בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לזְּמַן הַזֶּה.

Bārūch atāh Adonai Elohênū melekh ha`ôlām šeheḥeyānû veqîmānû vehigî`ānû lazman hazeh

Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, king of the universe, who hast given us life and sustained us and brought us to this season

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Prelude to the Passion 1: The Road to Jerusalem

Michael Coleman, "Road to Jerusalem"

While Latter-day Saints do not, as a rule, observe Lent, there are scriptural passages in the New Testament Gospels that they can read, alone with their families, in preparation for a more intensive study during Holy Week, the days leading up to and including Gethsemane, the crucifixion, and the resurrection. 

But there are passages from Mark and John that can help set the stage and prepare for a more intentional celebration of Holy Week itself. I call these "Preludes to the Passion," and the first set of episodes occur as Jesus concludes his Galilean Ministry and starts on the road to Jerusalem. These may be conveniently read in the week before Palm Sunday and Holy Week.

A dirt trail in the Wadi Hamam, or "Valley of the Doves," follows a path often taken by Jesus

On this journey to Jerusalem, Jesus gave some powerful teachings that help us better understand his atoning sacrifice. The earliest account of these teachings can be found in Mark, which most scholars feel was the first Gospel to have been written. Mark can be seen as a three-act drama with the first, longer act consisting of Jesus’s authoritative ministry in Galilee (1:14‒8:21); the second, a shorter act covering his journey to Jerusalem (8:22‒10:52); and the third, culminating act portraying his momentous final week in Jerusalem (11:1‒16:8).[1] These divisions are geographic and thematic, not chronological—ignoring any previous visits by Jesus to Jerusalem, Mark’s structure makes Jerusalem the culmination and focus of Jesus’s entire mortal ministry. 

While the third act provides the basic framework for our discussion of Holy Week, the relatively short second act prepares us for what Jesus would accomplish in Jerusalem even as Jesus tried to prepare his disciples for what was coming. It begins with the story of Jesus’s healing of a blind man in stages, in which the healed man can represent the disciples’ imperfect understanding of who Jesus was and what he came to do. After Peter’s powerful but incomplete confession, the rest of the act is built around three important “passion predictions,” where Jesus prophesies of his coming betrayal, suffering, and death before concluding with another healing story, this time of a man whose sight is completely restored, representing coming to a fuller knowledge of Jesus and his salvific work.

Christian tradition produced customs and observances that helped believers prepare for the Passion in a similar way. One of the better known of these observances is Lent, a liturgical period common throughout much of traditional Christendom that is a time of fasting and spiritual preparation based on Jesus’s own forty-day preparation in the wilderness.  



Suggestions for Latter-day Saints

Between Christmas and two weeks before Easter, consider reading one of the accounts of Jesus’s ministry (Mark 1‒8; Matthew 3‒20; Luke 3‒18; John 1‒10). In the weeks before Palm Sunday, start decorating your home with spring flowers and prints of art depicting the ministry of Jesus, and renew your dedication to your personal prayer life, scripture study, and service to others.

Consider decorating the home further for the week before Easter, filling it with fresh flowers and potted plants and putting up Christ-centered art that matches the events of each day in Jesus’s last week.

Some families may even want to borrow from the model provided by the Christmas-season Advent wreath, which is an evergreen wreath with four candles. Each Sunday in the four weeks before Christmas a new candle is lit and a family Christmas devotional is held by its light. Perhaps starting with Lazarus Saturday, the day before Palm Sunday, the family can set up an “Easter wreath,” a flowery wreath with three large candles: a purple one representing that Christ is our king, which can be lit starting on Palm Sunday; a red one representing that he is our priest, added starting on Spy Wednesday; and a white candle, lit Easter morning, which proclaims that Christ came forth alive from the tomb with healing in his wings.

Although this book suggests devotionals starting with Palm Sunday, some families might want to start a week before, using the ideas discussed in chapter 1. Readings for this week could be as follows:

  • Sunday: read Mark 8:22‒26 and discuss the symbolism of the blind man healed in stages.
  • Monday: read Mark 8:27‒30 and its parallels in Matt 16:13‒20 and Luke 9:18‒21; read “Pure Testimony” by M. Russell Ballard (Ensign, November 2004, 40‒43) and discuss the elements of a testimony, especially what we need to know about who Jesus is and what he did for us; sing “Testimony” (Hymns, no. 137) or “Search, Ponder, and Pray” (Children’s Songbook, 109).
  • Tuesday: read Mark 8:31‒38; discuss what it means to follow Jesus Christ.
  • Wednesday: read Mark 9:30‒37; discuss what it means to be a servant and be like a little child.
  • Thursday: read Mark 10:32‒45; discuss what it means to serve others and have the greatest serve the least. 
    • Also, consider what it must have felt like for Jesus as drew closer to Jerusalem and knew that his greatest trials were about to begin.
  • Friday: read Mark 10:46‒52; compare and contrast Bartimaeus and the blind man healed in stages.
  • Lazarus Saturday: See Preludes to the Passion 2

These passages can be read in the familiar KJV version or from my own fresh translation of these texts, excerpts of which I have included below.

Some inspiring art includes Carl Bloch, Healing the Blind Man and The Raising of Lazarus; vignettes from James Tissot’s The Life of Christ such as The First Shall Be Last, Jesus and the Little Child, Get Thee Behind Me, Satan, The Two Blind Men at Jericho, The Resurrection of Lazarus; Harry Anderson, Christ and the Children; Michael Coleman, Road to Jerusalem; and J. Kirk Richards, Sight Restored. 



Texts: Mark 8:22–38; 9:30–37; 10:32–52

The “second act” of Mark begins with Jesus healing an unnamed blind man near Bethsaida in the northern part of the Holy Land (Mark 8:22‒26). It concludes with the healing of a second blind man, a beggar named Bartimaeus, as Jesus and his disciples leave Jericho on the last stage of their journey up to Jerusalem (10:46‒52; parallels Matt 20:29‒34; Luke 18:35‒43). This type of literary framing is called an inclusio, by which an author begins and ends a discrete portion of his or her text with the same term, motif, image, or theme. Prominent between these two healings are Peter’s confession that Jesus was the Christ (8:27‒30) and the three passion predictions (8:31‒38; 9:30‒37; 10:32‒45) that prepared his disciples—and by extension us—for the events of Passion Week.

8

22Next they came to Bethsaida. Then they brought a blind man to Jesus and implored him to touch him. 23After he had taken the blind man’s hand, he brought him out of the village. When he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” 24When the man looked up, he said, “I see people who look like trees walking around.” 25Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, and the man looked intently, was restored, and saw everything clearly. 26Jesus sent him to his house, saying, “Don’t even go into the village!”



Towards the end of his Galilean Ministry, Jesus heals a blind man near Bethsaida, interestingly in stages rather than all at once. After this healing, he briefly visits Caesarea Philippi, where Peter testifies that Jesus is the Son of God but shortly shows that while he now knows who Jesus is, he does not yet really understand what he has come to do. Jesus and his disciples than embark on the road to Jerusalem, at the end of which he heals another blind man, this time in Jericho. In Miracles of Jesus, 91‒96, 100‒-103, I suggest that these healings represent the incomplete understanding of Peter and the other disciples.

In Greater Love Hath No Man, 16, we wrote:

By beginning and ending the second act with stories of Jesus healing blind men, Mark establishes the restoration of sight as a motif that helps us interpret much of what happens on the road to Jerusalem. These miracles are not only about the blind men whose sight Jesus restored. They are also about his original disciples not initially seeing, or fully understanding, who Jesus was and what he came to do. The first, the story of the blind man healed in a village near Bethsaida, is an unusual miracle story because Jesus does not restore the man’s sight completely and at once. Instead, he heals the man’s blindness in stages, something that was troubling enough to Matthew and Luke that they left this episode out of their Gospels. The surprising details of how Jesus healed the man—such as applying his saliva and laying on his hands—are rather typical Marcan features, since this Gospel regularly makes miracles more magical and interesting than do Matthew and Luke. After Jesus’s initial efforts, the man can see the basic outlines of people and discern their movements, but he cannot make them out clearly, leading Jesus to touch the man’s eyes again, which finally allows him to see correctly. Rather than seeing this stepwise healing as an indication that Jesus lacked the ability to heal the man correctly, Mark seems to have been using the story as a symbol of the incomplete understanding and testimony of the disciples, with the blind man’s healing in stages representing how they progressively come to know what his saving work was to be." 

As we ourselves approach Holy Week, how complete is our understanding of who Jesus is and what he has done for us? How clear is our spiritual sight? 


27Then Jesus and his disciples left for the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Along the way he began to question his disciples, asking them, “Whom do people say that I am?” 28Some replied, saying to him, “John the Baptist,” others, “Elijah,” and still others, “One of the prophets.” 29So he kept questioning them, “But whom do you say that I am?” Peter, answering, said to him, “You are the Christ!” 30Then Jesus insisted that they should not speak about him to anyone.

 31Next he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo much suffering, be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and the experts on the law, be put to death, and after three days rise again. 32He was saying this openly, so Peter, taking him aside, began to rebuke him. 33After Jesus had turned around and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan, for you do not have the things of God in mind but rather human concerns.”



The cave out of which the headwaters originally emerged. Herod built a temple to Augustus Caesar in front of it.

