The Passion of the Christ

0: A. Friday/Saturday: Jesus arrives in Bethany

Jesus arrives in Bethany; Mary anoints Jesus during a meal; the crowds come to see Jesus.

1: B. Sunday: Triumphal Entry

Jesus makes his so-called triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Some Greeks seek Jesus. He responds to unbelievers, weeps over Jerusalem, enters and looks around the temple area, and then returns to Bethany.

2: C. Monday: Cleansing the Temple

On the way back to Jerusalem Jesus curses the fig tree.

When he arrives in Jerusalem, he cleanses the temple (though it’s debated, this is likely the area of the Royal Stoa, described by Josephus in Antiquitites 15.411–415, which ran the length of the southern wall of the Temple Mount).

Jesus then did miracles in the temple and received challenges from the Jewish leaders and astonishment from the crowd.

In the evening Jesus and the twelve return to Bethany.

3: D. Tuesday: Olivet Discourse

On the way back to Jerusalem in the morning the disciples see the withered fig tree.

In Jerusalem there are more temple controversies, and then Jesus delivers the Olivet Discourse on the return back to Bethany.

4: E. Wednesday: Teaching at the Temple

Jesus continues his daily teaching in the temple while the Sanhedrin plots to kill him.

Also on Wednesday/Thursday, preparations for the Passover are made.

5: F. Thursday: The Last Supper

On Thursday evening in an upper room in Jerusalem, Jesus and his 12 disciples eat the Passover meal. They likely reclined on couches arranged in a square-shaped U, with Judas on Jesus’ left and John on his right. With four cups of wine, a part of Ex. 6:6–7a would have been recited, along with singing from Psalms 113–118.

Jesus institutes the Last Supper and indicates that Judas will betray him. Jesus washes his disciples’ feet during their time together and delivers the upper room discourse, which includes teaching them how to pray. Jesus predicts but Peter denies that he will deny Jesus.

They sing a hymn and head for the Mount of Olives.

6: G. Thursday: Gethsemane

While in the Garden of Gethsemane (on the western slopes of Olivet, northeast of the temple across the Kidron Valley), the disciples sleep as Jesus prays in anguished submission to his Father about drinking the cup of his wrath.

Perhaps after midnight (hence early Friday morning), Jesus is betrayed by Judas with a kiss, and arrested by a band of soldiers, their captain, and the officers of the Jews. With his sword, Peter cuts off the ear of Malchus (servant of the high priest), but Jesus heals his ear. The disciples flee.

7: H. Friday: Jesus before Annas and Caiaphas, Peter denies Jesus

Jesus is taken for an informal hearing before Annas. (Annas served as high priest from A.D. 6–15; his son-in-law, Caiaphas, was high priest from A.D. 18–37.) Archaeologists have uncovered what would have been a two-level, 6,500 square foot mansion in the Upper City, which may have been Annas’ residence and may be the site of this initial hearing. The apostle John is able to enter the court with Jesus; Peter stays outside.

Annas binds Jesus and sends him to stand before Caiaphas and some members of the Sanhedrin Council, where he is mocked and beaten. They render him guilty of blasphemy. Then the Jewish portion of his trial concludes with Jesus bound before the full Sanhedrin, perhaps after or through sunrise.

8: I. Friday: Jesus before Pilate

Jesus’ Roman trial begins as he is delivered over to stand before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of the province Iudaea from A.D. 26–36. Pilate normally resided in Caesarea Maritima, but was in Jerusalem for the Passover. During his stays in Jerusalem, he would reside in “Herod’s Palace,” which had been the Jerusalem home of Herod the Great from 24–4 B.C.

9: J. Friday: Jesus before Herod

Upon learning that Jesus was a Galilean (and hence under the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas [“Herod the Tetrarch”]), Pilate sent Jesus to stand before Herod, who lived in the Hasmonean Palace during his reign from 4 B.C.–A.D. 39. Herod questioned Jesus, and the chief priests and scribes accused him, but Jesus did not answer. They therefore responded with contempt and mockery, arraying him in splendid clothing and returning him to Pilate.

