This lesson is a continuation of the previous one.
Garden of Gethsemane
The Passover meal is done. It is midnight or later. Jesus and his disciples leave Jerusalem, go across the Kidron Valley and up the Mount of Olives to the Garden of Gethsemane. There's a cave there, where there was (and maybe still is) an olive press (or oil press). The word for "oil press" is gatshemen, with shemen for "oil" and presumably gat for "press". We get the word "Gethsemane" from it. So the garden here doesn't so much bear the name Gethsemane, as it is simply descriptive -- the garden with the oil press. Olive presses were used September through November. Otherwise the press wasn't used, and the cave was a cool place. Jesus and his disciples frequented the garden, and no doubt cooled down in here on occasions through the years.
In Luke 22:44, Jesus is in anguish over what lies ahead of him, and the weight of it all presses blood out of him, like the gatshemen presses the oil out of the olives.
In Matthew 26:36-46, Jesus asks his disciples to pray, but they keep falling asleep. We often chide them for this, but think how late it is, and how much food and wine they've had. They're exhausted. Jesus prays for this cup to be taken. "I don't want it, but I'll drink it if that's what you want". Why does he do this three times, and then is resigned to go ahead with it?
Deuteronomy 17:6 gives us a clue. Here it says a person cannot be put to death based on the testimony of a single witness; two or three witnesses are required. It is as though each time Jesus goes to pray about the matter he receives a "witness" or a confirmation that he is going to have to die, and after three confirmations, there's no more point in asking again. This is a common idiom we see in the Scriptures. For example:
- The apostle Paul prayed three times for his thorn in the flesh to be removed and then he stopped praying about it (2 Corinthians 12:8).
- Peter saw the vision of the sheet being let down from heaven three time and then he was free to go with Cornelius (Acts 10).
- Peter denied Jesus three times, and Jesus re-affirmed him three times.
- Paul warned the Corinthians of a correction that was now required after three visits (2 Corinthians 13:1).
- Jesus said where two or three are gathered in his name, he would be in the midst of them.
- Jesus used this idiom in teaching, often making a point and then illustrating it with two or three parables.
The Seder litergy actually had 5 cups, though they only drank 4 of them. They didn't know what to do with the 5th cup. It was the cup of God's wrath that they thought would be poured out on the world in the end times when the Messiah came. Some Old Testament references to the cup of God's wrath include Psalm 75:8 and Jeremiah 25:15-16. The Jews didn't drink the 5th cup because the Messiah had not come and God's wrath had not yet been poured out. (Similarly, I think Jesus didn't drink the 4th cup because the Restoration hadn't happened yet). In the Hebrew mind, when Elijah came, he would explain the cup. The Messiah would come right after and would pour out the cup of God's wrath on the nations. Elijah had come, as John the Baptist. John warned of the wrath to come, and Jesus came after him. But Jesus didn't pour out the cup on the world; instead he drank that cup of God's wrath while he was on the cross.
Jesus on the Cross
The proceedings that night and early morning were highly illegal. We've all heard things about that, and no doubt will again next Easter. But Jesus was on the cross at 9:00 in the morning, the time of the morning sacrifices at the temple. People coming into the city to "go to work" had no idea what had happened the night before. It wasn't the general populace that wanted him dead; not the crowds that had hailed him the previous Sunday. It was only the religious leaders who had made this happen all night. He would have been crucified at eye-level, right beside the road. The Romans had perfected this torture, and it served as a stark warning to anyone who thought they could cross Rome.
In Matthew 27:45-46 we see God pouring out his wrath from noon until 3:00. Sometimes it has been suggested that a solar eclipse could have explained the darkness, but that's impossible because this is right near Passover when the moon is full. Jesus cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" We've been taught that during that time God turned his back on his Son because God cannot look on sin. And that may very well be, but there are a couple of reasons we might want to question whether that is what is happening:
- God looks upon sinful man all the time. After Adam and Eve sinned, God came looking for them. When Israel lived in the desert, God lived in the tabernacle right in their midst, even as they continually sinned and did not obey him. Jesus was God and lived right among sinful humanity.
