Passion Week is the eight days that begin with Palm Sunday and end with Easter. Here’s what the four Gospels tell us happened each day.
Palm Sunday
“Go,” Jesus tells two disciples. “In that village, you’ll find a donkey tied with her colt. Untie them and bring them to me.”
They find the donkey and colt just as Jesus said. Quickly, they untie them and bring them to Jesus. Then they lay their cloaks on them.
The large crowd at Jerusalem’s gate had heard Jesus was coming. They want to see this miracle worker who raised a man dead four days to life. Could he be the Messiah, the long-awaited King who would rule forever? Will he now lead an army to beat back Rome?
Jesus mounts the donkey colt, never before ridden. He arrives, not on a war horse but on a donkey colt, in peace. Nevertheless, the crowd sees him and rushes to place their cloaks on the road before him. Some run to cut palm branches from nearby trees and spread those before Jesus too. It is an honor fit for a king.
“Hosanna to the Son of David!” they shout. Hosanna means “God save us,” but Jesus knows they do not realize his true identity. Still, Son of David means they think he is the Messiah. They continue: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
But even his disciples miss the full significance of what Jesus does. It is not until later that they realize he has just fulfilled the words of the prophet Zechariah:
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Zechariah 9:9
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Passion Week: Monday
On Monday of Passion Week, Jesus taught the crowd gathered at the temple for Passover. When he heard that God-fearing Greeks sought him, he said this:
The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
John 12:23-24
Those listening did not understand the significance of three things in his statement. First, “Son of Man” can mean simply “human,” but Jesus reveals elsewhere that he means the divine Son of Man whom Daniel prophesied about here:
I saw in the night visions,
Daniel 7:13–14
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.
Second, they did not know he meant he had come to die. The people wanted an earthly king who would deliver them from Roman rule. But Jesus was also the suffering servant about whom Isaiah wrote:
By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
Isaiah 53:8
Third, they did not know that Jesus came to save non-Jews. But this is what Isaiah prophesied about the suffering servant:
It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
Isaiah 49:6
Jesus is the grain of wheat that fell into the earth and died. Then he rose and bore much fruit, bringing to God both Jews and non-Jews. While he died as the suffering servant who cleanses people’s transgression, he arose in glory. For he is also the Divine Son of Man whose dominion is everlasting.
Passion Week: Tuesday
Jesus’s words were puzzling: “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified” (Matthew 26:2). Whatever could he mean?
He had just been teaching about the kingdom of heaven and the final judgment. His disciples believed he was the Messiah—the anointed king who would rule forever. Surely, he meant something symbolic, as when he said they all must take up their cross and follow him.
Among his followers, perhaps only two glimpsed the reality: Mary of Bethany and Judas Iscariot.
Mary of Bethany Anoints Jesus
That night, Mary’s family held a banquet in honor of Jesus. Not long before, he had raised her brother Lazarus to life after he had been dead four days. Jesus, Lazarus, and the other men reclined at the low table, leaning on one arm, feet stretched out behind them. Mary’s sister Martha served the meal..
Customarily to honor a guest, a host anointed the guest’s head with olive oil and provided a servant to wash the guest’s feet with water and a towel. The Jews considered touching someone’s feet to be degrading, so the lowliest servant was assigned the job.
To Mary, olive oil, water, a towel, and the lowest servant did not honor this guest enough.
Mary approached Jesus with a creamy white alabaster flask in her hand. It contained a pound of ointment perfumed with nard, an expensive oil. She broke the flask’s long, thin neck and the spicy, earthy fragrance permeated the house. She poured the scented oil first on his head—just as a king was anointed with oil at his coronation. The scented oil flowed from his hair onto his body.
Then she poured the remaining nard on his feet and wiped them with her hair. She honored Jesus in every way she could and showed herself a servant to Jesus.
Judas Iscariot Betrays Jesus
Judas Iscariot indignantly demanded why such an expensive ointment hadn’t been sold so the money could be given to the poor. But his indignation had a hidden meaning, for he was in charge of the moneybag and often helped himself from its contents.
Jesus rebuked him.
“Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me … She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial.”
Mark 14:6,8
Angry, Judas departed and went to the Jewish leaders. He asked how much they would pay him to deliver Jesus to them. They were delighted. After all, they had already decided that the only way to stop the huge crowds from following Jesus was to kill both him and Lazarus..
And stop him they must. For if Jesus led an insurrection, the Romans would take away the Jewish leaders’ political power. It was also the only way they could get back all the followers they had lost to Jesus. Jesus, they reasoned, could not be the Messiah. He taught there was a resurrection, contradicting the Sadducees. And he belittled the Pharisees’ many rules as mere traditions of men. No, the real Messiah would be submissive to them. The crowds were foolish and should be listening to them. Jesus must be stopped.
Passion Week: Wednesday
Wednesday seems quiet, with the Gospels not identifying anything for that day. Was Jesus preparing for what was to come?
(Find the full text of An Easter Poem here.)
Passion Week: Holy Thursday
Jesus gathered his disciples in a large upper room of a house. There he removed his outer garment, tied a towel around his waist, and washed his disciples’ feet—normally the duty of the lowest household servant. Then he told his disciples that just as he served them, so must they serve each other.
