Biblical Explorations

Exploring the final week of Jesus' life

Paula Gooder

• Publisher: Canterbury Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781848255715
• eBook ISBN: 9781848255739
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

Focuses on the events leading up to the first Easter, from the triumphal entry into Jerusalem to the empty tomb. Paula Gooder uses her extensive knowledge of the world of the New Testament, its language and culture, to reveal fresh and startling insights and to open up hidden depths in these familiar stories.

1. Towards Jerusalem and the Temple

The Triumphal Entry

Matthew 21.1–11; Mark 11.1–10; Luke 19.29–40; John 12.12–17

The account of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem marks the moment when his death begins to look inevitable and unavoidable. Although the shadow of the cross has fallen over Jesus’ life and ministry for many chapters, his entry into Jerusalem is the moment when the focus shifts significantly and we, the readers, become aware that what follows will involve us in accompanying Jesus to death and beyond.

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Mark 11.1–10 When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples 2and said to them, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. 3If anyone says to you, “Why are you doing this?” just say this, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.”’ 4They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, 5some of the bystanders said to them, ‘What are you doing, untying the colt?’ 6They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it.

7Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. 8Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. 9Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 10Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!’

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The popularly used title ‘the triumphal entry’ for this event is an intriguing one. As soon as you start thinking about it, it becomes clear that ‘triumphal entry’ can only be applied in the most ironic of senses to what happens to Jesus on his way into Jerusalem. Jesus is not triumphant at this point. His ministry is not complete. He has achieved only the most superficial recognition by the crowds and even his own disciples do not fully understand who he is. Even John’s Gospel, which regards Jesus’ death as his moment of glory, could not claim triumph as his death has not yet taken place.

So this is not in any usual sense a triumphal entry. It is an ‘anti-triumph’, or a triumph subverted. It is a triumph of the true nature of God: a nature that eschews pomp and splendour, a nature that acts out of love rather than status, and faithfulness rather than superficial gain. It is no surprise, therefore, that we cling to this title to describe this event, and rightly so, since it points us towards a subtle answer to the question, ‘Why did Jesus die?’ He died because God’s understanding of what makes for a triumph is light years away from our own.

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The prearrangement of the loan of a donkey

The account of the disciples going ahead to borrow a donkey is an intriguing one. It seems an unnecessary detail to insert and yet Matthew, Mark and Luke all include it. Only John resorts to saying that Jesus ‘found’ a donkey without exploring how or where he found it. One thing that this brief little snippet does for us is to remind us how little, in fact, we know of Jesus and his life. The implication of this story is that the donkey belongs to someone whom Jesus knows and with whom he has prearranged a loan of the donkey for the occasion. Who this person was, exactly how they knew Jesus or even how Jesus made such a prior arrangement, is lost in the mists of time.

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What did Jesus’ actions imply?

One of the questions that the triumphal entry raises is how much of the symbolic resonance of what was going on would have been picked up by the people at the time; the disciples then or afterwards; the first hearers of the stories; the Gospel writers and even the Gospel writers’ audience. This passage is rich with symbolism and suggested meaning, but it is hard to know how much of this would have been recognized at the time, how much would have been suggested later by the way in which the tellers and writers of the story recounted the events, and how much has been read into the narrative by later interpreters. Nevertheless, it is worth taking time to stop and explore some of the richness implied in the text.

It is clear, when Jesus began to ride rather than walk, that something important was taking place. Perhaps this gives us something of a clue as to why Matthew, Mark and Luke all include the little story about the prearrangement of a loan of a donkey. This was a conscious, deliberate act, not an accidental one.

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One donkey or two?

One of my favourite little moments of this story comes from Matthew’s Gospel, where the disciples are sent to bring not one donkey but two: a mother and her foal:

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. (21.6–7)

It is a moment where you can’t help wondering what image was in Matthew’s mind as he wrote. The reference to the donkey and the colt comes from Zechariah 9.9 (see below) which mentions both. Matthew’s concern to show that this passage is being fulfilled here is so great that he includes both. It is much more likely that what was going on in Zechariah was Hebrew parallelism, where the same idea was repeated in a slightly different form for emphasis, but Matthew has taken it literally and included both animals in his narrative.

What he describes is hard to imagine. Does Jesus sit on both at once, or one after the other? The answer is probably that Matthew didn’t picture anything; his concern was more to demonstrate the clear connection with Zechariah 9.9. Nevertheless, the odd notion of Jesus straddling two donkeys on his way into Jerusalem never fails to make me smile.

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At this stage in his journey, the road to Jerusalem would have been thronged with people. Passover was a feast of obligation and so everyone in the country would, if at all possible, have converged in Jerusalem for the feast. This would have meant hundreds of thousands of people coming to the city. Many of these would have travelled together and friendships would have formed along the way. As a result, it would be possible to surmise that Jesus, tired from the long walk, had simply and coincidentally got on any old donkey belonging to one of the members of the crowd who were travelling that route together. But the explicit recounting of a specific journey made to collect a donkey for Jesus to ride removes any doubt in the matter. Jesus’ riding of a donkey was no accidental, spur of the moment coincidence. It was deliberate and pre-planned. It is clear we are intended to read something into it, but what did it symbolize?