Peter’s confession that Jesus was the Christ, or in Matthew’s expanded version, “Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (16:16) occurred at or near Caesarea Philippi, a lovely site in the northern reaches of the Holy Land. At the time of Jesus, this was the capital of the tetrarch of Philip, one of the sons of Herod the Great. For centuries, the bubbling up of the life-giving waters of one of the Jordan River’s headwaters from a deep cave there had led pagans to worship various numbers of their gods there, including Pan, the wild god of the wilderness. But Herod had built there a shining temple to Augustus Caesar, who had been adopted as the son of Julius Caesar. Because the first Caesar has been declared a god by the Roman Senate, Augustus was able to style himself, Divi filius, or “son of the deified Julius.” But the site will ever be remembered by Christians as the place where the Holy Ghost revealed to the apostle Peter that Jesus was the true Son of God.

With my son, Samuel, at Banias, the modern site of ancient Caesarea Philippi

 “In the next episode Jesus leads his disciples farther north to the region around Caesarea Philippi, where he begins to ask his followers who people thought he was (Mark 8:27–30; parallels Matt 16:13–20; Luke 9:18–21). His ministry up to that point had reminded many of John the Baptist, a fearless preacher of repentance, and Elijah, a great miracle worker, but Jesus was more than that, is persistent questioning leading Peter to declare boldly, “You are the Christ!” (Mark 8:29, my translation). Significantly, this is the first time in Mark since the Gospel began with the words “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1) that the title Christ had been used by anyone in that text. Literally meaning “the anointed one” (Hebrew, māšîaḥ, hence “Messiah”; Greek, christos), the title had usually been used for the anointed king of Israel or the similarly anointed high priest. Although the prophecies of Isaiah had introduced the idea of a suffering servant, messianic expectations at the time of Jesus focused primarily on the idea of a great king in the mode of David who would redeem Israel from her enemies. 

“Indeed, Jesus’s subsequent conversations with Peter and the other disciples on the road to Jerusalem quickly reveal that they seem to have shared this expectation. The fuller version of Peter’s confession known from Matthew puts a more complete Christological confession on Peter’s lips, with the chief apostle proclaiming, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt 16:16; emphasis added), and the Matthean account provides additional teaching about revelation and a promise of the keys of the kingdom. Yet even in Matthew’s version, although it was revealed to Peter who Jesus was, he did not yet really understand what Jesus had come to do. Instead, Peter was like the blind man who had begun to see but not clearly; he did not yet fully understand what he saw” (Greater Love Hath No Man, 17‒18).

As we prepare for Holy Week, taking inventory of our own testimonies of Jesus—both who he is and what he has done for us—is an important exercise as we approach the commemoration of his salvific suffering, death, and resurrection. M. Russell Ballard’s talk, “Pure Testimony” (Ensign, November 2004, 40‒43), is an important reminder of what a real testimony is (and, conversely, what it is not). Among other things, he taught, “Our testimony meetings need to be more centered on the Savior, the doctrines of the gospel, the blessings of the Restoration, and the teachings of the scriptures.” In particular, he declared, “Testify God is our Father and Jesus is the Christ. The plan of salvation is centered on the Savior’s Atonement.” 



34When he had called the crowd to him together with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone wants to follow behind me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for me and the good news will save it. 36For how will it profit someone to gain the whole world but forfeit his life? 37What can someone offer in return for his life? 38Indeed, whoever is ashamed of me and my word in this unfaithful and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

9

30When they had left that place, they passed through Galilee, but Jesus did not want anyone to know, 31for he kept teaching his disciples and saying to them, “The Son of Man is being handed over into the hands of men—they will put him to death, and three days after he has been put to death, he will rise again.” 32They did not understand the saying but were afraid to ask him.

33Then they came to Capernaum, and while Jesus was in the house, he began to ask them, “What were you arguing about along the way?” 34They kept quiet, for along the way they had argued with each other over who was greater. 35So when he had sat down, he called the Twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he will be last of all and servant of all.” 36Then taking a child, Jesus placed him in the middle of them and, taking him into his arms, said to them, 37“Whoever receives one of these children in my name receives me, and whoever receives me does not receive me but rather the one who sent me.”

10

32They were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was leading them. They began to be astonished, and those who were following started to feel afraid. So when he had taken the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what things were going to happen to him: 33“Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the experts on the law, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles. 34And they will mock him, spit on him, scourge him, and kill him, and after three days he will rise again.”

35Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him, asking him, “Teacher, we want you to do whatever we ask you.” 36So he asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” 37They said to him, “Grant to us that we may sit, one at your right hand and one at the left, in your glory.” 38But Jesus said, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” 39They said to him, “We are able!” But Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized, 40but to sit at my right hand or on my left is not mine to grant; this is for those for whom it is prepared.” 41When the other ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. 42So when he had called them to him, he said to them, “You know that those who appear to rule the Gentiles domineer over them, and their great ones tyrannize them. 43Yet it is not so among you. Rather, whoever wants to become great among you, he will be your servant. 44And whoever wants to be first among you will be the slave of all. 45For indeed the Son of Man did not come to be served, rather to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

46Then they came to Jericho, and as he was leaving Jericho with the disciples and a considerable crowd, Bartimaeus (or “son of Timaeus”), a blind beggar, was sitting by the road. 47When he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was there, he began to cry out and say, “O Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48Many started to rebuke him, telling him to be quiet, but he cried out even more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49When Jesus stopped, he said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man, saying, “Take heart, get up! He is calling you.” 50When Bartimaeus had thrown off his cloak and jumped up, he came to Jesus. 51Jesus said to him in response, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My master, I want to see again!” 52So Jesus said to him, “Go, your faith has saved you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed him in the way.



[1] France, Gospel of Mark, 11‒15. See also Smith, Gospel according to Mark, 20‒23.

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Psalm 51 and Ash Wednesday


One of the standard texts for church communities that observe Ash Wednesday is Psalm 51. By tradition it was attributed to David and was cast as his expressions of penitence after his sin with Bathsheba. Like other penitential psalms (e.g., Pss 6, 32, 38, 102, 130, and 143), It is a powerful plea for mercy and forgiveness that can speak for all of us. Here are a few of my favorite verses from Ps 51:

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness:
    according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
Wash me throughly from mine iniquity,
    and cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions:
    and my sin is ever before me.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:
    wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me to hear joy and gladness;
    that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
Hide thy face from my sins,
    and blot out all mine iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God;
    and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence;
    and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
    and uphold me with thy free spirit.

O Lord, open thou my lips;
    and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it:
    thou delightest not in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:
    a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
    (vv. 1‒3, 7‒12, 15‒17)

Walking with Jesus before Holy Week and Easter


One of my favorite Holy Land excursions, with both BYU Jerusalem Students and commercial tour groups, is a walk up the Wadi Hamam or "Valley of the Doves." This is likely the route that Jesus would have taken from Nazareth to the Sea of Galilee, and we always begin our walk with a devotional about the call of the disciples and then singing "Come, Follow Me." I like to imagine that we are ourselves following Jesus along this trail, walking with and learning from him.

One of my personal preparations for Holy Week and Easter is to read in the week before Palm Sunday the accounts of Mark often called "The Road to Jerusalem," focusing on the three Passion Predictions (Mark 8:27–38; 9:30–37; 10:32–45). This allows me to imagine myself walking with Jesus to Jerusalem for the final week of his mortal life. While some Christians of high liturgical traditions do this by observing a formal period called "Lent," I would like to encourage you, and myself, to spend some time walking with Jesus in the coming weeks as we prepare to commemorate his atoning sacrifice and celebrate his glorious resurrection.

Prophetic and Apostolic Encouragement

Several weeks before Easter in 2023, the First Presidency wrote a letter directing that only a sacrament meeting focusing on Jesus' atoning sacrifice and glorious meeting should be held on Easter Sunday. With more time for families on that day, they called upon to worship at home "to commemorate this most important holiday."



Then, in the opening talk of the April 2023 General Conference, in response to a First President Letter,  Elder Gary Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve said, 

The First Presidency’s letter caught my attention, and it caused me to reflect on the way our family has celebrated Easter through the years. The more I thought about our celebrations, the more I found myself wondering if we are inadvertently shortchanging the true meaning of this holiday, so central to all believers in Jesus Christ.

​Those thoughts led me to ponder the difference between the way we have celebrated Christmas as compared with Easter. . . . ​Our family celebrations at Easter, however, have been somewhat different. I feel our family has relied more on “going to church” to provide the meaningful, Christ-centered part of Easter; and then, as a family, we have gathered to share in other Easter-related traditions. I have loved watching our children and now our grandchildren hunt for Easter eggs and dig through their Easter baskets.

But the First Presidency letter was a wake-up call. Not only did they invite all of us to make sure our celebration of the most important event to ever happen on this earth—the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ—includes the reverence and respect the Lord deserves, but they also gave us more time with our families and friends on Easter Sunday to do so.

It seems we are all trying. I observe a growing effort among Latter-day Saints toward a more Christ-centered Easter. This includes a greater and more thoughtful recognition of Palm Sunday and Good Friday as practiced by some of our Christian cousins. We might also adopt appropriate Christ-centered Easter traditions found in the cultures and practices of countries worldwide. 

(Gary E. Stevenson, "The Greatest Easter Story Ever Told," Liahona [May 2023]: 6-9).

