Reading: Mark 10:32-34
And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”
Introduction to Holy Week
Today, I promise I have absolutely nothing new to tell you. This morning, we pause to recount the most precious story of our faith. In song and in word, we will rehearse the words which Mark once wrote of Jesus of Nazareth, chosen of God, Christ, and King. Set your mind on the things of God today, and hear the events of the final week of our Lord.
Palm Sunday – Mark 11:1-11
Our story begins on a Sunday long ago, when a Jewish rabbi conscripted a donkey. The rabbi was named Jesus of Nazareth. He was known far and wide as both a great teacher of wisdom and a worker of miracles. He healed the sick and performed exorcisms of demons all across the countryside of Judea and beyond. As immense as was his popularity with the common folk, he was equally unpopular with others. The rulers of the temple in particular considered him a threat to the delicate order that existed between their own power and the Roman rulers that watched over them. The friction between the Jewish leadership and Jesus peaked at the same time as Jesus’ popularity. Jesus himself began to warn his disciples that he would face violence at the hands of the temple rulers in Jerusalem when arrived there in the coming days to celebrate the Feast of the Passover.
Consequently, the arrival of Jesus at Jerusalem was the beginning of a week long showdown, a contest of power, that – as I have mentioned – began with the conscription of a donkey.
When Jesus arrived at Bethany on the outskirts of Jerusalem, he arranged for himself to enter Jerusalem with a bit of spectacle. Long ago, the prophet Zechariah had promised that the people would one day see their king appear to them in procession. “Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey.” Jesus intended to meet those expectations exactly, and all he lacked was a donkey. So he sent his disciples to get one.
However, the donkey did not belong to them and oddly enough Jesus did not suggest they offer to buy it. You see a king does not request your donkey. A king does not even your donkey. A true king conscripts your donkey. A king has right to anything and everything you have. He can draft your sons into his army, lodge his troops in your home, and generally take whatever he needs from your possessions. On this occasion, Jesus did not intended to present himself merely as a rabbi come to visit. He did not arrive asking favors. Jesus was a king, come to rule. He sends his disciples out to get the donkey without a penny to offer for it, but instead this simple instruction: “If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it.’”
And so it was that the citizens of Jerusalem saw Jesus riding through the city gates, as foretold by the prophets of old, a mighty king upon a humble donkey. They understood the reference and accepted the implications eagerly. His arrival turned into a parade, as if he was a conquering hero. They spread out their cloaks in front of him and covered the dusty road with palm branches. They shouted the praise reserved for kings. “Hosanna!” they said, meaning “Save us” in their native language. “Save us! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming KINGDOM of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
Jesus made his point, and all that his opposition could do was watch as the parade made its way very slowly at donkey-speed through the city, up the long tall hill to the temple itself, aimed like an invasion at the seat of their power. When Jesus arrived atht temple, Mark’s Gospel tells us that he did nothing at all. His point had been made, and everyone knew it. He looked around the temple a moment, and then returned to Bethany to spend the night. It was late afterall, and there would be plenty of time to stir up trouble on Monday.
Monday – Mark 11:12-19
Sunday’s events starred a donkey, but Monday would be all about a fig tree. On Monday morning, Jesus left Bethany and returned to the temple on Jerusalem. On how way, he was hungry and stopped to grab a fig off of a wayside fig tree. There was nothing at all unusual about this, as it was not the season for figs to grow. However, just like with the donkey the previous day, Jesus intends to make a point that isn’t about figs at all. He lifts is voice toward the tree and with no explanation at all, he said, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” Offering no further commentary, he continued his journey up to Jerusalem’s temple, leaving his disciples to puzzle out his unexpected outrage at out of season fig trees.
He arrived that day at the temple, and he found there temple business going on as it had for many years. People came to the temple in large numbers, especially during the Passover week. They came to see the spectacle and more than that, they came to offer sacrifices. Merchants and peddlers, preying on the the religious pilgrims set up shop in the temple courts to sell all manner of things, including livestock for sacrifice at a hefty markup. Others offered to exchange foreign coins for more acceptable temple-approved shekels, again at a heft markup. Porters carried goods back and forth through the courtyard, and the temple – the earthly representation of the holy throne of God – looked every bit like an ancient street market in a busy tourist town.
