[ Music ] >> The Passover is
filled with meaning, remembering how God delivered
His people from bondage. For Jesus, His last
Passover meant so much more. Once again, God was going to provide deliverance
for everyone. [ Music ] Whenever you talk about
the life of Jesus, you get to the most
important part. You get to His death,
burial, and resurrection. And each gospel writer has
a slightly different focus and it can get confusing trying to harmonize all
of those accounts. >> The story of Jesus'
final days are recorded by four different men
in four different ways. And it is easy to
kind of get lost. What I'd like to do is
take a very close look at the final week of Jesus' life and especially those
final hours. I want us to retrace His steps. By visiting these places, I think you can have a
different perspective of many of those events. And it'll help you understand
the Scriptures even more. >> There's just so
much to take in there. You have His betrayal. You have His arrest. You have the various
trials that He goes through over a very
short period of time. So to keep things straight
and maintain the continuity, we're just going to go
from start to finish from His triumphal entry
down through His death, burial, and resurrection. To do all of that
without stopping is going to help us comprehend where
He was, what He was saying, and what was happening
around him. [ Music ] >> In Luke the 19th chapter, it tells us about Jesus leaving
Jericho after He had visited with Zacchaeus and the people
there and going up to Jerusalem. And, of course, He
did this knowing that this would be the
last time He would do that. And we were able to go to
a location about halfway between Jericho and Jerusalem
and look over the wilderness. The entire path would
have been 14, 15 miles. And you gain nearly
3500 feet in elevation. And there's no trees so
you are fully exposed to the sun the entire time. So this would have been a
very difficult walk even under the best of circumstances. >> As we crested a path
along the top of a hill, the whole valley just opened up. And all at the same time, it
was beautiful and desolate. >> There's a passage in Luke the
19th chapter that I really love. It talks about how Jesus
left Jericho and went up the hill to Jerusalem. It's a simple verse, but when
you know the road that He took, it causes you to think more
about what's in that verse. I've done a lot of hiking,
and I know that a lot of times it's hard to walk
and talk at the same time. So my guess is as He
was going up that hill, He didn't do much talking. He probably did a
lot of thinking. I wonder what He thought
about as He walked. And He probably thought
about the week ahead of him. And He probably thought about
His family and His friends. And He probably thought
about you and me and the sacrifice He was going
to have to make for all of us. >> Just a few miles up the
road is the Mount of Olives. And we know that after He
crested that hill on His way down was the triumphal entry. Everybody was excited to
see him, but we understand from other passages that He
was anticipating their final rejection of him at
the end of that week. He understands what's waiting
for him on the other side of the Mount of Olives. And even though he's
coming up and getting ready for the triumphal entry where
everybody is celebrating and they're getting ready
to remember the Passover, there's still a part of
Jesus that is apprehensive because of what he's
looking forward to. [ Music ] I felt a sense of
wonder as I looked at just how beautiful it was. And I also think I felt
a sense of foreboding because I was trying to put
myself in Jesus' position and imagining what He
had to look forward to. [ Music ] As Jews traveled toward
Jerusalem for Passover, there's a series of songs
that we have recorded for us in the Bible called
the Songs of Ascent. And they were the songs
that travelers would sing to each other as they
traveled toward Jerusalem. And they're excited as
they climb that road, cresting the Mount of Olives. And they're excited about the
Temple and the Temple Mount and God's presence and so all
of that anticipation is building as they crest that hill. Barry, we've made it
to the top of the Mount of Olives up from Jericho. This was a momentous
event for Jesus. This is His last Passover. He's used to coming here, but this one is extra
special for him. >> That's right. We typically call this
the triumphal entry. And it's interesting
in verse 37 of Luke 19. It says, "And as He was
drawing near, already on the way down the Mount of Olives,
the whole multitude of disciples began to
rejoice and praise God." >> Can we go and
follow this path down into Jerusalem
similar to what Jesus did? >> We can. Of course, the road that
He went down is long gone, but there is a road that leads
from the top of Mount of Olives down to the Kidron
Valley and that's where I'd like to go right now. >> Let's do it. [ Music ] Now on that day,
Jesus sent a couple of His disciples into town. And they came back with the
donkey's colt for him to come and ride down this road on. They threw some cloaks
on the donkey. People were throwing
down palm fronds. They were celebrating
the coming of the King. The quote is Zachariah 9:9. There are some people that
tell Jesus to get the disciples to be quiet and stop
saying things like that. And Jesus' comment was if
these people didn't cry out then the very stones they
were walking on would recognize who He was and respond. >> You can imagine them
coming into the city and this beautiful view
that they would have had. The temple would have been
right there in front of them. They would have been able to see that as they were
coming down the mountain. It would have been
really beautiful. >> Now there's a very big
contrast between Jesus coming into Jerusalem on that day
and that triumphal entry and the triumphal entry
of say a Roman general after a military victory. He's humbled. He's not riding a
beautiful warhorse. He's riding on a donkey's colt. >> Right, with people's
clothes as the saddle. >> You have Jesus
continuing His humble, unassuming entry into Jerusalem. There's a church that marks one
of the spots that Jesus wept over Jerusalem during
the triumphal entry. And so in the midst of
all that jubilation, Jesus is actually sorrowful because he's anticipating
the rejection he's going to experience in just
a couple of days. >> Jeremy, this is the
Dominus Flevit Church. Dominus Flevit is Latin
for the Lord weeps. And, of course, we know the Lord
wept many times over Jerusalem. >> There several times
where He does that. The one that most people
think of is at the end of that final week of Jesus
where he's been teaching. He's been in the Temple Mount. But during that triumphal entry,
when everybody is celebrating about their King arriving in
His city, he's actually weeping as he's riding that
donkey down into town because he's anticipating
their rejection of him at the end of the week. >> Yeah. Let's just go in
here and take a look around. Jesus had visited Jerusalem
many times over His life. In fact, when He was
growing up, of course, His family would've come to
Jerusalem three times a year. And so it's probable that He had
been to Jerusalem more than 50 or 60 times during
His entire life. But, of course, this
trip was different. He knew what lay ahead of him. And He knew what He was
going to have to go through. He knew what was
about to happen. [ Music ] We've got a great
opportunity tomorrow because we've been approved
to go up on the Temple Mount. I've been up a number of times. It's a wonderful place to visit. The buildings up
there are beautiful. And we've actually been
given the opportunity to go in a couple of those buildings
and so this is really kind of a once-in-a-lifetime
situation. But when we go up there,
we need to be respectful of everything they're doing. And we want to make
sure that the things that we do are appropriate. And we've been told different
types of cameras we can bring and so I think maybe -- did
you bring some of those? >> Yeah. So just like
the Jordan River, you have a GoPro with you. >> Yeah. >> Keep that on you. You can hold it out and get
both of you in the same shot. >> We'll be capturing
footage of us but then you all will
have the smaller DSLRs. >> We'll probably just
have something like this. As far as audio, we
won't do traditional mics like you guys have been doing. >> Right. >> These mics can actually
plug straight into your phone. >> Right. >> You'll have one and
Jeremy will have one. You'll hit record. Put it in your pocket. We'll just kind of walk around. >> I think that'll be fine. >> We'll get what we can get. >> That's right. [ Music ] >> There are three major
monotheistic religions in the world. And they all have a
claim to this spot. And so everybody is just -- from day-to-day you
don't know what kind of access you're going to have. >> It's a very sensitive area. And you have to be very
polite and understanding of everything that's
involved in going up there. Okay. You ready? >> Yeah. >> All right, Jeremy. We're walking up the
steps on the eastern side of the Dome of the Rock. It's a beautiful building. The Mount of Olives
would be behind us. >> I think the Temple Mount is
interesting from our standpoint. If this is the place
where the Temple was -- >> Right. >> Jesus came up here
and taught many times. >> There were a couple of
reasons we wanted to come here. One was the original location of the first century
temple being here but also it's pertinent
to life of Christ. >> And all during His ministry,
any time He came to Jerusalem, He would spend time
in the temple area -- >> Right. >> And teaching at the temple,
talking to people about things that He came to talk about. [ Music ] >> Inside the Dome of the Rock, there is a large stone
called the foundation stone. It's original rock. And Christians and Jews believe
that it's at this location where Abraham offered
Isaac on Mount Mariah. >> They arrive at
that conclusion because in second Chronicles,
the third chapter tells us that Solomon built the temple
on top of Mount Mariah, the very same place where
Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice is the same place
where Solomon build His temple and that's the same
place where, of course, where Herod rebuilt the
temple in the first century. >> Seeing the foundation
stone and thinking about those connections makes me
imagine what Jesus was thinking of as He came up here
and thought through all of that History thinking
about how God spared Abraham from actually offering His
son, but He would follow through with offering
His own son. [ Music ] We just came down from
the main platform. We're just about, I
don't know, 80 yards away from the Dome of the Rock. It's right in front of us. Now, the reason we're up here
is because during the final week of Jesus' life, He would
crest that hill behind us and come here to the Temple
Mount and do a lot of teaching. >> He taught a lot of people
that last week up here. >> He came up here to
cleanse the temple. We have a recording of that. It is a huge honor to
be able to come up here. >> It was. Why don't we just keep
walking down the sidewalk here? >> That sounds good. >> Yeah. [ Music ] >> We're standing outside
of the Lion's Gate. Sometimes is called
St. Stephen's Gate because this is the traditional
place where they brought Stephen after [inaudible] that we were
reading in the Book of Acts, but we just came off the -- >> Temple Mount. >> Temple Mount. Yeah. >> Right now the