- It doesn't sound like the way Jesus would have addressed God. Didn't he always refer to him as, "My Father"? He did that in the garden just a bit earlier. If he was going to say anything like this, wouldn't it have been, "My Father, my Father, why have you forsaken me?"?
In John 19:28-30, it says that Jesus knows that everything has now been finished. God is done pouring out his wrath; it has been satisfied. Jesus cries out, "I thirst". He has been drinking this cup, willingly, committed to it. "Is it empty? Is there no more?" And when he realizes that it is all done, he says, "It is finished". We know that's the Greek word Tetelestai, which carries the idea of something being paid in full. It was used when armies had finished conquering their foes. When Jesus says it, we think of his finished work of redemption on the cross -- our salvation is paid in full, and God's wrath is fully satisfied. But there's more to it as well. Psalm 22:31 (the last verse in the Psalm) ends with the words "He has done it". Those words are exactly the same in Hebrew as the words "It is finished". Jesus is brilliant even as he is dying, communicating so many levels of meaning in the simple things he says. He is going out of his way to call attention to Psalm 22, which speaks not only of his death, but of God being with him, and of God ruling the nations. This is not a story of being forsaken; it is a story of the coming Restoration.
The passage in John makes it sound like the last thing Jesus said was "It is finished", but when you piece the gospels together, there was yet another thing he said. Matthew 27:50 says Jesus cried out with a loud voice, but it doesn't say what he cried out. Luke 23:46 gives us what he says: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit". This is the last thing he says, and it is still part of his death text. Here he is quoting Psalm 31:5, drawing attention to what it says there: "Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God". He is about to let his spirit go. He is completely dependent on God to deliver him or to "bring him back". And then he "powers down". This would have been 3:00, at the time of the evening sacrifice at the temple.
Mark 15:38 says the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. That curtain was 4 inches thick and 68 feet tall, so this didn't happen accidentally. We've traditionally understood this to mean that there was no longer a need for a separation between God and man because of the sacrifice Christ made, and that is true. Another picture of this is that God moved out of the temple (and moved into his people on Pentecost). Yet another picture is that of the Jewish mourning ritual, where one tears his clothes from top to bottom as a sign of mourning; it's as though God was mourning the death of his Son.
Triumph
Mark 15:39 says that the centurion who watched Jesus die said, "Surely this man was the Son of God". (Or some versions say "a son of a god"). In either case, what was there about this that made him say that? The centurion knows something we don't, and Mark, in writing his gospel to the Gentiles knows that they know about this too and will recognize it from his writings.
Julius Caesar was the first emperor of Rome, and he moved the power from the Roman Senate to the Emperor. The Senate didn't resist him when he did this. Augustus (also known as Octavian) was his great-nephew, whom he adopted as his son. When Julius Caesar died, he was declared to be divine, and Augustus, who became Caesar in his place, was therefore the son of a god. All emperors following Augustus were given the title "Caesar" as well, and were regarded as divine sons of the gods. I've always thought of Roman and Greek gods and mythology as nothing more than a fairy tale, but all of it, including the divinity of the emperor, was a fundamental part of the Greco-Roman world view, and it affected everyone's daily life. We'll explore this a bit more in later lessons.
Caesar Augustus inaugurated a 12-day advent for himself. He actually took over the Roman Triumph procession, that was awarded to conquering generals, and turned it into something only for emperors, to celebrate their divinity and the Imperial Cult - the worship of the emperor. He started this, and other Caesars continued it. It was done when they became Caesar, and they could do it again any time they felt they needed a little ego-boost, or to strengthen the hold that emperor worship had on the people. When Augustus did this, it was said of him, "The divine king of salvation awaited since Pharaoh is on his way". This is a totally messianic-sounding proclamation of a coming king and a coming age. It is interesting that Jesus was born "in the days of Caesar Augustus", and the proclamation rightly and fully applies to him in spite of it being said of Caesar.
This advent was known as a "triumph". It was a city-wide festival parade. It was the only time in Roman society where all classes could participate together. All of the emperors did it, and some did it multiple times. It had 9 different steps. Here is what the "triumph" looked like:
- The Praetorian guard would meet in the Praetorium. This was the elite Italian guard whose job was to protect Caesar -- his "secret servicemen". There were 5500-6000 soldiers in the guard.
