Passion Week

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PASSION WEEK.

LThe last week that our Lord lived upon the earth, and in which he passed through those terrible ordeals that ended in his crucifixion and burial, is called passion week. It is beyond all question the most interesting period of Messiah's life, and for that reason we have decided to publish in the Era the events of Passion Week as they occurred day by day, giving the own month. date in the Jewish month, and the corresponding date in our It should be remarked, however, that it cannot be affirmed that these dates are absolutely correct; but they are the ones usually accepted. In the whole matter we follow very closely the paper of the most Rev. Wm. Thomson, D. D., Lord Archbishop of York, on "Jesus Christ," as published in Hackett's Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. It is hoped that the articles which will

appear upon this subject will have the effect of keeping up an interest in the subject of the past season's Manual]

THE EVENING OF THE SABBATH, NINTH OF NISAN (April istj :

As Jesus was at supper in the house of one Simon, sur- named "the leper," a relation of Lazarus, who was at table with him, Mary, full of gratitude for the wonderful raising of her bro- ther from the dead, took a vessel containing a quantity of pure ointment of spikenard, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and anointed his head likewise. She thought not of the cost of the precious ointment in an emotion of love which was willing to part with anything she possessed to do honor to so great a guest, so mighty a benefactor. Judas the traitor, and some of the dis ciples, who took their tone from him, began to murmur at the waste: "It might have been sold for more than three hun- dred pence and have been given to the poor." But Judas cared not for the poor; already he was meditating the sale of his Master's life, and all that he thought of was how he might

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lay hands on something more, beyond the price of blood.

Jesus, however, who knew how true was the love which had dictated this sacrifice, silenced their censure. He opened out a meaning in the action which they had not sought there: "She is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying."

SUNDAY, THE TENTH OF NISAN, (April 2nd), commencement of PASSION WEEK f roper The question of John the Baptist had no doubt often been repeated in the hearts of the expectant disciples: "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?" All his conversations with them of late had been filled, not with visions of glory, but with forebodings of approaching death. The world thinks the disciples deceived, and its mockery begins to exercise some influence even over them. They need some encouraging sign under influences so depressing, and this Jesus affords them in the triumphal entrance into Jerusalem. If the narrative is carefully examined it will be seen how remarkably the assertion of a kingly right is com- bined with the most scrupulous care not to excite the political jealousy of the Jewish powers. When he arrives at the Mount of Olives he commands two of his disciples to go into the village near at hand, where they would find an ass, and a colt tied with her. They were neither to buy nor hire them; and "If any man shall say aught to you, ye shall say, the Lord hath need of them, and straightway he will send them." With these beasts, impressed as for the service of a king, he was to enter into Jerusalem. The disciples spread upon the ass their ragged cloaks for him to sit upon. And the multitudes cried aloud before him, in the words of the 118 Psalm, "Hosanna, save now! blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." This Messianic psalm they ap- plied to him, from a belief, sincere for the moment, that he was the Messiah. It was a striking, and to the Pharisees an alarming sight; but it only serves in the end to show the feeble hearts of the Jewish people. The same lips that cried "hosanna," will before long be crying, "Crucify him, crucify him." Meantime, however, all thoughts were carried back to

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the promises of a Messiah. The very act of riding into Jeru- — salem upon an ass revived an old prophecy of Zechariah "Re- joice greatly, O daughter of Zion: Shout, O daughter of Jeru- salem; behold thy king cometh unto thee; he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass" (IX: 9). Words of prophecy out of a psalm sprang unconsciously to their lips. All the city was moved. Blind and lame came to the temple when he arrived there, and were healed. The august conspirators of the Sanhedrin were sore displeased. But all these demonstrations did not deceive the divine insight of Christ. He wept over the city that was hailing him king and said, "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes" (Luke). He goes on to prophesy the destruction of the city, just as it afterwards came to pass. After working miracles in the tem- ple, he returned to Bethany. The 10th of Nisan was the day for the separation of the paschal lamb (Ex. XII: 3). Jesus, the Lamb of God, entered Jerusalem and the temple on this day, and although none but he knew that he was the paschal Lamb, the coincidence is not undesigned (Matt. XXI: 1-11, 14-17; Mark XI: 1-11; Luke XIX: 29-44; John XII: 12-19).

MONDAY, ELEVENTH OF NISAN, (April 3rd) :

The next day Jesus returned to Jerusalem, again to take advantage of the mood of the people to instruct them. On the way he approached one of the many fig-trees which grew in that quarter (Bethphage, "house of the figs"), and found that it was full of foliage but without fruit. He said, "No man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever!" and the fig- tree withered away. This was no doubt a work of destruction, and as such was unlike the usual tenor of his acts. But it is hard to understand the minds of those who stumble at the destruction of a tree, which seemed to have ceased to bear, by the word of God the Son, yet are not Offended at the famine or the pestilence wrought by God the Father. The right of the Son must rest on the same ground as that of the

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Father. And this was not a wanton destruction; it was a type and a warning. The barren fig-tree had already been made the subject of a parable: "A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he to the dresser of his vineyard, behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this tree, and find none; cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?" (Luke XIII: 6). It was evidently the intention of Messiah to give an object lesson both to nations and individuals, which should teach forever that both nations and men who bore no fruit of righteousness should be rejected. Did the act especially foreshadow the rejection of the Jewish people, to whom Messiah came seeking fruit but found none nothing — — but leaves forms of Godliness only, while denying the power of God? Proceeding now to the Temple he cleared its courts of the crowd of traders that gathered there. He had performed the same act at the beginning of his ministry, and now at the close he repeats it, for the house of prayer was as much a den of thieves as ever. With zeal for God's house his ministry began, with the same it ended. (Mark XIX: 15-19; Luke XI: 45-48). In the evening he returned again to Bethany.