Including today there are 27 days until Easter Sunday 2015. And while most of us are familiar with the last days of Christ (Passion Week), we are less familiar with the chronology of Christ’s life otherwise. Many things we may date with some certainty – when Christ was born, what year he entered the temple as a young boy, the year He began His public ministry, and the dates of His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension - but from there we must be content with a more a general placement/dating of His public ministry. In other words, we know the ‘what’ and ‘where’ of His ministry but are less sure about the ‘when’ of many of these events.
Now what we can do by studying Christ’s life as revealed in the Gospel's is divide His public ministry into 9 journeys. The first 6 take place in Galilee, with Capernaum as home base, while the last 3 are in Judea. The last journeys show Christ traveling to Jerusalem 3 times, the final of which occurs during Passover, AD 29. In that year Passover (or, 14th day of Nissan) was on April 18th - and looking at this journey we may time its events with our modern calendar of between late February and mid April.
The following texts of Luke 17-22; Mark 10, 14; Matthew 19-26; and John 10-11 comprise our view, then, of Christ's last journey into Jerusalem:
Jesus travels from Ephraim northward through Samaria, then eastward along the border of Galilee into Peraea, then southward through Peraea, westward across the Jordan, through Jericho, Bethany on Mt. Olivet, Bethphage, and finally to Jerusalem. While in the most northern part of the journey, He cured ten lepers; a little later, He answered the questions raised by the Pharisees concerning the kingdom of God. Then He urged the need of incessant prayer by proposing the parable of the unjust judge; here too belong the parable of the Pharisee and Publican, the discourse on marriage, on the attitude of the Church towards the children, on the right use of riches as illustrated by the story of the rich young ruler, and the parable of the labourers in the vineyard. After beginning His route towards Jerusalem, He predicted His Passion for the third time; James and John betray their ambition, but they are taught the true standard of greatness in the Church. At Jericho Jesus heals two blind men, and receives the repentance of Zacheus the publican; here He proposed also the parable of the pounds entrusted to the servants by the master. After this, comes the last 6 days, which finds Jesus traveling back to Bethany.
Starting tomorrow, then, we will look at some of the various texts and events above. As Jesus moved toward Jerusalem His passion and victory became our own - causing us to say with great praise today….
He Is Risen, indeed!
Pastor
No comments:
Post a Comment