Holy Week Questions

 Sixth Friday in Lent

Lectionary Texts:

Mark 14:53-72

Mark 15:1-15

Next week is Holy Week, the most sacred time of the Christian Year. The blog next week will be different. Rather than our usual schedule, I'll be talking about the last week of Jesus' life. In particular I will be dealing with some of the historical controversies surrounding the events of that week:

1. Palm Sunday. Was Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on a donkey making a mockery of the widespread Jewish belief that the messiah would be a great military leader like David?

2. The Temple disruption. Jesus' disruption of the outer courtyard of the Temple is commonly thought of as a protest against Temple commercialization. It wasn't. What were Jesus' motivations in this act?

3. The Last Supper. What were Jesus' intentions in calling the bread his body and the wine his blood?

4. The trials. There are a number of legal irregularities in the two trials (three in Luke) of Jesus. 

5. The crucifixion. Why did it take Jesus only six hours to die on the cross, while most crucifixions take two to three days?

7. The descent into hell. Why do Methodists leave it out of the Apostles' Creed?

6. The resurrection. Jewish secondary burials. The empty tomb accounts. Mark's lack of resurrection appearances. Chronology of resurrection appearances.

If you have other historical questions or faith questions about the events of Holy Week, send them to me, I'll do my best to answer them.

 

We're at our condo in Manteo in the OBX. I forgot to bring Witherington's Commerntary on Acts, which I have been using in our Acts study. I did bring Kenneth Collin's book John Wesley: A Theological Journey, which I have been re-reading in connection with our study of early Methodism.  Tomorrow we will do the Methodism Study rather than the Acts Bible Study.

Lord Jesus,

Help us in the coming days to grow in knowledge and faith, as we seek greater understanding of that most important week in human history. Amen.

Faithfully,

Christian