What Happened on Holy Week?

[00:00:08] Speaker A: Welcome to that's a Good Question, a podcast where we answer questions about the Christian faith in plain language. If you or someone you know has questions, please submit them to roundthetable.co questions. Hey, welcome to another episode of that's a Good Question. I'm John and I'm here with my good friend Pastor Ryan. [00:00:29] Speaker B: Hey, John, how you doing? [00:00:31] Speaker A: Excited to get to talk about Holy Week. [00:00:34] Speaker B: Holy Week. Let's go. [00:00:35] Speaker A: This is it. [00:00:36] Speaker B: One of the best weeks. [00:00:37] Speaker A: The big one. [00:00:37] Speaker B: Is it the best week? [00:00:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:40] Speaker B: Yeah, it is, right? We can say that. Can we say that? [00:00:42] Speaker A: Totally. Totally. Something people might not know in the Peace Church office is that I think every Holy Week I pull and I did it this morning. [00:00:50] Speaker B: You did. I was wondering if your tradition was going to come back. [00:00:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I pull a megaphone off of somebody's shelf, usually somebody in student ministry, because our youth groups tend to use those megaphones. So I steal a megaphone and I shout down the hall, it's Holy Week. [00:01:05] Speaker B: And then scared the tar out of [00:01:06] Speaker A: a bunch of the staff. Yeah. Yeah. It's awesome, actually. I think last year when I did that, if I remember right, Kirsten stuck her head out the window and said, ryan's in a meeting. Shush. So nice. Good times. Yeah. So it is Holy Week. [00:01:24] Speaker B: Yes. [00:01:24] Speaker A: It is that awesome week that we celebrate. So we're going to talk about it, we're going to walk through it, we're going to see what in the world Holy Week is. We're going to look at some of the stories and texts involved and try to understand it as we get ready to celebrate Easter. So let's talk about that. What. What is Holy Week? Why do we call it that? What are we talking about? Why is it so important? [00:01:41] Speaker B: Yeah. So in his basic answer, Holy Week is the last week of Jesus earthly life before his death and resurrection. We typically start it with the mark of Palm Sunday, with the triumphal entry when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. He spends the week teaching and preaching. He obviously comes to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. On Thursday, they have the Last Supper. Friday is the Crucifixion, where Jesus dies. Saturday is often called Silent Saturday, where Jesus body lays silent dead in the tomb. And then obviously it culminates with the resurrection on Sunday. Yeah, that's the big arc of Holy Week. [00:02:20] Speaker A: Totally. [00:02:21] Speaker B: Often called Passion Week as well. [00:02:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:23] Speaker B: Right. [00:02:24] Speaker A: And it's the pivotal week in the history of all of humanity. [00:02:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Not just the life of Jesus, not just the life of first century Jews, but all of Human history. [00:02:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Son of God is in the world. This is final week on the Earth. Yeah, definitely. So let's walk through it. Palm Sunday. We'll start there. [00:02:43] Speaker B: Yep. [00:02:44] Speaker A: Yep. Let's talk about Palm Sunday. I know you just recently got to preach Palm Sunday. [00:02:47] Speaker B: Yes. [00:02:48] Speaker A: Let's talk about what happens on Palm Sunday. Why does. Why does Jesus ride on the donkey? What's with the palm branches? [00:02:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:55] Speaker A: All that kind of stuff. [00:02:56] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So as we just said, he's coming to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, as many, many Jews did during that time. But. And. But Jesus enters into Jerusalem to fulfill prophecy. I think it's one of the primary things we can see. Matthew points this out. He's fulfilling a prophecy. From Zechariah, chapter 9, verse 9, where it talks about the humble king comes into the city mounted on the back of a donkey. And it's one of those notions that our king is holy and humble. He is. And as we're going to talk about, they also cry out hosanna that he's the Savior. So Jesus rides on the back of a donkey, I think primarily to fulfill prophecy as he enters into Jerusalem as king. Although we all know that throughout the course of the week, things take a dramatic turn. Right. But the prophecy he's fulfilling is Zechariah, chapter 9, verse 9. That's the one that Matthew points out. Right. [00:03:46] Speaker A: And as Jesus does that, he's. You know, so we always see it as he's fulfilling prophecy, but also he's fulfilling expectations that nobody really had. [00:03:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:57] Speaker A: You know, so people were expecting more like a guy marching in with a sword in hand on a