The Week He Came For
The road was nearly over. Jesus went before, ascending up to Jerusalem (Luke 19:28), and the week that followed fills about a third of the chapters in the four Gospels. His birth, His boyhood, and three years of ministry share the rest. That proportion is telling you something. Jesus came to teach and to heal, but above all He came to die, and this is the week He did it.
Nothing in these days caught Him off guard. He told the twelve on the road what would happen in Jerusalem, and that on the third day He would rise (Matthew 20:18–19). The chief priests planned to wait until the crowds went home: Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people (Matthew 26:5). He died on the feast anyway. Men plotted, and God's plan went forward through their plots.
In the King James Bible passion means suffering: Jesus shewed himself alive after his passion (Acts 1:3). We linger over this week for a simple reason. You cannot celebrate the empty tomb until you know what brought Him to the tomb.
The Week at a Glance
- Sunday. He rides into Jerusalem, weeps over the city, looks over the temple, and returns to Bethany (Mark 11:1–11; Luke 19:41–44).
- Monday. He curses the fig tree and drives the sellers from the temple (Mark 11:12–19).
- Tuesday. The withered tree, a long day of questions in the temple, and the Olivet Discourse (Mark 11:20–33; Matthew 21 to 25).
- Wednesday. Scripture records little. Teachers often place Judas's bargain about here (Mark 14:1–2; Mark 14:10–11).
- Thursday. The Passover, the towel, the Lord's Supper, the upper room teaching, Gethsemane, and the arrest (Luke 22:7–53; John 13 to 18).
- Friday. The trials, the cross, and the burial. See The Trials and the Cross.
- Saturday. His body lies in the tomb. Sunday. He is risen. See The Forty Days.
The Gospels give markers such as six days before the passover (John 12:1). A few events cannot be pinned to one day, and careful teachers arrange them differently.
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For Deeper Study
- The Words and Works of Jesus ChristAmazon J. Dwight PentecostA dispensational Dallas Seminary professor's study of the whole life of Christ in order, with full chapters on the last week.
- Chronological Aspects of the Life of ChristAmazon Harold W. HoehnerA dispensational New Testament scholar's careful case for a Friday crucifixion, with the Wednesday and Thursday views answered. Technical but readable.
- The Life and Times of Jesus the MessiahAmazon Alfred EdersheimA Jewish believer and nineteenth-century Anglican scholar on the customs of the temple and the Passover. Long, and rich in background.
- The Farewell Discourse and Final Prayer of JesusAmazon D. A. CarsonA Reformed Baptist New Testament scholar's warm exposition of John 14 to 17.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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The Road to the Cross
Jesus came to His own, and most of the nation's leaders refused Him. From Caesarea Philippi on He told His disciples He must die, and He set His face toward Jerusalem. No one took His life from Him, and all of us put Him there.
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