Jesus loves you and me so much that He allowed Himself to be nailed to the Cross for our sins. Jesus Christ died for our sins on Good Friday. He willingly offered up His life in order to open Heaven for us. Some of Jesus’ friends took Him down from the Cross and tenderly buried Him in a tomb.
Jesus’ ministry lasted three years. He lived a holy life for 30 years before setting out to Establish a new covenant (solemn agreements between God and his people.) See Mark 14: 10-25. Jesus offered himself as our lamb. By his blood we are saved. The Paschal Mystery is the mystery of Jesus’ suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. We recommend reading our October 28, 2020 Family Faith Formation lesson on the Paschal Mystery for more background. The Stations of the Cross and the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary call to mind the sufferings of Christ. Participating in the Stations of the Cross during Lent and praying the Sorrowful Mysteries of the rosary are good ways to integrate the reminder of His suffering into your daily life.
For clarification about these 2 Jewish groups: Sadducees: Wealthy elite Temple priests and priestly aristocrats. They believed in the written Torah alone (1st 5 books), no interpretations.They did not believe in the resurrection or in an afterlife or spiritual realm that included angels and demons. They were the one who regulated all Temple worship, festivals, and its sacrifices. They also collaborated with Roman authorities. (This group disbanded when Rome destroyed the Jerusalem Temple) Pharisees:Non-elite scholars, philosophers, scribes, and teachers who spent most of their time in the synagogues. They believed in oral traditions, interpretations of the full Hebrew Bible, and devotion to religious purity. They believed in resurrection and in an afterlife, angels and demons. They generally rejected most of the Jewish leaders due to their pro-Roman politics. (This is the group that became modern Judaism)
Jesus was a threat to Jewish leaders, they feared change and loss of their power and position in the community. Jesus made many enemies. He needed to make enemies. His mission was to bring changed and forcibly so in some instances. We can think of one example of His force being needed to institute change: Cleansing of the Temple
Read: Why Jesus Opposed the Moneychangers in the Temple
During Jesus’ life the temple was the center of Jewish life. Over time reverence had been forgotten and the temple no longer was a place for prayer and worship of God. Jesus was enraged that the temple had become a raucous place. Remember in Luke 2:41-52 The Boy Jesus in the Temple: when Jesus was a 12 year old boy He went to the temple calling it “my Father’s dwelling”. Witnessing this disrespect of the temple knowing it was a violation of Jewish tradition enraged Jesus. Jesus cast out money changers because it had become a marketplace; his righteous anger was witnessed by all especially the Jewish Leaders- he called them hypocrites – reminding them of their weak leadership.
He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you make it a den of robbers.”
Matthew 21:13
This embarrassed the Jewish leaders who were now being seen for their lack of reverence. This was a step closer to losing authority and credibility within the community; Jesus was challenging their authority and control within the community. They were blinded by their own righteousness to see the Son of God before them.
In His ministry Jesus wanted to emphasize that everyone sins even religious leaders. The Scribes, Sadducees and Pharisees did not like that concept and unwilling to let that be truth. These Jewish Leaders had built themselves into a disordered lifestyle insulating themselves from the prospect that they are fallible and putting God below their selfish desires. In their leadership the custom of being rich equals being holy and good, that poverty equals being outcasts and sinners began to change the fabric of the community for the worst. In Matthew 23 Jesus Denounces Scribes and Pharisees you can read in more detail the complaints Jesus had with their leadership.
How did Jesus, who was so good to so many people, become an enemy of the leaders of the Jewish community?
Jesus managed to provoke (cleansing the Temple, healing people on the Sabbath, etc.) the Jewish Leadership into action. The Sadducees were the wealthy elites who maintained the Temples. The Pharisees were the devout common people who believed that the synagogue was the spiritual center of the community. These two majority groups needed to get rid of Jesus and His troublesome ways and prevent Him from meddling with their status quo. Jesus’ actions within the Jewish community was raising questions about how to be a good Jew. While the Sadducees and Pharisees were not usually in agreement, when it came to Jesus causing too much disruption within the Jewish community they were aligned. The Sanhedrin, the Jewish governing council in Jerusalem, consisted mostly of Sadducees were the ones who began the process for putting Jesus on trial. Pilate found no guilt in Jesus still levied the mob justice and Jesus was sentenced to crucifixion.
Assignment:
There are a few video option to watch for this week. One is Jesus was put on Trial and The Passion: A Brickflim Brick Jesus Crucifixion using Lego stop motion animation is one without ads, and this video to review : Jesus Descended into Hell
For learning about John the Baptist : John the Baptist for kids
To review Moses and his rescue mission: the Story of Moses and the 10 plagues
For the assignment page of the notebook for our First Year Communion student: Learn about Saint Martin de Porres. We have written a short post about this saint that we recommend reading: St. Martin de Porres Answer these questions? When is his feast day? What is he the patron saint of? What other saint did he know during his lifetime? What virtue(s) can we learn about from St. Martin de Porres?
For the assignment page of the notebook for our First Year Confirmation student:
Read: The Cleansing of the Temple as written by Matthew 21:12-17, Mark 11:15-19, and Luke 19:45-48. In your notebook answer: Do you think that this event may have functioned as the ‘trigger’ for Jesus’ death? Explain your reason. What other factors contributed to Jesus’ death?
* Repeat from last lesson in case you may not have watched this 2 part series: Read the short articles A Portrait of Jesus’ World – Temple Culture From Jesus to Christ – The First Christians from PBS Frontline. Watch: From this link above you can find the tab for the Frontline videos that goes into greater detail on these articles. Run time for the 2 part video series is about 4 hours. Highly recommend this series for the Confirmation students. They should make an effort to watch all of it, this is great time to do so as we are nearly at the end of Ordinary time with Advent beginning in about 3 weeks.
Activity option: Make a Resurrection set. There are many options from the simple print out (another option) to paper plate Calvary Hill or even using Legos. AND/OR Make a Resurrection garden. This can be very simple in a small container to something large in your yard. For more ideas look to our Lent Resources page for more options on building resurrection gardens.
**** This lesson was originally written for FFF November 7, 2023. We are re-teaching this lesson and adding in additional material for FFF week 10 November 3, 2026*****