valiant steed. [00:04:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Right. [00:04:06] Speaker A: Trumpets blowing, all that kind of stuff. [00:04:08] Speaker B: The traditional knight in shining armor. [00:04:10] Speaker A: Right. [00:04:10] Speaker B: Sort of picture. [00:04:11] Speaker A: Yeah. So the donkey is absolutely a fulfillment of scripture. But not everybody realized that right away. They realize that more later. Yeah. It's a very subversive picture. They expect this guy coming in. Yeah. The knight in shining armor on his valiant steed. And instead you got the humble king coming in on a donkey. [00:04:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:28] Speaker A: You know, even two years, 200 years before Palm Sunday, Judas Maccabees comes into Jerusalem riding on a steed. People wave palm branches. So similar symbolism. So they thought, you know, this. This guy's coming to save us from Rome. [00:04:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:43] Speaker A: You know, that this is like so many who came before him. Somebody who's going to rescue us from rule by another, you know, people group victory. [00:04:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Like a political military leader. And instead of. The whole point is that Jesus is a different kind of hero. Yeah, he's a different kind of savior. So they say. They say save us, but they don't really know what they're saying. [00:05:03] Speaker B: I was gonna say they, they. They're right in the words, but not in what they probably meant. [00:05:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:08] Speaker B: In that moment, we know now that it was an incredibly appropriate term to call Jesus savior or cry out save us, Hosanna. They didn't know now what we know now more fully. So there's a lot that they. They were. Had a shadow of belief that was right about what was happening, but they didn't know fully like we do now with the full light of the gospel. Right. [00:05:28] Speaker A: I always think of the Batman. The Batman line. The. He's not the hero we wanted, but he's the hero we needed. [00:05:33] Speaker B: Dude, classic line, man. [00:05:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:35] Speaker B: It's so perfect. Yeah. Yeah. [00:05:37] Speaker A: That's pretty much what Jesus does on Palm Sunday. So. [00:05:40] Speaker B: So that marks the start of Holy Week. [00:05:42] Speaker A: Yeah, totally. All right, so then we've got Monday. We're not going to, you know, be able to hover on every single one of the days. And actually, we'll. We'll put in the show notes a list of Bible readings that you can read through. I think it's always fun to read through each of the days, the text of what Jesus was doing on each day of Holy Week. It doesn't take very much time. It's. It's a fun thing just to see and think about and reflect on what Jesus was doing each of these days in his last week of life. So we won. [00:06:06] Speaker B: And it's not like the Bible says, he did this on Sunday, then Monday, then Tuesday, then it had those categories. But they did say on this day, the next day. So you can map it out. [00:06:14] Speaker A: Yeah, you can. Yeah, you can work it out. So one of the things that he does on Monday is the temple cleansing, which is something people. It stands out in people's mind. It's one of those aggressive moments of Jesus. Yeah. Where he goes into the temple, he turns over the tables, he cleanses. It is the word that we usually use. So let's talk about that. What. What's Jesus angry about? Why does Jesus do this thing? [00:06:36] Speaker B: Yeah. So what's happening is, again, because people. Because people are coming to Jerusalem for Passover. So the city was swelling. What was happening in particular in that. In that week, in that moment is that people were selling animals for sacrifice. They're selling doves or pigeons and those, you know, animals for sacrifice. But they were charging exuberant. Exuberant amounts for these. I Don't know. I don't know the exact, you know, how, how it breaks down for the amount. We know that they were inflating the prices significantly to capitalize on people coming with a good heart and effort and good hearted desire to offer sacrifices because [00:07:14] Speaker A: they're traveling from a long ways away. [00:07:15] Speaker B: Oh, they're from all. [00:07:16] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So they didn't bring their, their ox or their animal with them. Right. A lot of them, they, they, they bring money, they exchange it there and then they're going to make their sacrifice. [00:07:23] Speaker B: So people are in the temple selling these animals for sacrifice to, to, to faithful Jewish people who want to genuinely offer sacrifices to God during Holy Week. And so Jesus sees these people being extorted, he sees what's happening and he has a righteous anger that burns within him. Jesus was right to do this. He was not sinning whatsoever. There was a righteous anger happening because people were taking advantage of God's people. And so he cleans house, he turns over these tables of these people who are inflating prices and taking advantage of people, and he tells them that they have turned God's house into a den of robbers when it should be a house of prayer. And, and he is, he literally says that. He takes out a whip and starts whipping out people and clearing house. It is one of those moments where any notion of Jesus being the flower laden hippie is laid to rest. That is not who we are. We have the king who's come into his city and he's cleaning house. That's right, Literally cleaning house. And it's just one of those moments where I see God, see Jesus, he is, he is, he is, he is zealous and jealous for God's holy and God's glory, but I also see a moment of where he's protecting God's people too. Yeah, there's something really beautiful happening here. That Jesus is our true shepherd, he's our savior, but he's also the one that protects us. [00:08:45] Speaker A: Yeah, well, one of the things. So in Matthew, I've got Matthew's account right here in front of me. Jesus says to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers. But in Mark's gospel, because he's, he's actually going back to Old Testament text, he quotes it longer and he says, my house shall be called the house of prayer for all nations. So actually we think Jesus is standing in the area for the Gentiles. [00:09:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:09] Speaker A: In the temple. Okay. And so, so not only is not only Are these people, you know, charging money within the temple for sacrifices, taking advantage of pilgrims? They're also getting in the way of non Jewish people coming and worshiping the. [00:09:23] Speaker B: Yeah, the Lord. Yeah. [00:09:25] Speaker A: So there's like, there's multiple layers to which they're standing in the way of people doing what God designed to happen in the temple, of people worshiping God, coming to be with them. So there's, you know, there's some pride and saying, like, well, we don't really care about the Gentiles. We're just going to care about the Jewish people. There's, you know, there's, of course, the greed going on. There's just multiple layers of them getting in the way of God's design. [00:09:44] Speaker B: Absolutely. So John places this story early in his narrative. [00:09:50] Speaker A: Sure. [00:09:51] Speaker B: So the question is, is, does Jesus do this twice, like earlier on in his ministry and then near the end, or is John just structuring his Gospel thematically? [00:10:04] Speaker A: Sure. [00:10:05] Speaker B: Not chronologically. [00:10:06] Speaker A: I lean towards thinking it happens twice. [00:10:08] Speaker B: Do you? Okay. [00:10:09] Speaker A: Yeah, but I could go either way. [00:10:11] Speaker B: I could go either way. I'm not really sure. I think I'm totally satisfied with the notion that John structures his thematically, not chronologically. The. The notion of A, then B, then C, then D. That, that. That is a primarily Western way to tell story. Sure. And so, but. But I think Jesus is able to do this. [00:10:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:30] Speaker B: And I'm sure it probably needed to happen more than once. [00:10:32] Speaker A: Right. I don't think doing that once probably stopped them from showing back up. Yeah. So I think it makes sense that it would have happened. Yeah. Twice. Yeah. All right, so that's Monday on Tuesday. All right. Tuesday and Wednesday are kind of Jesus teaching in the Temple. One of the things that happens is the. The illustration with the fig tree. Jesus basically says that a fig tree is kind of symbolic of the religious leaders of the spiritual life of Jerusalem at the time, that they're a tree. And what's a tree supposed to do? It's supposed to produce fruit. Right. But instead this tree is not producing fruit. And so some people look at this and they're like, well, why is Jesus get so mad at this poor tree that didn't produce any fruit? But it's symbolic of saying the. These people are here in Jerusalem. They're supposed to be my people. These are supposed to be people who love the Lord, who study the Word, who worship God. And instead, there is no fruit. They're hanging out in a religious place, calling themselves religious people. But there's no. There's no fruit. It doesn't show from the. From their lives. And so. So there's that symbolism. He does a bunch of teaching, really, about that. [00:11:33] Speaker B: Real quick, let me add. Add one thing. Twice in Scripture, we see Jesus weep. There's two times we see him cry. The one time is, of course, the more famous one is when he cries over the death of his friend Lazarus. He weeps and mourns for that moment. But the also other moment is before he enters Jerusalem. He looks upon the city and he weeps because he knows that he has come to redeem and be the One, and yet the city's not going to receive him. And so he knows that they're not ready, and so he weeps. And then kind of pointing back to that, or pointing towards the analogy of the fig tree, that they're not producing