Day 1
|
Jesus arrived at Jerusalem. He
secured a donkey and a colt, and rode through the city gates into Jerusalem.
A “very great multitude” who knew him to be “the prophet of Nazareth of
Galilee” placed palm branches in his way and greeted him with a hosanna shout:
“Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the
Lord; Hosanna in the highest.” (Matthew 21:9.)
|
Day 2
|
Early the next morning Jesus
went again to the temple and made a decisive thrust calculated to challenge
the Jewish religious leadership. He drove from the outer court area of the
temple those who were trading and making money exchange from foreign
currency. The money exchange was apparently sanctioned by the Jewish leaders;
and by preventing the merchandizing, Jesus was in effect challenging their
leadership. The issue was clear: Was the temple to be a place of worship of
God or of pursuit of gain? As he cleared the temple courts, he said, “It is
written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a
den of thieves.”
|
Day 3
|
Jesus’ wrath in the temple
raised the issue of authority, and the priests were not about to let the
incident pass. As Jesus came to the temple the next day, the priests challenged
him: “By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this
authority?” (Matthew 21:23.)
Jesus responded by relating a series of parables that offended the religious
leaders of the Jews. The scribes and Pharisees challenged him again; Jesus
openly denounced them and condemned them as hypocrites.
From
this point on, Jesus did not teach the public, but only the Twelve.
Perceiving
that Jesus had gained the upper hand in their confrontations, the Jewish
leaders consulted again how they might bring about Jesus’ death. They would
have to move quickly before the Passover to avoid a riot, however, since
Jesus had become very popular with the Jewish people. How to bring about an
arrest without provoking crowd reaction was the problem. An unexpected turn
of events that took place abetted their plot. One of Jesus’ own disciples
offered to betray him.
|
Day 4
|
Jesus well knew of the plot.
The fourth day was spent outside the city, perhaps at Bethany. The record of
the gospel writers is silent on the proceedings of this day.
|
Day 5
|
Jesus
had arranged to commemorate the Passover meal in a home privately reserved
for him and the Twelve. Following the Passover meal, Jesus introduced a new ordinance,
the sacrament,
which presaged his atoning sacrifice. He then prophesied of his death and
indicated who would betray him.
After
some instructions, Jesus offered his great intercessory prayer. Then, with
the eleven (Judas had left), Jesus led them outside the walls to a familiar
spot—Gethsemane. Then taking Peter, James, and John with him, he went further
into the Garden where he then left those three and went off by himself to
pray. (See Matthew
26:36–39.) There he pled with his Heavenly Father to “let this cup pass
from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matthew 26:39.)
The cup did not pass and Jesus suffered “the pain of all men” (D&C
18:11), an agony so excruciating that it caused him to bleed at every
pore (D&C
19:18).
Some
time later he rejoined his apostles and indicated that his betrayer was at
hand. While he spoke, an armed band led by Judas approached Jesus to seize
him. Without resistance Jesus submitted. Jesus was brought to an illegal
trial that night.
|
Day 6
|
The Jewish leaders now faced
another problem. They were not content that Jesus should be put to death;
they also wanted to discredit him before his own people. To do this, the
leaders arranged to have Jesus charged with two crimes. The first was
blasphemy, a capital offense under Jewish law. He was unanimously convicted
of this charge solely on the evidence that he had said that he was the Son of God. (See Matthew
26:57–66.) Such a conviction would discredit Jesus before the Jews, but
the rulers knew well that they could not carry out the death penalty; only
the Roman governor could pronounce this. Therefore, they had to find
political indictment against Jesus. The surest means of securing this was the
charge of sedition against the state, for he had claimed to be a “king of the
Jews.” Though Pilate’s examination found Jesus guiltless of the charge, the
Jewish leaders had incited the crowd to “destroy Jesus.” (Matthew 27:20.)
Fearing a demonstration, Pilate gave in to the clamor to crucify Jesus, and
the death sentence was pronounced.
And so Jesus was executed by
the brutal Roman practice of crucifixion. Later that afternoon he voluntarily
gave up his spirit. The next day, which began at sundown, was the Passover,
and the Jewish leaders abhorred the idea that a man should remain on a cross
on the Sabbath, particularly the paschal Sabbath. Before nightfall, Jesus’
body was removed from the cross and buried in a sealed tomb by two revering
disciples.
|
Day 7
|
This was the Jewish Sabbath.
Jesus’ body remained in the tomb, but in spirit he ministered in the realm of
departed spirits. (See 1 Peter
3:18–20.)
|
Day of the Resurrection
|
Had
the gospel ended with Jesus’ burial, there would be no gospel story, no “good
news.” The great message of these testators is that Jesus was risen and was
seen again by many witnesses. On the first day of the week, the most
memorable Sunday in history, Jesus
Christ emerged alive from the tomb, and appeared before Mary. The
testimony of these witnesses constitutes the gospel story, the “good news.”
“These
are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God;
and that believing ye might have life through his name.” (John 20:31.)
|
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Resurrection of The Savior
This is a recounting of the 7 days before the resurrection of Jesus Christ. All information is taken from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Institute Student Manual. Pages 135-137. Found on lds.org.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment