p. 6 | AN EVENTFUL WEEK by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 27, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 13.

AN EVENTFUL WEEK.

By G.

NOT since the week of creation had so much of visible personal labor by the Creator been crowded into six days as during the last week of our Lord’s earthly ministry, closing with His crucifixion. These were days and nights of action fraught with momentous results. It was a week in which many important lessons were promulgated, many prophecies literally fulfilled, and many decided victories won for the truth.

Beginning with the feast at the house of Simon the leper in Bethany, we have the anointing of the feet of Jesus by Mary. From the commendation of this act by the Lord, we learn that no sacrifice for Him, however great, can be deemed a “waste,” and that no truly benevolent object is hindered thereby. The poor never will suffer thru our gifts to Christ, notwithstanding appearances. From this occasion the real character of Judas began to be manifested in outward acts.

Next we have the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an act that, more than anything else, inspired the masses with the hope that He was really to assume the position of King. But the great outburst of enthusiasm on this occasion demonstrated that the masses could only be induced to walk by sight, and not by faith. His action in the house of God, after the public accord of regal honors, shows that the temple of God must be cleansed before He will take up His abode in it. This is a personal lesson. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.” 1 Cor. 3:16, 17.

During the following four days Jesus was engaged daily in teaching and healing the people, and in controverting the attacks and sophistries of the priests and scribes and other prominent ones among the Jews. Seven of the twenty-eight chapters of Matthew, five of the sixteen chapters of Mark, four and a half of the twenty-four chapters of Luke, and seven of the twenty-one chapters of John are devoted to the record of the work and the teachings of Jesus during that eventful week, together with His trial and execution. Thus more than one-fourth of the entire record of four years (including John’s ministry) is given to this one week’s work.

Considering the great stress of labor and anxiety, the contemplation of the awful death that awaited Him, the sleepless nights, the terrible agony in the garden before His arrest, and His deep concern for His disciples and the deluded people of Jerusalem, we may form some idea of the physical strain upon Him even before the brutal abuses that were heaped upon Him after His arrest. But after it all He rested on the Sabbath day.

After the six day’s work in creating the world, the record says that “on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed.” Ex. 31:17. On that occasion, however, there was no physical fatigue. The refreshing was a sense of satisfaction with His work, an enjoyment of a grand work completed, a work which the perfect Judge could pronounce “very good.” It must have been indeed refreshing to contemplate such an accomplishment. That was a spiritual rest, such as the Creator designed that man should enjoy on the Sabbath day—on each recurring seventh-day.

If ever a man needed rest of body and mind, it was Jesus, after the agony of soul and the physical strain thru which He passed during that eventful week that ended with His rest in the tomb. It was a continual conflict with the “power of darkness.” Days of earnest teaching, bodily healing, and controversy with those who were seeking to destroy Him before His work was accomplished, and nights of sleepless watching and earnest prayer passed by in unbroken succession. And strange as it might seem at such a time and amid such surroundings, He also suffered from hunger. His condition of mind is expressed in His pathetic appeal to His disciples in the garden of Gethsemane: “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; tarry ye here and watch with Me.” And this feeling of depression is emphasized as “He fell on His face, and prayed saying, O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.” Three times He poured forth this impassioned plea, in an agony of soul that caused the weary physical frame to sweat “as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”

Add to all this the awful experiences of His illegal arrest, His illegal trial, and illegal condemnation, together with the cruel mockings and smitings and scourging, and the crown of thorns pressed upon His aching head, and it is no wonder that He fell prostrate beneath the further burden of bearing His cross. Well might all humanity daily praise His holy name that in all His depression of spirit He remained true to His mission to do His Father’s will. All thru His unparalleled experience as a “Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” there was that determination of purpose, “Not My will, but Thine be done.” Thru the prophet David He had long before said, “I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart” (Ps. 40:8); and He had personally said to the people, in the earlier part of His ministry, “I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.” John 6:38. Shall any mortal fail in expressions of gratitude that the enemies of righteousness were unable to accomplish their purpose to put out His life until He could say of His work, “It is finished?”

Tho this Sabbath day’s rest was an unconscious one; tho it was passed in the silent tomb, in “the valley of the shadow of death,” yet He passed into it fearing no evil. Notwithstanding His depression when contemplating the ordeal while in the garden, thru the prayer of faith He had been strengthened for the occasion by the angels of God. All the machinations of the “power of darkness” could not deter Him, and His last words were words of faith: “Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.” He had finished the work of overcoming the world (John 16:33), of condemning sin in the flesh (Rom. 8:3); He had been obedient even till it cost Him His life, even unto the death of the cross (Phil. 2:8), and now He passes into the temporary sleep of the righteous that He might take away for His children the terrors of the grave. Great and very encouraging to the disciples of Christ, are the lessons and victories of that eventful week.