24 HOURS-Week 1: Passover, Jerusalem and Messianic Hopes

Posted by Randy | Labels: , , , , , , , , | Posted On Saturday, March 6, 2010 at 7:13 PM

The Feast of the Passover was the single biggest and most important of the Jewish feasts. The Passover event is found in Exodus 12 and the celebration to remember this event was declared by God in Exodus 12:14 (NLT2): "This is a day to remember. Each year, from generation to generation, you must celebrate it as a special festival to the LORD. This is a law for all time." God confirms this in Leviticus 23:4-8.

The Passover was one of Judaism's three major feasts. All Jewish adult males living within 15 miles of Jerusalem were required to attend yearly. Those who lived further away tried to attend if at all possible. It was the desire of every Jew to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem at least once in their lifetime. So, the days leading up to the Passover saw Jews arriving from across the known western world. Jerusalem was packed.

An account by the Jewish historian Josephus gives us some insight into the number of Jews who were in Jerusalem at the time of the Passover. In 65 A.D. the Jewish High Priest took a census of the number of lambs slain that year at the request of the Roman governor of Palestine. According to Josephus, the number was 256,000. The law said each lamb had to be used by a minimum of ten people, meaning there must have been between 2.5 and 3 million Jews in Jerusalem for Passover that year.

From the picture below of a 1/50th scale model of Jerusalem from the First Century, you can see the city and the whole neighboring countryside had to be packed.

Passover also created political problems for the Romans. Since the very event recalled Israel's deliverance from Egypt, Jewish nationalism ran high during this Feast. Jews continued to long for the restoration of their Jewish nation of Israel by the Messiah (Christ in Greek), which means anointed one or king.

As Jesus entered Jerusalem a few days before the Feast of the Passover ( on what we call Palm Sunday), he was greeted by crowds.

"Many in the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others spread leafy branches they had cut in the fields. Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around him were shouting, 'Praise God! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the LORD! Blessings on the coming Kingdom of our ancestor David! Praise God in highest heaven!'" (Mark 11:8-10 NLT2)


It would have been clear to any Jew observing this procession that the crowd was proclaiming Jesus the coming Messiah. He entered into a city packed with people whose nationalistic hopes were running high. It was a powder keg waiting to explode.

The religious leaders were often more pragmatic than spiritual, and they believed they had to try to keep a lid on things if they wanted to keep the Romans from exerting their military might. As Jesus entered Jerusalem and taught daily at the Temple, the crowds and his presence and teachings increasingly frustrated these Jewish religious leaders.

Jesus was the Messiah, but it was also obvious that no one understood just what kind of Messiah he would be. However, within the week everything would change...
(Some of this information from William Barclay's The Gospel of Mark commentary)