STUDY SUNDAY: EASTER – THE HOLY WEEK

Happy Easter everyone! In today’s Study Sunday we will be studying the topic Easter from Matthew 21, 26-27, in reference to the Holy Week, giving you an overview of Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane all leading up to His crucifixion and resurrection. 

We will be doing something a little different with this Study Sunday, you have the option of either reading today’s Easter Study or listening to the audio guide, it’s up to you.

Without a further ado, let’s get started! I hope this study blesses you 🙂

PALM SUNDAY

Palm Sunday is an event that took place the week before His death and resurrection, celebrating Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Now, Jesus may have entered in a way that would have second guessed people’s views of how the King of the Jews or the Messiah should look like. 

What people thought the Messiah would be like?	What Jesus was really like?
He would come on a white horse	He came on a donkey
He would be victorious and defeat the pagans without suffering	He was victorious and did defeat the devil’s work of sin, but He had to suffer on the cross to do so
He would come and people would serve Him	He came to serve not to be served

Jesus was about challenging the cultural views and traditions which the Jews had. 

With that came a challenge of having to change their mindsets, their thoughts and their way of living. 

Jesus was trying to get their minds to be transformed into a kingdom mindset.

If you have not realised but Jesus was heavy on teaching about the kingdom of God, and that wasn’t for no reason. There was a purpose in that. 

And He is challenging us today that what we are putting our focus on actually does not need our attention. 

This world will get you caught up in so many things to distract you from what you really need to have your mind on and that is on the kingdom of God.

Social media, our careers, school, work, people’s opinions of us overwhelm and live rent free in our minds, occupying too much space which pushes out the tenant who paid for our lives – Jesus Christ

What is the point of gaining all of these things to then forfeit your soul?

This is not where our focus should be. These things can’t save you. We worry over them like they are the pinnacle of life.

We rely on these things as a means to guarantee us success, but success is not determined on what you can achieve or gain in this world, but it is determined by Jesus gaining your soul, and having eternal life in Him. 

During the Holy Week leading up to His crucifixion, Jesus set the example for us. He showed us here that He was not going to allow the people to give Him the standard of who the Messiah should be, but He knew that He was the standard and therefore was going to bring people to His level instead of going down to theirs.

The same way as Christians we shouldn’t conform to the standards of the world, but have the world conform to the standards of God.

THE LAST SUPPER AND THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE

Now onto the Last Supper and the Garden of Gethsemane.

In the Garden of Gethsemane this was Jesus’ first prayer: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39)

His second prayer was: “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” (Matthew 26:42)

And His third prayer was the same (Matthew 26:44).

Jesus pretty much prayed the same prayer 3 times, why was there such emphasis on this cup?

Well, we know that in the Passover Meal at the last Supper, the cup of wine represents the blood of Jesus that would be shed on the cross which would represent the New Covenant that would be established. 

But what was the significance of this cup? 

Well, this cup was the cup of wrath. It was the wrath of God. The wrath which God has against sin. Really and truly the consequence of our sin is to be judged through the wrath of God which would ultimately mean we would perish and not have eternal life.

This is the judgement that we would have had to face if it wasn’t for Jesus. Jesus took our deserved and rightful place – death.

But not only that, He did something which Adam couldn’t do.

 Let me explain. 

In 1 Corinthians 15:45 it says, “The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.” But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit.”

We see here that Christ is represented to be the Second and Last Adam. 

So, the question is why is there a need for a Second Adam, and how is Christ the Last Adam?

Well, the first sin was committed in the Garden of Eden where Adam was given the instruction by God to prevent sin from happening. And as we know the consequence of sin is death. And that’s what exactly happened.

So, now coming back to the Garden of Gethsemane, it is not a coincidence that Jesus was saying this prayer and it being in a garden.

This was in the Father’s plan all along, Jesus needed to do what Adam couldn’t do, for us to not perish but instead spend eternity with the Father in heaven and for the work of the devil to be destroyed.

We are not waiting on another Messiah or any other god. Jesus is the Messiah and the one and only true Living God, who knew no sin but came and died for our sins so we wouldn’t perish but instead to give us eternal life. 

Like the Scripture says He is a “life giving Spirit”.

THE CRUCIFIXION AND RESURRECTION

I know we have heard the crucifixion so many times, that maybe it feels a bit watered down, but today I want you to truly recognise the power behind of what Jesus did. 

I’m going to pick out somethings that may not have particularly been highlighted as much before but yet have a lot of significance. 

Why 3 days?

Why did it take 3 days for Jesus to rise from the dead? Why not less or longer?

Well, it actually takes 24-72 hours after death for the internal organs to decompose.

It takes 3-5 days after death for the body to start bloating and for blood-containing foam to leak from the mouth and nose. 

It takes 8-10 days after death for the body to turn green to red as the blood decomposes and the organs in the tummy accumulate gas. 

After that nails and teeth fall out and the body starts to liquify after 1 month.

I know, gross, but stay with me.

I believe it took 3 days because if it took less than that, Jesus’ organs wouldn’t have been decomposed and thus defeat the purpose of Him resurrecting from the dead, because He wouldn’t have been considered as dead.

I also believe it took 3 days and not longer than that because His blood would have become contaminated and had decomposed, which would have defeated the purpose of this same blood which redeems us. 

So, overall, I believe 3 was the perfect number because if not the purpose of His blood and the resurrection would have been nullified.

Why Golgotha?

Now, why Golgotha or aka Calvary? Why did Jesus have to die at this place?

Well, Golgotha means “Place of a Skull” in Aramaic and Latin. It could have been named this because the hill was shaped as a skull.

Here is why I believe Jesus died at this specific site.

In 2 Corinthians 10:5, Paul talks about us having spiritual weapons to wage spiritual warfare with and that this weapon will casts “down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,”

But what is this weapon that is able to wage spiritual warfare in our minds?

Let’s look at Ephesians 6:17 where once again Paul talks about spiritual warfare in this context it is about the armour of God and it says “Take the helmet of salvation…”

A helmet goes on your head or skull, right? The same place Paul tells us which should destroy every thought that comes against the knowledge of God.

Which is also the same place which Jesus died at.

Piecing this all together, the reason why I believe Jesus had to die at the Place of the Skull because I believe Jesus knew that our minds is the place where the devil would love to take territory in. 

To give us thoughts of lies of who God is, making us doubt in God, fearful and anxious of things which would distract us from the power of God. 

Instead of focusing on the lies of the enemy, let us be reminded daily of what Jesus did for us on the cross. 

There’s great power in that which surpasses anything that the enemy can do. Jesus destroyed the devil’s work on that very cross. “It is finished!” (John 19:30) . The price was paid in full.

Why the sour wine?

And the last thing I want to point out is why did Jesus refuse to drink the sour wine.

I read a commentary that explained the reason perfectly, the link to it will be reference below. 

And it says “It was customary to give those about to be crucified a pain-numbing and mind-numbing drink, to lessen their awareness of the agony awaiting them. But Jesus refused any numbing drug. He chose to face the spiritual and physical terror with His senses awake.”

Yo, our Lord and Saviour endured every single pain, and His death was slow. He was not killed by a gunshot; it wasn’t a quick death. He was adamant to suffer every aspect of His death so that we wouldn’t. 

When He said He would take the cup if the Father wills it, He meant every single word of that even in the midst of sorrow.

That’s the God we serve.

Happy Easter everyone! 

Stay Blessed,  

Divine L.

Reference:

Enduring Word Commentary – https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/matthew-27/