Jesus' Passion

Who crucified Jesus? God did to fulfill His divine purposes.

God designed His Son’s death to accomplish victory over evil and suffering. From the Book of Acts we learn that Jesus was handed over by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge (Acts 2:23). The lashings, the thorns, the nails, the spear, the scorn, betrayal, and desertion, though the results of sin, happened to Jesus under God’s sovereign control.

God is the sovereign Lord of all events who rules history to fulfill His purpose. What His will determines, His power carries out. No army, government, or council can stand in God’s way.

Christ’s Resurrection from the dead is not a secondary issue - the Resurrection is foundational to our faith. In fact, it’s what sets Christianity apart from all other faiths. For that reason, it’s easy to see why people have attempted to explain away, minimize, and even trivialize the Resurrection.

The Bible contains four accounts of Jesus’ death. They all agree on the essentials: Jesus died on a cross at a place called Golgotha, hung up between two other men with a sign above His head. "King of the Jews," it said. The charge was treason. He was executed Roman style. People divided up His clothes. He was offered sour wine before He died and then He died.

Overview

We must recall that Jewish men were required by law to go to Jerusalem three times each year to celebrate the major feasts (Deut. 16:16): 1) Passover in the spring; 2) Pentecost (meaning fifty) seven weeks and a day later (Lev. 23:15,16); and, 3) Tabernacles at the end of the harvest in the fall (see Lev. 23 for details of the Jewish festival calendar).

It is very easy to understand God’s plan of redemption if we understand the feasts. Jesus was crucified on Passover, placed in the tomb on the Feast of Unleavened Bread and He celebrates the Feast of First Fruits by rising from the dead and becoming the First Fruits of the dead.

Passover Lamb

The high priest’s practice of killing the Passover Lamb had been in force for hundreds, perhaps a thousand years. On Friday of the year Jesus died, the Jews celebrated Passover and killed a lamb for the temple sacrifice. At the same time the high priests were killing the Passover Lamb, Jesus, the Lamb of God, Who died in order to take our sins upon Himself.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

The year that Jesus died, Saturday - the Jewish Sabbath - was also the day on which the Jews celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This feast reminded the Jews of the bread that God provided for the Israelites when they left Egypt. Wheat seeds must die in order to bring forth crop. Jesus had to die and be buried in order to accomplish His ministry and be raised to a new life. Unleavened bread was made without yeast, because yeast represented sin (1 Cor. 5:7–8). In the same way, Jesus, the Lamb of God, was sinless.

Feast of the Firstfruits

On the Sunday following Jesus’ death, the Israelites celebrated the Feast of Firstfruits, the beginning of the barley harvest. The Israelites returned to God the first part of everything they had been given to indicate their thankfulness for the harvest, their acknowledgement that God had given them the gifts, and their faith that God would continue to provide (Num. 15:17–21; Deut. 26:1–11). They gave the best part of what they received to God (Ex. 23:19). On that day, Jesus was raised to life as God’s firstfruits, the guarantee that the rest would follow, including the resurrection from the dead (1 Cor. 15:20–23).

Pentecost

Was an annual Jewish festival also known as the Feast of Weeks or the Day of Firstfruits – a celebration of the first buds of the harvest. From the time Jesus rose from the dead until Pentecost was fifty days. He then remained here on earth forty days, speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God, and then He left as He said He would. After ten more days’ prophecy was once again fulfilled – The Holy Spirit was sent (Acts, chapters 1 and 2). Jesus said that He had to go away so that He could send the Holy Spirit (in the New Testament Greek, pneuma refers to the Holy Spirit, the human spirit and evil spirit. Pneuma bagion is usually translated the Holy Spirit - the article the is inserted and capital letters are used to distinguish between other instances). In John 16:7 we read Jesus’ Words:

But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

The Passion Week

Palm Sunday: Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem; crowds greet Him with palm branches and shouts of "Hosanna," the battle cry of nationalistic Zealots; Jesus weeps for Jerusalem, knowing the Zealots’ extremism will eventually lead to the destruction of the city and the temple.