Centuries before Jesus was born, Jewish prophets had foretold his coming. During Holy Week, many of the prophecies made about the Messiah are fulfilled.
As the events of Christ’s Passion, death and Resurrection unfold, the actualized prophecies convinced the Jewish people that Jesus is the son of God, said Andrew Montanaro, associate professor of sacred Scripture at the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College in Front Royal. “Prophecy is specifically a divine prerogative; this is something only God can do,” he said.
Holy Week begins with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Matthew 21:7 says that Jesus comes into town riding on a donkey, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah — “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass.” (Zec 9:9)
During Holy Week, Jesus overturns the tables of the animal vendors and money changers in the temple. (Mk 11:15-18) This fulfills Zechariah 14:21, which says, “And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day.” Additionally, after Christ cleanses the temple, the disciples recall Psalm 69:9 — “Zeal for thy house has consumed me.”
During this week, the chief priests pay Judas 30 pieces of silver to betray Jesus. (Mt 26:14-15) Later, regretting his action, Judas throws the money into the temple. (Mt 27:3-5) Zechariah prophesies, “Then I said to them, ‘If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.’ And they weighed out as my wages thirty shekels of silver. Then the Lord said to me, ‘Cast it into the treasury’ — the lordly price at which I was paid off by them. So I took the thirty shekels of silver and cast them into the treasury in the house of the Lord.” (Zec 11:12-13)
Judas thought that Jesus’ shepherding was only worth 30 pieces of silver, said Montanaro. “God in this prophecy says he’s going to establish a shepherd over his people. The people are going to count his shepherding cheap and pay him only 30 shekels of silver — (the phrase) ‘lordly price’ is said with a certain level of irony,” he said. It’s one of the many prophecies that is unwittingly fulfilled by Jesus’ enemies, he added.
Around the feast of Passover, Jesus celebrates the Last Supper with his disciples. The Passover is seen as a foreshadowing of Christ’s life, said Montanaro. In the Exodus story, an unblemished lamb is slaughtered to save the Israelites from death. (Ex 12:21-23) Jesus, who is referred to by John the Baptist as the Lamb of God, dies to save humanity from spiritual death. (1 Pet 2:24) The lamb’s blood was smeared on the doorposts (Ex 12:7) and Christ’s blood was spilled on a wooden cross.
Isaiah prophesies about a suffering servant who is likened to a lamb. “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter … he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Is 53:7,12)
The Gospel writers tell of Christ’s hands and feet being pierced during his crucifixion and the Roman soldiers casting lots for his garments. (Mt 27:35) Many mock Jesus, saying, “ ‘You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’ So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, ‘He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him; for he said, “I am the Son of God.” ’ ” (Mt 27:40-43)
Many Jews believed that because the Messiah would rule over the Jews and the Gentiles that he would overthrow the Romans, said Montanaro. But this overly militaristic interpretation of the prophecies overlooks the hardships foretold by Isaiah and King David. Jesus even quotes the first verse of Psalm 22 on the cross (Mt 27:46), as if to confirm he is the fulfillment of this prophecy, said Montanaro. The psalm says:
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? All who see me mock at me, they make mouths at me, they wag their heads; ‘He committed his cause to the Lord; let him deliver him, let him rescue him, for he delights in him!’ Yea, dogs are round about me; a company of evildoers encircle me; they have pierced my hands and feet — I can count all my bones — they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my raiment they cast lots.” (Ps 22:1, 7-8, 16-18)
After he dies on the cross, a Roman soldier pierces Christ’s body, and water and blood gush forth from his side. (Jn 19:34) Throughout the Gospels, Jesus associates himself with the Temple. (Jn 2:21, Mt 12:6) In prophecies such as Ezekiel 47:1, Ezekiel has a vision of living waters gushing forth from the Temple. “Jesus is therefore the true Temple, the true sacrifice, the true king, and truly God — in accordance with the many prophets from of old,” said Montanaro.
The life of the prophet Jonah foreshadows Christ’s Resurrection. Jonah was in the belly of a great fish for three days (Jon 1:17), and Christ rose from the dead on the third day. (Mt 28:1-6) But Jonah and Jesus have something else in common, too — they both preached to the Gentiles, who then started to follow God. “The Gentiles, after thousands of years of entrenched pagan worship, (instead) worship the one true God now,” said Montanaro. “That’s a sign that what Christ did was efficacious, that it had (and) has an effect on human hearts.”
Maraist is a freelancer from Reston.
