Sadducees) trying to get Him to publically admit that He is Messiah so that they can run to Rome and tell them that Jesus intends to take over Rome.

On Tuesday night we see, during the feast, Judas agreeing to betray Jesus by pointing Him out to the Roman soldiers. This is significant, in addition to fulfilling prophecy, because the Pharisees and Sadducees were having trouble trapping Jesus in order to incite Romans to kill Him (Matthew 26:14-16).

Jesus functioned more explicitly and powerfully as Messiah on Monday and Tuesday than ever before. And this incited more people to anger than ever before.

 

Wednesday

There is significant discussion as to what happened on Wednesday. There is general agreement that it was a rather quiet day for Jesus and the people in Jerusalem. There is also general agreement that this is the day on which many of the plans for Jesus arrest and trial were made by the Jewish leaders.

 

Thursday

Thursday was the day of Passover slaying. All of the people brought their animals to the temple to be slain by the priests (Luke 22:7). Jesus’ and His disciples too prepared for the Passover meal (Luke 22).

Which leads us to tonight. The Thursday before the death of Jesus has come to be known as Maundy Thursday. Maundy means “commandment” and it comes from Luke 22 and John 13.

Later in the evening, after Judas left to betray Jesus, Jesus and the disciples went to the Garden of Gethsemane. There Jesus prayed to the Father in one of the most moving passages in all of Scripture (Matthew 26:36-46)

It’s interesting to note that in each of the previous nights Jesus had returned to Bethany. In Bethany He would have been protected from His enemies by the people (who had witnessed Him raise Lazarus from the dead). On Thursday night, however, Jesus chose to remain in Jerusalem because he knew that his time had finally come.

 

Late Thursday or early Friday through Friday

Late Thursday night, and into Friday morning, a number of enormously significant events unfold. John 18 says that while praying in Gethsemane Jesus was arrested by 600 armed Roman soldiers (a cohort), led by Judas and accompanied by the Jewish leaders.

Jesus was then taken to the Caiaphas, the high priest’s, home.

The fact that 70 of the most important men in the city (the entire Sanhedrin) were available and gathered to hold a trial at Caiaphas’s house in the middle of the night (in a culture where men went to bed when the sun went down), demonstrates that this was a planned (likely on Wednesday) and shady event.

After His betrayal and arrest Jesus was brought through a series of six trials (three Jewish and three Roman).

The three Jewish trials were before Annas, the former High Priest, (who was also father-in-Law to Caiaphas and who shared a priestly home with Caiaphas) before Caiaphas (the current high priest) and the Sanhedrin, and then before the Sanhedrin for the second time.

Virtually everything about the Jewish trials was against Jewish law. Jesus was arrested with no charge, he was struck before being found guilty, witnesses were manufactured, and the first two trials took place at night. Eventually, however, during the second Jewish trial, Jesus admitted to being the Messiah and therein gave the Pharisees and Saducess the insurrectionist charge they needed to have Pilate put Jesus to death.

The three Roman trials were before Pilate, then Herod (ruler of Galilee), and then Pilate again.

There are two items of background note here: 1) Pilate, who was in charge of Judea. was on thin ice as far as the Roman authorities were concerned. The Jews knew that Pilate was in danger of losing his position so they were able to easily manipulate him with the threat of a riot. 2) Herod was in charge of Galilee, but was not in trouble with the Romans and, therefore, not easily manipulatable.

In John 18:28 we see the first Roman trial. The Jews bought Jesus before Pilate. Pilate asked the charge and the Jews said, in effect, “Trust us, He’s guilty, just crucify Him.” Pilate then, realizing what the Jews were trying to do, but not wanting to be in the middle of it, sent Jesus to Herod. But Herod didn’t want anything to do with Jesus either so he sent Jesus back to Pilate. In the third part of the Roman trial, Pilate again tried to get out of condemning Jesus, but the Jews made it plain that if Pilate released Jesus, they would riot and Pilate would be in trouble with the Roman authorities. Pilate, therefore, caring more about his own neck than justice gave Jesus over for crucifixion.

Jesus hung in unspeakable agony for around 3 hours; after being beaten repeatedly. The entire suffering of Jesus lasted from around 9am-3pm on Good Friday. One of the primary purposes of crucifixion was the public and certain nature of the death. It was a matter of Roman law that if a man was brought down from the cross with any sign of life in him every Roman soldier in charge of his crucifixion was to be immediately crucified themselves. Jesus did die on Friday, which makes Sunday that much more amazing.

Jesus was buried in a tomb on Friday evening and remained there until Sunday morning, the third day.

 

Saturday

Saturday Jesus remained in the grave.

 

Sunday

Then on Sunday, Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to more than 500.

 

Conclusion

Please consider these events once again. Consider again the fact that they are real. Consider again the fact that they were orchestrated by God before the foundation of the world. And consider again the fact that they all work together for the good of those who love God.

It was at this cross that love real love was defined. It was at It is at this cross that God’s justice and mercy perfectly came together. It was at this cross that Jesus certainly secured salvation for all who would receive him. And it was at the cross that the glory of God was most clearly put on display for the world.

Therefore, turn from your sins, put off your worldliness, and give yourself to this Jesus. He will forgive you. He will receive you. He will make you whole. And he will satisfy your soul with his presence forevermore.