It's "Holy Week" ... Why is this Week Different from all Other Weeks?

This is “Holy week.”

What makes 7 days “Holy”?

Religious ceremony?

Pious behavior?

Tradition?

Clerical edict?

On the final night of this week Hebrew Children, reclining around the Seder Table with their Families, will ask, as Hebrew Children have for thousands of years, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” The host of the meal will answer with the “Haggadah;” the story of Israel’s deliverance from their bondage in Egypt. The night is “different from all other nights,” – distinct – because something important makes it so.

Holy, different, distinct are synonyms. So we could ask, fittingly “Why is this Week different from all other Weeks?” And the answer is the same. This night is different because something – more accurately someone – quite uncommon; an extraordinary man and His never-to-be- matched; cosmically transforming feats are celebrated over these 7 + 1 days. He, by His elevation of these days to the sublime has made them distinct; different; holy!

The first of those supernatural feats was the paradoxical enactment of a prophecy. Matthew, a Friend and Follower of this man – the Christ – describes the performance. “As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethpage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away."
“This took place,” Matthew observes, “to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet – Zechariah:

‘Say to the Daughter of Zion,

'See, your king comes to you,

gentle and riding on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

The King, Jesus – the Christ – has acted extraordinarily. His behavior is different, distinct. Kings make their entrance on prancing steeds, surrounded by armies and symbols of power, pomp, and royalty. He enters on the back of a baby donkey; a beast of burden affordable to the poor. He was surrounded by what the elite of His day called the rabble. No pomp; no symbols of power; nothing to establish His sovereignty.

This Week is different from all other Weeks because it commences with the appearance of an uncommonly humble, gentle King who’s deliberately presenting Himself as one of the common people. The sort of King who could bring about the rest of the prophecy.

“I will take away the chariots from Ephraim

and the war-horses from Jerusalem,

and the battle bow will be broken.

He will proclaim peace to the nations.

His rule will extend from sea to sea

and from the River to the ends of the earth.”
Zechariah 9:10

This Week is, most certainly, different from all other weeks!