Holy Week in the Philippines

 c. AD 30, Jerusalem

• On Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem triumphantly, sitting astride a donkey in fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9: "Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." People laid down palm branches and coats in His path. The Pharisees tried to silence them, but failed, and Jesus defended them. He then wept over the sad state of affairs in Jerusalem.
• On Wednesday, Judas Iscariot made a deal with the chief priests to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.
• On Thursday, Jesus and His disciples held their Passover feast in an upper room, which Christians still remember today when they take communion. Judas left the feast to betray Jesus. They then left and proceeded to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus went aside to pray. Judas arrived with a crowd, and Peter resorted to violence, which Jesus healed and told him to put his sword away. The disciples fled as Jesus was arrested and taken to trial. During the trial, Peter denied 3 times that he knew Jesus, and when the cock crowed, he realized what he had done and wept. Maundy Thursday was an eventful and very emotional day and night.
• On Friday, having been beaten horribly and made to wear a thorny crown, Jesus was forced to carry a cross down the Via Dolorosa (Way of Suffering) in Jerusalem. When it became too much, the Roman authorities made Simon, a man from Cyrene, Libya, carry it for Him. When they reached the top of Golgotha, or Skull Hill, they crucified Jesus with two thieves. The sky grew dark as many viewers mocked Jesus. One of the thieves joined in the mocking, but the other one got after him for it. Jesus told the latter thief that he would see him in paradise. Jesus entrusted His mother Mary to the care of His disciple John. He wondered aloud why God had abandoned Him. After being given a drink, He declared things finished, and entrusted His spirit to God. As the Sabbath was approaching, the Jews quickly brought His dead body down from the cross and buried it in a tomb that belonged to Joseph of Arimathea. Burial spices would have to wait until after the Sabbath.
• On Saturday, Jesus' devastated followers observed Shabbat and grieved the loss of the man who had changed their lives.
• Early Sunday morning, several women brought burial spices to the grave, and wondered who would move the heavy stone away. Imagine their surprise when they arrived to discover that the stone was already rolled away! The tomb was empty, except for grave wrappings! The women were afraid, bewildered and confused. They ran to get Peter and John, who returned to the tomb and found the empty tomb and grave clothes. Peter and John returned home, but Mary Magdalene hung around. She looked in the tomb again and was shocked to discover two angels sitting there! They wondered why she was crying, and she told them someone had taken Jesus' body away. She then turned around and saw someone else that she didn't recognize, who also asked why she was crying. She asked this person if he knew where the body was. When the stranger said, "Mary," she recognized Him as Jesus! He told her to go tell the disciples, which she did. That evening, the disciples (except for Thomas and the now-late Judas) were having dinner, and Jesus appeared to them. Thomas didn't believe them when they told him. Jesus appeared to Thomas a week later. (Note: Most of this is from John's account of the Resurrection in John 20. Other Gospel writers also mention that the angel(s) asked the women why they were looking for the living among the dead.)

Magellan's Cross in Cebu, Philippines
Photo by Allan Jay Quesada
CC BY-SA 4.0 license

AD 1521, Cebu and Mactan Islands, Philippines

• In his "ongoing mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before"* while circumnavigating the globe, Portuguese/Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan landed on an island in the middle of an archipelago in the Pacific. The island would eventually become known as Cebu. He brought the Roman Catholic faith to the islands, and spent some time there. He presented Santo Niño, the Holy Child, a statue of the child Jesus, to the local king Rajah Humabon and his wife Queen Humamay.
• In an attempt to help the people of Cebu, he travelled to the nearby island of Mactan, where he and his men were attacked by the tribe led by the local chieftain Lapu Lapu. In the ensuing Battle of Mactan, Magellan's journey ended at the end of a spear. His crew would return to Spain, among the first to circumnavigate the globe. Lapu Lapu is still regarded as a Philippine hero, for defeating foreign colonists.
• Though the people of Mactan did not convert, many in Cebu did. However, they did not entirely abandon their earlier animistic beliefs. Animists believe that everything, including inanimate objects, has a soul. There are good and evil spirits. Evil spirits must be scared away with talismans and by other means. Combine that with the Christian concepts of angels and demons, and you get some interesting, if unusual, customs.