It is widely known that victorious Roman generals, when returning to Rome, would ride a white horse in their ‘triumph’. A triumph was a carefully planned procession to show the people back in Rome what a great and marvellous general they were. In the procession they would bring all the loot (the treasures and the slaves) that they had purloined as a result of the victory and by doing so demonstrate how triumphant they were. If the notion of a Roman triumphal procession lies behind Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, it is clearly and importantly a subversion of this kind of event. The mode of transport is a donkey not a white horse; the people in the procession all came willingly and were not coerced; Jesus’ triumph is yet to come and is in any case (as above) the kind of triumph only God would think triumphant.

So the narrative may bring to mind a Roman triumph, but much closer literary links can be found in Jewish tradition.

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1 Maccabees 13.51 On the twenty-third day of the second month, in the one hundred and seventy-first year, the Jews entered it with praise and palm branches, and with harps and cymbals and stringed instruments, and with hymns and songs, because a great enemy had been crushed and removed from Israel.

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One very striking passage from Maccabees recounts the victorious procession of the Maccabean army into Jerusalem after they had conquered Jerusalem in the Maccabean war against the Syrian Greek (Seleucid) Empire. Particularly striking here is the reference to the Maccabees being accompanied with praise and palm branches as Jesus also was. While the same objection applies to this as to the Roman triumph – that Jesus was not yet victorious – here it is possible that the actions of those accompanying Jesus into Jerusalem were intentional and hopeful. It could be that the crowd had this event from Maccabees in mind as they journeyed into Jerusalem and saw Jesus as a new Simon Maccabaeus come to drive a new occupying army out of their city.

Alongside this passage is also Zechariah, and if we connect the Maccabees with parts of Zechariah then Messianic bells begin to ring. There is, of course, Zechariah 9.9, which reminds us of the combined identity of the future king as both victorious and humble.

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Zechariah 9.9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

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This connection may also have resonances of 1 Kings 1.33 which described Solomon’s journey to his coronation riding on a mule. But as well as this there is also Zechariah 14.4 which identifies the Mount of Olives as the place where the Lord will stand to begin the redemption of Israel.

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Zechariah 14.4 On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which lies before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley …

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All of this implies that in Jesus’ deliberate mounting of a donkey on the Mount of Olives were enough clues to suggest to the crowd that he was the longed-for king-like figure who had come to redeem his people, and that they responded by hailing him as the crowd had done to Simon Maccabaeus only 150 or so years before. It’s intriguing to ask what happened to the crowd following Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem; they appear simply to melt away as the narrative turns once more to Jesus and his followers, but why? What was it that so gripped their attention one minute and so entirely slipped from their minds the next? What is likely is that when Jesus did nothing more dramatic, more pressing needs (finding somewhere to stay, locating family members, and so on) took over and their adulation of Jesus took second place in their minds.

Cry ‘Hosanna’

For many people it comes as quite a surprise to discover that the word ‘Hosanna’ comes, in English, only here in the Bible; though in Hebrew it appears here and in Psalm 118.25. ‘Hosanna’ is so widely used in worship songs and in hymns that it is easy to assume that it is dotted throughout the psalms with as much abandon as the word ‘Hallelujah’. It is not, and in English translations is found only in ...

Table of contents

• Copyright information
• Contents
• Prologue
• Introduction
• Chapter 1
• The Cursing of the Fig Tree, the Cleansing of the Temple and the Parable of the Tenants
• Between the Cleansing of the Temple and the Last Supper
• The Widow’s Gift
• Jesus’ Lament over Jerusalem
• The Anointing of Jesus
• On Hosannas
• Chapter 2
• The Preparation of the Meal
• The Last Supper
• On Remembering
• Chapter 3
• Jesus’ Prayer in Gethsemane
• The Arrest
• The Trials
• The First Trial Before the Sanhedrin and the Mocking of Jesus
• The Trial of Peter
• Judas’ Change of Heart
• The Trial Before Pilate
• The Exchange Between Jesus and Pilate in John’s Gospel
• The Trial Before Herod Antipas
• On Trials
• Chapter 4
• Simon of Cyrene
• While the Wood is Green
• The Crucifixion: Part 1
• The Crucifixion: Part 2
• The Burial of Jesus
• On Darkness and Light
• Chapter 5
• He is Not Here
• The Empty Tomb in the Other Gospels
• Looking in the Tomb
• Resurrection Appearances 1: Assurance that He is Risen
• The Road to Emmaus
• Resurrection Appearances 2: Commissioning
• Go and Make Disciples
• Feed my Lambs
• On the Road to Emmaus
• Epilogue
• Questions for Bible Study/Lent Groups
• For Further Reading