Holy Week
“For this I was born and for this I have come into the world.”
The Beginning
•“the LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7)
•“Then God said: ‘Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust on a height that I will point out to you…’
•Thereupon Abraham took the wood for the holocaust and laid it on his son Isaac's shoulders… As the two walked on together, Isaac spoke to his father Abraham.
•‘Father!’ he said. ‘Yes, son,’ he replied. Isaac continued, ‘Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the holocaust?’ ‘Son,’ Abraham answered, ‘God himself will provide the sheep for the holocaust.’ Then the two continued going forward.’” (Genesis 22: 2, 3, 7-8)
•This moment defined Israel and the reason for its existence.
Time
•Greek has two words for time
–Chronos: Chronological, quantity
–Kairos: Quality
•“I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts. I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes, careful to observe my decrees.”
•(Ezek 36: 26-27)
•The entrance into Jerusalem is the beginning of the Spirit’s return to the human heart
Into Jerusalem
•“So they brought the colt to Jesus and put their cloaks over it. And he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out: "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come! Hosanna in the highest!" He entered Jerusalem and went into the temple area. He looked around at everything and, since it was already late, went out to Bethany with the Twelve. The next day as they were leaving Bethany he was hungry. Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf, he went over to see if he could find anything on it. When he reached it he found nothing but leaves; it was not the time for figs. And he said to it in reply, "May no one ever eat of your fruit again!" And his disciples heard it. They came to Jerusalem, and on entering the temple area he began to drive out those selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. He did not permit anyone to carry anything through the temple area. Then he taught them saying, "Is it not written: 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples'? But you have made it a den of thieves." The chief priests and the scribes came to hear of it and were seeking a way to put him to death, yet they feared him because the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching.”(Mark 11:7-18)
The Last Supper
•Passover Feast –Exodus 12
•Mt. Moriahhas its fulfillment
•The Jewish Toda Feast
•“The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke my covenant and I had to show myself their master, says the LORD. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jer31:31-33)
•The washing of feet -Peter
The Garden
•“Thy will be done.”
•“Sacrifice and offering you do not want; but ears open to obedience you gave me. Holocausts and sin-offerings you do not require; so I said, "Here I am; your commands for me are written in the scroll. To do your will is my delight; my God, your law is in my heart!" (Psalm 40:7-9)
The Trial
•“Destroy this Temple and in three days I shall make it rise again.”
•“Again the high priest asked him and said to him, ‘Are you the Messiah, the son of the Blessed One?’ Then Jesus answered, ‘I am; and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.'" (Mark 14:61-62; Psalm 2:7; Psalm 110)
•The Betrayers: Peter, Judas and John 6
•“As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?" Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God." Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you twelve? Yet is not one of you a devil?" He was referring to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot; it was he who would betray him, one of the Twelve.” (John 6:66-71)
Condemned
•“For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." (John 18:37)
•“Do you not know that I have power to release you and I have power to crucify you?" (John 19:10)
•“His blood be on us and on our children!”(Matt 27:25)
•“you have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God… and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and the sprinkled blood that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.”(Hebrews 12:22, 24)
Crucify him! Crucify him!
•Ezekiel: Prophet of Israel, 6thCentury BC
•"Son of man, look carefully and listen intently, and pay strict attention to all that I will show you, for you have been brought here so that I might show it to you. Tell the house of Israel all that you see. (Ezekiel 40:4)
•Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water flowing out from beneath the threshold of the temple toward the east(Ezekiel 47:1)
•He said to me… Wherever the river flows, every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live…”(Ezekiel 47:9)
•“When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, "It is finished.“ And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.… But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out.” (John 19:30, 34)
Resurrection
•The universe has its spokesman
•The fulfillment of reciprocity between God and Israel
•The Eucharist is our participation in this fulfillment