Growing up in the Philippines in the 1980s, I saw what Philippine Catholics did and assumed that was typical of all Catholics. I would not learn until later that some of their customs are unique to the Philippines. While I don't think this is a comprehensive list of their customs, what follows is my recollections from childhood. Please note, by explaining this, I mean no disrespect to the Catholic Church or anyone else. While it saddens me that people feel the need to do all this, and it misses the point of Christ's sacrifice, it takes a lot of devotion.

Palm Sunday

Philippine Catholic devotees make a pilgrimage to the local church. Traffic is completely blocked by a sea of people all heading to get their palm branches blessed by the local priest. Some carry Catholic statues and other objects. Once their palm branches have been blessed, they return home and post them on their door. For a few days, there is a green branch on the door. As it dies, it turns brown, but remains on the door until next Palm Sunday. This is supposed to protect the house by warding off evil spirits throughout the year. It was common to see palm branches on people's doors.

Good Friday

This is a very disturbing day. In the hottest part of the year, just north of the equator, penitent flagellants beat themselves with whips, often laced with shards of glass or other sharp objects. They parade down the streets in a reenactment of Christ's walk down the Via Dolorosa. It is part theatre, but part real. The blood is real. The pain is real. The heatstroke is real. While we did not participate, I did nearly faint from the heat once, just watching. Many believe they must do this to be forgiven of their sins, and some do it for other reasons. People dressed as Roman soldiers are everywhere. A person dressed as Jesus (usually a man, but not always) carries a cross down the street, sometimes accompanied by people playing the thieves. When they get to the site of the crucifixion, the people carrying crosses are nailed to them (sometimes literally, sometimes in such a way that it just looks like it from a distance, sometimes just tied, sometimes both tied and nailed). They hang on the crosses just long enough to reenact the crucifixion, and then they are taken down and rushed to the hospital.

The Catholic Church officially frowns on this tradition, but has done little to stop it, as far as I am aware.

Crucifixion in San Fernando City,
Pampanga province, Philippines
April 19, 2019
Reuters/Eloisa Lopez

Black Saturday

Many people believe Jesus is literally dead every year on Black Saturday. They generally try not to take risks, as Jesus may not be available to help out. This coming Saturday, my post will go into more detail on a specific Black Saturday that I remember well, when something happened that caused a mother to be upset that her daughter chose to travel that day.

Easter

Everything is back to normal. Our Protestant church held sunrise services every Easter, where we would meet earlier than normal outside and worship as the sun came up. When I was young, I questioned whether Catholics believed in the Resurrection, as I did not see much out of the ordinary on that day. But on further reflection, if they are willing to do things, and trust that God is there to help them, they clearly do believe that Christ rose from the dead.

As I have grown older, I have learned that the Philippine brand of Roman Catholicism, some of which is even frowned on by the Philippine Catholic Church, is not typical. Some call it Folk Catholicism. I have come to respect many of my Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ, and I have learned a lot about their faith. In this world that is so sharply divided, I think we need to come together and learn from each other. We need to hold fast to our beliefs, but we also need to listen to others, and we can agree to disagree on many of the details. So much pain and death could have been avoided in the Middle Ages if Catholics and Protestants (or Christians and Muslims) had just listened to each other! They might have realized they agreed on more than they knew.

* The quote referring to Magellan is from Star Trek, not anything to do with Magellan...but it seemed appropriate here.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Philippines

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santo_Ni%C3%B1o_de_Ceb%C3%BA

Hosanna!

Today is Palm Sunday, the day we remember Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey. The people laid palm branches and coats on the ground to welcome Christ as Messiah and King. How soon they would forget a few days later when cries of "Hosanna!" turned to "Crucify Him!"

