Passover

A modernised depiction of the civic Roman presence at Jesus’ entrance to Jerusalem

Passover is a significant annual celebration for Israel, comparable to Christmas for Christians or Ramadan for Muslims. The origins of Passover are tied to Israel’s first liberation and revolution of Egyptian rule. Every year many Israelites saw the Passover as the best opportunity to try and coordinate an uprising against Rome, and every year Rome was on high alert.

For the Passover of 33 AD, Jesus travelled to Jerusalem with his friends and followers. He planned to spend a week in Jerusalem. Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey with crowds of his followers throwing palms under its feet. (This is where the origins of Palm Sunday come from). The palm is a Jewish symbol for victory, the symbol of a conquering leader. Rome and the religious leaders all knew what this could mean and both were aware of how quickly the celebration could turn into a violent protest.

Jesus spent the first few days of Passover week in the temple as did the religious leaders. Almost inevitably conflict erupted between them. With Jesus’ growing crowd of followers at an all time high, the religious leaders decided that enough was enough and that Jesus needed to be made an example of. Not only to the crowd, but also to Rome. However, with so much support, there was not a good opportunity to discreetly arrest Jesus. With Passover soon approaching and likely that Jesus and his followers would move on to another city after the celebration, they felt paralyzed to do anything. Although Jesus spent time alone and away from the crowds, only those close to him knew where and when that would happen. The religious leaders were in a stalemate, not able to act, but not able not to act.