- Caesar was dressed in the garb of the god Zeus (or Jupiter depending on whether you use his Roman or Greek name). He was the king of the gods. His garb included a purple robe, a golden wreath, and a branch or reed or scepter in his hand, signifying the authority of Rome.
- The soldiers would hail Caesar as lord and god, the savior of the world.
- There would be a procession through Rome, stopping in the forum at the base of the temple to Zeus/Jupiter. A sacrificial bull was part of the procession, signifying power and authority in the Roman world.
- The procession ended on the highest hill in Rome, known as Capitoline Hill, or head hill.
- Caesar would be offered wine, which he would refuse. He would pour it on the altar or on the bull. The bull was killed simultaneously. The mixture of blood and wine conferred power and deity onto Caesar.
- Caesar was proclaimed lord and god by all of the people.
- Caesar would ascend to the top of the hill, to the applause of all the people. He could either go alone (Augustus did that), or he could go with someone on his right and someone on his left.
- The people would look for a divine sign of confirmation from the gods.
- Perhaps a flock of doves would fly over
- Anything out of the ordinary throughout the day (sometimes the emperors made sure something out of the ordinary would happen)
- There was an eclipse in the case of one of the emperors
- Verse 16: The Praetorian guard numbered about 200 in Jerusalem
- Verse 17: Jesus was mockingly dressed in the garb of a god. Matthew 27:39 also says that they put a staff in his right hand.
- Verses 18-19: Jesus was mockingly hailed by the soldiers as king
- Verses 20-21: Jesus' procession went through and outside the city. There was no bull present, but Jesus was about to be sacrificed, as the bull would have been.
- Verse 22: Golgatha literally means "the skull". It's not clear whether it got its name because of how it looked, or because of of the crucifixions that routinely occurred there.
- Verses 23-24: Jesus refused the wine; he said he would not drink it again until the Restoration.
- Verses 25-26: Jesus' identify as King of the Jews is confirmed.
- Verse 27: Jesus is crucified with one on each side.
- Verses 38-39: The curtain in the temple was torn. Matthew describes an earthquake, and holy people being raised from the dead and walking around the city.
Jesus was taken down from the cross and hastily put into the tomb while it was still Friday, the first day of Unleavened Bread, which that year occurred the day before the weekly Sabbath.
Resurrection
Jesus rises on Sunday morning. It is the day after the weekly Sabbath. Is is the day of barley First Fruits. I Corinthians 15:20-23 describes Jesus as the first fruits of the resurrection of all of the dead. Jesus is again fulfilling the Old Testament feasts.
In John 20:17, Jesus instructs Mary not to hold on to him, "For I have not yet ascended to the Father". And then he says to tell his brothers that he is ascending to "my Father and your Father, to my Godand your God". A week later, in John 20:26-27, when the disciples are gathered, he invites Thomas to touch his hands and side. Somehow now, it is okay to touch him, whereas before it wasn't. I don't really know what "ascending to the Father" meant in this situation (because I only think of "ascending" as when Jesus left the earth 40 days later), but it appears that Jesus "ascended to the Father" between those two events. I think that is somehow related to the priest waving the grain offering on the day of First Fruits, but I can't develop this any further.
In Acts 13:35, Paul indicates that Jesus' resurrection was a fulfillment of a prophecy in Psalm 16:10, "you will not let your holy one see decay". Paul goes on to argue that David could not be speaking of himself here, since he died and was buried and decayed, but rather, this is a Messianic prophecy. In the Hebrew mind, decay started on day 4 of death. If someone died quietly, in their sleep or whatever, people would come to the tomb for the first 3 days and call for him to come out, just in case he wasn't really dead. But if there was no response, then on day 4 the person was "dead dead". It's interesting how this plays with Lazarus' death. When Jesus heard he was sick, he stayed for 2 more days where he was before going back to Judea (John 11:6). When Jesus finally gets there and Lazarus has now been dead for 4 days, Martha objects when Jesus wants to have the tomb opened, because at day 4 now, Lazarus would stink (John 11:39). He's "dead dead" at this point. Jesus, in calling Lazarus out of the tomb, was doing what they would have done for the previous 3 days.
