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Overview

The purpose of this post is to explore the following questions: What is Easter? What is the purpose of all the mini-holidays that happen on Easter week?

These mini-holidays include:

  • Palm Sunday (the Sunday before Easter)
  • Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter)
  • Good Friday (the Friday before Easter)
  • Easter

Each of these mini-holidays point to specific moments in the life of Jesus leading up to His death and resurrection. The purpose of this blog post is to help connect the dots between each of these these celebrations, the rituals that often accompany them, and the historical events in the week of Jesus’ death and resurrection. I will do this by sharing the passages from each of the four Gospels (the books in the Bible that record the life of Jesus) that correspond to each mini-holidays with brief clarifying comments about specific aspects of Christains’ modern celebrations or language in the text.

Generally, Christian holidays, and the rituals that accompany them, are all about remembering something that God has done. Specifically, Christians celebrate and remember those things that have been documented and transmitted in the form of written word in the Bible.

Note: I will use the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) for all quotations from the Bible. The NRSV is the English translation most commonly used by Biblical scholars.

What is Palm Sunday?

Triumphal Entry

🌿 Palm Sunday is celebrated the Sunday before Easter. Churches tend to celebrate Palm Sunday by waving big palm branches around at some point during their worship service. In the Church where I grew up, we had a little procession of kids in preschool and elementary school walk through the sanctuary (where we held worship) carrying palm branches and shouting “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

In some Churches, the palm branches are subsequently burned (not during the service, but sometime after), and the ashes of the burned palm branches from one year become the ashes applied to peoples’ foreheads during the following year’s Ash Wednesday.

Note: I’m not going to discuss Ash Wednesday in this post because it doesn’t occur during Easter week and, more generally, does not correspond direclty to an event in Jesus’ life.

What’s the biblical basis for Palm Sunday and its traditions? What’s up with the palm branches and the procession of children?

Palm Sunday celebrates Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem the week of His death and resurrection. The traditions of waving palm branches and shouting “Hosanna!” come from descriptions of the event in the Bible. This event is recorded in all four Gospels (the Gospels are the books of the Bible that recount Jesus’ life and ministry, death, and resurrection) and corresponds to prophecies in the Old Testament (the Jewish scriptures that make up the first part of the Christian Bible). Here are the descriptions from each of the Gospels:

The Biblical record of Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem

📖 From the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 21:

When they [Jesus and his disciples] had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, “The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately. “ This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, “Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

📖 From the Gospel of Mark, chapter 11:

When they [Jesus and his disciples] were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, “Why are you doing this?’ just say this, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’ “ They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

📖 From the Gospel of Luke, chapter 19:

After he [Jesus] had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, “Why are you untying it?’ just say this, “The Lord needs it.’ “ So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They said, “The Lord needs it.” Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”

📖 From the Gospel of John, chapter 12:

The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord— the King of Israel!” Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written: “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”

Connections between texts and to modern celebration

  • 💡 Palm branches: Three of the four Gospel accounts mention the crowd getting some kind of branch and spreading those branches on the road in front of Jesus. The writers of Matthew and Mark write “branches from the trees” and “branches that they had cut in the fields,” respectively, while John’s Gospel specifically mentions “branches of palm trees.” John’s specific designation of palm trees and the recurring scene across the Gospels of people in the crowd taking branches and laying them on the path before Jesus has led to the incorperation of palm branches into Palm Sunday, and into the name of Palm Sunday itself.

  • 💡 “Blessed is he…”: The commonly repeated phrase in Palm Sunday services is “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” Hosanna is simply a happy or exciting shout, like “Woohoo!”. The “Blessed is He…” phrase corresponds to the shouts of the crowds around Jesus as recorded in all four Gospels:

    • Matthew: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

    • Mark: “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

    • Luke: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”

    • John: “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord— the King of Israel!”

You will notice that the crowd calls Jesus “the Son of David,” and relates Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem to “the coming kingdom of our ancestor David” (Matthew and Mark, respectively). The title “Son of David” refers to a specific promise that God makes with David, one of the first Kings of the nation of Israel, who was born around 1000 BCE. The promise is recorded in the book of 2 Samuel, which is a part of the Old Testament (Jewish scriptures), and it reads like this:

When your [David’s] days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

The crowd around Jesus interprets his arrival in Jerusalem as the inaguration of the kingdom which God promised to establish through David’s offspring.

  • 💡 The donkey: As you read the accounts of Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem, it’s clear that the donkey is important. All four of the Gospel writers include descriptions of the donkey, and three of the Gospels have fairly lengthy descriptions of how the donkey was acquired for Jesus. Why is the donkey so important? Note how both Matthew’s and John’s Gospels give us insight.

    • Matthew: “This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, “Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

    • John: “Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written: “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!””

The writers are referring to a message the prophet Zechariah (c. 520-518 BCE) preached to the nation of Israel, recorded in the book of Zechariah in the Old Testament (Zechariah chapter 9 verse 9). Both of the Gospel writers quote this passage and interpret Jesus’ choice to ride on a donkey as a fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy that Israel’s king would come riding on a donkey’s colt. This helps explain why the crowd interprets Jesus’ arrival as inagurating the kingdom of David.

What is Maundy Thursday?

🍷 Maundy Thursday is celebrated the Thursday before Easter and remembers the Passover meal that Jesus shares with His disciples the night before He’s crucified. Passover is in turn a Jewish holiday that remembers and celebrates God rescuing the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt (c. 13th century BCE) as recorded in the Old Testament book of Exodus.

Churches celebrate Maundy Thursday by holding a meal, usually including food and drink from the original Jewish passover, including:

  • Unleavened bread
  • Wine (or grape juice in some denomentations)
  • Bitter herbs
  • Lamb

Churches also sometimes hold a foot-washing ceremony. This looks very different from Church to Church. I’ve seen foot-washing ceremonies happen the following ways:

  • The pastor washes the feet of one or several of the attendees
  • The pastor and deacons (other volunteer Church leaders) wash the feet of one or several of the attendees
  • All attendees wash each others’ feet, either in pairs or small groups

Churches also celebrate Maundy Thursday by reading the stories of the event as recorded in each of the four Gospels. Here are the accounts:

The Biblical record of Jesus’ last Passover meal with His disciples

📖 From the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 26:

On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?” He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is near; I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’” So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover meal.

When it was evening, he took his place with the twelve; and while they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.” And they became greatly distressed and began to say to him one after another, “Surely not I, Lord?” He answered, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.” Judas, who betrayed him, said, “Surely not I, Rabbi?” He replied, “You have said so.”

While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

📖 From the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14:

On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, “Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?” So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.” So the disciples set out and went to the city, and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.

When it was evening, he came with the twelve. And when they had taken their places and were eating, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” They began to be distressed and to say to him one after another, “Surely, not I?” He said to them, “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the bowl with me. For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.”

While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

📖 From the Gospel of Luke, chapter 22:

Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover meal for us that we may eat it.” They asked him, “Where do you want us to make preparations for it?” “Listen,” he said to them, “when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him into the house he enters and say to the owner of the house, ‘The teacher asks you, “Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’ He will show you a large room upstairs, already furnished. Make preparations for us there.” So they went and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.

When the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. But see, the one who betrays me is with me, and his hand is on the table. For the Son of Man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that one by whom he is betrayed!” Then they began to ask one another which one of them it could be who would do this.

📖 From the Gospel of John, chapter 13:

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But it is to fulfill the scripture, ‘The one who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ I tell you this now, before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am he. Very truly, I tell you, whoever receives one whom I send receives me; and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.”

After saying this Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, “Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me.” The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking. One of his disciples—the one whom Jesus loved—was reclining next to him; Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So while reclining next to Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot. After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “Do quickly what you are going to do.” Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that, because Judas had the common purse, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the festival”; or, that he should give something to the poor. So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.

When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Connections between texts and to modern celebration

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