adrenaline level is lowering. >> Going down a little bit. >> Foreigners, especially
Christian foreigners don't get to do that very often. So it was a treat. John the Baptist identified
Jesus as our Passover lamb who takes away the
sins of the world. So for Jesus coming
to the Temple Mount as our Passover land and
witnessing and participating in everything that foreshadowed
what He was here to do that final week would
have been huge. And it was hard for him
because all of the people around him didn't understand
that those symbols and all of those things that
foreshadowed him, they didn't understand the
connection until afterwards. >> Right. >> And so it must have been
a huge emotional toll on him to understand what
He was about to do and at the same time people
didn't understand what He was about to do. [ Music ] I think Jesus' last supper with the disciples is
a big question mark to western readers. Hardly any of us have
ever experienced a full Passover meal. Obviously, it was
important to him. He explained to His disciples
that He had looked forward to doing this with them. And it was something that
they did on an annual basis. So to have something that was
so integral to His last week and the night of His arrest is
really something that we need to spend some time
and try to figure out. And Barry found a place
where we were able to go and not experience the full
three, four hour Passover feast but a very condensed
Passover feast. >> Having the opportunity
to sit down and have the same
dishes served to us and explained their significance
of meaning was very beneficial. [ Music ] >> Hello. >> Hello. We serve what we
call biblical meals here. I'm one of the main people
who leads Passover meals. We basically have
a very shortened, approximately half an hour,
presentation that is integrated with the food and the symbolic
foods that we have passed down to us by tradition
to this very day. There is actually
often all kinds of singing involved in Passover. Families get together. It's a family event. And so the first element -- this is the plate
with symbols and it. And near to the beginning of the
meal we begin tasting things, you know, even though we may not
eat traditionally for an hour or two, we start
tasting stuff just so people don't get too ancy. And so we've got the
sprigs of parsley. Sprig of parsley is symbol of
life and also of the hyssop that was used to smear the
blood on the door posts, dipped into the salt water
representing the tears of the children of Israel
because of the slavery in Egypt, and parsley with salt water. >> That's really salty. >> It is. >> The brownish stuff
is actually sweet. And it represents the mortar. So we know that they built two
hold cities for the pharaohs. It says in Scripture. It's sweet. Generally this is interpreted
that even though you work hard, hard work is actually
good for humans. And then finally we
have the bitter herbs. And it's supposed to be hot
enough that when you taste it, it makes you cry, again, this
idea of relating to the children of Israel and Egypt
and their slavery. >> Thank you. >> What we do is first we
taste the bread on its own. So we have a sense of what it's like to eat unleavened
bread on its own. This stuff is really nice. But the stuff that we actually
normally eat in Passover, it's kind of like
a saltless cracker. So we taste the bread. Then we taste it with the bitter
herbs, which is very important because the bitter herbs are
actually commanded to be eaten. And so we take some
of the bitter herbs. Hopefully this is sharp -- >> Wow. >> Enough to make
us cry a little bit. >> Wow. >> Then we have a tradition,
not something commanded in Scripture, of mixing
the symbol of mortar with the symbol of suffering. And so we basically, you know, we kind of put them
together and we eat it. >> It's definitely bitter. There's some bitter in there. They complement each
other a lot. >> They do. They do. >> And finally the
shank of a lamb. This purposefully looks
like it's been fired because the lambs are supposed
to be cooked over a live fire and not boiled in
water or anything else. And this reminds us, of course,
of the original lamb in Egypt that the children of Israel
slaughtered and used the hyssop to the smear the blood
on the door posts and the lintels of their houses. And also then the perpetual
sacrifice that was supposed to go on every year at the
temple or the tabernacle to remember every year
sacrifices were made at the Passover in remembrance of the original Passover
in Egypt. >> So you were mentioning some
of these elements over here. You mentioned the bitter
herbs that was a part of that. During Jesus Passover meal, it mentions that He dipped
His hand in the dish. What was that referring to? >> My impression
and my memory says that it was some kind of sop. Usually sop was some
kind of vinegary mixture. We see an example of this also
in the Book of Ruth where -- when she's invited by Boaz to
partake, there is some kind of vinegar sop there -- >> Right. >> That is part of
their daily meal. So I think that's what
that would have been. However, it's possible
that maybe one of these elements also
could've been the case. >> All right. >> When we celebrate a Passover
meal, there is sort of an order of service that I
will go through. The cup is pretty primary. There's four cups of
wine that we drink. >> Right. >> And they're based
actually on the text in Exodus that's
full of I wills. God says I will take
you out of slavery. I will free you. I will take you unto
myself, etcetera. And it's interesting that
traditionally the third cup after the meals, the cup
of salvation, and it seems that Jesus picks up
after the meal the cup and establishes what we
