Holy Week Revisited

by Fr. Mark Wojdelski, FSSP

(This is part of a series of articles, and will make little sense without the introductory articles: (1) , (2), (3), and (4).  There are more than four articles in the series, but the first four are very important to understanding the conceptual framework.  There is also an index available here for the rest of the articles which includes a calendar with links.)

Now that the Easter season has come to a close and Pentecost and its octave are behind us, there is now an opportunity to look at a few more items from Holy Week that were omitted at the appropriate time for the sake of length. So many different things were occurring at that time of the year that it was not possible (within reason) to describe all of the various events taking place.

We can begin once again on Palm Sunday, corresponding to the tenth day of the first month, the month of Nisan (or Abib), when Moses is instructed by God:

 

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they shall take every man a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household; and if the household is too small for a lamb, then a man and his neighbor next to his house shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old; you shall take it from the sheep or from the goats; and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs in the evening. (Ex 12:1–6)

At this point the reader is probably asking, “Would it not make more sense for the crucifixion to have taken place on the 14th day of Nisan, as the paschal lambs were being sacrificed? This is an interesting question and has been the subject of debate for a very long time, with at least one scholar who held this position arguing that the Last Supper took place on a Tuesday. (!)¹ Generally, the Eastern church holds the opinion that the crucifixion took place at the same time the paschal lambs were being sacrificed  (as they say) on 14 Nisan. This is seemingly the position of St. John’s gospel.  In accord with this assumption the Last Supper could not have been the Passover meal, strictly speaking. Still other commentators have suggested that the supper as recounted in St. John’s gospel was not the Last Supper at all, but a meal that was shared in Bethany the night before.

The Western church (at least liturgically) holds to the history as given by the synoptic gospels. This might seem to go against the deep symbolism of the sacrifice of Christ taking place at the same time as the sacrifice of the paschal lamb. However, this need not be so. I propose that the Paschal lamb and Christ were not sacrificed at the same time, but they were sacrificed on the same day, strictly speaking, if we look at the letter of the law:

“The slaying of the lamb was to take place on the 14th Abib, between the two evenings (Ex. xii. 6). According to the Samaritan, Caraitic view, which is generally regarded as the correct one by modern writers on Jewish antiquities, the expression בֵּ֥ין הָעַרְבָּֽיִם refers to the time between six o’clock and half-past seven—the first evening commencing when the sun disappears below the horizon, the second at the time of total darkness.”²

We have seen in a previous article that the Sadducees held power in the temple at the time of Christ and would have tried to observe the absolute letter of the law, implying that the sun would have already set on the 14th, at least when they were sacrificing their own lambs for their personal use.³ The few Samaritans (or perhaps Karaites) remaining in the world today would follow the same practice. Thus the time between sunset and total darkness represents a sort of transitional period, where one can reckon it as both the day preceding and the day following. When complete darkness takes over, there is no longer any doubt that the next day has begun. Since our Lord certainly died well before sunset, at about the ninth hour, (Mt 27:46) it was still definitely the same day, and not the following day (not even ambiguously), while the paschal lamb would have been sacrificed at a time that was (ambiguously) both on the previous day and the following day. The old covenant thus seemed to be offering sacrifice on the cusp of a new day, but one that began in darkness, because the sacrifice was one with which God was pleased but not satisfied, (Ps 49:13–15) an evening sacrifice, as it were. On the other hand, the sacrifice of Calvary took place while the sun was darkened in the middle of the day, at about the ninth hour, just when the darkness that began three hours before was about to end, and a “new” (albeit very short) day was about to commence: “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’. . . And Jesus cried again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.” (Mt 27:45–46, 50) What the gospel passes over reminding us is that it was then that the darkness was lifting. God had received the sacrifice that pleased Him, that of His beloved Son, and in testimony of this, the declining sun once again gave its full light before the end of the day.

This way of looking at the sacrifice of the paschal lamb can perhaps serve to reconcile the diverging opinions of both the various scholars and the various traditions that tenaciously hold to one day over the other as the “real” day of the crucifixion. This might also explain why the odd expression “between the two evenings” was used in the book of Exodus. The true Paschal Lamb prefigured by the lamb of the old covenant would still be sacrificed “between the two evenings” of the 14th and the 15th of Nisan, but during the day on the first day of Unleavened Bread, after the lamb of the old covenant was sacrificed during the transitional period ending 14 Nisan and beginning 15 Nisan. Thus both the paschal lamb and the Lamb of God are sacrificed on the same day. Each day begins with an evening and ends with an evening, but those evenings are somewhat “fuzzy” in nature.⁴ The old lamb was slaughtered during one of those “fuzzy evenings” and eaten in the middle of the night. Our Lord died on the cross “during the day” but it was just becoming light after a period (three hours) of darkness, just as the old lamb died while it was becoming dark at the end of an ordinary day.

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Returning to the tenth day of Nisan, we note that this is also the anniversary of the day Israel comes out of the Jordan river into the promised land after forty years of wandering in the desert. After the deaths of Miriam, Aaron, and Moses, the people were placed under the leadership of Joshua, who led them across the Jordan river as over dry land, in a manner very similar to the crossing of the Red Sea.

The people passed over in haste;  and when all the people had finished passing over, the ark of the Lord and the priests passed over before the people. . . On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they stood in awe of him, as they had stood in awe of Moses, all the days of his life.

And the Lord said to Joshua, “Command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant to come up out of the Jordan.” Joshua therefore commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.” And when the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord came up from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up on dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks, as before.