10: K. Friday: Jesus before Pilate, flogged

The Praetorium, a raised stone pavement used for official judgments, stood outside Herod’s Palace and was the site of Jesus’ condemnation under Pilate. The crowd urged Pilate to crucify Jesus and to free the insurrectionist/terrorist Barabbas instead.

Jesus is flogged by a metal-tipped rope that caused gaping wounds in the flesh and the muscles. (For medical details on the physical sufferings of Jesus, see this 1986 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association [PDF].) Jesus was then stripped and mockingly dressed in a scarlet robe and made to wear a crown of thorns and given a reed as a scepter (with which they hit him on the head). They then stripped the robe and put his clothes back on him.

11: L. Friday: Simon of Cyrene carries Jesus' cross

Probably passing through the Gennath (Garden) Gate, Jesus is unable to carry the cross, and Simon from Cyrene is recruited to carry it for him.

12: M. Friday: Jesus crucified

Jesus is led to the hill of Golgotha overlooking a quarry (most likely at the present-day site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre).

There, between approximately 9AM and 3PM, Jesus is crucified between two insurrectionists. He was offered (but refused to drink) wine mixed with gall. His clothes were divided among the soldiers by lot. He was mocked by the insurrectionists being crucified on either side of him, by Pilate’s sign above his head (identifying him as “King of the Jews”), by those passing by, and by the Jewish rulers.

From noon until 3 pm there was darkness over the land.

His last seven words were: (1) Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. (2) [To one of the insurrectionists] Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise. (3) [To the beloved disciple (John) concerning Mary] Behold, your mother! (4) “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (5) I thirst. (6) It is finished. (7) Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!

As Jesus died, an earthquake opened up tombs causing the dead to raise to life. A centurion filled with awe exclaimed that Jesus truly was the innocent Son of God.

To ensure death, the legs of the two insurrectionists were broken, but a soldier instead pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, pouring forth blood and water.

13: N. Friday: Tearing of the Temple curtain

As Jesus died, the massive curtain in Herod’s Temple, separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place (where the priest could enter only once a year on the Day of Atonement) was torn in two. An earthquake opened up tombs causing the dead to raise to life. At Golgotha, a centurion filled with awe exclaimed that Jesus truly was the innocent Son of God.

14: O. Friday: Jesus buried

Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy member of the Sanhedrin and a secret disciple of Jesus, requested and received permission from Pilate to have the body. Joseph and Nicodemus wrapped Jesus’ body in a clean linen shroud along with 75 pounds of myrrh and aloe. That evening they buried Jesus in Joseph’s newly hewn, unused rock tomb located in a garden near Golgotha. They rolled a massive stone over the entrance.

15: P. Saturday: Pilate orders the tomb sealed

On the Sabbath, at the suggestion of the chief priests and the Pharisees, Pilate orders the tomb sealed and a guard to stand watch over the tomb until Sunday.

16: Q. Sunday: Jesus' resurrection

(The following is based on a helpful harmonization by Craig Blomberg, Jesus and the Gospels, pp. 354–355.)

Near dawn on Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome head to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body with spices, with Mary Magdalene perhaps arriving first. They encounter two angels dressed in dazzling white, one of whom announces Jesus’ resurrection. Fearful and joyful, they are silent but then decide to report back to the other disciples; Mary Magdalene may have run ahead, telling Peter and John before the other women get there.

Jesus meets the other women heading back to the disciples and encourages them to tell them the others and to remind them that he’ll meet them in Galilee. Meanwhile Peter and John arrive at the tomb, discovering it to be empty. After they leave, Mary Magdalene returns to the tomb, seeing the angels and then Jesus (whom she thinks at first is a gardener).

That afternoon Jesus appears to Cleopas and another man on the road to Emmaus, and then (separately) to Peter. On Sunday evening Jesus appears to the 10 disciples (minus Judas and Thomas) behind locked doors in Jerusalem.