Events of Holy Week: Palm Sunday

For anyone who has studied in-depth the last week of the Savior's mortal ministry, you know there are some, well, inconsistencies. Did Jesus really cleanse the Temple on Sunday (as Matthew and Luke describe), or did it happen on Monday (as Mark's gospel records)? Were there two women who anointed the feet/head of Jesus (one on the Saturday before Palm Sunday as John records, and one on Wednesday), or was it just one woman? Was Jesus actually crucified at 9:00 AM or at noon of Good Friday? Or perhaps the most perplexing of all, was the Last Supper an actual Passover feast, or did Jesus celebrate the feast a day early?

The simple answer, no one really knows. Scholars disagree on how to resolve the inconsistencies, however, when you study Holy Week as four separate stories, a beautiful tapestry of depth and meaning arises. In searching for timelines of Holy Week, I never found one that really addressed all of these intricate issues. So, I decided to make my own. Hopefully, this timeline of the events of Holy Week will help you appreciate the beauty of this most significant week in history. Hopefully, it will help you understand that the Gospel writers most likely were more interested in preserving the profound symbolism of Holy Week, and not so much an hour-by-hour chronology of events.

Over the next week, in an attempt to show the hidden meaning of the events of Holy Week, I will share several of the most precious gems I have discovered over the years. To begin, I will start with Palm Sunday.

Palm Sunday

Each of the four Gospels records the events of the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. According to the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), the event took place on the 10th day of the month of Abib, the same day when all Jews were choosing their Passover lambs. According to the Law of Moses, the Israelites were to select their lambs on the 10th day of the month, five days before Passover (see Exodus 12:3). Once selected, the lamb was then taken into the homes of the families of Israel where it lived for the next five days (see Exodus 12:3-6). On the fourteenth day of the month, the family was then to take the lamb to the temple, kill it without breaking any bones, and then take the carcass back to the home for the Passover feast. During the first Passover, when Israel was still in Egypt, the blood of the lamb was then dabbed on the doorposts, protecting their home from the destroying angel. This made for a poignant lesson for the children, who after living with the lamb and becoming fond of it, would see it killed and eaten, so that they could be saved.

The significance of the timing is that on the very same day that all Jews were choosing their Passover lambs, Jesus (the true Lamb of God) rides into Jerusalem and is chosen by the people as their Messiah (Matthew 21:1-11). It is also significant that during the same time period that the Passover lambs were being taken into the Jewish homes for the next five days, Jesus is found teaching in his Father's house, the Temple of God (Luke 19:47). According to John, five days later, at the same time when thousands of Passover lambs were being sacrificed, the true Passover lamb, Jesus Christ, died on the cross. Truly, it was the blood of the Lamb of God, that was shed on the cross, that protects us from the destroying angel of death and sin. It is because of Him, that we can live.