Hosanna!
Steven Sauke
Illustration

Many people believe Hosanna is synonymous with Hallelujah. It is not. Where Hallelujah means "Praise the Lord", Hosanna means "Please save us!" It is a cry for help. In this case it was still a shout of praise, but not in the same sense as Hallelujah. It was more of a "Hooray, our Savior is here! Do your stuff!" John Piper had some good thoughts on it here.

Hosanna!

Times were tough in ancient Egypt. The Israelites had been slaves for 400 years, and their masters were very cruel to them. For years, they prayed for deliverance, and God heard their cries. He sent a guy named Moses, and God used Moses and his brother Aaron to deliver the Israelites out of slavery. God sent ten plagues on the Egyptians, and the last one was the hardest for the Egyptians to handle. The firstborn of each family, even including the animals, died. But God passed over the Israelites and spared their firstborn. Up to that point, the Pharaoh had been pretty stubborn about wanting to keep his slaves, but losing his heir made him realize that some things just weren’t worth losing what you love the most. So he finally let the Israelites go. So began a period of 40 years as the Israelites traveled home to the land of their ancestors, and every year they celebrated their deliverance when God passed over them. Passover became one of the most important feasts of the year. For years, they had been praying, “Hosanna!” Please save us! God had heard their pleas and answered. He had saved them. But as the years went on, they needed to be saved again and again. Years later, they split into two kingdoms and eventually were captured by the kingdoms of Babylon and Assyria. The nation of Judah got to return home after 70 years in exile in Babylon, but eventually, the empire of Rome came along and took over the whole area. Prophets foretold of a Messiah who would one day deliver them from their oppressors, and so they continued their pleas of “HOSANNA!”

Somewhere around 1400 years after the Israelites left Egypt, angels appeared to shepherds on a hillside announcing that the promised Savior had arrived! Wise men from the east saw a star and came to worship this new child who had been born to a girl named Mary. The child’s name was Jesus, and he grew up to become a respected rabbi who preached, told stories to teach lessons, and did some amazing miracles. Word was getting around that Jesus was fulfilling a lot of the prophecies of the Messiah.

So it was that the year Jesus was 33, He and His disciples arrived in Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. People came from all over the place to celebrate in the capital city, and as Jesus got close, He had an odd task for some of His disciples. He told them to go to a nearby farm, where they would find a donkey colt. They were to untie it and bring it to him. Jesus told them, “If the donkey’s owner asks you why you’re untying it, tell him, ‘The Lord needs it.’” So they did as they were told. Sure enough, the owner asked why they were untying his donkey. They explained the situation just as Jesus had told them to do, and he let them take it.

Many years earlier, the prophet Zechariah had foretold that the Messiah would come in victory, riding a donkey colt. So now they saw that prophecy happening before their very eyes! The plea that they had been praying for hundreds of years suddenly became a shout of praise! “HOSANNA! SAVE US! Yay! Our Savior is here! You’re here in the name of the Lord, and you rock!” While they were shouting and excitedly praising God, they took off their coats and laid them on the ground for the donkey to walk on. They had cut down palm branches from nearby trees, and they laid those on the ground too! This was how they welcomed a King into the city.

There were some Pharisees in the crowd, though, and they weren’t too happy with what they heard. They told Jesus, “Tell your followers to be quiet!”

“Are you kidding?” Jesus replied. “If they stopped their praises, the rocks would shout out!”

For hundreds of years, the Israelites had praised God for all the wonderful things that He had done. They praised Him for delivering them from Egypt, for providing food in the wilderness, for helping them to conquer their enemies in the Promised Land. All that time, they had also been praying for deliverance from their oppressors. Now their prayer for deliverance became their shout of praise for what they knew Jesus was about to do: deliver them!

But as we’ll find out next week, Jesus had a plan up His sleeve that was much better than delivering them from the Romans. They didn’t realize right away that it was better, though.

