By Annabeth Miller,
ShowMe Times Editor
Believers throughout the world begin a week-long journey this Sunday toward the high point of the Christian year, Easter, next Sunday, April 8.
This Sunday's observance of Palm Sunday begins the seven days of Holy Week - a week commemorating Jesus' last week on earth. The week begins on a high, marking Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and goes through soul-searching moments of the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, the solemnity of Good Friday and finally the triumph of Easter morning.
Sunday's Palm Sunday services observe the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem that was marked by the crowds who were in the ancient city for the Passover. The people with the waving of palm branches and proclaiming him as the messianic king greeted him. The Gospels tell that Jesus rode into the city on a donkey, enacting the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, and in so doing also emphasized the humility that was to characterize the Kingdom he proclaimed. The irony of it all is that in five days the same crowd would cry for Jesus' execution.
"I think Palm Sunday was more about calculated courage than anything else," said the Rev. Fred Leist incoming Southeast District superintendent of the United Methodist Church. "Jesus had to know what would happen to him in Jerusalem, and yet he went into Jerusalem with the pomp and the crowd waving palm branches. He wasn't unaware of what would happen."
Leist said there is a verse that talks of how Jesus's face "was set like a flint toward Jerusalem", meaning that he was determined in his resolve.
"In one week’s time he went from the palm branches to palm prints in his hands," Leist added, referring to the marks made in Jesus' hands at the crucifixion.
The Thursday of Holy Week is marked with Maundy Thursday, or Holy Thursday, observances. The day marks a number of events that were clustered together on this last day before Jesus was arrested. These include the last meal he shared with disciples, the betrayal by Judas, Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane while the disciples fell asleep, and his being arrested by Roman soldiers.
On Thursday after the triumphant entry into Jerusalem, Jesus and his disciples came together to share what was the Passover meal, observing the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt when death "passed over" the Hebrew homes as the tenth plague fell upon the Egyptians. It was later that night, after the meal, as Jesus and the disciples were praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Jesus was arrested and taken to the house of Caiaphas the High Priest. On Friday he would die.
These are days in which Christians are present to the great events of the last hours of Jesus' earthly life and they go through them, as he did, step by step, beginning that Last Supper and night of agonized prayer in the Garden.
Thursday is also known as "Maundy Thursday.” The term ‘maundy’ is from the Latin Mandatum novum do vocis - It was on this night that that Jesus gave his followers a "new" mandate to follow: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, you also out to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35)
