Holy week is already upon us since Easter comes relatively early this year. The method used to calculate Easter Sunday is quite confusing: it’s the Sunday following the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox. Since the vernal equinox falls on March 21, Easter can be as early as March 22nd or as late as April 25th. (Why such a contorted method is used is a topic for another blog!)
Holy week begins with Palm Sunday, commemorating Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. On Maundy Thursday, Christians remember the last supper – the Passover meal Jesus shared with his disciples before his suffering. During this special meal, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples as a model of humble service. He then commanded his disciples to follow his lead: “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” The word maundy is derived from the Latin mandatum, meaning mandate or command.
The last supper was a Passover meal, also known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread. At the time of Jesus, the Jewish nation had been observing this ritual for almost 1,500 years.
It’s well worth pondering the deep connections between the two. Consider this: Jesus made a very deliberate choice to enter Jerusalem at the time of this festival. He intentionally used the story of the exodus to give meaning to his impending suffering and death.
The Passover celebrates the remarkable events which are foundational for the nation of Israel. For over 400 years, Jacob’s descendants were enslaved in the land of Egypt. But the Lord saw their misery and affliction; he then appeared to Moses in a burning bush & sent him to confront Pharaoh. Despite God’s mighty acts of judgment, Pharaoh repeatedly hardened his heart and refused to release his Hebrew slaves.
Finally, God unleashed one last, devastating plague upon Pharoah & the Egyptians. During the night, the Lord went throughout the land and put to death every firstborn son. But God commanded the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb and smear the blood on the doorframes of their houses. When the angel of death saw the blood, he would pass over that house and no harm would come to those inside.
Thus, the Lord brought about the Exodus – the deliverance of Israel from slavery in the land of Egypt.
Thanks to the last supper, most Christians are accustomed to thinking about Jesus as the Passover lamb. This theme is also found throughout the rest of the New Testament. We recall the words of John the Baptist when he saw Jesus: “Look, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (This memorable scene is why great painters of the past have usually portrayed John the Baptist with a lamb by his side.)
And who can forget the magnificent scene in Revelation chapter 5, where Jesus is portrayed as the slaughtered lamb who shares the very throne of God himself? “Then I saw a lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.” The lamb receives the praises of all creation, who sing, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”
Although most Christians are familiar with Jesus as the Passover lamb, they are far less apt to perceive how the story of Jesus (and his church) has connections with the rest of the Exodus story.
Who plays the role of Pharaoh, the wicked king of Egypt? For the Jews at the time of Jesus, there could be only one answer to this question: the Roman Empire. The Jews had lived under Roman rule since 63 BC, when the famous Roman general Pompey the Great captured Jerusalem. All throughout the time of Jesus, the Jewish people were seething with resentment toward their pagan overlords, as well as those renegade Jews who collaborated with the empire. This hostility often erupted into violence.
For example, when Herod the Great (the Roman client-king) died in 4BC, many Jews thought that the king’s death was a prime opportunity to seize their freedom by force. A zealot named Judas instigated a revolt in the Galilean city of Sepphoris – located just 4 miles from Jesus’ home village of Nazareth. The Roman legate Quintilius Varus crushed this uprising with characteristic Roman brutality. The rebellion’s ringleaders were crucified; Sepphoris was put to the torch and the survivors were sold into slavery. It’s almost certain that Jesus would have personally known families scarred by these macabre events.
Jesus surely acknowledged the many Roman injustices against his fellow Jews. However, the Lord recognized that the true problem went far deeper than Israel’s struggle against Roman domination. For Jesus, the true enemy was sin itself – the darkness which dwells in every human heart. This darkness drives humans to all manner of evil against one another – murder, greed, immorality, extortion, bloodshed & oppression.
Moreover, Jesus saw that this enemy held sway not just over pagans like the Romans but had taken up residence within Israel itself. It was an adversary which could never be defeated by military victory. In fact, when zealous Jews took up the sword intent on shedding Roman blood, it only compounded the problem.
If we dig a little deeper into Jesus’ mindset, we also discover another dimension to the problem. There exists a personal agent at large in the world which the scriptures refer to as the devil or Satan. This shadowy figure is determined to destroy God’s image-bearing human creatures and ruin God’s good creation.
The Bible teaches us that human are moral agents responsible for their decisions and actions. But it also seems that when people choose darkness over light, they can (either little-by-little or in great leaps) grant Satan power over their lives. Those who embrace evil can eventually fall completely under the control of demonic powers.
We see this dynamic operating in the life of Judas Iscariot. The scriptures tell us that Judas, apparently of his own initiative, approached the chief priests and arranged to betray Jesus for the price of 30 silver coins. But the book of John describes how Satan also played a key role. During the last supper, the Lord identified his betrayer by handing him a piece of bread. “As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.”
So, we discover this principle at work: humans freely choose to sin, but there are also powerful forces which can tempt and drive us to evil. The Bible never fully explains how human agency and demonic power fit together; it’s a tension we must learn to live with.
Each year during the Passover Feast, the Jews retold the story of how God redeemed the children of Israel from bitter slavery under Pharaoh. In Jesus’ mind, the great slave masters of the human race were (a) the sin which infects every human being and (b) Satan & his minions, the demonic powers which hold people in bondage. For Jesus, the injustices perpetrated by Caesar & his Roman legions were merely symptoms. The true disease was the corruption of the human heart.
In the days leading up to his crucifixion, Jesus declared, “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.” Jesus believed that the only way for the power of sin and Satan to be undone was for him to lay down his life.
As the Messiah (the anointed king of Israel) Jesus was the one who represented his people; Israel in turn was the nation chosen to represent all humanity before God. Thus, the king of the Jews could offer himself as the spotless lamb, the one whose blood would atone for the sins of the world. In this way, he would defeat the power of sin and overthrow the dark kingdom of Satan. He would accomplish the new and greater Exodus.
