“The large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road”
.
Jesus of Nazareth enters Jerusalem surrounded by a jubilant crowd, recounts Saint Matthew in chapter 21 of his Gospel:
“Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
, shouts the crowd, who acclaim the one they see as the Messiah.
Nearly 2,000 years later, Christians around the world still celebrate the
“triumphal entry”
of Jesus into the Holy City during Palm Sunday.
They thus enter Holy Week, the last part of Lent, a liturgical time of 40 days dedicated to God.
The latter ends with the Easter Vigil, on the night of Saturday to the following Sunday, a night during which Christians celebrate the resurrection of Christ.
These few days are the center
“of the Christian year and its liturgy
,” says Jean-Marie Salamito, a historian specializing in the ancient history of Christianity.
And for good reason, the events which took place around the year 30 AD laid the foundations of Christianity as it is still practiced today.
“We are at the heart of the Christian mystery, with the particularity that the Passion and the Resurrection are unique events but reactivated each year in the celebration,”
summarizes the professor at the Sorbonne.
Entry into Jerusalem
This special week begins with the commemoration of a notable entry.
Jesus is greeted by a large crowd at the gates of Jerusalem.
Firstly because he is a very
“popular”
man , report numerous historical sources, including non-Christian ones.
But also because the Jewish Passover [period just before which Jesus arrives in the city,
Editor's note
] was a major pilgrimage festival, during which the city usually attracted people.
“So it’s a pretty spectacular scene
,” comments Jean-Marie Salamito.
The Nazarene makes his entrance on a donkey, an animal which is primarily a symbol of peace.
“Entering on a horse would have been the act of a warlord
,” analyzes the academic.
But this refers above all to the prophecy of Zechariah who declared, chapter 9, that the king of Israel would arrive on a donkey.
“Shout for joy, daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king comes to you;
He is righteous and victorious, He is humble and riding on a donkey”
(Book of Zechariah 9:9).
Even today, this celebration has not lost its fame:
“It is a Sunday of great influence in the churches of France because many people who do not usually come to church go there for this celebration, with the desire to have branches blessed by the priests
,” explains the professor at the Sorbonne.
Who continues:
“We are therefore in this Christian logic that the center of all History is the life of Jesus, and that the center of the life of Jesus is this Holy Week”
.
Iraqi Christians gather at St. Joseph Church in Erbil, capital of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, on April 9, 2022, to celebrate Palm Sunday.
SAFIN HAMID / AFP
If the scene is beautiful, Jesus is nevertheless serious, relate the biblical texts.
For the Nazarene had already assured his disciples that he would die in this city:
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you”
(Luke 13, 34).
For the evangelist, Jesus' look is even different:
“Jesus, with a determined face, took the road to Jerusalem”
(Luke 9:51).
Especially since he is not in the habit of going to big cities, notes Jean-Marie Salamito.
“Jesus always has an action that takes place in a rural context.
He is a man who lived in
Nazareth
,
but also in Capernaum, two villages.
It’s a way of being close to rural people.”
The last meal and the arrest
Concerning the following days, “
we note several
discrepancies between the texts”
, continues the academic.
“On the other hand, we know that a sort of plot against Jesus is being prepared
. ”
There would in fact have been an understanding between the priestly aristocracy of Jerusalem, including the High Priest, and the Roman governor Pilate, who only resided in the city at the time of the Jewish Passover celebrations.
It is in this special atmosphere that Jesus' last meal with his disciples took place, the Last Supper, which is today celebrated on Maundy Thursday.
In addition to being described in the Gospels, this evening is also recounted by Paul of Tarsus who wrote his first letter to the Corinthians in the 1950s.
“It is one of the oldest texts that we have and Paul certainly exchanged with witnesses who knew Jesus
,” explains Jean-Marie Salamito.
It is on this day that the Easter Triduum begins, the three days which constitute the center of gravity of the liturgical year.
“
For Christians, this is where everything is at stake because there is humanity before Jesus and after Jesus
,” summarizes the academic.
The Last Supper
, by Leonardo da Vinci, wall painting, 460 × 880 cm, 1495-1498.
Adobe Stock
During this meal, Jesus breaks the bread and shares the wine.
“He performs a symbolic gesture, giving bread to his disciples and telling them that it is his body.
He also gives them wine, telling them that it is his blood.
