Holy Week*

Today is Palm Sunday, which marks the beginning of what the Church has called "Holy Week". In Church history, this week was previously called "Great Week" because of all the Lord accomplished during this last week before His death and resurrection. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundational truth of the Christian faith. This year, Passover also occurs during this week, and Passover played a defining role in these important events in this week of Jesus' life. John the Baptist identified Jesus as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world". As that Lamb, Jesus died on Passover, and like the lamb thousands of years previously, whose blood was applied to the doorposts and lintels of the homes of the Israelites to save them from the plague of death, the blood of Jesus delivered us from death. The great events that would occur during this last week before Christ's crucifixion had been prophesied by God generations before, and became fulfilled. Prophecies given in the scriptures, and their miraculous later fulfillment, make the Bible different from every other book. It is through these prophecies and their fulfillment, and the undeniable and unchangeable proven truth of scripture, that God seeks a relationship with man, rather than a religion. Jesus continually spoke about this personal relationship with the Father, who loved us so much that He sent and gave His Son for us, to save us. During the last week before His crucifixion, the Passover was drawing near, and Jesus and His disciples traveled towards Jerusalem. Before entering Jerusalem, Jesus and His disciples stopped near the Mount of Olives in the town of Bethany. An event happened in Bethany that would be a prophetic preparation for His coming death: "Then Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Isariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein. Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always." (Jn. 12:1-6). The account in the Gospel of John also tells us that many Jews believed on Jesus and came to see both Him and Lazarus, because they were witnesses to the fact that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. The chief priests even plotted to kill Lazarus because he was the reason many believed in Jesus (see v. 9-11). A few days later (see Mt. 26:2), still in Bethny, Jesus dined at Simon the leper's home. This was the father of Judas, as mentioned previously. Simon must have been healed of his leprosy by Jesus, or he would not have been able to have guests at his house for a dinner: "there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat." (Mt. 26:6-7). This time, Jesus' head was anointed. Again, His disciples complained of the "waste" of such a precious ointment that could have been sold instead for the poor. Jesus corrected them saying that this woman "hath wrought a good work upon me." (v. 8-10). [Note: Scripture also tells us that Jesus corrected Simon for his condemnation of this woman who had anointed Jesus in this manner. Simon had not even given Jesus water with which to wash His feet, as was customary when a guest entered a home, yet this woman, of whom Simon disapproved, anointed Jesus with precious ointment. (see Lk. 7:44-48)]. It is then recorded that Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests and covenanted with them to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, and from then on looked for an opportunity to betray Jesus (v. 14-16). After Jesus' death, Judas was sorry for the innocent blood that was shed and sought to return the silver to the priests, but they refused to deal with him. He threw the silver he had previously received from them onto the table before them, and went and hung himself (Mt. 27:3-10). That silver was then used by the priests to buy "potter's field" as a place to bury the poor. This was prophesied in Zech. 11:12-13: "And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price...so they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter...And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD." While at Bethany, before Jesus was to enter Jerusalem, He gave His disciples an instruction that would be another fulfillment of prophecy. He instructed His disciples to enter into the next town where they would find "...an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them and bring them unto me. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightaway he will send them. All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy king cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt, the foal of an ass." (Mt. 21:1-5, Zech 9:9). As Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem "...a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest." (v. 8-9). They were welcoming the kingdom of their father David (see Mk. 11:10). There were those in Jerusalem who asked who this Man was that was riding into the city, and the others answered, "This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee." Jesus had indeed prophesied that His disciples would find an ass and its colt available in the nexrt town. Many in Israel, when Messiah came, expected Him to throw out the occupying Romans, the oppressors of the people. However, they overlooked the redemptive purpose connected to the promised Messiah. As Isaiah prophesied, the Messiah would come to die for the sins of others, and for their healing. After Jesus entered Jerusalem, He went directly into the temple of God, "and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves." (Mt. 21:12-13). In a similar account of the same event in Luke 19:28-40, the Pharisees told Jesus to rebuke the crowd who was shouting, "Blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest." Jesus answered the Pharisees saying, "I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out." An event ordained and appointed by God according to His prophetic Word, will be fulfilled, and there will be a witness to proclaim it. The Shroud of Turin is an example of a witness which testifies to the ordained and fulfilled suffering, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. As we continue to read in Luke, Jesus beheld the city, Jerusalem, and He wept over it, saying, "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." (v. 41-42). He prophesied over the city that their enemies would attack and besiege them, surround them, and utterly destroy them, "...because thou knowest not the time of thy visitation." (v. 43-44). Does the Church know the time of the coming visitation of Christ, or will it remain unaware, ignoring all of the signs as Jerusalem did? There is another prophecy from Zechariah, not yet fulfilled, which says that the LORD will destroy the nations that come against Jerusalem. The world is already persecuting those who hold the Word of God to be true, and that the Spirit of God would be poured out upon the house of David, and Jerusalem, and they would look upon "me whom they have pierced", and they shall mourn for Him (Zech. 12:9-11). Isaiah tells the people of God "Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put n thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city...So shall he sprinkle (Nazah - startle, sprinkle, the blood of expiation) many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.", and Isaiah also asked the question, "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?" (Isa. 52:1, 15, 53:1). On the morning of resurrection, such a powerful event happened that the stone was hurled away from the opening of the tomb of Jesus, and the Roman guards who had been assigned to guard the tomb had passed out. All tht was left inside the tomb was an empty burial cloth, which, when John entered the tomb and saw it, caused him to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead. These are the events of "Holy Week" that changed the world. *Based on Dr. Kenneth E. Stevenson's 4/2/23 message to the church. To contact us, submit a prayer request, give a praise report, or to support this ministry: P.O. Box 154221, Waco, TX, 76705 OR Everlastingcovenant@ymail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, theshroudofturin.org, and END TIME SCHOOL, also on Facebook. You can also get a free ebook titled "The Shroud of Turin- A Perfect Summary" at www.TheShroudofTurin.org/freebook.