Without preamble, Jesus entered the temple courts and began to drive out the livestock. He went to the money changers and tossed over their tables, adding flying coins to the commotion of stampeding cattle. He waylaid the porters and prevented any merchandise to be moved through the courtyard, bringing the entire business of the temple marketplace to an abrupt and immediate standstill. Once the frantic rabbi had the attention of the crowds, his scolded them all. “Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”
As with the parade the day before, the temple leadership could only watch this outburst from Jesus play out. All of the business in the temple took place under their authority and likely to their profit. Jesus had acted not only outside their authority, but in condemnation of their authority. Any holdouts among the leadership were immediately won over, and it became their mission on that day to kill Jesus.
Jesus, for his part, left the temple and would return the next morning. When he did, Peter would notice that the fig tree Jesus had objected to had becomed shriveled and withered over night. The message that had been mysterious had become apparent. At the judgment of Jesus, a tree had withered and died. What would happen to the temple that Jesus had likewise condemned? Who was this King that they had welcomed into their city? He was no mere rabbi. He was their Lord and their Judge.
Tuesday – Mark 11-13
The next morning, a Tuesday, Jesus returned to the temple for a third time that week to continue this strange showdown with the priests. This time, the chief priests came prepared. The city elders met him at the entrance of the temple and demanded to know who gave him the right to come and act like this in the temple of God. Rather than answering directly, he asked his own question. Jesus had a cousin who had also recently been a popular teacher and revivalist of sorts before he had been imprisoned and executed. John was his name and he had baptized masses of people at the river Jordan. The priests and elders themselves had attempted to be baptized, but John turned them away, making him all the more popular with the people. Jesus asked the priests and the elders, “The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?”
The elders had walked into a trap with their confrontation. If they said John’s baptism was an unsanctioned act of a mere man without the authority of God or the temple leadership, then the people would be outraged and favor Jesus even more. The crowds had loved John as a prophet, and they knew that John had honored Jesus as chosen of the Lord. On the other hand, if they offered a more popular answer, that John’s authority was from God even though he had never been sanctioned by the elders or the priests, then Jesus could claim the same right as his popular cousin. They decided their best answer was to say, “We do not know.” Jesus decided he didn’t need to answer their question either. He brushed passed them and entered the temple again.
In the temple, he offered a parable with a scathing message. Imagine, he said, that man planted a vineyard and built a fence around it. He dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower over it. He then leased the vineyard out to workers and journeyed to a foreign country. In the due season, the owner sent a servant to collect some of the fruit of the vineyard, but the tenants beat the servant and sent him away empty-handed. The man sent another servant and he was treated the same way. He sent a third servant, and the tenants killed him. A series of other servants followed, each treated the same. Finally he sent to them his own son, thinking perhaps that they would not dare to treat his heir in such a way. But the tenants murdered him as well and tossed his body away outside the vineyard. Jesus asks, “What will the owner of the vineyard do?”
What we might not realize is that this peculiar story was actually the fantasy of many Jewish peasants at the time. They lived in the lands that hand been owned by their forefathers for generations, but they worked to pay taxes to foreign lords. The Romans owned their lands, and they had to live as sharecroppers in the fields that had been in their families for generations. They worked themselves to exhaustion just to give all the profit away from their own lands to Roman tax collectors so that Roman governors could live in palaces. We are talking about some bitter people here, and you are crazy if you think the story Jesus told hadn’t crossed their minds. Kill the Roman tax collectors. Kill the Roman soldiers. Kill the Roman governors and reclaim their lands for themselves.
So why didn’t they? Because they know how that story would end. The owner of the vineyard – the Roman emperor and his legions – would come and pour out vengeance and violence on the land. So the peasants didn’t kill the tax collectors and they didn’t kill the soldiers and they didn’t kill the governors.
However, the story Jesus told wasn’t about the peasants and the Romans. Like Psalms of old and the prophets, Jesus was speaking of Israel as the vineyard of God, and of this temple as his building let out to tenants. The priests were being compared to the tenant farmers, and the history of ignoring God’s prophets was their violent treachery. Now, they too would reject the vineyard owner’s Son. Even now, they plotted to kill Jesus. What will the owner of the vineyard do? They got the message. Jesus knew their plot to kill him, and he pronounced God’s judgment against it. They left him alone, not bothering to repent but also not wanting to be rebuked any further.
Jesus spent the rest of the day teaching and answering questions. He taught about the power of God to raise the dead. He taught that the greatest commandments were love. He taught that poor widow who gave a few coins was a more generous giver than the wealthy who gave from their abundance. He taught that the temple would be judged because of those who polluted it with their greed and selfishness. All the while, the leaders of the temple waited for an opportunity to end his life. Everyone got to know Jesus a little better that day. Some learned to love him. Others learned to hate him. No one could ignore him.
