Week 11 RLD
1015 words by dthomas
Jesus is put on trail for offenses agiainst the political and religious powers. He publically denouces them and calls them fakes and hypocrites. He also was also angre at how the money the church was taken from the poor and what the church was doing with the money. He literally turned the temple upside down. Jesus is originally in Jerusalem for the passover holiday. He arrives about a week before passover riding a donkey. This would have been on Sunday. He makes a grand entrance with a crowd watching, chanting, and laying down palm leaves and their cloaks in his path. After looking around the town he leaves and goes to Bethany to set up camp. This will be headquarter throughout the week. The next day Jesus goes back into the town and goes straight to the Court of Gentiles in the outer most part of the temple. This is where he begins to pick up the tables of the moneychangers or work in this part of the temple. He also drives out all the animals that the people were having to buy for sacrifices. After doing this is draws another crowd that is there for a peak at the mesiah, healing, and to praise him. All of this is making the religious and political leaders very mad. They begin thier plot to get rid of Jesus. The next day, which would have been Tuesday, he is confronted by the leaders as soon as he enters the town. This is not because they really hate Jesus, it is because it is thier job to protect the people from false prophets and things of this sort. They want to know who he is, what he is trying to do, and they ask him to stop. They also ask Jesus a question the he really can not answer. One answer will say that it is o.k. to subjegate the Jews. The other answer will make it seem like Jesus is trying to start a revolt. His answer is very clever and somewhat gets him out of the situation. This is the same day that Jesus decribes what it will be like when he comes again and he also mentions his crucifixtion. On Wednesday, Jesus stays in Bethany and this is where he gets an expensive bath. No really a woman anoints him with some expensive perfume, while he is staying in Simon the Leper’s house. This is also the day when Judas tells the authorities that he is willing and ready to betray Jesus. He does this for only 30 pieces of silver, not even a years worth of pay. Thursday is the day to prepare for the passover. Peter and John get the passover meal ready in some mysterious house that Jesus says some man with a jug of water will lead them too. While at dinner Jesus talks about how he will die and how someone at the table will betray him. This is where we also get the idea of the bread being the body and the wine representing the blood of Jesus during communion. He also makes a new covenant and sings a hymn on the way to the Mt, of Olives where they plan to spend the night. On the mountain Jesus tells his diciples that they will deny him and he leaves to go pray in private. When he returns from praying, a crowd shows up with weapons. One of the men in the crowd was Judas and he betrays Jesus with a kiss which pointed him out. Jesus goes peacefully and tells the diciples not to fight. On this night, still Thursday, Jesus is brought to the house of the High Priest to be questioned. Jesus is beatened and by the end of this day: Peter has denied him three times, and Judas has committed suicide. Finally it is Friday, After so much happening on Thursday, and Jesus is brought before Pontius Pilate a Roman governor. He washes his hands of the situation, literally, because he does not want to be at fault. He sends Jesus to Herod Antipas who is over the jurisdiction where Jesus is from, Galilee. He does nothing but send him back to Pilate. Who can blame them, would you want the blood of Jesus on your hands? There after much deliberation and chaos, the crowd condems Jesus to death. He is then beaten some more and given a crown of thorns as a joke and worst of all he is spit on. Lastly Jesus is lead to the hill of Golgotha where he is crucified in the middle of two thieves. After he dies, his body is prepared by Joseph and Nicodemus and buried in a tomb built for a rich king. Three days later it is reported that Jesus is alive and has resurected from the dead. This day is called Easter He makes four appearances before returning to live with his father in heaven.
This is a very dramatic story and even complicated to put into a perpective of days and times. The gospel writers even record Jesus’s final week in different ways. The story that we know is probably a combination of the writers or more or less a summary. This is because they put the blame of his crucifixtion on different groups. Some blame the Roman officials and others blame the Jews. They also probably feel that different things are the most important and sinifficant facts that they chose to emphasize. In addition, the church was in an uproar after Jesus’s death. This was the whole purpose of the book of Acts, to downsize the problem and disagreements in the church. This was Luke’s goal when writing this book. He also wanted to write things that agreed with paul and his message that this religion can be international and not just for the Jews. I think the three biggest problems streamed from the dietary laws, circumsition, and trying to figure out what God really wants from his people. I fell like the last one is still a problem to this day.