Over the years—first with the publication of God So Loved The World: The Final Days of the Savior's Life in 2011, then through this seasonal blog with ideas for personal and family celebrations, and at last with Greater Love Hath No Man: A Latter-day Saint Guide to Celebrating the Easter Season which I published with Trevan Hatch in 2023—I have gathered ideas on how we can better prepare for marking and celebrating this most holy season.

While Latter-day Saints do not observe Lent or even Holy Week as an institution, there is much that we can learn from the devotion of some other Christians as they prepare for Easter. In accordance with Krister Stendahl's concept of "holy envy," while we do not need to adopt the practices or beliefs of other religious communities, we can be inspired by their devotion to find ways to more fully worship God within our own faith tradition.

Here are two excerpts from Greater Love Hath No Man, one that gives the background of Lent and describes how some Christians observe it, and another that shares some suggestions for Latter-day Saints that might help you spent more time in the scriptures, be more prayerful, repent and prepare spiritually, and offer more service to prepare for Easter.



Celebrating Ash Wednesday and Lent in the Christian Tradition 

(Greater Love Hath No Man, 20-21)

Lent is a season of Christian observance that prepares believers for Holy Week. Among the many traditional Christian groups, forty days of fasting is observed over six, seven, or eight weeks, with Sundays excluded in Western Christianity and Saturdays and Sundays excluded in Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The origins of pre-Holy Week fasting date to at least the second century, with forty days (Latin, Quadragesima) of fasting being firmly in place by the late fourth century in both the East and West, as is documented by Egeria in her account of the preparations for Easter that she observed in her visit to Jerusalem.[1] While Romance languages still use words based upon the Quadragesima for this period, English and other Germanic languages use variations of the word “Lent,” signifying “season of spring” or “springtime.”

In Roman Catholicism and among some Anglicans, Lutherans, and Methodists, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends during Holy Week on Maundy Thursday. In Eastern Christianity, Lent begins on Clean Monday. Both Ash Wednesday and Clean Monday function similarly. These are days of confessing, seeking forgiveness, and committing to an attitude adjustment of forsaking sins. On Ash Wednesday, a priest places ashes on the foreheads of Catholic Christians in the shape of a cross while uttering some version of, “From dust you came and to dust you will return.” The ashes come from the prior year’s palm branches, which we will see in our discussion of Palm Sunday below were used to commemorate Jesus’ triumphal entry. This practice by ancient Israelite practice, where ash was a symbol of mourning and penance (see Job 42:6; Jonah 3:5–6; Esther 4:1; Daniel 9:3; Matthew 11:21).

The activities and observances of Lent are symbolic of Jesus’ forty-day wilderness retreat. Jesus’ fast and abstinence during this time is the model for Christians as they prepare for Holy Week. Three areas of discipleship come into focus during Lent: (1) righteousness toward God, as manifested through prayer and repentance, (2) righteousness toward neighbors as manifested through almsgiving and charity, and (3) righteousness toward oneself as manifested in fasting and avoidance of sins and luxuries. This last area of focus includes abstinence of various carnal passions, weaknesses, or gluttony—individuals may choose to forego meat, sugary foods, alcohol, profane speaking, gambling, laziness, video games, frivolous spending, etc. In addition, many increase personal prayer and devotional Scripture reading in their daily schedule. The practice of fasting during preparations of Holy Week are based on Matthew 9:15: “The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast” (NRSV). In addition, to be successful while contending with evil and even casting out demons, Jesus said, “This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting” (Mark 9:29 KJV).[2] Fasting comes in different forms. Many Christians fast by eating one meal per day, allowing some flexibility for additional smaller meals for those who require it.

In some cultures, pre-Lenten festivities provide opportunities for merriment and indulging of pleasures before the beginning of the fast (and, at times, have devolved into sexual promiscuity and debauchery). The most well-known of these festivities is Carnival and Mardi Gras, which ends the day before Ash Wednesday on “Fat Tuesday,” also called Shrove Tuesday. Although these somewhat “wild” celebrations might have a negative conversation to us, marking a clean division between normal time and the special period of preparation for Easter is important. During the week prior to the beginning of Lent, Christians eliminate all animal products from their homes. They do this by making foods containing eggs, milk, etc. Consequently, eating pancakes on the last day of festivities before Ash Wednesday (i.e., Shrove Tuesday) became a widespread tradition in England, just as eating king cake became a tradition during Mardi Gras in Louisiana. Some participants bake a little baby Jesus doll into the cake. The person who receives the piece with the doll is destined for a prosperous year and might be required to make next year’s cake. Discussions during this last festive meal typically center on what pleasures each participant plans to sacrifice during Lent. 



[1] Itinerarium Egeriae 27.1–29.2 = McGowan and Bradshaw, Pilgrimage of Egeria, 160–65.

