The Last Week of Jesus' Life

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Mark 10: 32-34, 45

32 And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, 33 saying, "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. 34 And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise." 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

 
 

What happened during the last week of the life of Jesus of Nazareth changed the world.

And, for the last 2,000 years, whenever the church has the retold and reread the account of the last week of the life of Jesus, people have been changed.

Why?

What is it about the life and death of Jesus that affects people so deeply?

The only way to answer those questions is to actually read—for the first time, all over again—the story of the last week of the life of Jesus, beginning with what we now call Palm Sunday, and concluding with the story of what the women saw at dawn on that first Easter Sunday morning.

What will follow here over the next week is Mark’s account of that last week of Jesus’s life, chapters 11-16 of Mark’s Gospel. I will offer here very brief commentary following each day’s reading, in an attempt to help readers get something out of their reading. My commentary is NOT the point—the point is the words of the scripture; my goal is just to get people engaged in actually reading about the most important week in history.

Let’s go. We begin tomorrow with Palm Sunday.

Andrew