This is the origin of all Christian celebrations,”
underlines the academic.
For it is indeed a heritage that Jesus of Nazareth delivers:
“Do this in remembrance of me”
(Luke 22:19).
These phrases and gestures, which constitute the Eucharist, have been repeated since every Sunday in all the churches of the world.
“It is one of the two oldest Christian gestures, with baptism
,” summarizes the historian.
Essential sacrament of Christianity which commemorates and perpetuates the sacrifice of Christ.
Adobe Stock
During this meal, Jesus also evokes the betrayal he will suffer from his disciple Judah.
“Amen, amen, I say to you: one of you will betray me”
, recounts Saint John (13,21).
All the biblical texts
“show that Jesus is aware that he is heading towards death and that he accepts it
,” comments the historian.
Jesus and his disciples then retire to the Garden of Olives.
There, servants of the High Priest of Jerusalem, guided by Judah, came to fetch him with a Roman cohort, reports the Gospel according to Saint John.
But why this betrayal?
The state of research can only offer “fragile”
hypotheses
, confesses Jean-Marie Salamito.
“Judah would have waited for Jesus to free the Jews from the yoke of the Romans, and, discovering that this was not his plan, would have betrayed him.
It’s one explanation among others.”
The passion of Christ
In the process, Jesus is taken before Jewish authorities.
“
The high priest and his entourage think that Jesus risks leading the Jews to revolt against the Romans, which would cause a real bloodbath
,” explains the professor at the Sorbonne.
In the morning, the Nazarene is finally brought to Pontius Pilate, in his
“praetorium”
.
Contrary to popular image,
“the crowd was probably not huge”
that day, analyzes the historian.
“Jesus was arrested during the night.
As he was popular, the authorities had no interest in there being a large crowd.”
Pontius Pilate gives the Jerusalem crowd the choice of executing Jesus or Barabbas.
Ecce Homo, by Antonio Ciseri, 1862, Palazzo Pitti, Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Florence Stock Adobe
The exchange begins, Jesus seems unshakeable.
During the trial, Pilate was also
“very likely impressed by the man who was described as a simple agitator”
, affirms Jean-Marie Salamito.
“I find no reason for condemnation in him”
(John, 18-38), declared the Roman governor to the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem.
Before adding:
“But, with you, it is the custom that I release someone to you for Passover: do you therefore want me to release the King of the Jews to you?”
.
In vain, the small crowd instead supports Barabbas, a murderer also held by Pilate.
Jesus is then condemned to crucifixion, a torture regularly used by the Romans.
He is first flogged before undergoing other humiliating practices (sharing clothes, crown of thorns) which
“correspond to the rights of Roman soldiers to make fun of someone condemned to death
,” explains the professor.
Who insists:
“We must remember that we are in a reality of great violence”
.
After having carried his cross to the summit of Golgotha,
“Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews”
(mocking inscription on his cross, Editor's note) is thus nailed to the cross.
This torture is
“the idea of causing death slowly and in an untenable position,”
insists the researcher.
To avoid dying from suffocation by the weight of his body, the condemned must stand up on his nailed feet, which causes him unbearable pain.
“He alternates between suffocation and extreme suffering.”
Jesus thus dies in a few hours,
“probably very weakened by the previous days and the flagellation”
.
Because when the Romans come to break his legs in order to put an end to his torture, the one who will be called Christ has already breathed his last.
To commemorate this event, Christians follow the Stations of the Cross, a true devotional act, in fourteen stations on Good Friday each year.
This is the only day of the year when there is no consecration [the moment when the hosts become the body of Christ through the words of the priest,
NLDR
].
Catholic faithful participate in the Stations of the Cross during the Good Friday procession on April 19, 2019, in Abidjan (Ivory Coast).
ISSOUF SANOGO / AFP
The body of Jesus was finally placed in the tomb on the afternoon of Friday, the day before the Sabbath.
The stories are interrupted until the discovery of the empty tomb by women who immediately warn the disciples, the day after the Sabbath.
Together, they find the shroud placed on a stone, the Gospels tell.
This is when Christianity was born.
“If we are to believe the stories, something happens on the night of Saturday on what will become our Sunday: the Resurrection.
This is what is celebrated by Christians during the Easter Vigil, with candles,”
explains Jean-Marie Salamito, who summarizes: “It
is light in the darkness, life which triumphs over death
.”