fruit, that their hearts aren't ready and ripe. [00:12:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:10] Speaker B: And so there's. I just think there's this. For me, it's one of those moments where we see Jesus both weep and lament over the city, but then he also enters it and cleans house. [00:12:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:19] Speaker B: And then he goes on to give some of his final teachings, which are some of the more scathing ones that we see. [00:12:24] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. The Seven Woes to the Pharisees is kind of, you know, like the climax of that part of his teaching. It's. He really throws down. You know, if you're. If you're reading along, it's not so shocking when in the next pages they're trying to kill him. It's like, yeah, it's kind of like, yeah, he, you know, he got up on the stage and he really throws down. And it's all true. They deserve it. And then in their sinful nature, right. They decide, let's kill this guy. [00:12:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:50] Speaker A: Because he's calling us out. You bring up him weeping over Jerusalem. I always think too, of just, you know, only God can have this perspective of thou. For thousands of years, Jerusalem was the place, Right. This is like, you go all the way back into Genesis and Melchizedek, that character. You think about the Israelites coming into the promised Land. You think about David, you think about the building of the temple and Solomon. You just think of all the history in Jerusalem. And so, you know, Jesus alone is the. Is the person who can stand there and with all of that history in mind, weep over the fact that the city isn't, you know, gonna really embrace him as their king and savior, instead is going to be the place where he dies. [00:13:32] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:13:33] Speaker A: It's. It's quite a Moment when you try to. When you step back and just try to think about all the. The big picture that Jesus has in mind as he leaps over Jerusalem. All right, so, yeah, Jesus is. Is doing some teaching in the temple. Wednesday, the religious leaders plot, how are we going to kill this guy? And then we get into Thursday, which is, of course, is going to be the Last Supper. Yeah, Thursday night we get to the Last Supper, often called M. Thursday, because Jesus gives the mandate that they should love each other. That's what that word. That word is for Latin. Yeah, mondum. Some fancy Bible trivia for you there. All right, so let's talk about the Lord's Supper and what's going on there. Why is this such a significant thing? Why does Jesus say the bread and the cup are symbolic? How does this relate to Passover? [00:14:23] Speaker B: Yeah, so Jesus is having the Last Supper. They were having the Jewish Passover dinner. But I think what's symbolic about it is that Jesus points to the breaking of the bread and the pouring of the wine as symbolic of what he's going to be doing. And it's also coupled with the ushering in of the new Covenant. That's one of the primary things that I think is so important about Maundy Thursday. I love that we acknowledge that that's where he institutes the Last Supper and Communion and where they've done there. Christians are to follow and model, and we see the early church do it. But it's also important to notice that with that great mandate, Jesus says this is the blood of the new covenant, that the covenant that had been longed in coming is finally here. And Jesus is the one who ushers it in by his own body and by his own blood. [00:15:09] Speaker A: Right. Yeah. A covenant is. I often say a covenant is a relationship sealed by promises. That's kind of the simplest way we can maybe capture it. A wedding ceremony is a great picture of a covenant being made. Right. And there's the wedding rings are symbolic of the relationship and of the promises being made right there in the ceremony. And so for God's relationship with us, there's always been signs and seals of that covenant relationship. In the Old Testament, we've got the Passover, we've got circumcision. If you don't know what circumcision is, go ask your mom and dad. We won't describe it in detail here or email you. [00:15:44] Speaker B: We'd be happy to explain it. [00:15:45] Speaker A: Would you? Yeah, email somebody. Don't. Never mind. Don't. Don't Google it. Maybe. I don't know Figure it out. You'll figure it out. So in the Old Testament, yeah. You've got the Passover. And if you remember, you know, the Passover is the angel of death is coming into Egypt and is going to kill the firstborn of everybody. But God says, slaughter a lamb and wipe its blood on the door. [00:16:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:16:09] Speaker A: And so you've got this symbolism of a lamb taking the place of the death that they're supposed to have, and they eat the meal, and those who are. [00:16:18] Speaker B: Those who are covered by the blood are the ones who are passed over and saved. Right. [00:16:22] Speaker A: And