Jesus himself was known to be dead while he was on the cross because the centurion verified it by piercing his heart with a sword, so there was no need to wait for 4 days for Jesus to be "dead dead". But in fulfillment of David's prophecy, that's why it was so important for Jesus to only be in the tomb 3 days, so his body would not see decay (which starts on day 4). And Jesus himself had said that he would rise on the third day.
And so the timeline from Exodus and Leviticus all match up during Jesus' last week, allowing him to be killed on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, be dead for 3 days, and rise on the barley First Fruits. All of these "calendars" converged perfectly that week.
Pentecost
In Acts 2:1, it says they were all in one place when the day of Pentecost came. This was 50 days (by Hebrew reckoning) from barley first fruits and the resurrection. It was the day of wheat first fruits. Jesus had been with his disciples over a period of 40 days after his resurrection. When he was taken up to heaven, he told them to return to Jerusalem and wait for the Gift his Father had promised; it would happen in a few days. Luke says they were continually at the temple. Surely they expected that whatever was going to happen, was going to happen on Pentecost. And it happened at 9:00 in the morning, the time of the morning sacrifice. A sound like the blowing of a violent wind came and filled the whole house where they were sitting. We typically think of this as being the upper room, but that seems doubtful. Luke says they were continually at the temple, and 120 seems like a lot of people to be packed into an upper room. Then there's the fact that a crowd was immediately drawn to them, so they had to be somewhere where a crowd could be. It is more likely that the reference to "the house" is to the house of God -- the temple.
Back in John 12:24, Jesus gave a veiled reference to his death when he spoke of a kernel of wheat falling into the ground and dying, so it can bring forth much fruit. It is interesting that he referred to wheat in particular. He was planted into the ground on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and raised on barley first fruit, and now it is wheat first fruit. Acts 2:41 says that those who received Peter's message that day were baptized, and about 3000 were added to their number that day. The 3000 were the first fruit of Jesus' death. And the fact that they needed water to baptize these people lends itself to believing that all of this occurred on the southern steps going into the temple, where all of the pools for ceremonial washing before going in to the temple, were located.
Go back to Exodus 32:28, where the Israelites have received the Torah, but when Moses didn't come down from the mountain soon enough to suit them, they asked Aaron to make them gods to lead them. Aaron made the golden calf, and the Israelites partied in worship of it. When Moses returned, he instructed the Levites to kill those who were participating in this, and about 3000 died. It seems that in giving the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, God is "un-doing" what was done when he gave the Torah. (It also seems to me that the gift of tongues at Pentecost was God "un-doing" the confusion of the languages at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9)).
God gave the Holy Spirit 50 days after the resurrection, like he gave the Torah 50 days after the crossing of the Red Sea, and all of these events occurred on the 2 First Fruit days. The Torah was God's wedding covenant with Israel. The Holy Spirit is God's guarantee or pledge of our salvation. Both represent new beginnings, first fruit. Both are God's gifts so his people can know how to live out his calling on their lives and represent him to others. Again, it's all about "wearing blue well".
It seems that God is really up to something with the Hebrew feasts. All of these are the spring feasts. There are 3 feasts that occur in the fall, as well. None of this can be random. It all has to mean something. I believe the the fall feasts will find their fulfillment as a part of Christ's return.
Handouts
Gethsemane
shemen, gatshemen
Luke 22:44
Matthew 26:36-46
Deuteronomy 17:6
John 18:11
Psalm 75:8
Jeremiah 25:15-16
Jesus on the Cross
Matthew 27:45-46
remez
Psalm 22:1
Psalm 22:7-8, 14-18
Psalm 22:24
John 19:28-30
Psalm 22:31
Matthew 27:50
Luke 23:46
Psalm 31:5
Mark 15:38
Mark 15:39
Mark 15:16-27, 38-39
Golgatha
Resurrection
1 Corinthians 15:20-23
John 20:17
John 20:26-27
Acts 13:35
Psalm 16:10
John 11:6, 39
Pentecost
Acts 2:1
John 12:24
Acts 2:41
Exodus 32:28
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