Introduction The last week before Jesus went to the cross is popularly known as Passion Week (or Holy Week in some traditions). It falls between Palm Sunday, when a hopeful crowd crowned Jesus as their long-anticipated king, and Easter Sunday, when a victorious Jesus broke the bondage of death and rose physically from the dead. When we hear the word “passion”, we usually think of strong powerful emotions, particularly intense love. But the English word “passion” comes from the Latin passio, which means “suffering or enduring suffering”. In many ways, this describes the profundity and intensity of the events that took place in Jesus’ last week, during which He demonstrated His immeasurable love for us when He “endured the cross, scoring its shame” (Hebrews 12:2)! The Passion Week of Christ thus encompasses both the strong emotion of intense love and intense suffering. Jesus was about 30 years old when He began His ministry (Luke 3:23). The earlier part of His ministry was carried out in the northern province of Galilee, where He used Capernaum, a key commercial centre on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, as His home base (Matthew 4:13). Towards the tail-end of His earthly ministry, we are told that “Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51).
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