so you can see how that easily transfers forward into exactly what Jesus is doing. Right. Jesus is the Passover lamb. He's the one who dies in the place of his people whose blood is spread on them. So they. They participate in that by eating of this meal and remembering Jesus, the Lamb of God, slain for them. [00:16:40] Speaker B: Yeah. And, you know, we've been doing a lot of research on a project we're working on, and one of the things that I've been encountering a lot is people wanting to downplay the blood atonement, the blood aspect of Jesus sacrifice, that. It doesn't feel right. It doesn't. It's not. It's not kosher with our modern sensibilities. We just don't like the notion that God would demand blood. And so they tried to diminish the notion that Jesus died on the cross, that his blood spilling was a necessity mandated by God to atone for our sins, that his blood spilling was just the unfortunate result of him being in a brutal society. And to take that stance is to completely wipe out not just the Passover, but all the sacrificial systems. The Old Testament. There's no getting around that Jesus spilling his blood was and did provide the atonement for our sins for those who place their faith in him. [00:17:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, yeah. You're. You're massively misunderstanding or discarding the Old Testament. [00:17:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:42] Speaker A: To take that view. [00:17:43] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:17:43] Speaker A: Yeah. So a lot of them would say that Jesus just died as a moral example. He showed what loving people do, which is to sacrifice for people they love, which on the one hand is true, but it's also more than that, which is that he suffers the punishment we deserved in our place. Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. So that very night, then, we've got the moment of Gethsemane. One of my. I think this is probably one of my favorite pictures of Jesus just in Gethsemane. You know, it shows perfectly, I think, his humanity and his divinity that he is A man, he is not thrilled to go through the crucifixion. And so, you know, he's. He's sweating, he's crying, he's sweating blood, [00:18:23] Speaker B: which we know is a true medical condition for those under extreme duress. [00:18:26] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Because he knows fully what is about to happen, like, in a way that nobody else does, because he's going to suffer not just physically, but also spiritually. And only he can picture what that's even going to be like. And so the stress that he goes through saying, father, if there's any other way we can do this, let's do a different way. But then him accepting and submitting and saying, father, your will be done, not mine. I submit. I surrender to your will. And then he's going to go to the cross out of love on our behalf. [00:18:52] Speaker B: Yeah. It's very powerful. It is. It's one of those beautiful moments where you see the humanity of Jesus, but also know that he's able to do this and be the final sacrifice because he's fully God and fully man. Right. But it is. The Garden of the Gethsemane is one of those just very powerful moments where we kind of get to enter into a moment where we see Jesus very stressed about what's going to happen. He's anxious about what's going to happen again. He's literally sweating blood. He's so. He's so distraught over what's going to happen. He says, let this cup pass from me. You have to understand the Old Testament to know what he's saying. He's saying the cup of God's wrath, he's going to drink it for us. It's such a powerful moment. This is part of the reason why we love to focus on Holy Week, is we see some things that only could have happened in this moment. There's other teachings that we see picked up about Jesus and the miracles he's done throughout his life, but there's things that we see in these final moments that could only have happened in these final moments. Right. Which is why we love to celebrate this time. [00:19:50] Speaker A: It's where it all comes together. [00:19:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:52] Speaker B: Well said. [00:19:53] Speaker A: Yeah. So many pages of the Bible coming together finally at this moment. So, that being said, let's talk a bit about Judas and his betrayal of Jesus. [00:20:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:03] Speaker A: What can we learn from this? I think there's a lot of things we can talk about. One of the things that people often ask is, did Judas repent in the end? Could Judas have been forgiven and saved? My short answer is, was it possible? [00:20:19] Speaker B: Sure. [00:20:19] Speaker A: But that's certainly. I don't think that's what we see in the text. [00:20:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:22] Speaker A: You know, he. He ultimately kills himself. [00:20:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:27] Speaker A: Hangs himself. And I think some might see. Well, that's like