On Holy Wednesday, Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, anointed Jesus’s feet with a costly perfume made of nard. She also wiped his feet with her hair. Upon seeing this, several disciples were upset by their perceived waste of expensive ointment when that monetary value could have been donated to the poor. Upon hearing this, Jesus replied, “She hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.”
This event might have been the last straw that broke scheming Judas Iscariot’s back. Upset by Jesus’ financial decision-making and frustrated that his plans for political domination did not seem likely, Judas left to betray Jesus to corrupt Jewish leaders.
Meanwhile, Jesus spent the day resting and preparing for the monumental events that would occur the remainder of the week. Today, we can reflect on the negative ways we betray the Lord and His gospel, on the one hand, and the positive ways we rest our minds and hearts in preparation for deeper personal sacrifice, on the other.
Today, I include bonus content sharing parallels between Holy Week and the Jewish Passover. For more, see this video.
| Holy Week | Jewish Passover Parallel |
|---|---|
| Sinless Jesus is hailed as King of Kings, chosen by his followers, leading to His sacrifice. | Unblemished lambs are chosen for sacrifice. Two are selected; one is released, and the other is sacrificed. |
| Jesus cleansed the temple (i.e., His Father’s house) by removing unclean inflated prices on foreigners and the poorer classes. | Israelites cleaned their homes by removing unclean leaven (e.g., bread yeast), which was considered unclean because leavened bread rots faster than unleavened bread. |
| Jesus teaches the Olivet discourse, including the parable of the Ten Virgins about choosing to be chosen. | Israel is called to covenant to be God’s chosen people |
| Last Supper. | Manna from heaven. |
| Pilot releases Barabbas, whose full name was Jesus Barabbas. This name means “Jesus, son of the father.” | One of the sacrificial lambs is released. |
| Jesus is sacrificed. His blood was shed on a wooden cross, which opened the doors to our eternal home. | A lamb is sacrificed. Its blood was shed on the wooden frames of doors on Israelite homes. |
| Jesus was in the tomb and did not rise for three days. | Unleavened bread did not rise. |
| Jesus preached the gospel in the spirit world. | The Israelites learned the gospel by traveling for forty years in the wilderness. |
| The resurrection of Jesus Christ crosses the chasm between death and eternal life into the promised Kingdom of Heaven. | Joshua led the Israelites through the Jordan River into the promised land. |