Wednesday – Mark 14:1-2
On Wednesday, Jesus did not return to the temple, but rather stayed in Bethany. Back in Jerusalem, the priests were meeting to plan a lynching, but in Bethany, Jesus was being honored.
He was eating a meal at the home of a man named Simon, when a woman came in unannounced and likely uninvited. She brought with her an extremely expensive flask of ointment. She broke open the flask, and anointed Jesus with the oil.
The peculiar act provoked one of two responses. Some were outraged. The oil was extremely expensive, and now it was gone. It could have been sold for almost a year’s worth of salary for an average worker. A year’s worth of salary had been poured on Jesus’ head. What a waste.
Jesus saw something different. “Leave her alone,” he said, “She has done a beautiful thing.” Jesus was a beautiful act, an act of extravagant and unprecedented love. He saw in that act an echo of his own love to be enacted in the coming days, when he would go to a cross for sinners.
Isn’t it strange how people can look at the same event and see totally different things? In The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis wrote, “What you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are.” Jesus was a person who understood love, practiced love, loved love, and so he saw love being poured out.
Judas Iscariot was not. Judas was a man who understood money, practiced money, loved money, and so he saw only money being wasted. Love can never be wasted, but money can.
Judas made a choice that day he would come to regret. He made a trip into Jerusalem to make a deal for something he could understand. He traded the Lord who loved him for money he would never spend. He would have been better off staying in Bethany and learning to see in Jesus a love that would make all the money in the world seem as nothing.
Thursday Evening – Mark 14:12-16
At midweek, the Passover celebration began to unfold. The disciples asked Jesus where he intended to partake of the Passover meal. In a story very similar to the one with the donkey, Jesus tells his disciples to approach a particular man who would have access to room in a particular house. He tells his disciples simply to say that their Teacher would be making use of his home. The man, without further explanation, would make available his own upper room residence, fully furnished and ready for the disciples to prepare the Passover meal. So they did, and the room was made available just as Jesus had said.
The Last Supper – Mark 14:17-26
At that famous supper, Jesus took some bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” Our bread this morning looks a little different, but by it I believe we still partake in Christ Jesus with the disciples through all the ages.
[Lord, much time has passed, but once again your disciples have gathered to break bread. Help us to take this bread and see in it your body. Amen.]
Next, Jesus took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” Again, our cup looks a little different, but I believe he shares it with us today in the kingdom of his Father as he promised.
[Lord, help us to drink this cup and by it to know your love through the blood you shed for us. Help us to see you drinking it with us today as you promised. Amen.]
Later Thursday Evening – Mark 14:32-42
After sharing the bread and the cup, Jesus took a moment to warn his disciples of the coming hours’ events. Judas was already choosing his path, but he would not be the only one to prove faithless that night. “You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “But after I am raise up, I will go before you to Galilee.” To a man, each disciple denied that possibility. “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” Peter said it loudest, but they all said. Before morning, the threat of violence would make liars of them all.
Jesus, for his own part, took a moment alone to pray, seeking the strength he needed to remain faithful at this dark hour. In Gethsemane, he prayed in sorrow and in faith. “Abba Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” He prayed his faithful prayer again and again while his faithless friends slept faithless sleep. The Father heard his prayer, but offered no reprieve. So after the third time praying, he woke his disciples to commence his journey to the cross. “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough; the hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”
Friday – Mark 14:43-15:32
Mark’s Gospel is the fastest paced of all the Gospels, and true to his style, the events of Friday unfold quickly.
Judas arrives in the Garden with an armed mob sent to arrest a peaceful teacher of love. Jesus takes a moment to mock the absurdity of the scene. “Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But let the Scriptures be fulfilled.” The mob took him, and his disciples fled and made their own escape. One disciple in particular was not quite fast enough. One of the mob grabbed him, but the young disciple tore away, leaving his nightgown with them and running naked away in terror into the night.
Jesus himself is taken in the dead of night to the chief priests and elders of the temple for a mock trial. For the sake of appearances, they round up a few witnesses who accused Jesus of crimes against the temple and blasphemy. The witnesses couldn’t agree on exactly what Jesus was supposed to have said or done, but it didn’t matter. The verdict had been determined before the trial. Jesus for his part exercised his right to remain silent, with one notable exception. The high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” Jesus said, “I am.” The high priest was outraged by Jesus’ simple confession, and tearing his robes, he shouted, “What further witness do we need?” They condemned him to death and took Jesus to the Roman governor Pilate.
