What is Passion Week?

What are we to understand by the expression, "the times of the Gentiles"? Turn to the scripture where the phrase occurs. It is found in the 21st chapter of Luke (Luke 21:24), where the Lord Jesus is describing to His disciples the imminent destruction of Jerusalem. It is the last day of His public life. When I say that, I mean the last day of His public ministry. If you have never gone over the last week of the Lord's life, I recommend you all to do it, and you will be wonderfully struck with the amazing amount of ministry which took place during that time. On the first day of the week He was anointed in Bethany (John 12:1-11). He is made much of — and that is what we have the privilege of doing now — the first day of the week. The Jew gave Him the last day of the week, the Christian gives Him the first. The next day (Monday) He comes into Jerusalem in triumph, riding upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass (Mark 11:1-11). The next day (Tuesday) He curses the fig-tree, and cleanses the temple (Mark 11:12- 19). The next day (Wednesday) occupies from Mark 11:20 to verse 11 of chapter 14 (see also Matt. 22 to 25, and Luke 20, 21). The ministry that took place that day is simply enormous. Into it I cannot go now; you must trace it out for yourselves; but from early morn to dewy eve, that day, the blessed Lord seems to have been pouring out His marvellous ministry.

What took place on the Thursday is given us in Mark 14:12-72. It is most noticeable that nothing is recorded, save what relates to the Passover being prepared — no ministry. He spent that day apparently with God alone till eventide. Then on Friday (Mark 15) He died, — thank God, for me! In the grave He lay all the Sabbath day, and He rose, the triumphant Saviour, on the first day of the new week. It is on the Wednesday that He is telling His disciples what is coming on Jerusalem, and, as we get down towards the end of the discourse, we read," These be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES be fulfilled" (Luke 21:22-24). I need not stay to tell you how absolutely this solemn prediction was fulfilled. Jerusalem was soon after overthrown. God, in patient grace, waited a little, He did not destroy it the day after the death of His Son. Nay, for sixty years He waited on His rebellious people, who first rejected their Messiah, and then resisted the Holy Ghost (Acts 7:51-52). At length He sent forth His edict; and, if I may so say, the scavenger came upon the scene, and swept the carcase away. Judaism, as a system of religion, came to an end before God, when Christ was nailed to the cross (Col. 2:14); but the Jews clung fast to their city and their religion, until the Romans, like the scavenger with the broom, came, and swept it and them away.

With His entrance into Jerusalem there begins the last week of the Lord's life on earth and the events occupy more than one fourth of the whole Gospel. Seeking divine aid we would look at it not so much in the way of exposition but to follow His footsteps which led only to the cross and gain thereby a deeper sense of His glory who suffered all its woe and passed through it into resurrection triumph.

It was the last week of the Lord's life (John 12:1). Ere another Sabbath's sun had set He had been put to death, and the stone rolled to the door of the tomb.

Events of the deepest importance were therefore nigh at hand; and Mark has noted those of each day from the fifth to the third before the passover. On the fifth, as we gather from John 12:12, the triumphal entry into Jerusalem took place — an event unpremeditated as far as man was concerned, which took the inhabitants of the holy city by surprise. But who was thus to enter the city? The Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee? That was true. The Raiser of Lazarus? That was also true. But more. It was Jerusalem's gracious King who would that day enter as such the city of the Great King (Ps. 48:2).

In the Gospel of Mark we get the different days at Jerusalem of the last week of the Lord's life on earth more distinctly noted than elsewhere. He reached Bethany six days before the Passover, as John states (12:1). Henceforth Mark must be our guide. He entered Jerusalem on the ass on the fifth day (Mark 11:1-11). He cleansed the Temple on the fourth day (12-19). He taught in the Temple, and answered the different questions put to Him, on the third day at the close of which, sitting on the Mount of Olives with His disciples, He foretold the future of the nation and of the city. From that time to the evening of the Passover we read of nothing that He did, with the exception of giving directions to Peter and to John to prepare that supper. There was a short time apparently of quiet before the Passover day arrived. It may be, therefore, that it was at the close of the third day before the Passover that the Lord hid Himself from the people; His public ministry terminating probably with the withering denunciation of the Pharisees, and the announcement on His part that their house was left to them desolate, and they should not see Him henceforth, till they should say, "Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord" (Matt. 23:39).

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, so that all recorded between John 12:1 and John 20:25 falls into a brief period of seven or eight days — surely the most wonderful week in the world's history. In the home at Bethany dwelt the three who were objects of His love and who loved Him in return. A suitable opportunity had now arrived for them to testify of this. Behind them lay the death of Lazarus and His calling to life by the voice of the Son of God. Just ahead lay the death and resurrection of the Son of God Himself.

Is there nothing akin to this, it may be asked, in the day of His ministry? Can we not see something of this when His disciples remembered that it had been written of Him, "The zeal of thine house devours Me"? He found in the temple the sellers of oxen, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers sitting, and having made a scourge of small cords He cast them all out of the temple and said … "take these things hence: make not My Father's house a house of merchandise." This second cleansing of the temple, it will be recalled, took place within a few days of His death, and at no time in the history does His supremacy so shine out. If the doings of the last week be carefully studied it will be seen that He is indeed a King against whom there is no rising. "The voice of Jehovah is powerful, the voice of Jehovah is full of majesty, the voice of Jehovah breaketh the cedars" (Psalm 29:4-5).

Zwingle, first of all, preached from the words, "It is the Lord's passover." After the conclusion of the sermon a table was covered with a white cloth, unleavened bread, and cups filled with wine, to recall the remembrance of the last supper of our Lord with His disciples. The minister then approached the table. The words of institution from the epistle to the Corinthians, and other portions were read aloud by the deacons. The crowd was so great, and the services so prolonged, that several ministers and deacons assisted. After prayer, and exhorting the people to self-examination, the minister lifted the bread, and, with a loud voice, repeated the institution of the Lord's supper. He then delivered the bread, and afterwards the cup, to the deacons, to present them to the people, and for the people to distribute them to each other. While the elements were passing round, one of the ministers read from the Gospel of St. John those ever fresh and ever blessed discourses, held by the Lord with His disciples, immediately following the feast of the passover, in chapter 13. After the supper the congregation all knelt down, and offered up their grateful adorations and thanksgivings; then hymns, full of the expression of love and praise to their Saviour and Lord, terminated this solemn and affecting scene — the first celebration of the Lord's supper by the Reformers in Switzerland. It occupied three days — Thursday in Passion Week, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.

The third day before the passover closed. Nothing more is told in this Gospel of the Lord's work or teaching after that, beyond the giving direction to Peter and John to prepare for the paschal feast, till He sat down with the Twelve in the upper room on the night before His death. The events of the fifth, the fourth, and the third days Mark has carefully distinguished, as none of the others have done. The last week, therefore, is pretty well described. The time for His ministry upon earth was now drawing to its close the hour of His passion was at hand.

485 Luke 19:28 ff. — Cf. Matt. 21:1-9; Mark 11:1-10. It was on Saturday the 8th Nisan that our Lord took supper with Lazarus. On the next day (Sunday) He presented Himself as Messiah by the procession into the city.

This was five days (John 12:1, 10) before the Passover (the 15th of Nisan), and so, on the tenth day of the month, when lambs had to be procured, in keeping with Ex. 12:3. The "Lamb of God" had become matter of traffic a few hours earlier on the same Jewish day (Matt. 26:14).