call communion with the cup of salvation, which is what he's
about to accomplish that night and the next day on
His death on the cross. And so that's very significant. The symbol of the [inaudible]. Wine is actually not
mentioned in Exodus, but we have it by tradition. And, of course, when Jesus
with His disciples sit down to celebrate
the Passover meal and what we call today the Last
Supper, there is wine present, of course, on the table. And in Jewish tradition,
wine has a few meanings. First it's a symbol of
joy and of that provision but also especially
because of the color, it's also associated with blood. And so this thing
that Jesus does, I believe is already established
as having a connection to blood. Then we also have
this interesting set up with the unleavened bread. We have three pieces of bread
that are separated by linen. And this is a specific
thing that's related to the Passover celebration. And so we have a very
curious tradition. It's not really clearly
explained. And that is we take the third
of the matzos that is in here and at a certain point in
the service we break it and we take half and
put it back together between the other two pieces. Again, this was the
middle piece. And then we take
half and we wrap it in another piece of linen. And this is hidden
away by the master of the banquet who's
doing the presenting. And the children go on a treasure hunt
after dinner is over. And this has to be found. He will redeem it either
with money or a gift. And it'll be eaten as
a final desert even if mother created all kinds of
dessert, unleavened of course. This will be eaten
at the end afterwards and nothing basically else
will be eaten that night. Everyone, of course, is
stuffed with a big meal. This is very significant. It has a curious
name [inaudible], which seems to be a Greek word. One possible meaning
is I have come. This is curious. This is hidden away and then
is brought back, redeemed, and then it is partaken of. And so, as a messianic Jew, I believe that this is a
wonderful symbol for Jesus. Notice he's in the
middle: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, perhaps. All right. His human nature. He dies and he's wrapped
in linen and buried away, but His eternal nature cannot
die and so it remains with God. And God resurrects him
and Jesus takes the bread and He blesses it and
gives it to His disciples and says take and eat of this. This is my body broken for you. And we see this connection
with the New Testament. Very beautiful because all the
other explanations for this in Jewish tradition leave
something to be desired. So those are the basic elements
of the Passover meal and just, in brief, their significance
according to tradition. >> I think there were three
layers that we really tried to have explained to us. The first layer was
understanding the original setting in which they
observed this so going back to the Exodus, going back to when the Israelites
experienced the Angel of Death passing over
their home and the fact that they had sacrificed a lamb
and put its blood on the lentil and that spared the
life of their sons. And then understanding how
first century Jews partook of the Passover meal, what
traditions had they developed and how did they practice it? And then the third layer was
how, toward the end of the meal, Jesus made the connection
between some of the most important elements
of the meal in what He was about to do in becoming
our Passover lamb. >> And the fact that,
toward the end of the meal, Jesus took this meal in a slightly different
direction may have caught them off guard a little bit. They didn't understand
what exactly He was doing. >> Now, would Jesus
have acted as the head of the Passover meal
that last night? >> Good question. Very likely since He was the
master and He was the teacher and we see him taking these
elements and renewing them -- >> Right. >> You might say. >> Right. >> And so He redefines the cup
and He says this is reflexive. This is pointing to
me and the sacrifice of the lamb, the shank bone. >> Right. >> I am the lamb. As John identifies
Jesus, of course -- >> The Lamb of God. >> The Lamb of God. The bread from heaven, right. He's being -- reframing
the symbol of bread. >> Yeah. >> The bread of heaven. The manna from heaven. The fact that He has
come from the Father to give light to the world. >> It's obvious, from
everything on the table, just how important
remembering things was to God. And He wanted people to keep
in mind the past deliverances that He had accomplished
for them. And I think it really
stands out that Jesus, during that last Passover meal,
is making connections for them, trying to help them understand that He has become
the Lamb of God. That he's about to
sacrifice himself and he's connecting
himself with a salvation. And the disciples
never would've thought of the Passover meal
the same way again. >> And I think it's interesting,
throughout what we refer to as Old Testament History,
all those feasts were a series of reminders whether it was the
deliverance from the bondage that they had in Egypt or
the struggles that they had in the wilderness during those
40 years or just the fact that God had delivered
on His promise to bring them into the land. >> All of those things
foreshadowed Jesus. And the perfect fulfillment
of them was in Christ. I want to experience
a full meal. I mean, at some point
in my life I'd love to experience what a full first
century Passover meal would have been like. And this first experience
was just phenomenal. And from the text, we know that
at the conclusion of that meal, after they sang some
of the songs, the hymns that are
associated with the Passover, they finally left that meal and
went out to the Mount of Olives. [ Music ]