Peter was watching the scene from a distance in the courtyard. Three times he is recognized as a disciple of Jesus. Three times he denies it. He cursed and he swore, “I do not know this man of whom you speak.” The rooster crowed, and as morning broke so Peter broke his promise, his faith, and his friend’s heart. Mark records of Peter, “And when he had thought about it, he wept.”
At sun up on Friday, the priests presented Jesus to Roman governor Pontius Pilate to be condemned as a criminal. Pilate asks a few necessary questions, but Jesus continues to have nothing to say. Pilate made a lame attempt to release Jesus as a gift to the Jews during their Passover celebration. The mob, instigated by the priests, requested the release of a man name Barabbas instead. Barabbas was noted murderer who had participated in an insurrection against Rome. He went free that day, but Jesus was condemned. Pilate determined pleasing the crowd to be more advantageous than his duty to justice, and so commanded that Jesus be crucified.
The events of the crucifixion unfold in a few short sequences. First, Jesus is mocked by Roman soldiers. “Hail, King of the Jews,” they sneer as they beat him and pay mock homage. They spit on him and wound his sacred head with a crown of thorns.
Second, Jesus led out to a hill outside Jerusalem called Golgotha. He is required to carry the timber for his own cross, but it proves to heavy for him after a night of trials and beatings. A bystander named Simon of Cyrene is compelled to carry the cross for him. When they arrive at the hill, Jesus is offered a little wine to deaden the pain, but he refuses. Mark simply writes, “And they crucified him.” That is all that is written about the process of nailing our Lord to a cross. In keeping with Roman formalities, a formal charge is written and posted above his head, “The King of the Jews.” Two thieves are crucified on either side of him.
Third, comes the long hours of agony on on the cross. They summarized briefly for us in Mark as a kind of mercy to the reader. For the first three hours from 9 AM to Noon, Jesus hangs like a common criminal and is ridiculed by the onlookers. At Noon, the sun directly over head is covered by an inexplicable darkness that lingers ominously for the next three hours. At 3 PM, Jesus prays a line from an ancient psalm, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Even the vicious onlookers are moved to pity at this point, they offer him wine again. It was far to late for that. In agony, he breathed one last time and then was released from his suffering. A Roman centurion is recorded to have muttered, “Truly this man was the Son of God.” Up on the temple mount in Jerusalem, the veil of the temple tore from top to bottom. The temple mourned, while the priests celebrated their success.
Conclusion – Mark 15:33-47
We know only a little about what happened next. A few women had proved faithful even as the disciples ran in fear. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and Salome among others watched those final hours of Jesus on the cross. Joseph of Arimathea approached Pilate and asked for the privilege of the body of Christ. The corpse was given to Joseph and hastily taken to a new tomb. The body was wrapped in linen and laid to rest behind a great stone that blocked the entrance. As the evening of the Sabbath hastened on, Jesus laid still in Joseph’s tomb. The women onlookers followed the body from a distance, hoping to come again after the Sabbath and give the body more thorough preparation for its permanent rest in Joseph’s tomb.
Their efforts would not be needed, but that is a story for another Sunday.
What we must know today is that Jesus died faithful, where all others proved faithless. He became that day a perfect temple, unlike the one that stood on the mount in Jerusalem. The stone temple had been filled with power-hungry selfishness and greed. The Jesus temple had been emptied of all ambition. The stone temple had failed to honor God. The Jesus temple perfected God’s glory.
That day the world changed. In trying to save their power, the temple priests lost it. No longer would the glory and presence of God be found in a temple managed by faithless men. Jesus himself became our temple. And the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
Closing Prayer
Almighty God, your Son went to Jerusalem not for his own joy but first to suffer pain. He received no glory until after he was crucified. Grant that we, walking in the way of the Cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace;
Father, your Son gave his back to be whipped and did not hide his face from shame and spitting: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed;
Assist us mercifully with your grace, that we may spend this week in meditation on those mighty acts of Jesus by which you have promised us life;
Almighty Father, just as your dear Son, on the night before
he suffered, shared the Supper of his Body and Blood, grant that we may receive that supper in thankful remembrance of Jesus Christ our Savior;
Please Father behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the Cross;
Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.