Utah choirs, orchestras and members of Christian denominations gathered at the BYU Marriott Center to honor the week leading up to Easter Sunday through music on Palm Sunday, April 13.
Children and teenagers of youth choirs entered the Marriott Center waving palm leaves and singing “Hosanna,” symbolizing the way others praised Jesus as He entered Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, a week before His resurrection.
Then, the Journey to Easter program began with a greeting and prayer by Provo City Mayor Michelle Kaufusi, followed by BYU professors and local religious leaders who signified each day of Holy Week.
Eric Huntsman, academic director of the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies, reflected on Christ’s last week in Jerusalem with a video filmed at the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
He said thousands of Christians on pilgrimages come to Jerusalem during Holy Week, retracing the events of Jesus’ last week on earth. They wave palm branches, sing and dance on Palm Sunday. On Easter morning, they shout “Hallelujah” and “He is risen.”
Huntsman said while many Christians cannot visit Jerusalem on a pilgrimage, they can honor Holy Week by reading the New Testament and reflecting on what He said and did each day of Holy Week.
“You can come to the Holy City in your own hearts to meet the risen Lord,” he said.
Palm Sunday
Pastor Mike Smith of CenterPoint Church said the Jewish people in Jerusalem greeted Jesus with palm leaves because palm leaves were associated with victory.
“They weren't free. They were under Roman rule,” Smith said. “You suddenly hear people start to cry out, ‘Hosanna,’ which in Hebrew means ‘Lord, save us,’ and you would know there's only one reason people would be screaming these words. It’s the arrival of the Messiah.”
Smith said Jesus did not set the people free from Rome as they had expected. Instead, He brought salvation to all.
“You can walk like He walked. You can serve like He served,” he said. “He gave away His life. He chose to forgive instead of get revenge, and every time we do that, we walk like Him, people say, ‘You're starting to look a little bit like the king you follow.’”
Monday and Wednesday
Tyler Griffin, associate dean of BYU Religious Education, said Fig Monday was the day Jesus cleansed the temple. That day, a fig tree, which showed all signs of having figs, did not actually have any. This fig tree eventually withered.
Griffin argued the fig tree and cleansing of the temple act as lessons for people today.
“If we show outward signs of righteousness, but we bear no real fruits of righteousness, then Jesus is going to have some things to say about that,” Griffin said. “We let Jesus in, and He cleanses us. He curses all that is evil within me and you so that that withers as it responds to His powerful command.”
Griffin said Spy Wednesday was the day Judas began to betray Jesus.
“Focusing very intentionally, intently and purposefully on what Jesus experienced and taught during Holy Week gives us a more powerful connection with him so that we can feel his power flowing through our lives,” he said.
Maundy Thursday
Reverend Daniela Lee of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church said Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper. Just as Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, members of Lee’s church may take turns wash each other’s feet as a practical application of His great commandment. Jesus also established the Eucharist, or the sacrament, on Maundy Thursday.
“It's a beautiful foreshadowing that the way that He breaks the bread is how his body will be broken on the cross,” she said. “(He) says, ‘Do this every time you get together,’ which, to me, is an encouragement to remember that a part of Christ is in us, and we are now the body of Christ.”
A men's choir sings "Gethsemane." This followed Lee's reflection on Maundy Thursday. (Emily May)
Good Friday
Brandon Peterson, professor at the University of Utah and parishioner at the Cathedral of the Madeleine, said Catholics do not attend Mass on Good Friday. Instead, their worship services feature the veneration of the cross where the Deacon carries the cross silently and slowly through the aisle of the church. People then walk to the cross to kneel before it, touch it or kiss it.
He said Good Friday is a holy day because Jesus’ suffering was marked by His love.
“God is reaching out through His suffering on the cross, which is a promise to people, so many people suffering today,” Peterson said, “that God is in their midst, even if that means His suffering, even if that meant His death.”
Choirs sing "Dies Irae." "Dies Irae" is a Latin hymn and translates to "day of wrath" or Judgment Day, according to Merriam-Webster. (Emily May)
Holy Saturday
Pastor Jeff McCullough of Hello Saints! and the Salt and Light Ministry said Holy Saturday is often not celebrated.
“You might believe that Holy Saturday is the day when nothing happened. My friends, that's the point,” he said. “It's the day to confront the reality of what the disciples must have been experiencing on Saturday, staring, ‘What now?’ in the face.”
He said the Jewish people changed their opinions of Jesus because He did not meet their expectations of who the Messiah should have been.
“How often might we impose our expectations on situations and circumstances, blind to the fact that God actually has an even greater, grand plan in the works than anything we could ever imagine?” he said.
The disciples felt abandoned and lonely in their uncertainty of what was to come after Jesus died, McCullough said.
“When our Savior exploded in life out of the grave and hope burst onto the scene, how amazing of a reminder it is for us in this mortality today that we anticipate His return and a resurrected life for anybody who has put their faith in Jesus,” McCullough said. “Take heart, my dear fellow disciples of Jesus, because someday, He’s coming.”
Easter Sunday
Gaye Strathearn, associate dean of BYU Religious Education, said Mary Magdalene was the only person to stay at the tomb on Sunday. When Jesus appeared to her, she didn’t recognize Him until He called her by name and asked, “What seek ye?”
“(That question is) about people who are not passive in their search for Jesus, but they actively seek for Him,” Strathearn said. “It's those seekers who are the ones that have the revelations about who He is as the Son of God.”
She said the resurrection means hope to her. She recounted two times she visited Jesus’ tomb in Jerusalem. During one visit, her sister joined, allowing both to silently reflect on His resurrection. Some years later, her sister and that sister’s daughter passed away.
“I mourned very deeply for both of them,” Strathearn said, “But, with time, the idea of the teachings and the scriptures about the resurrection bubbled to the top of my grief, and I was reminded again of Paul's teachings that, ‘For as in Adam death came, so in Christ shall all be made alive.’”
During her first trip to the tomb, a Christian tour guide led her.
“‘Most people come here because they want to see the place where Jesus died and was buried,’” Strathearn said, recounting the tour guide’s words. “‘But I am here to tell you, as the angels spoke to the women, He is not here, for He is risen.’”