him regretting it. But. But having regret isn't the same thing as repentance. [00:20:34] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. I think the. The thing I've Regret, remorse. We see him being remorseful, but that doesn't mean he was being repentant. So to go back to what you're saying, if the question is, could he have repented and been saved in light of what he'd done. Absolutely. Did he? Is the question. And the way that he conducted the final moments of his life doesn't really point to that. Right. [00:20:54] Speaker A: We've also got some words other in Scripture about, you know, the one who betrays Jesus and what happens to him. So that there's also. There's also that. That gives us that. Yeah. But from Jesus own life, we don't really actually see that repentance. [00:21:06] Speaker B: There's so much to be gleaned from the life of Judas. This is the guy who walked and lived with Jesus. He was in charge of the purse, of the disciples. [00:21:17] Speaker A: He was the treasurer. [00:21:17] Speaker B: He was the treasurer. What we see, though, is that you can be close to Jesus, you can see Jesus do all the things that we read about and still not give your life to him. Right. [00:21:29] Speaker A: I think it's a great moment to remember it. You can be a deacon at your church, you can be an elder at your church, you can be a pastor, you can attend church your whole life and not actually love Jesus. [00:21:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:41] Speaker A: Now, I don't say that in order to scare people who are genuinely Christians, who genuinely love Jesus, trust him as Lord and Savior. But to say that you can hang out in church your whole life and not actually be a Christian. [00:21:52] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, of all the people of scripture, Judah shows that you can hang out in church. You can hang out with Jesus himself for years and still not fully embrace him. [00:22:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:03] Speaker B: And reject him in your final moments. [00:22:05] Speaker A: Yeah. It's a moment to reflect and say, do I really believe this? Do I know Jesus? Am I trusting him completely to take away my sin? Do I submit to him as my king? Or am I? Is this just kind of like some motions that I go through because what I grew up with. [00:22:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:19] Speaker A: Or something like that. [00:22:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:21] Speaker A: So worth reflecting on. All right, so from Gethsemane, Thursday night, we get into the wee hours of Friday morning where Jesus is arrested, dragged off to some sham trials where he sits in front of religious leaders and goes through trials. Let's talk about this. So these are some questions actually that have come in from listeners. They ask questions like, was Jesus's trial actually legal? Was it actually fair? And why didn't Jesus defend himself more? [00:22:52] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So legal or not, I'm not sure how you're going to answer this or how you would answer this, but either way, they go to pilot, they go to the governing officials to get the final stamp of approval. [00:23:03] Speaker A: Yeah, well, so in short, like there was, there was, there was, there was legal precedence for that. They would, that there was. You know, the courts of the Jews would be where it would start. And then you even hear them talk about if we want to have him crucified, then we have to go to the next level. So they actually, they do go through the levels of a court system. So in that sense it has like, it's a, it's a judicial process. [00:23:26] Speaker B: So on, on paper, it's a judicial process. But the question, I think what I've heard sometimes is they clearly had conflicting testimonies. [00:23:34] Speaker A: It's the middle of the night. It's the middle one thing. [00:23:36] Speaker B: Yes, the middle of the night number. Yeah, exactly. And you've got conflicting testimonies that don't line up. And so, you know, was it a fair. Legally. Was it legally permissible? Yes. But was it actually justice being played out? Right. Is the. And I'd say, yeah, no, and the answer is no. [00:23:53] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. [00:23:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:55] Speaker A: So then why didn't Jesus defend himself? I think is a lot of people's questions. Because on one hand you can say, well, man, you know, if Jesus is actually all about justice, why didn't he demand justice? Why didn't he give, you know, give the truth and say this is what actually happened. Defend himself. [00:24:11] Speaker B: Yeah. So I think the meta answer is because he knew this was to happen. [00:24:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:16] Speaker B: He was submitting himself to the plan and purposes of God. And that's why. And there's also a notion of by him remaining silent, he does fulfill Isaiah's prophecy. As silent as the lamb before slaughter. Right. So