The group then ate the Passover feast, commemorating how years before, lamb’s blood protected the Israelites from death so they could journey to the earthly promised land. Jesus testified that one of them would betray him. Peter motioned to John to ask Jesus who. John reclined next to Jesus and leaned over and asked quietly. Jesus replied, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it” (John 13:26). Then he dipped the morsel, gave it to Judas, and told Judas, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” Judas left to betray him.
Then Jesus told the Eleven that now he would be glorified. He began to teach them urgently:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
John 13:34
Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take, eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup of wine, gave thanks for it, and passed it to them, saying:
Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
Matthew 26:28
Afterward, they went to a garden where Jesus frequently met with his disciples. It was not long before Judas appeared, leading a band of soldiers.
FUN FACT: This day is sometimes called “Holy Thursday” or “Maundy Thursday.” “Maundy” comes from the Latin mandātum, from which we get the word “mandate.” “Novum mandātum” refers to the new commandment Jesus gave.
Good Friday
Peter and John follow the soldiers at a distance. The rest of the disciples flee. John knows the high priest and gets them entrance to watch them try Jesus. Trials at night were illegal, but the Jewish leaders seem to have found a loophole. The former high priest Annas questions Jesus, trying to get him to incriminate himself. That is illegal too, and Jesus exhorts him to question witnesses instead. It is an opportunity to repent. But an officer strikes Jesus for impertinence and Annas sends him to the current high priest, Caiaphas, who sends him to the governor, Pilate, for crucifixion.
Pilate Interrogates Jesus
Pilate knows the Jews have delivered Jesus out of jealousy. So he sends Jesus to be flogged with the lightest form of flogging, the fustigatio. The soldiers put a crown of thorns on his head and a purple robe on his shoulders. They mock and beat him. Pilate shows the beaten, wounded Jesus to the Jews, demonstrating he is no threat and has now been publicly humbled. He declares Jesus’s innocence and his decision to release him. But the Jewish leaders threaten to report him for releasing someone who claims to be the Messiah, a king. Pilate takes Jesus within his headquarters again and asks him if he is king of the Jews. Jesus replies:
“My kingdom is not of this world.”
John 18:36
Torn, Pilate offers again to release Jesus, but the Jews will have none of it. Finally, Pilate gives in and sends Jesus for a second flogging, this time the most severe, the verberatio. It is the flogging that precedes crucifixion, ripping away flesh and exposing bones and muscles.
Soldiers Crucify Jesus
Pilate’s soldiers crucify Jesus, pounding nails through his wrists and feet, attaching him to a wooden cross. Two criminals hang on wooden crosses beside him. Above Jesus’s head, Pilate attaches a placard describing the crime for which he must die: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.
Soldiers gamble for his clothes. The Jewish leaders mock him for not being able to save himself after all his claims.
Of the Eleven, only John witnesses the day’s horrific events. The women who travel with Jesus are there, as is Jesus’s mother. Seeing her, Jesus tells John to take her home and care for her as his own mother. He leads Mary away to his home. Even in Jesus’s time of greatest suffering, he cares for others’ needs.
“It Is Finished”
At noon, darkness covers the land. Sometime after, John leaves Mary and makes his way back to the cross. He hears Jesus say, “It is finished,” and watches him die. Just then, the curtain of the temple tears in two and a great earthquake shakes the land. The sun’s light returns.
The Jewish leaders want the bodies taken down because the next day is a Sabbath, a day of rest. So the soldiers break the legs of those crucified with Jesus so they will die quickly, no longer able to lift themselves to breathe. When the soldiers see that Jesus is already dead, they leave his legs unbroken. Instead, they pierce his side with a sword. John witnesses the blood and water pouring out. For as the Old Testament declared, the Passover Lamb’s bones could not be broken, and they will look on the one they have pierced (Exodus 12:46; Zechariah 12:10).
Two followers who were among the Jewish leadership, Nicodemus and Joseph, take down Jesus’s body and place it in a new tomb belonging to Joseph.
To his disciples, nothing seems to be going according to plan.
Passion Week: Saturday
On Saturday, Jesus’s bewildered followers wept in sorrow. They hid from the religious authorities as they tried to make sense of the crucifixion of their beloved leader. They had thought Jesus was the Messiah, the righteous king God had promised would rule forever (Isaiah 9:7). He had even affirmed privately that he was the Messiah.
Jesus had also seemed to be the promised prophet like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15). All the signs were there, including miracles greater than had ever been seen before. He was a godly man and a brilliant teacher with the power to heal, cast out demons, and even raise the dead.
But now he lay dead in the tomb of a rich man, having been crucified between two criminals. He now seemed more like the Suffering Servant than the Messiah who would rule forever:
And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Isaiah 53:9
.
Saturday was dark. But Sunday was coming.
Easter
“He is risen,” said the angel.
On the day of the Feast of Firstfruits, Jesus rose from the dead.
At the temple that Sunday, Jews would offer the firstfruits of barley that had risen to life in their fields. Most did not know that Jesus had that morning become the firstfruits of people to rise to life from this earth. As the firstfruits of barley anticipated the greater harvest to come, so the resurrection of Jesus anticipates the greater resurrection to come:
Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
1 Corinthians 15:20
.Just as seed lay in the ground until life raised it up, so Jesus lay in the tomb until life raised him up. Just as the Jews raised the firstfruits of their harvest on Sunday before the Lord, so Jesus raised himself as the Firstfruits of the harvest of God’s children on Sunday.
He is risen!
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The key to understanding how most of the prophets and histories relate is this cycle:
