Monday, November 10, 2014

Last Week of the Savior's Mortal Ministry


The First Day- Jesus arrives at Jerusalem.  He asks His disciples to bring Him a donkey and a colt and and entered the city. There were palm branches laid before Him and He was greeted with shouts of "Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.” (Matthew 21:9)  He went straight to the temple and noted what He saw there.  He then went to Bethany with the twelve and rested for the evening. (Mark 11:11)

The Second Day- Jesus arose the next morning and went to the temple to cleanse the temple of the vendors who were trading goods and making money exchange which was sanctioned by the Jewish religions leaders.  By doing so, Jesus was challenging their leadership. As he removed the vendors from the temple grounds, He said, “It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves,” (Matthew 21:13). That night, he retired in Bethany.

The Third Day- Jesus’ activities the previous day did raise the ire of the Jewish religious leadership and they were not going to let it slide. When He came to the temple on the third day, they asked, “By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?” (Matthew 21:23) Jesus responded, reciting two parables that increased their frustrations. Again, the scribes and Pharisees challenged him, and he in turn, boldly called them hypocrites. From that time on, he only taught the Twelve Apostles.

This led the Jewish leaders to believe they’d won that initial battle and they discussed how they would bring about his death. Because of his popularity amongst the people, they wanted to move quickly to avoid rioting, as Passover was near. They also wanted to avoid a confrontation when they arrested Him. Unbeknownst to them they would have help here, as one close to Jesus would betray Him.


The Forth DayOf course, Jesus knew of the plot. and spent the forth day away from the city, perhaps in Bethany.  There is no record of this day.

The Fifth DayOn the fifth day, Jesus had planned to have the Passover meal with the Twelve Apostles. He then introduced the ordinance of the Sacrament  and prophesied of His death. He also disclosed that one among them would betray Him. After dinner and the intercessory prayer, Jesus and the eleven remaining Apostles, (Judas had left). went outside, into the garden of Gethsemane. He took Peter, James, and John further into the garden with him, and then went off by himself to pray. (Matthew 26:36-39)

The Savior pled, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matthew 26:39) The cup did not pass and He suffered the "pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him.” (D&C 18:11), and he suffered pain that caused Him to "bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit” (D&C19:18).

Shortly after rejoining the Apostles, he returned to the Apostles, was arrested without resisting, by an armed group of men, led by His betrayer, Judas.  He was then taken to an illegal trial set by the Jewish leaders.

The Sixth Day- Now, it was not good enough to put Jesus to death, the Jewish leaders wanted to “discredit” him publicly, in front of His followers. They had a hard time finding charges against him. Finally, they came up with two.  First, they wanted to charge him with blasphemy, because he said he was the Son of God. (Matthew 26:57-66)  Blasphemy was a capital offense under Jewish law.  This would discredit Jesus, but only the Roman governor could pronounce a death penalty, so they needed a political indictment against Him. So, secondly, they sought sedition or treason against the Roman state, for Jesus had said he was “king of the jews.” Although the Roman Governor,  Pilate found him not guilty, he gave in to the crowd’s pleas to crucify Jesus. (Matthew 27:24-26)

Jesus was crucified that day. The following day marked the beginning of Passover, at sundown, and it was also the Sabbath, so His body was removed from the cross the following day, and laid to rest in a sealed tomb. 

The Seventh Day, the Sabbath- On the Sabbath, Jesus’ body remained in the tomb, but his Spirit was ministering to the spirits who had gone before. (1 Peter 3:18-20)

Day of the Resurrection- On this most significant Sunday in history, Jesus Christ, our beloved Savior, arose from the tomb! "But 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)





No comments:

Post a Comment