The Week That Changed the World
The Complete Easter StoryBy Timothy Dean RothSeabury Books
Copyright © 2009 Timothy Dean Roth
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-59627-106-7Contents
Chapter One
The Raising of Lazarus
Our story begins in December. Jesus is in the temple courts in Jerusalem for the Hanukkah festival, which celebrates God's deliverance of Israel from Greek oppression and the rededication of the temple after it was desecrated by the Greeks. Many of the women and men who followed Jesus are gathered here among the massive pillars of Solomon's Colonnade, bracing themselves against the cold. They watch as Jesus paces back and forth in front of the religious leaders, his voice echoing off the polished stone, and they listen.
It is here in the temple, in this moment, that Jesus barely escapes being stoned to death for his radical claim to be Israel's Messiah. It will be his last visit to the temple until the events of Holy Week. After this confrontation, he and his disciples leave Judea to take refuge in Perea, a district on the eastern side of the Jordan River, far from the tempestuous climate of Jerusalem.
The gospels do not tell us much about those dark winter months, only that a short time later, Jesus' friend Lazarus died. Even though Bethany, the home of Lazarus, lies within walking distance of Jerusalem, Jesus went there to bring back his friend.
Within these two events we find the themes of death and resurrection, of decay and rebirth—themes that will continue throughout the rest of the story.
* * *
Now the Festival of Dedication had come at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon's Colonnade. The people there came and gathered around him, saying, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly."
Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father's name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one."
They picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?"
"We are not stoning you for any good work," they replied, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."
Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are "gods"'? If he called them 'gods,' to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said 'I am God's Son'? Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father." Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.
Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. Here he stayed and many people came to him. They said, "Though John never performed a sign, all that John said about this man was true." And in that place many believed in Jesus.
Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick."
When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, "Let us go back to Judea."
"But Rabbi," they said, "a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?"
Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world's light. It is when people walk at night that they stumble, for they have no light."
After he had said this, he went on to tell them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up."
His disciples replied, "Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better." Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."
Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."
Now as Jesus started on his way, a certain ruler ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?"
"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "And why do you ask me about what is good? No one is good—except God alone. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments."
"Which ones?" he inquired.
Jesus replied, "You know the commandments: 'You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'"
"Teacher," the young man declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy. What do I still lack?"
When Jesus heard this, he looked at him and loved him.
"You still lack one thing," Jesus answered. "If you want to be perfect, go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
When the young man heard this, his face fell. He went away very sad, because he had great wealth.
Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "Truly I tell you, it is hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven."
The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God."
When the disciples heard this, they were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?"
Jesus looked at them and said, "With human beings this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."
Peter said to him, "We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?"
"Truly I tell you," Jesus replied, "at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake, and for the gospel of the kingdom of God, will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first."
"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
"About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went.
"He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?'
"'Because no one has hired us,' they answered.
"He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.'
"When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his supervisor, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.'
"The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'
"But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'
"So the last will be first, and the first will be last."
On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
"Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."
Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
"Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."
After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. "The Teacher is here," she said, "and is asking for you." When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. "Where have you laid him?" he asked.
"Come and see, Lord," they replied.
Jesus wept.
Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him!"
But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"
Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. "Take away the stone," he said.
"But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days."
Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?"
So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."
When he had said this, Jesus called out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."
Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
"What are we accomplishing?" they asked. "Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation."
Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, "You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish."
He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on they plotted to take his life.
Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the Jews. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.
* * *
In today's lectionary reading from the Psalms, David sings a song of praise to God for delivering him from Saul, who sought to kill him. Here we find a trust in God that parallels Jesus' trust in his heavenly Father. Though the Father will not always protect Jesus from death, just as many holy servants who lived before Jesus were killed, this psalm expresses a trust in God's love that is unshakable. This psalm also offers a subtle indication of David's hope in a future resurrection. We could well imagine this prayer coming from the mouth of the risen Lazarus.
PSALM 18:1–6
I love you, LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I called to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I have been saved from my enemies.
The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.
In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.
Ancient Wisdom from Fulgentius of Ruspe
The sacrifices of animal victims which our forefathers were commanded to offer to God by the holy Trinity itself, the one God of the old and new testaments, foreshadowed the most acceptable gift of all. This was the offering which in his compassion the only Son of God would make of himself in his human nature for our sake.....
He is the priest through whom we have been reconciled, the sacrifice by which we have been reconciled, the temple in which we have been reconciled, the God with whom we have been reconciled. He alone is priest, sacrifice and temple because he is all these things as God in the form of a servant; but he is not alone as God, for he is this with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the form of God.
* * *
Almighty and most merciful God, drive from us all weakness of body, mind, and spirit; that, being restored to wholeness, we may with free hearts become what you intend us to be and accomplish what you want us to do; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Chapter Two
The Road to Jerusalem
The first month of the religious calendar, Nisan, was the most important month for Jews. It was the month of the Passover festival, the greatest festival of the year. The book of Exodus commanded that the Passover be observed on the fourteenth day of Nisan, at the beginning of springtime. Passover was the focal point of the Jewish year, and it is the focal point of the Easter story. Passover Day would immediately be followed by seven days of eating unleavened bread, from the fifteenth to the twenty-first of Nisan. The festival of Unleavened Bread officially marked the beginning of the barley harvest, and it commemorated Israel's exile from Egypt.
Although Passover is two weeks away, falling this year on a Friday, observant Jews want to get to Jerusalem a week early for the ceremony of cleansing by which they will be made ritually pure in order to eat the sacred Passover meal. They have to be in Jerusalem to receive the holy water that contains the ashes of a red heifer sacrificed by the temple priests. This second week of Nisan is to be a time of thoughtful reflection, somewhat as Lent is for us today.
From the very first day of Nisan, there are several hundred thousand pilgrims on the march to the houses, hotels, and camps in and around Jerusalem. It is at this time that Jesus and his disciples leave the small village of Ephraim and, on their final journey together, take one of the many dusty paths that wind their way through the Judean hills.
Amid the dizzying rush of the crowds, the noise of bleating goats and sheep, and the raucous play of children, the disciples' hearts race with nervous energy. They sense something amazing is about to happen, but they aren't sure exactly what.
Their rabbi and hoped-for messiah seems to be unusually moody and unpredictable. He is talking about death and betrayal, about losing everything. And he is speaking of a kingdom that cannot possibly function, let alone stand up to the oppressive might of the Roman Empire.
The disciples are anxiously aware that everyone who has heard and seen Jesus, and those from distant lands who have only heard of him, will be looking for him. Ready or not, they are about to take center stage.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Week That Changed the Worldby Timothy Dean Roth Copyright © 2009 by Timothy Dean Roth. Excerpted by permission of Seabury Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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