[2] The earliest, most secure manuscript traditions only read “by prayer,” omitting fasting. See Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed. (Stuttgart: United Bible Societies, 1994), 85. 



Suggestions for Latter-day Saints

(Greater Love Hath No Man, 29-30)

        Latter-day Saints do not have a history of preparing for Holy Week and Easter through practices such as Lent and Lazarus Saturday, but just as we love to get ready for the Christmas season each year, we can more intentionally prepare ourselves and our families through scriptures, music, decorating, and other traditions that we can choose for ourselves. Because Jesus’ entire ministry was a prelude for his great saving work, one thing we can do is to make his ministry one of the focuses of our study in the time between our celebrations of Christmas and Easter. For instance, after studying Matthew 1‒2, Luke 1‒2, and the Book of Mormon prophecies about Jesus coming in the month leading up to Christmas, we could then supplement our other personal and family scripture study by also reading about Jesus’ ministry from one of the Gospels.[1] While Latter-day Saints do not generally observe any kind of formal Lenten fast, we could certainly use our monthly fast before Easter to express gratitude for the life and mission of our Lord Jesus Christ and to pray for deeper, richer testimonies as we approach Easter. Being mindful of what we are preparing to celebrate can also encourage more personal devotion, greater charity, and more selfless ministering. In his 2018 Ash Wednesday homily, the late Father Peter Van Hook, pastor of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Provo, encouraged his congregation not only to think of what they were giving up for Lent but also to think of what they could do more during that preparatory period—he encouraged renewed, more frequent prayer, richer scripture study, and more service to others.[2]

            Just as we decorate for Christmastime, as the Easter season approaches, we can make a concerted effort to fill our homes with spring flowers; display prints of art depicting the ministry of Jesus, such as vignettes by traditional painters such as Heinrich Hofmann (1824‒1911), Carl Bloch (1834‒1890), Jacques (James) Joseph Tissot (1836–1902), Frans Schwartz (1850‒1917), and Harry Anderson (1906‒1996), as well as Latter-day Saint artists such as Minerva Teichert (1888‒1976), Simon Dewey, Greg Olsen, Walter Rane, J. Kirk Richards, and Liz Lemon Swindle;[3] and shifting the music we play, perhaps gradually listening to more religious and classical music. Just as many families gather many evenings in December for family devotionals to prepare for Christmas by enjoying Christmas stories, reading scriptures, and singing carols, many Latter-day Saint families might find that holding daily devotionals in the week or two before Easter can become another treasured tradition. For instance, the texts from Mark and John that we have discussed could be studied individually or read together with our families or with groups of interested friends, forming the heart of daily devotionals that could also involve hymn singing. Borrowing from the old Christian tradition of gathering around an Advent wreath for the four weeks before Christmas, lighting a new candle each Sunday and holding a devotional, the Huntsman family has started a new Holy Week tradition. We have created a flowery “Easter Wreath” surrounding a purple candle, a red candle, and a white candle. Starting with Lazarus Saturday, when we recall Mary’s anointing of Jesus, we light the purple candle that night and Palm Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, remembering the kingly phase of Holy Week in each of our daily devotionals. Then on Wednesday, Thursday, and Good Friday we light the red candle as well, recalling that Jesus is also our priest. Finally, Easter morning, we add the white candle to celebrate Resurrection morning.

While the greater part of this book concentrates on how to use the week leading up to Easter to prepare ourselves to fruitfully celebrate the atoning work of Jesus Christ, the scriptural preludes to Jesus’ last week in this chapter might be used to set the stage for our own journey through Passion Week. After starting with the story of the blind man healed in stages near Bethsaida on Sunday, family home evening the next day might focus on Peter’s confession, taking the opportunity to discuss the importance of a fuller, deeper testimony of the person and work of Jesus Christ. This could be supplemented with a conference talk such as the October 2004 address “Pure Testimony” by President M. Russell Ballard, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve since 1985 and that quorum’s acting president since 2018.[4] Because music can invite the spirit in a powerful way, consider singing a hymn such as “Testimony” or a selection from the Children’s Song Book such as “Search, Ponder, and Pray.[5] Then, after reading the passion predictions over the course of the next three days, the story of Bartimaeus could be the topic for Friday. Then the next day could cover the Bethany episodes, discussing the symbolism of the raising of Lazarus and the Mary’s anointing of Jesus and how they were preludes to Jesus’ final week. Families with young children might even enjoy baking Lazarakia together or having some other treat that would make the pattern of daily family gatherings to read, sing, and pray a fun as well as spiritual experience. These and other ideas for each of the days of Holy Week have been gathered together in Appendix H: Celebrating Holy Week—A Family Resource Guide.



[1] See for instance, Eric D. Huntsman, Good Tidings of Great Joy: An Advent Celebration of the Savior’s Birth (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011), esp. 136‒37, 143‒47.

