The MESSAGE Behind Passion Week

Sometimes reading or hearing the story of the PASSION of Christ is a lot like a puzzle.

We tend to see or hear pieces of the story. We usually get the big picture: Jesus was God and He came to Earth to die as the ultimate payment for our sins. He was buried and three days later He came back to life and walked out of the tomb.

What did Jesus do, why did He do it and what’s our part?

If you are in church for very long you will eventually hear a lot of talks. Many of those sermons will talk about events, illustrations and teachings of Christ that took place during this final week of Jesus’ earthly life.

In fact if you count all of the chapters & verses in the four Gospels (that deal specifically with the life of Jesus) you will find that one-third of the Gospels deal with the last seven days of Jesus ministry.

A lot happens between what we call “Palm Sunday” and Easter Sunday.

Each day is given a specific title to help us uncover what I believe are some major truths from this week.

So, instead of looking at each event separately, let’s look at the overall purpose of each day and see if we can discover why things happened when they did.

The week begins on the Sunday prior to what we now call Easter Sunday. Remember that the Jews worshiped on Saturday, so Sunday would have been the beginning of their work week. However, this week was special because many people were arriving in Jerusalem for the Passover at the end of the week. Jerusalem would swell to maybe ten times it’s normal population during Passover week. It was the biggest celebration of the year.

Sunday is the DAY OF DEMONSTRATION OR RECOGNITION.

What a day it was too. As Jesus arrives outside Jerusalem He climbs onto the back of a young donkey and begins riding into Jerusalem. Crowds begin to form scattering their coats and palm branches onto the ground.

Why? Because the people were honoring Jesus as the Messiah! In the Old Testament book of Zechariah, the prophet declared:

“Rejoice greatly, people of Jerusalem! Shout for joy, people of Jerusalem! Your king is coming to you. He does what is right, and he saves. He is gentle and riding on a donkey, on the colt of a donkey.” ZECHARIAH 9:9

The people shouted, “Blessed is the king of Israel, who is coming in the name of the Lord”. “Hosanna in the highest to the Son of David.”

Hosanna! Literally “Save us now!”

Now, none of that means much to us today – but back then – it meant everything! They were proclaiming that Jesus was the King, their Messiah. They were shouting that Jesus was their Savior, Messiah and they were calling for Him to save them.

Then Jesus stops, and He begins to cry…

“I wish you knew today what would bring you peace…All this will happen because you did not recognize the time when God came to save you.” Luke 19:42,44

Though the religious leaders don’t like what’s happening, it appears that the people are behind Jesus.

That’s what happens on Sunday.

WORDS ARE NOT ENOUGH. Words are simply not enough.

I’m amazed that the crowds are cheering for Jesus. The movies always show small groups, but there were thousands there that afternoon as Jesus rode into Jerusalem. From all over Jerusalem they had come and they were cheering for Jesus.

The tragedy is that in just four days many of these same people would be cheering again – not “Hosanna”, but “crucify Him!”.

Remember the scene in the PASSION of the CHRIST where Pilate calls out to the crowd, isn’t this the same man you celebrated a few days ago?”

Within a few days they had turned on Him.

Why? Because words are not enough.

It’s easy to go along with the crowd. It’s a rush to cry out and cheer for the winning team. But it’s entirely different to put your heart, soul and life behind those words.

One of the most practical lessons we can learn from the PASSION week is that words are not enough. What you say is not nearly as important as what you do.

Don’t get me wrong – you should say the right words, but God is looking at our heart attitudes, not our words.

If you will go through Matthew 21:28-32 you will get what God wants. God is not concerned about what we say. He’s concerned about what we do!

We don’t know a lot about Monday of the Passion week. Only three events are recorded in the Gospels.

Monday is the DAY OF PURPOSE.

Each evening Jesus would travel from Jerusalem to Bethany. He might have stayed with His friends Lazarus, Mary and Martha. Quite possibly, He and His disciples could have camped out under the olive groves all over the hillsides on the Mt of Olives where Bethany was located, about two miles from Jerusalem.

Each morning Jesus and His disciples would leave Bethany and make the short walk down the hill across the Kidron Valley and up the hill to Jerusalem. Along the way there were olive and fig groves, vineyards and other types of gardens. It would have been a beautiful walk. Breakfast would have consisted of fresh fruit picked along the way.

Monday morning began with Jesus on this walk with His disciples when He passes a fig tree. But this tree, unlike those around it had no fruit. There were lots of leaves and foliage – but no fruit.

Jesus does something astonishing and drastic. He pronounces a curse on the fig tree.

You can see the related verse in Luke 11:12-14.

The Bible tells us that everyone heard Jesus’ pronouncement. But what was that with so much to think about and look forward too in Jerusalem. So they walked on.

Soon they arrived at the Temple. There Jesus surveyed the scene. Two years before this, the Bible tells us He saw the same thing, people using the Temple to take advantage of people – selling things for sacrifices and doing so at exorbitant prices.

Two years before this day Jesus made a whip and used it to drive out the money changers and merchants. “Don’t turn my Father’s house into a marketplace.” (John 2:16).

It was the same on Monday of the Passion week. Jesus surveyed the same scene and again He knocked over the tables and stalls of stopped everyone from bringing in more merchandise.

Then He taught them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a place of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.” (Mark 11:17)

The Gospels tell us that Jesus then spent the rest of the day in the Temple healing.

Then in Matthew 21:14-15, we can see that Jesus healed the blind, the lame and many others.

Monday was a day of purpose. It started and ended with purpose.

Why did Jesus curse the fig tree? Because it was not fulfilling it’s purpose.

Why did He clear out the Temple? Because they were using the Temple for something other than its purpose. It wasn’t a Trader Spot, it was a place of prayer and sacrifice.

And why did He heal the blind and lame – because that was His purpose.

Monday reminds us that God has a purpose for each of us.

Jesus had arrived at the Passover celebration in Jerusalem with one distinct purpose – to go to the cross. He never lost sight of that purpose. Everything He did was leading to and focused on the cross and the honor and glory that would bring to God the Father.

Tuesday was the busiest of the four days leading to the crucifixion. It was the day Jesus demonstrated His unique authority as God.

These final days of Jesus life were His greatest demonstration of how much He loved us.

Why take the time to go through these final five days leading to the cross?

Because we need to realize once again that words are not enough. It’s not enough to just call Jesus Lord – we have to live each moment with Him.

Because we need to realize our purpose and be willing to live it out to God’s glory.

Because we need to realize and accept Jesus’ authority in our lives. He proved He was worthy of that trust.

Because we need to realize that we don’t know everything.

Because we need to realize how much Jesus loves us. Everything that happens in our lives is preparation for what comes next. If we are willing to listen and follow Jesus and the Holy Spirit we will be prepared for anything.

As I already said that:-

MONDAY is a day of PURPOSE.

TUESDAY is a day of AUTHORITY

WEDNESDAY is a day of SILENCE. (Because as we cannot find any event which took place on this day..)

THURSDAY is a day of PREPARATION..

CONCLUSION :

Now as am concluding my words,  I just want to say that God sent you in this world with a purpose, so don’t do anything different from his plan, if you do so you are letting him down.

So plan and work wisely, in order to achieve success and prosperity.

May the Lord almighty help us to understand the right meaning of the Passion Week, and also try to inculcate some good qualities in ourselves.

Praise The Lord!