there's, I mean, there's that as well. [00:24:32] Speaker A: Yeah. I think it's kind of like he's not going to. So, yeah, he's not going to, you know, fight in that sense. He's fulfilling prophecy. He knows the ultimate mission. Right. His hour has come. He's going to be the lamb who is slain. Yeah. But he's also not going to go along with their charade. You know, he doesn't like he, oh yeah, I'm guilty. [00:24:50] Speaker B: Yeah, just about to say that. Yeah, yeah, he, he, I mean, he announces the fact he's coming back in glory. He's going to sit at the right hand of God. I mean, he never lies. Right. I mean, but he does allow it to play out, right? [00:25:01] Speaker A: Exactly. He allows it to play out, but he's not gonna, he's not gonna make it, he's not gonna remove any of their guilt by sort of making it happen to himself. They are fully committing evil in what they're doing. Yeah. So I think that's the short answer to the question of why doesn't Jesus defend himself more? Well, it's because he had a mission and he knew what he was doing. [00:25:20] Speaker B: So in the morning they bring him to pilot. [00:25:22] Speaker A: Yeah, so bring him to pilot. We've got Pilate and Herod, we've got some other officials involved. Pilate has a dream about how he shouldn't, you know, and his wife talks to him about how he shouldn't, you know, take this innocent man and take him to the cross. But ultimately Jesus ends up on the cross. So let's talk about the crucifixion and we're going to stop short of Easter because that, we'll talk about that next time. We don't, you know, spoiler alert. There's some stuff that happens on Easter. [00:25:48] Speaker B: I don't know, you might want to stick around for part two. [00:25:50] Speaker A: Yeah, right, stick around for that. Maybe read the, read, read through the story in the Gospels. We don't want to spoil it all for you, but we get to the cross and Jesus cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So let's talk about what actually happens on the cross. [00:26:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:04] Speaker A: What does Jesus suffer? Is it just physical suffering? And then we are going to talk a bit about what happens after the cross. Yeah. [00:26:10] Speaker B: So just to take a step back for the physical suffering is on a scale that is very, very hard to comprehend. [00:26:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:18] Speaker B: So we kind of pass by it, but. So Jesus is awake for more than 24 hours at this point when he begins to go through his punishments, his scourging, he's already awake for over 24 hours. And I don't know if anyone's ever pulled an all nighter, but you hit that 24 hour mark and your body shifts. Human body's not designed to stay awake that long. [00:26:38] Speaker A: Yeah. And he's not really, probably eating much. Oh, he's probably not drinking much. [00:26:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh yeah. I mean he, yeah, he hadn't probably ate since the night before. So he's definitely hadn't had breakfast, no midnight snack, nothing like that. So his body's already. Already tired. And then he. So he's brought through a Roman scourging. [00:26:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:54] Speaker B: Which would have resulted in tremendous shock to his body, blood loss. He's dehydrated. So even before the crucifixion, his body's already brought to the limit for what a human body can endure. [00:27:09] Speaker A: And then some people died during the scourging. [00:27:11] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:27:12] Speaker A: Making it to the cross. [00:27:13] Speaker B: Oh, totally. Absolutely. And then the crucifixion happens. [00:27:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep. One of the most horrible ways in all of history. Designed to kill somebody, to emote. The Romans were professionals at what they did, wanted to inflict as much pain as possible before the person died. So they're trying to keep you alive so that you can experience pain. You know, it's a terrible, horrible thing. [00:27:32] Speaker B: It was a perfected form of torture. And this wasn't just something they did. Like, they. They spent time perfecting this so that they'd have maximum pain for the maximum amount of time. [00:27:41] Speaker A: Uhhuh. These guys were like torture engineers. They know what they're doing. This is a science for them. But even beyond the physical pain, we have a spiritual element that takes place. [00:27:52] Speaker B: Yes. [00:27:52] Speaker A: And so one of the questions that's often asked is, did Jesus go to hell after the cross to suffer hell for our sins? And our short answer is no, because Jesus suffered hell on the cross. Yeah. And we don't just mean in a physical way, we mean in a spiritual way. So Jesus cries out, and he's quoting from the psalms. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Because in this moment, all of the Father's wrath is turned against him. And you've got the picture in the Bible of it's the middle of the day, and yet everything goes dark. And so it's. It's kind of this picture of, like, this thing that we can't really see into what happened. Everything goes dark, and the wrath of God, for all the sin of the world, is turned against the Son of God, which. Which is like this impossible thing. Right. If you. If you understand the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, they're all three persons but one God. So how can the Father and the Son be, like, against each other? How is that even possible? And that's kind of the point is that all the rules are kind of broken here. Of God does something that's amazing and should be impossible, which is to take out his wrath on his Son in Our place. [00:29:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:05] Speaker A: And so it's. Yeah, there's a spiritual component that we don't fully understand. [00:29:09] Speaker B: The cup that Jesus had prayed would be removed the night before when he's in. When he was in the garden the night before and prayed that the cup would be removed. This is the cup he's talking about. [00:29:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:17] Speaker B: That he experienced the full wrath of God in our place in a spiritual sense. And that was the suffering. I mean, that's what you suffer in hell. You suffer the just wrath of God. Right. That's really what hell is. And so the notion of, did Jesus go to hell? Well, he suffered the punishment of hell, but being perfect, his suffering, even, even for a moment now we know that was hours long, at least in terms of the human experience of time. It was hours long, but yet it was enough to cover the sins. It was a just enough punishment because of Jesus purity and his holiness to cover the sins of those who had placed their faith in him. And so he 100% had a horrendous physical suffering and also a horrendous spiritual suffering. Right. [00:30:01] Speaker A: And one of the ways that we know that is because Jesus says it is finished at the end of his life on the cross. He doesn't say, now, I'm going to go and do some more. [00:30:10] Speaker B: Right. [00:30:11] Speaker A: You know, he says it is finished. You also have the thief on the cross next to him. And he says to him, today, I will see you in paradise. [00:30:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:17] Speaker A: So. So Jesus does not spend Silent Saturday in hell. [00:30:21] Speaker B: Right. [00:30:21] Speaker A: He spends it with his Father in paradise. [00:30:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:25] Speaker A: So Jesus suffers it on the cross. And so, you know, when you think about the Apostles Creed, if you're, you know, if you, if you hear that read in church, if you're part of reciting that, you. We often at peace church, we say he descended to the dead instead of he descended to hell. You know, there's historical debate about, you know, when those parts of the Apostles [00:30:41] Speaker B: Creed were and even descended to the dead. We're not saying that he, like he went to the land of the dead, as in he went to heaven, where after you die, you go, sure. But to say that he descended to the dead, what we are really emphasizing is that he truly died. [00:30:54] Speaker A: Right. [00:30:54] Speaker B: That's. That's the notion here. [00:30:56] Speaker A: Yep. [00:30:56] Speaker B: Is that on the cross Jesus actually died? He didn't just pass out and then recover three days later. [00:31:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:03] Speaker B: He was fully dead. Right. [00:31:05] Speaker A: You've got a passage in 1st Peter 3 at the end of it. That's a confusing, challenging passage. I remember preaching at one time about did Jesus maybe go down and proclaim his victory to the demons in the dark places? You know, possibly maybe that might be what that verse is saying. So. But yeah, it makes so he descended into the place of the dead, but he didn't go to hell to suffer, I think is the the bottom line for most people. So as we come to the end of Holy Week, our conversation about Holy Week, hopefully there's been a good chance to just get to reflect and think about what it is that we're seeing, this moment in history that we're having. Because I just, man, we don't want to miss it. I think, you know, every year we get the chance to just remember and to celebrate who Jesus is, what he has done for us. And so next time we're going to talk about the good news of Easter, but we're gonna leave it right now in the sad news of Good Friday until we pick up next time. So thanks for joining us, everybody. Thanks for Pastor Ryan. Appreciate it. [00:32:03] Speaker B: Thanks, everyone. [00:32:04] Speaker A: Have a great Holy Week. [00:32:07] Speaker C: Thanks for listening. If you found this episode helpful, share it with someone today. [00:32:11] Speaker B: You can follow. [00:32:12] Speaker C: That's Good Question. And find more episodes wherever you listen to podcasts. That's Good Question is brought to you by Round the Table, a ministry of Peace Church in Meadowville, Michigan.