[2] Personal recollection of Father Van Hook’s 2017 Ash Wednesday homily (Journals and Correspondence of Eric D. Huntsman, vol 31.1, March 1, 2017, p. 1).

[3] For collections and discussions, see Dawn C. Pheysey and Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, The Master’s Hand: The Art of Carl Heinrich Bloch (Provo: BYU Museum of Art; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2010); Ashlee Whitaker et al., Sacred Gifts: The Religious Art of Carl Bloch, Henrich Hofmann, and Frans Schwartz (Provo: Brigham Young University Museum of Art, 2014); Judith F. Dolkart, David Morgan, and Amy Sitar, James Tissot, The Life of Christ: The Complete 350 Watercolors, ed. Judith F. Dolkart (New York: Brooklyn Museum/Merrell, 2009); Daniel Zimmer, The Art of Harry Anderson (St. Louis: Illustrated Press, 2018), 10‒14, 188‒97; Greg Olsen, Wherever He Leads Me: The Greg Olsen Collection (American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications, 2002); Simon Dewey, Altus Fine Art, https://altusfineart.com/collections/simon-dewey; Walter Rane Fine Art Store, https://walterraneprints.com/collections/fine-art-prints; Susan Easton and Liz Lemon Swindle, Son of Man: Volume III, King of Kings (Seymour, CT: Greenwich Workshop Press. 2007); J. Kirk Richards, Fine Art Reproductions, http://www.jkirkrichards.com/wstore/product-category/fine-art-reproductions/.

[4] M. Russell Ballard, “Pure Testimony,” Ensign (November 2004): 40‒43.

[5] Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1985), no. 137; Children’s Songbook of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1989), 109.

Friday, February 2, 2024

The Presentation



Andrea Celesti, Presentación de Jesús en el Templo (Wikimedia Commons)

Although our family commemorates the events of Luke 2:21-40 shortly after Christmas, usually on the Sunday following it, traditionally they are recognized in the liturgies of many Christian churches 40 days after the Feast of the Nativity.  This is because the Presentation of Jesus in the temple is associated in the Lucan narrative with Mary's purification, which came forty day's after Jesus' birth.  In the Anglican tradition (and formerly in the Catholic), the Presentation is celebrated as "Candlemas," partially as a recollection of the lamps of the temple, when candles for the coming year are brought to the church and blessed.  In the Eastern Orthodox churches, the feast is often called Hypapante, Greek for "meeting," which recollects how the prophet Simeon and the prophetess Anna met the Messiah in the temple.


Sections of the Presentation Episode (Luke 2:21–40)
  • Circumcision and Naming of Jesus (Luke 2:21)
  • Mary’s Purification (Luke 2:22–24)
  • Simeon’s Testimony (Luke 2:25–35)
    • Canticle: Nunc Demittis (Luke 2:29–32, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace”)
  • Anna’s Testimony (Luke 2:36–40)

Mary and Joseph bring Jesus to the Temple (see Good Tidings of Great Joy, 88-90) 

Leviticus 12:1–8 mandated that when a woman gave birth, she must be purified of ritual uncleanliness after a period of forty days. As diligent keepers of the law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took advantage of their proximity to Jerusalem to make the appropriate offering at the temple in connection with her purification. Although the designated offering was a yearling lamb along with a dove, they took advantage of the alternative that the Law allowed those who were poor to substitute a pair of doves. References to Mary’s purification (Luke 2:22a, 24) frame a second ceremony, the redemption of the firstborn (Luke 2:22b–23). After the Lord delivered the children of Israel from Egypt, he had claimed the firstborn of every family in return for having spared them the night of the first Passover, requiring them to be consecrated to his service (see Exodus 13:2, 12–15). Although the Lord later accepted the service of the entire tribe of Levi in place of the firstborn of all Israel, the Lord still required that the firstborn be redeemed by the price of five shekels (Numbers 18:15–16).

The redemption of the firstborn did not need to take place in the temple, but the presence of the holy family in the sanctuary for Mary’s purification provided Luke with the opportunity for some important symbolism. While we can assume that Joseph and Mary paid the required five shekels required by the law, by not mentioning the actual payment, Luke implies that Jesus continued in the service of the God rather than being redeemed from it. In this the story of the Old Testament prophet Samuel had served as an anticipation: after he had been weaned, Elkanah and Hannah had brought the boy Samuel to the sanctuary at Shiloh, where he was presented and left for a lifetime of service to God (1 Samuel 1:24–28). Recalling how Hannah’s song had served as a model for Mary’s own Magnificat strengthens the connection, suggesting that Mary too was willingly presenting her son to God. While Jesus does not remain in the temple, during his later boyhood visit, he makes it clear that he belongs there and that his mission is to be about his Father’s business (Luke 2:46–49).