Jesus Clears the Temple

Sunday school lesson for July 7, 2013, from Matthew 21. This was the final lesson in a series on love. This one was illustrating how we need to love God's family. Jesus showed love for the Gentiles by clearing the area where they were allowed to worship, and then He showed love for everyone by healing their diseases and defending the children who were praising Him.



Passover was always a very busy and exciting time in Jerusalem. You might remember that every year the Jews celebrated the day that God sent Moses to save them from bondage in Egypt. God had sent ten plagues on Egypt, and the last one involved the angel of death passing over the Israelites and not killing their firstborn, while every Egyptian family lost at least their firstborn child and the firstborn of their animals. Then Pharaoh let them go, and ever since then, they have celebrated how God saved them.

Many years passed. Israel had kings, and then when the kings and the people got too evil, God sent the people of Israel and Judah into captivity. Eventually He allowed the people of Judah to return to their homeland. However, it wasn’t the same, and before they knew it, another kingdom took over their area. Rome conquered many countries and expanded their kingdom, and they oppressed the Israelites with taxes and in other ways. The Jews didn’t like the Romans or their tax collectors. The prophets had said that a deliverer, descended from King David, would come one day to save them, and a guy named Jesus was fulfilling these prophecies left and right. They thought that it was only a matter of time before He would deliver them from the Romans in the same way that God had delivered them from the Egyptians.

So that day when Jesus came riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, they could hardly contain themselves! Here was their deliverer! “HELP! SAVE US, Son of David!” they cried as they threw down palm branches for the donkey to walk on. “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! Save us!”

("Save us" in Hebrew and Greek are as follows. They are pronounced in variants of "Hosanna!")

הושיעה נא

ὡσαννά

After Jesus got through the crowd, He reached the temple, where He found a horrible sight.

The Pharisees knew that people came from all over Israel to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, and part of the Passover was sacrificing animals. It could be so annoying to have to bring all your animals with you to Jerusalem, so the Pharisees had an idea. Why not sell animals right next to the temple so that people could buy them there and not have to carry them a long way? Great idea, right? In addition, they charged a temple tax so that they could keep the temple in good condition, but they only took a certain kind of coin. So they had to have people nearby who could exchange the people’s money so they could pay their tax. Another great idea, right? There were some problems with this, though, and they really got Jesus steamed. First of all, the money changers charged a bunch of extra money to exchange money. They were just as bad as the tax collectors! Secondly, the animals for sale could get super expensive. But worst of all, they were doing it in the Court of the Gentiles! This was a part of the temple where people who weren’t Jews but wanted to worship God were allowed to come and worship. Some of the people in the crowd couldn’t go into the main part of the temple because they weren’t Jews. So if the only place they were allowed to worship was full of the Jerusalem version of a shopping mall, where could they worship? They had nowhere!

The Bible only tells of two occasions where Jesus turned violent, and both were for the same reason. The Pharisees were using a place that was supposed to be used for worship to sell their wares, and greed had no place in the temple! So Jesus rushed into the Court of the Gentiles and began to throw the tables and benches where the sellers and money changers were doing their thing. He shouted, “My house is supposed to be used for prayer! How dare you steal from the people here?!” Not only were they stealing the people’s money, but they were stealing the only place where the Gentiles were allowed to worship!

When He was done chasing the greedy people out, He turned to the people nearby who couldn’t see or walk, and He healed them. A lot of kids had followed Him, and they were still shouting, “Save us, Son of David!”

The priests and teachers in the temple heard the commotion and came out to see what was going on. When they heard what the children were yelling, they were upset. Remember how they didn’t think Jesus could be God? They realized that the kids were saying that Jesus was the promised deliverer, a messenger (Messiah) from God, and He could save them…and the kids were very happy about it!

The Pharisees were upset with what the kids said, and they said, “Um, Jesus, don’t you hear what they’re yelling?”

Jesus replied, “Um, Pharisees, have you read Psalm 8 lately? It says that God wants children and infants to praise Him!”