Showing posts with label Passover. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Passover. Show all posts

24 HOURS-Week 4: The Sons of Simon from Cyrene

Posted by Randy | Labels: , , , , , , , , | Posted On Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 5:50 PM


“A passerby named Simon, who was from Cyrene, was coming in from the countryside just then, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. (Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus.)” (Mark 15:21 NLT2)

Simon of Cyrene was almost definitely a Jew who had made a pilgrimage, maybe his first ever, to Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. Cyrene was located in what is today northern Libya in North Africa, so he had come a long ways, most likely on foot.

There has been conjecture over the years as to whether Simon was a black African, based on some possible allusions in Acts, but it’s fairly vague. The truth is, we really don’t know - he certainly could have been - but what’s even more intriguing is the comment in parentheses that Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus.

Mark would not have included seemingly random information unless it conveyed something significant, so scholars have tried to figure out why he did this. We do know that Mark wrote his Gospel primarily for Gentiles – non-Jews – in the mid-60s AD, and it was very likely first intended for Christ followers in Rome.

In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans, probably written a decade earlier, is a very interesting note: “I send greetings to Rufus, that outstanding worker in the Lord’s service, and to his mother, who has always treated me like a son.” (Romans 16:3 TEV)

Is it a coincidence that one of the most revered members of the church at Rome was named Rufus, which also just happened to be the name of the one of the sons of Simon of Cyrene? Is it a coincidence that a document written a decade later, most likely to the Christians in Rome, specifically mentions an outstanding worker named Rufus?

Of course, we don’t really know, but many scholars believe these were the same individuals, and that somehow Simon’s experience carrying Jesus’ cross had had a big impact on him. Jesus had called upon his followers to take up their crosses and follow him – perhaps Simon had done that literally. Perhaps he later married another follower of Jesus, and they moved as missionaries to Rome, where their sons Rufus and Alexander were raised as Christ followers.

There is no absolute proof of this connection, but it certainly explains a great deal about why Mark would specifically mention Simon’s sons. It's something to think about, because it shows us that Jesus can use what seem to be random or even terrible experiences for his good purposes.

24 HOURS-Week 3: Pictures

Posted by Randy | Labels: , , , , , , , , , | Posted On Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 7:05 PM

In Week 3 of our series, "24 HOURS That Changed the World," the settings and key players (besides Jesus) are the home of the high priest, Caiaphas, the Fortress of Antonia and Pilate, the Roman governor, and Herod and his palace. All these locations are in Jerusalem. My first post from Week 1 of this series includes a map of this area, with these locations marked.

We have no pictures of Caiaphas' house, but we know it had to be large to provide a meeting place for all seventy-one members of the Sanhedrin on the night Jesus was tried. Most likely, it was an opulent place befitting the high priest of the Jewish faith. We do, however, have a couple of pictures of a cell that Jesus was probably kept in at times during the night and his trial.



It is also believed that there was no opening at the floor level of this cell, so Jesus was lowered through a hole in the ceiling, as seen below.



After spending most of the night in the home and prison cell of Caiaphas, Jesus was taken to Pilate, the Roman governor. Pilate usually lived in Caesarea, a Roman-built city on the Mediterranean coast. However, for special religious feasts, such as the Feast of the Passover, Pilate would often come to Jerusalem, usually staying at the Fortress of Antonia, built on the southwest corner of the Temple Mount. (The fortress, built by Herod the Great, served as the base for a legion of Roman troops.) The Feast of the Passover, in particular, stirred up feelings of Jewish nationalism as this feast remembered God leading the Israelites out of Egypt to freedom. It was also a time when as many as two-three million Jews were in the immediate area of Jerusalem for this feast, raising tensions even more. Below is a 1/50th scale model of what the fortress was believed to have looked like in the time of Jesus.



The Gospel of Luke tells us that Pilate, on discovering Jesus was from the region of Galilee, sent Jesus to Herod Antipas, who maintained a palace in Jerusalem, just northwest of the Temple Mount. Herod had been hoping to meet Jesus and see him perform a miracle. When Jesus refused to cooperate or respond, Herod and his court ridiculed Jesus and then sent him back to Pilate. Pictured below is a 1/50th scale model of what Herod's palace was believed to look like at the time he met Jesus.


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)

Jesus: Our Passover Lamb

Posted by Randy | Labels: , , , , , , , | Posted On Friday, October 9, 2009 at 12:01 AM

In Luke 22 it's now Thursday, and Jesus has been in Jerusalem since he entered on Sunday, Palm Sunday. He and his disciples prepare to celebrate the Passover, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed. This celebration remembers when the Hebrews left Egypt over a thousand years earlier.

Moses had confronted Pharaoh to let the Hebrew people go. Pharaoh continued to refuse, even though God sent several plagues. Finally, God promised one last plague - the death of every first-born son and first-born male animal in Egypt. In order to avoid the plague, the Hebrews were to sacrifice a one-year-old male sheep or goat with no defects, and smear the blood on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they would eat the animal. God explained what would happen next:

"'On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn son and firstborn male animal in the land of Egypt. I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the LORD! But the blood on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the houses where you are staying. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. This plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.'" (Exodus 12:12-13 NLT2)

Now, this Passover meal was being repeated, but this time the sacrificial lamb, with no defects, was Jesus himself. His blood would save all those who put their faith in him, who marked themselves with the "blood of the lamb." "...Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us." (1 Corinthians 5:7 NLT2)

"For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God." (1 Peter 1:18-19 NLT2)

Here in Luke we see Jesus willingly making this sacrifice for the sake of all people. Yet, he told his disciples to always remember what he had done. The Passover ritual, that helped the Jews remember how God saved them from the Egyptians, was being transformed into what we call the Lord's Supper or communion. A new ritual, to help us remember how God saved us from sin and death through the "spotless Lamb of God."

Yet, Jesus offered this sacrifice not just for those who were already his followers, but also for those who had not yet begun to follow him. He offered it for you and me, born two thousand years later, but he also offered it for those around us who don't yet know him or trust him. Jesus did this because he did not want a single one of us to die, and he invites us today to bring the lost and hurting to him, so his sacrifice can save them, too!

We can never repay Jesus for all he's done for us, but by faith we offer our lives back to him, to serve him and those he seeks to save. And as the church, the body of Christ, we're here to not only receive his gift, but to share it with the world around us.
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