Simeon's Testimony (see Good Tidings of Great Joy, 91-92)

Greg Olsen, Simeon Reverencing the Christ Child
The name Hebrew Šimʿon (Greek Symeōn and hence Symeon or Simeon) may mean both “[YHWH] had heard” and “one who hears and obeys.” While numerous early Christian legends grew up about Simeon, Luke simply introduces him by describing Simeon as “just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him” (Luke 2:25, emphases added). The term translated “consolation” is the Greek paraklēsin; in addition to meaning help, comfort, or relief, in origin it means “summons” or “encouragement” and has the same root as “Comforter” (paraklētos; see John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7).

This good man, assumed to be elderly and approaching death because of his subsequent words, had received a promise by the Holy Ghost “that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (Luke 2:26). Accordingly, the Spirit brought him to the temple at just the right time to encounter the holy family, whereupon he takes the child in his arms and blesses him (Luke 2:28). This Simeon at the beginning of the story of Jesus thus finds a certain parallel with Joseph of Arimathaea at its end: that Joseph is also just, waits for the kingdom of God, and, in taking Jesus down from the cross and burying him, likewise takes him in his arms (see Luke 23:50–53).

At that moment Simeon blesses God and utters an inspired song, the fourth and final canticle in Luke’s Infancy Narrative (Luke 2:29–32). By tradition it is known as the Nunc Demittis, from the Latin for the first line: “Now you are sending away your servant in peace” (KJV, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word”). Having at last seen the promised Savior, Simeon feels that he can die comforted and reassured “for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.” He then continues by describing this salvation in terms rich with Old Testament allusions (see Psalm 98:3; Isaiah 40:5, 42:6, 49:6, 52:9–10). However, whereas Zacharias had also sung of salvation in the Benedictus, his prophecy had centered on the deliverance that would come to Israel. Simeon, by contrasts, speaks of how Christ has been prepared for all people, and he balances both Gentiles and Israel in the final line, calling him “a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel” (Luke 2:32).

Concluding the canticle, Simeon turns to Mary and speaks a final prophecy, telling her, “this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against” (Luke 2:34), prophesying that while Jesus was the glory of Israel, many of his own people would reject him and he would cause divisions even within families (see Luke 12:51–53). Finally, Simeon alludes to the Passion and death of Jesus that Mary would witness so poignantly, telling her that her own soul would be pierced but that in the end judgment would come through her son’s sacrifice (Luke 2:35; see John 19:25, 33–34).

Simeon and Believers Today

The image of the aged Simeon in the temple, meeting at last his promised Savior, is one that resonates with many believers today. It is also one that has come to have special, personal meaning to me. In 2010, just four days before Christmas, my grandfather, Cannon Huntsman, died. Two days after Christmas we buried him. Funerals at Christmastime are always poignant, even when they are held for good men and women who die at an old age. The sense of loss and sadness can weigh heavily on and even dampen the Christmas spirit.

But it was the story of Simeon that gave me great comfort the day after Christmas. I read it that night to Elaine and the children, and I decided to use it in my remarks at the funeral the next day. As long as health permitted, Grandpa spent as much time as he could in the temple. And like Simeon, he had a powerful faith in his Savior and Redeemer. While he did not hold the Baby Jesus in his arms nor see the Risen Lord in the flesh, Grandpa had seen the hand of the Lord all his life and rejoiced in his testimony of Jesus.

While modern revelation tells us “thou shalt live together in love insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die,” it also reassures us that “those that die in me shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them” (D&C 42:45–46). I have come to believe that men and women of Christ, like Grandpa, can share the sentiment of Simeon when their time comes, crying out in their hearts, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace” (Luke 2:29).

 
Anna's Testimony (see Good Tidings of Great Joy, 92)

James Tissot, The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple 
(Wikimedia Commons)
Luke’s narrative provides a second witness in the temple in the person of Anna, an elderly widow who spent every day in the temple in prayer and fasting (Luke 2:36–37). Significantly, she is described as a prophetess, connecting her with Deborah, Huldah, the wife of Isaiah, and perhaps Samuel’s mother, Hannah. Indeed, Anna is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name Ḥannah, providing another connection with the story of Jesus’ birth and that of the prophet Samuel. At a time when most Jews were from the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi, Luke notes that Anna was from the tribe of Asher, perhaps suggesting that the lost tribes of Israel too await the coming of Christ. Having married young, perhaps between 10 and 14, she had lost her husband after seven years, and, depending upon how the next verse is read, she was either 84 years old or had lived another 84 years after her husband’s death, making her as old as 103 or 105. While the actual words of this faithful woman are not preserved, like Simeon she first blesses or thanks God and then “spake [Greek, elalei or “kept speaking”] of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38).