The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal.  And he said to the sons of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’  then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty; that you may fear the Lord your God for ever.” (Jos 4:10,14–24)

After this crossing, we are told, “On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they stood in awe of him, as they had stood in awe of Moses, all the days of his life.” (Jos 4:14) The contrast here is noteworthy. Both the triumphal entrance into Jerusalem (the Holy City, the center of the Holy Land) and the tragedy of the second Joshua (=Jesus) being marked for death coincide with this day of joyful entry into the promised land. “Hosanna!”’ gives way to “crucify him!” The first Joshua, like his fulfillment in Jesus, are celebrated on this earth on the same day. The first Joshua, however, does not have to bear the humiliation of the cross; instead he celebrates the first Passover in the promised land with the people of Israel. Our Lord celebrates His last Passover on the night before his passion and death, after entering the Holy City, the figure of the eternal Temple. He told his apostles, “I tell you I shall not eat it [again] until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” (Lk 22:16)

The epistle for Palm Sunday fits well with this theme:

Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:5-11)

He accepted what we will not easily accept, and he accepted it under the most gruesome and humiliating circumstances imaginable, but God glorified Him when He raised Him up from the dead.

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There is yet another grouping of events taking place on this day, somewhat in parallel to the above. In the last eight chapters of the prophecy of Ezekiel, the prophet in exile in Babylon is given a very long and detailed vision of a new temple. It was always understood by the Jews returning home after their exile in Babylon that this was a symbolic description of some ideal temple, and its specifications were not incorporated into the new temple that was built after their return from their time in exile:

In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was conquered, on that very day, the hand of the Lord was upon me, and brought me in the visions of God into the land of Israel, and set me down upon a very high mountain, on which was a structure like a city opposite me. When he brought me there, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like bronze, with a line of flax and a measuring reed in his hand; and he was standing in the gateway.  And the man said to me, “Son of man, look with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your mind upon all that I shall show you, for you were brought here in order that I might show it to you; declare all that you see to the house of Israel.” (Ezek 40:1-4)

One of the things Ezekiel saw was water flowing out of the temple: “Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east); and the water was flowing down from below the right side of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar.” (Ezek 47:1)

This is the origin of the antiphon “Vidi Aquam,” used instead of the “Asperges” during the sprinkling of the water over the people at Sunday High Mass during the Easter season. It might seem odd that this event takes place on this day, rather than any other, but there is a possible connection with another bit of Jewish tradition. Just as Christians keep remembrance of the date of a holy person’s death, most Jewish traditions assign the death of Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, to the tenth day of Nisan, the day that we are considering here.⁵ Given the obvious parallel in the names Miriam and Mary (probably meaning something like “exalted lady”), the day that her Son is designated to die (liturgically speaking, as the mystical Lamb) is perhaps the day that she herself feels the pains of death in her heart. She must certainly have been aware that his death was approaching, since she understood the scriptures.

“And the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.” (Num 20:1) The name of the place “Kadesh” means “holy,” so Miriam was buried in a “holy place” exactly one year before the Israelites entered the promised land.⁶

According to certain traditions, this is when the “Well of Miriam,” i.e. the rock that traditionally followed the Israelites through the desert, giving them water along the way, dried up towards the end of the Exodus. (Num 20:1–2) Thus the second time Moses has to get water out of the rock likely happened this day or shortly thereafter.

“The rock was Christ,” according to St. Paul (1 Cor 10:4) but the Jews, the people of the old covenant, attributed it to Miriam. It is fascinating to consider that this much later rabbinic association with Miriam could be subtly pointing the Jews towards our Blessed Lady, and by that avenue, towards Christ.

And three good gifts were given from Heaven through their agency, and these are they: The well of water, the pillar of cloud, and the manna. He elaborates: The well was given to the Jewish people in the merit of Miriam; the pillar of cloud was in the merit of Aaron; and the manna in the merit of Moses. When Miriam died the well disappeared, as it is stated: “And Miriam died there” (Numbers 20:1), and it says thereafter in the next verse: “And there was no water for the congregation” (Numbers 20:2). But the well returned in the merit of both Moses and Aaron.⁷

Three good providers arose for Israel, and these are they: Moses, and Aaron, and Miriam. And three good gifts were given through them to Israel, and these are they: the well, and the pillar of cloud, and the Mannah. The Mannah was [given] by the merit of Moses, the pillar of cloud by the merit of Aaron, the well by the merit of Miriam. Miriam died, the well disappeared, it was given back to Israel by the merit of Moses and Aaron.⁸

There are all sorts of later traditions that sprang up about how the rock moved along with them, and how it gave water around the whole camp (traditions with which St. Paul was familiar, cf. Rom 10:4). Once again, we see the rock and the living water. St. Paul tells us very clearly that “the rock was Christ” but if it was earned by the merits of Miriam, we can see the connection with the Incarnation. We would not dare suggest that our Lady somehow merited the Incarnation strictly speaking, but the Church does engage in a bit of pious exaggeration in such liturgical antiphons as the Regina Caeli (“whom thou didst merit to bear”).

The matins reading assigned to Palm Sunday (10 Nisan), from the prophecy of Jeremiah, also seems to fit with this theme:

Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves,  broken cisterns, that can hold no water. (Jer 2:12–13)

They try to purify themselves, but to no avail. Without God we can most certainly do nothing. (Jn 15:5) The waters of life—referring to the Holy Spirit who is life—only issue only from the living temple, our Lord Jesus Christ.